Board Game Arena

Hello I'll contest to this post because it talks about BGA robot on Can't Stop for the top players, and I use it.
But, you have to know that I became top 1 without BGA Robot. When I was top 1, I played with him elo off to have fun. But, the problem is that "zebulon" arrived and got top 1 with BGA Robot... He played again and again with him and I can't resist against that type of players. So, I used the same thing than him : robot... That's bad to be obliged to play with robot to get top 1... I just have defended my place that I got without Robot.

I can't resist against that type of players.

I'm not against anyone who is using the robot to their advantage because the confusion is created by BGA not the players. Your comment shows this. You inherently know that you should 'resist', implying that you have a sense it isn't right. But the advantage is taken with no consequences. So, we are left with chaos (no pun intended .

I noticed that the nature of the robot has been changed by the Admins. I'm hoping that BGA will announce the changes so that we know the rules. I don't think that a change to the robot only is enough though. Then all of the advantages would stay in place and the top players elo will continue to be inflated (there were hardly ever any experts before the robot). BGA, please announce the rule changes.

I call on all of the top players to play other players at the top, with elo on.

gdBlaze wrote: I noticed that the nature of the robot has been changed by the Admins. I'm hoping that BGA will announce the changes so that we know the rules. I don't think that a change to the robot only is enough though. Then all of the advantages would stay in place and the top players elo will continue to be inflated (there were hardly ever any experts before the robot). BGA, please announce the rule changes.

+1
Was curious about the changes of the robot; so started a game.
But it looks that at the moment the robot isn't playing it turns at all.
Checked some other (mostly turn'based) running games and it's not playing there either.
So maybe the Admins are working on it...

Make it stronger.

The problem is BGA Robot get harder... so I will believe in some months this will got 1st place.

Also got "most games played and most victories" badge is impossible in can't stop.

So, KaosBombix and Zebulon, now that you have both been displaced by a player more determined to use the robot to gain undeserved elo, what do you think?

A couple more players just passed me so probably 3 or 4 more will be getting to your level soon.

BGA, it's probably not a good idea that eventually some players will have 2500 elo playing can't stop. Most of it undeserved. I realize that this is just a game, but the rules should encourage behavior that you want to perpetuate, the robot is simply making it no fun to do well on your own because most players in the top 20 are not playing other players in the top twenty. Again, the point of elo is to find players at your level. Well, the robot is causing people NOT to play other players at their level.

And the robot is distorting who really should be at any particular level. There are players in the top 20 who have added 400 to 500 elo playing the robot. Question: Should they be in the top 20? Or is this a distortion.

Since the only players I can find to play are players a couple hundred or more elo less than me, I've basically stopped playing. Why do I want to lose 35 or 40 elo if I lose just one game?

Who really cares about their ELO?? It's a game for crying out loud. Get over it!

gdBlaze wrote: BGA, it's probably not a good idea that eventually some players will have 2500 elo playing can't stop. Most of it undeserved. I realize that this is just a game, but the rules should encourage behavior that you want to perpetuate, the robot is simply making it no fun to do well on your own because most players in the top 20 are not playing other players in the top twenty. Again, the point of elo is to find players at your level. Well, the robot is causing people NOT to play other players at their level.

+1
I also just don't see this as a solution. I have no comprehension of why games with a bot should be counting for anything. If it were a site where playing with bots was common, and the bots were good, or had levels, that would make more sense. But that's never been what this site is about. People play other real people here. Wasn't the point of the bot just to learn a game and/or implementation?

Turning ELO off is such an easy solution to this. I don't get this complication of trying to fix the bot in order to fix a problem that shouldn't exist.

Since the only players I can find to play are players a couple hundred or more elo less than me, I've basically stopped playing. Why do I want to lose 35 or 40 elo if I lose just one game?

Well, that's an off-shoot problem. A high luck game like that shouldn't have people getting into such high ELO's and if you average out the games with real people, losing the 35-40 points shouldn't hurt since you should gain it back.

cofunguy wrote:Who really cares about their ELO?? It's a game for crying out loud. Get over it!

This requires two responses because I'm not sure if you're addressing the people using the bot to raise their ELO, or just everyone in general for even being concerned enough to talk about it.

As to just everyone in general, ELO can be important for a couple of reasons. One is so that you can find players near your own level. Given that non-club members mostly can't see them, and given that the groupings of the players is such a huge range, I'm not quite sure how well that actually works. But that is a use of it. Second, it can be a pride thing. And I don't necessarily mean that in an egotistical way - there's really nothing wrong with having a sense of accomplishment, if it doesn't get out of hand.

The fact that the discussion exists is also not just about ELO in and of itself. It's about people cheating it, and I think that's a concern whether you care about ELO or not.

Of course, if you're addressing the ones using it to cheat, you're right. That's people going beyond a sense of accomplishment and turning it into a purely egotistical thing. Because if you can't get there in a fair way, then there isn't any "accomplishment" and I don't know how anyone like that can feel good about themselves, nor how they can feel egotistical about it when they didn't accomplish it in a fair way. So I mostly wonder if people like that have low egos and need some visual proof they are worth something and can't allow themselves to consider they haven't accomplished anything. (Although I can understand the person who used the bots to get back his #1 slot cause someone else sorta stole it away by cheating. Unfortunately the bad behavior breeds more bad behavior, but still, I can understand it.)

LOL!?
I really like Can't Stop.
It's a game with plenty of opportunty for strategy and planning.
I don't give a whooping hen fart which people are in the top 20 or whatever.
I find it amusing to hear that some people are so devoid of lives that they are sat playing game after game with the defective tutorial robot just to boost their scoretable rating. I suddenly feel like my life is 40% more fulfilling than it seemed before I read this topic.

Also... if you want to play top tier players and all of the ELO-ramping robotophiles won't play human players then what is the big whoop?
If you start a game restricted to epic players (or whatever you want) and they don't join, then the problem has to a great extent resolved itself anyway.