FluffyWuffy1 wrote: ↑13 April 2025, 12:34
Of course it's random. The results of all games, including who went first, are publicly available - if it wasn't random it would be very easy to show it statistically.
I also don't understand what the site's motivation to rig it would be. It's a chunk of effort, with reputational risk involved. If you are suggesting they favour premium accounts with their "algorithm", then this would be counterproductive in the extreme, since the bad experience could put off many standard accounts from upgrading.
Post some reasonable evidence for it being rigged and then we might get somewhere.
Results of games or availability of games has nothing to do with if the games are programmed with randomness or algorithms.
You say if it wasn't random it would be very easy to show it. Really? Then why don't you do so if it is so easy?
I think you might be missing the point about which part is random or a algorithm. The part in question would obviously not be about if games are finished or not, for that has nothing to do with either random or algorithms, that is about players having finished their moves and the result of a game being completed.
What is in question about random vs algorithms would obviously be things like...which players get to go first, what are player orders, die results, tiles places and their value etc.
The player order and tile placement can not really be random, since this would increase errors and bugs, algorithms would be necessary to establish values and priorities etc. Of cause the fact that there would be algorithms does not necessarily mean that there is a bias, but it could.
Die results are more likely to be random, but could also be algorithms to promote a agenda to make money.
You say you don't understand what the site's motivation to rig it would be. Money of cause is always a great motivation. But I don't think I said it was rigged, rather I said it was algorithms and not randomness which determined most if not all of the outcomes here.
You say "It's a chunk of effort, with reputational risk involved" well that right there is motive both for algorithms and even to rig it. For who would put a great effort into something, without increasing their odds of a gain? That makes no sense.
Consider the premium membership advantages for example. Why are these advantages only given to paying players and not to non-playing players?
Obviously because the developers of this site has put a chunk of effort into the game and hope to promote players to pay them for their efforts. Why else would it be there?
You say " If you are suggesting they favour premium accounts with their "algorithm", then this would be counterproductive in the extreme, since the bad experience could put off many standard accounts from upgrading."
This comment makes no sense. For of cause it is not counterproductive to favour premium accounts if premium accounts pay them unless the algorithms are so obvious that it would cause people to quit the game. But people could also want to quit the game because randomness caused them to be "unlucky" or because they had invested money in a premium account, and was expecting to get more out of their "effort".
Its a bit naive to assume that algorithms do not exist to make money, when its obvious that most governments especially the super power ones are guilty of corruption to make money, and rig the game for this exact reason. Trump, Putin and Xi Jinping has all been accused of this many times.
You also should know that both YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and even Google run on algorithms. So why would BGA be different?
I don't see how you could run a website like this without algorithms, it can not all be random though some of it might be. The question you raised about whether it is rigged or not is really the only thing which should be debatable here, and that would be impossible for either of us to prove or disprove.
Think about this logically. Then a website with game rules would have to have at least some algorithms to calculate points, determine game order, problem solve etc. Randomized algorithms are approximated using a pseudorandom number generator in place of a true source of random bits.
So clearly the website has to run algorithms.
The specific question here, is if FIRST PLAYER is determined randomly or by algorithm, and I am quite confident it is by algorithm or randomized algorithm, it makes no sense for it to be completely random.
Also I might add that my experience playing here also does not suggest to me that First Player is determined randomly. For that would be very strange. Most of the time, when a computer is generating a "random" number, it's using something called a psuedo-random number generator. True randomness is not possible and that it is only something you can go towards but never reach.
