Do the rules of Mah Jong differ from the internet version to the real life one?

I have a Mah Jong set, but from the rules I have it seems the real version of the game is not the same as the internet versions I've played (matching tiles from different spreads, trying to get rid of all the tiles). Is there anywhere with comprehensive Mah Jong instructions? I've already looked for myself but have been unsuccessful.|||Think of Mah Jongg not as Chess, but as Poker. Mah Jong pieces are the 'deck of cards' and there are many different ways to use that deck.





Some people will imply that all online Mah Jong is solitaire, but that's not true. Yahoo! have a pretty good online four-player version of the game which seems to run pretty much the way I have learned how to play it (It's worth pointing out that I learned to play in China, with Chinese players).





There is a pretty good online version at QQ, but that's all in traditional chinese, so probably unlikely that you could play.





There are variations though, some sets have different numbers of pieces, especially from different western manufacturers.





By the sounds of it you have been playing one of the solitaire games, and there's nothing stopping you continuing to do so.





However, the regular (well, popular) game of Mah Jongg is usually played with four players, sat around four rows of pieces stacked double high in a square configuration.





Go and check out boardgamegeek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2093) for an overview, at the bottom of that page you will find files containing the rules of the game.





It can take a bit of getting used to, but it is good fun when you get the hang of it. That said, I've still to win a game but considering I pretty much exclusively play against Chinese friends, that's no great surprise|||The one you play on the Internet is actually 'Mahjong Tiles' or 'Mahjong Solitaire,' not Mahjong.





Wikipedia has some info on how it's played:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong|||I am just learning my self.


Yes the game we have played online or as a computer game is a simplistic version.


Here is a site that may be of some help.|||Mahjong is more like a card game, where you collect tiles of matching suits/numbers.


There is a book called Improve your Mahjong with the rules and examples of tiles to collect. If you look on Amazon there are quite a few books explaining Mahjong.