About multiple accounts and ELO boosting

[demiurgsage]

I think that games from one IP should be ELO off by default and all 2p games from one IP should be ELO off. Do you play with your wife for fun or to grab ELO?

[estratega]

no me funciona la cuenta y no puedo jugar porfavor lo pueden arreglar.

[marian23]

bga is excelent site for online gaming - actually I think it has the best system and software of all such sites!!! - however I wish you would upload more "gamer games" or "known games" or "meaty games" - cause what I see in "last added games" section are mostly small or totally unknown games (except Madeira). That's why I play more games on other sites than here, cause I have bigger and better games. BGA used to add great games (just see most popular games on bga or for advance players) but it's long not so true (IMHO) and that's my biggest and (almost) only issue about BGA

[squarerootofthree]

I think that games from one IP should be ELO off by default and all 2p games from one IP should be ELO off. Do you play with your wife for fun or to grab ELO?

The problem is that a big university of 50,000 people might use one IP. Or large companies of 100,000 employees might route all their traffic though a single VPN with one IP (not that any of us would play at work ).

[glitter and doom]

2) My kid are on the site. We play together. We all have the same IP and often the same browser headers because we have to hot-seat our turns (more people than computers.)

When should we expect our accounts to get nuked?

great question, as my boyfriend and i play against each other as well from the same house. how do you differentiate between people playing in the same house and the cheaters??

Come on, guys, no one will get penalized just because of the same IP address. It is forbidden to use multiple accounts to boost your elo, not to play innocent game with your kid or a boyfriend.

Usually, it is quite easy to detect cheaters. Easier than you might think. Here are couple of examples:

1) Two experts have played 20 games of Neutreeko. All the games have been won by the same player. All the games were extremely short, often no more than 5 turns, and played in just one minute. The second player, an expert, have made huge, unbelievable mistakes in almost every game, sometimes in the second turn of the game.

In addition, they both had the same IP address.

2) Tzolk'in no1 ranked player, had tremendous 2517 ELO points (the best Tzolk'in players are usually in the 2200-2250 range). He won the great majority of ELO points (984 of 1017) against one single player (an expert) with 411 wins and just 5 loses. The other player was playing far below an expert level, often scoring as low as 40 points. I have never seen an expert to score so low in Tzolk'in.

The no1 ranked player has never played against any other good player, an expert or a master. He won the rest of ELO points against beginners.

[demiurgsage]

I give you another example. My girlfriend play boardgames worse than me. She will easy lose 99 games out of 100 if we play something like "TTA" or "Stone Age". If I play with her "ELO on" games how will someone be able to understand that I'm not cheater?

[RobertBr]

I find it odd some people seem to be obsessing they will be unfairly targeted. The original post by the admins made clear their text had low sensitivity precisely to ensure it had high specificity. If I want to cheat using a second account I can, they are not going to stop me. If I want to cheat often enough to significantly boost my ELO it will leave tell-tale signs (repeated wins against another account but that account wins against other players, to achieve the ELO bounce). Beating your partner 90% of the time at a particular game is not going to trigger this because it will not significantly boost your ELO (the pair of you will balance at somewhere about 1700 to 1300).

[demiurgsage]

It's an interesting question. You say 90% of the time and 1700 vs 1300 isn't a problem. When it become a problem?
In some games there is not 90% of the time. If you play better you will win 99-100% of the time. And it will be 1700 vs 1300 if you play only each other. If your partner also play with other players it will be 1900 vs 1500, but we talk about skill-based game and 99%, so it becomes 2100+ vs 1500. Maybe for popular games where best players have 2200+ it isn't a problem. What about not so popular games where best player has around 1900-2000?

[HyperionHuxley]

Is there a particular reason you capitalize Elo like ELO? It's not an acronym, it's a guy's name: Arpad Elo.

[pplekhanov]

For same IP my vote would be that the programming not permit ELO = ON.

Others find creative methods to perhaps cheat. Recently I played a game where Player B was consuming much of the clock. I type "??", then Player C replies, "Having computer problems". I reply, "Are you playing together?". C replies, "Yes, from same room".

When joining the game there was no warning that 2 players were using the same IP Address, so they must have different addresses but by his/her admission were playing from the same room. Player B often required much time, and then played a move that benefited Player C. If C was using this as a teaching game, then my suggestion is that "teaching games" be ELO = OFF. If C was using this to cheat, then be gone and find false glory elsewhere.