The souls of departed players
Lou Poppler
They help separate us into wizards, duffers, and opinionated 16xx players.
They color our images of other players and ourselves.
We trade them back and forth, harvest them, squander them.
Some writers claim we are way too obsessed with our rating points.
But what are rating points, exactly?
At first glance, the rating function is a zero-sum deal: when two players
with more than 500 experience play a match, the winner gains exactly the
amount of points the loser gives up. Newer players gain or giveup larger
numbers of starter points, which makes an inexact science of any averaging.
The calculated rating mean is somewhere around 1515.
There are something over 2100 current players. Thus there are something
like 30,000 surplus rating points floating around our economy, give or
take your personal estimate of a correction addend for the starter-points
phenomenon. But what are they, exactly?
Some of my own ratings points were snatched from much better players.
Some of them were harvested off of terrible players. Some are a gift from
the dice-gods. Some are hard-earned wages for tense matches vs my peers.
This is a daily give-and-take, and some days I only give back points to
all the above sources. Some of the rating points, however, represent
all I have left of a departed player. My rating, while modest, does
include a few fatboy points. These points make me happy, because they
help me remember the chubby, taciturn one. I think I might have a couple
points left that I got from sandyirwanti. You'll have to roll really well
to get those sandy points away from me. There are ghosts of many other
players in all of our numbers. I'm sure I have a couple points left from
vax6 in the Philippines. Think of the vast number of souls nurtured in
the rating of one of our tribal elders such as the Kits.
These players, although no longer responsive to 'whois', are still with us.
They live on in our ratings. To those who complain that we worship ratings
obsessively, I say it is only respect for departed souls.
-- Spider
Jason Lee
>Rating points are an integral part of the FIBS experience.
>They help separate us into wizards, duffers, and opinionated 16xx players.
>They color our images of other players and ourselves.
>We trade them back and forth, harvest them, squander them.
>Some writers claim we are way too obsessed with our rating points.
>
>But what are rating points, exactly?
>
>At first glance, the rating function is a zero-sum deal: when two players
>with more than 500 experience play a match, the winner gains exactly the
>amount of points the loser gives up. Newer players gain or giveup larger
>numbers of starter points, which makes an inexact science of any averaging.
>The calculated rating mean is somewhere around 1515.
>
>There are something over 2100 current players. Thus there are something
>like 30,000 surplus rating points floating around our economy, give or
>take your personal estimate of a correction addend for the starter-points
>phenomenon. But what are they, exactly?
Caveat: That rating mean is calculated from all the people with
experience over 50. Don't read into that too much.
JLee
--
Jason Lee =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= jp...@galaxy.csc.calpoly.edu
Mathematics and Computer Science undergraduate
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Ed Rybak x84336
>They live on in our ratings. To those who complain that we worship ratings
>obsessively, I say it is only respect for departed souls.
>
>-- Spider
Whoa, dude! Maybe you should ease up on whatever it is you've been taking.
Either that or you need to stop watching "Northern Exposure" because you're
sounding a lot like that character Chris who run the radio station.
FIBS is a bunch of backgammon games mediated by a computer program. It is
certainly not without a redeeming social quality but it's not playing catch
with your son, walking your dog, or reminiscing about family vacations.
Regards,
Ed
Ed Rybak
Sequent Computer Systems
15450 SW Koll Parkway
Beaverton, OR 97006
phone: (503) 578-4336
fax: (503) 578-3811
ry...@sequent.com
=============================================================================
"You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not
knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to
have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and
possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things,
but I'm not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't
know anything about..."
-Richard Feynman