I occasionally get vaguely intrigued by the sight of a mahjong game in a movie. And occasionally embark on a not-too-thorough search for a computer-powered AI-endowed approximation of the experience to entertain myself without burdening other humans. Which search ends in encountering a number of solitaire applications, but not a four-player version.
Meanwhile, I could play hearts, bridge or even something local such as durak, since the 90s.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 (an incredibly fun open-world RPG chock full of things to do) has a Mahjong minigame that you could just sit and play for hours against AI even if you don't care about anything else in the game.
Riichi definitely hits a sweet spot in the game design space. Just the right amount of complexity, always something to think about in game, but still fun to play fairly casually. There are many clever little risk/reward tradeoffs built into the rules, and lots of interesting small asymmetries and feedback loops.
MahjongSoul was recently translated to English (https://mahjongsoul.game.yo-star.com/). The heavy anime-girl theming can be a bit unfortunate but it's an excellent implementation of the game and allows you to play matches against bots to learn the game.
Tenhou is the more classic and staid online implementation, and there are browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox to translate it to english. (http://tenhou.net/)
The amount of luck involved definitely helps with casual play. You can face much stronger players without being completely obliterated. But that also means, for tournament play, that you need a sufficient number of games for statistically better players to come out on top. So tournaments typically last 2–3 days, totaling 8–12 90 minute games.
I've played tenhou before... until I moved, didn't play for a few months and my account expired. I should give it another try at some point.
I did not know about mahjongsoul, perhaps I'll give it a try.
I learned against bots and then humans using "mahjong fight club ds wi-fi taiou", a seriously slick ds implementation. It's in Japanese, but English guides covering its interface are easy to find.
Tenhou is rigged though. IIRC, if you are a non-paying member (and possibly use a non-Japanese IP - a claim I haven't verified), the game will steer you towards a maximum of 25% 1st places. I have seen good (non-paying) players with thousands of games and they did indeed reach only that percentage. Of course, there are ways to minimize the rigging (basically never riichi if you are 5-dan or higher) but those only help so much.
As a beginner going for Riichi every time isn't terrible, especially when you can't yet read discards or evaluate how close others are to Ron. And it is certainly exciting.
In the west, Riichi Mahjong seems to be the most well-known form of Mahjong. After living in China, I started to notice that the most popular form of Mahjong here is called "Sichuan Bloody Rules". It is completely different from other forms of Mahjong:
1. The game doesn't end after the first person finishes
2. Many tiles like flowers and wind directions are removed from the game
3. At the start of the game you have to decide one color which you ban from your hand. Your final hand isn't allowed to have a tile of this color inside.
4. You are not allowed to ? chi from players
5. There is a pretty complex scoring system
I have the impression that this form of Mahjong is the most unique one. The rules are very different than most other forms of Mahjong, including Riichi Mahjong, and make for really interesting games. So if you're interested in Mahjong feel free to try it out.
People often confuse it with the solitaire game that uses the same or similar pieces.
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