Author: Peter Skinner
Date: 14:09:14 10/17/04
Go up one level in this thread
On October 17, 2004 at 16:33:06, Derek Paquette wrote: >a) The program wins or comes 2 place in a WCCC or other 'high end' computer >tournament. Not so important. If that was the case I would have _all_ chess programs, as most have faired well in some sort of tournament.. somewhere.. >b) The program defeats a grandmaster in a series of games Definately. I don't think the win is as important is as how the program plays. ie. The Junior loss in this latest tournament. _Any_ program would have lost that game. The GM simply outplayed the computer. >c) The program has a good past history of always increasing its elo relative to >SSDF by a significant amount Yes and no. As seen with Tiger 14, and Tiger 15.0 that their rating is almost identical, yet in actual games that I play, one does things differently than the other. > >d) You enjoyed other versions of the program and can only hope that future >versions are just as enjoyable 90.00000000000000000000001% of the reason I purchase programs. I don't need the strongest out there to be happy. GNUChess still kicks my butt. I prefer a certain style of play. >e) You talked to the programmer or tester of the program and can only hope that >his or her boasting turns out to be true. None. >f) A popular person in this 'community' recommends it. None. >g) Its distributer/sponsor/owner None >h) Its price. To a certain degree, but almost all are the same price now. Based on my answers here, I would have to say I purchase my program based on a certain style of play. Gandalf is one of my favorite programs, Junior as well. Out of all programs, Hiarcs is by far my favorite. I love it's style of play, has excellent results vs GM/IM's, and the author is a terrific person in general. ChessTiger is another favorite based on style of play, and the integrity of the author. Christophe doesn't release a new version just because someone else has, or because it is the Christmas shopping season, or that he needs extra money for a vacation. He releases one when he is good and ready, and he knows there is an improvement. That to me justifies purchasing his program whether or not it does well. Just supporting that attitude with our game is something I wish _all_ programmers should follow. There are also reasons I will not re-purchase a given program. False advertising is one (ie. Ruffian 2.0.0 by Frank Quinsky), the author not caring about his potential customers (ie. Vincent Diepeveen's comments about his possible clients). Some people just do not think before they speak and in the end, it ruins their sales by a large sum. There are many here that will not purchase Diep because of Vincent's comments, and frankly I can't blame them. Imagine if AMD came out and said they didn't want "geeks" to purchase their processors. Seeing how 90% of the people of purchase computers want a "Pentium", the "geeks" are their base :) It would ruin them. Peter
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