Finetuning the ELO system with percentiles and spread

[FunKyMonx]

I have some complaints about the current ELO system. It is not able to differentiate well enough between players. Me and my friends have different levels but are mostly stuck at 100-150. The most important thing should be that everyone can easily find people to play with at their own level.

Here are some possibilities to achieve this goal:

• Show at which percentile your ELO is currently at

• Expand the categories to cover the whole range of percentiles so that the rating becomes more meaningful

• A suggestion of decent spread is to make the ratings like a school grading system from 1 to 10, but then times 100 so from 100 to a 1000

• In that way each step of a 100 consists of 10% of the (active) player base so each step up will be more difficult to achieve

• Align the categories like beginner, expert, master etc. with these percentiles

• A standardisation of this kind lets you compare ELO levels of multiple games which enriches your profile

[RicardoRix]

I was used to various chess website ELO's before I came here. I was surprised about how the ELO on this website works. It is not able to differentiate well enough between players. Me and my friends have different levels but are mostly stuck at 100-150. The most important thing should be that you can easily find people to play with at your own level.

You can restrict access as you please in the table setup.

Here are my suggestions:

• The first games your ELO is unknown and you are listed as pupil or something like that

So by unknown you mean don't display it for <100, so now you know that if it's not displayed it's <100... mmm...

• Multiply the starting ELO with 10 so the average is around 1000 instead of 100

• Your ELO is able to get way lower and higher than 1000

It did used to be like this. I would prefer this too, but instead they went with the system where you can't go below 100 once you've reached 100.

• Also show at which percentile your ELO is currently at

• Base categories like beginner, expert, master on new meaningful ranges

There are Beginner, average, good, expert, master levels.

[FunKyMonx]

You can restrict access as you please in the table setup.

I have no idea how many players are within this average range of 100-150. I suspect a big chunk of them. Can anyone supply data on this? I cannot find this on the website. there is a lot of variety within this 100-150 range. So more differentation is needed for beginners and casual gamers to find players of their own level. This can be achieved by improving the overall ELO system.

[nccc]

IT WAS LIKE CHESS in the past days, and its change to this.
So... gl, not going to change back.

[Tulivuori]

It did used to be like this. I would prefer this too, but instead they went with the system where you can't go below 100 once you've reached 100.

I guess this might cause differently skilled players being in 100-150, as even if you are bad, you may eventually get a lucky streak and then not drop back to more correct level. So limiting with ELO may not work there too well.

[FunKyMonx]

Why is the range from 0 to 100 only for new players and not for bad players?

[fafa-fr]

Why is the range from 0 to 100 only for new players and not for bad players?

BGA's motivations are explained here:
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... 974#p34296

Why did you introduce a minimum ELO on BGA?

When you learnt a new game on BGA, your ELO started at 1500 and used to decrease quickly to 1400 or 1300 because it is usual to loose your first games.

It was very discouraging for a lot of players to see that someone who never played had a 1500 ELO while they had a 1400 ELO after a few games.

We want to reward the effort of learning a new game, so we changed the system to make sure that you can only WIN points during your first games, and never have less than someone that just started playing this game.

[FunKyMonx]

Thanks for referring to the original post about the latest ELO system at BGA. I think my main concern is at the percentile level. If the majority of the players are stuck in the first level, more refinement in the calculations are needed in my opinion to make sure the numbers are newbie friendly.