Author: Ricardo Gibert
Date: 10:11:20 07/09/01
I think there are many good reasons for not rating comp games on ICC: (1) The comp accounts adversely affect the rating system on ICC, since: (i) The operators of the comp accounts change hardware (usually faster) that makes the comp rating a misrepresentation of the accounts playing level. (ii) The operators of comp accounts will sometimes change engines, which makes the accounts rating misrepresentative too. (iii) The comp operator may be the programmer, who may make changes to the program, which again makes the accounts rating misrepresentative. (2) It becomes problematical for human players to gauge their progress with respect to several months earlier due to (1), since ratings from different time periods become more difficult to compare due to the adverse impact comps probably have on the rating system. This is true generally anyway, but I would think the inclusion of rated comp games makes things worse. ----------------------------- As things stand now, it would make sense if operators only played rated games against humans and unrated games against comps. Then they would get to play human players more often. The reason I say this, is because human players stand to lose a lot of rating points against comps, since comp ratings are generally deflated. I think most of the prospective human opponents avoid comp accounts, because the cost in rating is too high. Also, a comp rated by games against humans only, will get a higher rating and therefore attract higher quality opponents (both human and non-human). Take a look at the 2 accounts Scrappy and Crafty. Scrappy is rated over 400 points higher than Crafty, since it only plays humans. The program is the same and the hardware is the same. It should be obvious that any human that plays Crafty is an idiot when he could play the much higher rated Scrappy instead. The human stands to lose a lot of rating points against Crafty if they play an extended series of games. Against Scrappy, he does not have to worry about this so much. All the comp accounts that play both humans and comps are essentially the same proposition to the human as crafty is. Humans stand to lose a lot of rating points against them too so there should be a tendency to avoid them in preference to an account like Scrappy or another human. BTW, it is a mistake to think ratings don't matter on ICC, since your rating affects the quality of the opposition you face on ICC. Playing against the best quality opposition as possible ought to matter to anyone serious about improving. ------------------------------ There is a certain Curtis Williams that seems to have irritated a lot of people with his policy of playing only humans with his comp account Spitfire. This post may seem to support what he has done, but this is not my intent. Actually, what I think people really find irritating is his motivation for doing so. He wants to portray his account as the "King of the Hill" among comp accounts, when what he has done has only created the appearance this is so when it is not. It's funny that he managed to delude himself with this fantasy, despite employing an "artificial" means to do it.
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