Re: Owls and Voles

Whilst I know that having any form of strictly comparative system alters incentives, I would have imagined that a ranking system (wherein people are top-ranked, tenth-ranked etc.) would distort people's incentives less than a rating system (wherein you have an absolute number that represents your skill level, such as an Elo score).

I for one like the competitive aspect which can come from being rated and believe that it can provide an incentive for people to want to up their game, and like wise it can contextualize a win or a loss based on the level of competition. I have little doubt that as a competent, but not spectacular, player there are many of you against whom I'd be happy to simply not be the first power eliminated.

Still, it is fair to say that there will be a rating system in play and that the real question is one about whether or not I should make public the numbers produced by it. If I wish to provide the most interesting games (invitational games at least) to my players then I will need a way to assess people's skill levels and ensure that people within a game are evenly skilled.

Perhaps, if ratings really are disliked, a potential halfway house would be to only disclose what decile/quintile/quartile/etc. a player is in and provide no further information about ordering within that division.

I'd be very interested in hearing people's thoughts on the topic.

Ed

--- In [email protected], Mike Barnes <mikebarnes60@...> wrote:
>
> Please forget the ranking system, just causes players to have weird
> incentives.
> 
> On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 10:46 AM, elemental0125 <ed@...> wrote:
> 
> > **
> >
> >
> > Thank you Thorin for the kind words.
> >
> > Vole_001 and Vole_002 are both up and running, and I'm looking for a
> > replacement Germany in Vole_003 - the player felt that he was overcommitted
> > to other games and asked to bow out right at the start. Anyone want to take
> > over a pristine, 1901, Germany then TAKEOVER gvole_003 is your friend!
> >
> > In other news, I'm working on building a ranking system based on Microsoft
> > Research's TrueSkill system - it's essentially a multiplayer extension of
> > the Elo system used in Chess and other 2-player games. I'm hoping that this
> > will lead to some interesting ranking tables for Voles and well matched
> > games in the future.
> >
> > Happy New Year and Happy Stabbing,
> >
> > Ed
> >
> > PS - Vole_004 is looking for players!
> >
> > --- In [email protected], "thorinmunro" <thorinmunro@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Great stuff Ed....
> > >
> > > Wish you well playing with burrowing rodents! For any Owls players
> > wanting a reference, Ed Rustin was one of the earliest and most active
> > players in the league.
> > >
> > > All the best,
> > >
> > > Thorin
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --- In [email protected], "elemental0125" <ed@> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > With Thorin's announcement that he's taking an indefinite break from
> > running the Owls games a hole is left in our hobby. For much of the last
> > seven years the Owls games have formed the bedrock of the games I've
> > played, from owls_08 back in 2005 all the way to the current tournament,
> > and have developed a great community and some of the toughest opponents
> > I've had the pleasure of playing against.
> > > >
> > > > Not wanting to see that community die, I've decided to step up to the
> > plate and start a new series of games, in the hope of keeping the Owls
> > spirt alive. The first game in the series vole_001 is already up and
> > running and looks like it's going to turn out to be a great game if the
> > volume of press is anything to judge by.
> > > >
> > > > I've just created vole_002 and, optimistically, vole_003, and I'm
> > hoping that I'll see some you in them, both Owls old, and Voles new.
> > > >
> > > > Happy Holidays
> > > >
> > > > Ed
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >  
> >
>




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