[pbmserv-dev] ratings

[Randall Bart <barticus@att.net>]

I will now throw a monkey wrench into this discussion.

I think there should be two separate rating systems:  One for games with 
randomness (Hearts, Backgammon) and another for games without randomness 
(Go, TwixT, Chess).  In games with randomness, the best player in the world 
will occasionally lose to barely competent player.  OTOH, in a game without 
randomness, this does not happen.  I am a 6 kyu at Go (when I'm in 
practice) and I am not going to beat a 3 kyu or better without a 
handicap.  I used to play a 3 dan.  I didn't get to play him for very long 
because he went back to Japan.  He only gave me a handicap of 6, because he 
thought a bigger handicap would teach me bad habits.  I could not beat him 
(though I sure made him furrow his brow).

A rating system designed for backgammon might not work well with non-random 
games.  Now that I think of it, even for random games the system might need 
tweaking for how random the game is.  A game where a great player loses to 
a mediocre player 20% of the time should be rated differently than a game 
where he only loses 5% of the time.  Taking a backgammon rating system and 
applying it to other games is not necessarily a good thing.
--
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