Board Game Arena

why do the BGA system (algorythmus) prefers almost to 100% players with higher ratings in dice games like Backgammon ?
Especially when rolling out the bricks you as a player with lower ratings have no chance at all, because the players with higher rating always get doubles dice guaranteed.
And if you have to leave a stone alone during the game, you can assume to an almost 100% probability that the player with a higher rating will always get the number to throw out my stone.

I’ve noticed this a lot over the past week.

Have others had to make these experiences as well ??

xarrdam wrote: ↑16 October 2021, 16:22 why do the BGA system (algorythmus) prefers almost to 100% players with higher ratings in dice games like Backgammon ?
Especially when rolling out the bricks you as a player with lower ratings have no chance at all, because the players with higher rating always get doubles dice guaranteed.
And if you have to leave a stone alone during the game, you can assume to an almost 100% probability that the player with a higher rating will always get the number to throw out my stone.

I’ve noticed this a lot over the past week.

Have others had to make these experiences as well ??

The source code for those games fully is available to every volunteer wanting to contribute (remember, those games are maintained by the community).
I'm pretty confident that for a game as popular as Backgammon, if someone added special algorithms to favour specific kind of players (rather than using the standard "random" function), this would be made public in few months, and that would be quite a scandal. I'm pretty sure someone already checked for Backgammon as you're not the first to complain.

And if the game use the standard "random" function, it is literally impossible for it to deliberately favour a player (the function doesn't know what result happens to be better for the game, some games prefer doubles, others prefer high numbers, other prefer low numbers, etc). It could accidentally favour a player if it was bugged, though that's quite unlikely.

One could argue its randomness is "fake", but standard "random" functions are pretty much indistinguishable from true randomness outside of cryptography (or really really high numbers of regular uses). In fact, they're usually more random than actual dice rolls and cards shuffle (who can be slightly biased due to material imperfection).

The much more likely explication are psychological bias and bad luck (statistically, some peoples will be lucky and others unlucky).

Here we go again. I can already imagine what mess would happen when the doubling cube comes in.

If you believe that luck is the only factor preventing you from scoring well in Backgammon, take a look at this match

This is an annotated match between 2 of the best worldwide backgammon players, follow it and try to guess the move, let's see how many moves you'll get right.

Your observation is true in the way that better players are more likely to get a roll that suits them.

But the reason is not that random function in some way evaluates the game and finds out the best roll for that players (btw you would need a good AI running in the background for that game so the system can even have an idea on what IS a good roll for that player in that situation which is a rediculous assumption).
The reason is: good players often play in a much more flexible way. If you put your stones in a way that make 70% of all possible dice-roll-outcomes favourable to you while in the same situation a worse player might chose a move that in the follow-up has only 30% successful possibilities, then of course you can observe more successful rolls for the stronger player.

Apart from that, it's a normal statistical phenomenon to have good or bad streaks. People after a bad streak come to the forum and complain. After a good streak they don't.

And then there's confirmation bias too.

xarrdam wrote: ↑16 October 2021, 16:22why do the BGA system (algorythmus) prefers almost to 100% players with higher ratings in dice games like Backgammon ?

No, higher ranked players are not favored by any algorhythm.
No, premium players are not favored by any algorhythm.
No, left handed players during a full moon in september are not favored by any algorhythm.

XCID wrote: ↑18 October 2021, 12:01 No, left handed players during a full moon in september are not favored by any algorhythm.

Hey, that was my only chance to win a King of Tokyo game ! Not cool !

XCID wrote: ↑18 October 2021, 12:01 No, left handed players during a full moon in september are not favored by any algorhythm.

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