Hate to think so many are playing in bad faith... Giving Outwitters a break

[Joggies]

I have not started a game as first player now in about 10 games. Anyone with a basic understanding of probabilities knows this is an extremely unlikely outcome and you would have to be very very very unlucky for this to happen naturally.

Since Syvan helpfully pointed out a possible exploit I feel that many players are abusing it.

Firstly, can I say to those players: if you like this game and the efforts of OML in producing it, then all you are doing is undermining their work. You will just repel players who don't want to continually play cheaters insisting on starting every game with a 5 wit handicap. In the long run, you'll whittle down the community until you are only playing others like you. It is terrible sportspersonship.

Until this exploit is resolved (preferably by eliminating FTA, or at least by fixing the broken matchmaking system) I'm going to give this game (and those players) a wide berth.

Apologies for the strident tone - it just makes me grumpy to see a great game being degraded.

[Kamikaze28]

Joggies,

while I understand your frustration and I can sympathize with your situation, I feel the need to point out a few things:

• Players create games at their own choosing - either because they want to 'game the system' as Syvan explained or because they want to play more games at once. The problem is that there is no way to distinguish these motives as an outside observer.
• Calling a vaguely defined, yet significantly large, group of players 'cheaters' is very inconsiderate and unhelpful.
• Accusing players of a multiplayer game of 'whittling down the community' by playing the game just is illogical. See my first point about your perception of this dilemma.

If you feel that giving Outwitters a pause is the best way for you to deal with the current matchmaking system, I won't disagree with you, but I do disagree with your assessment of the situation. I don't believe that 'many players' are using Syvan's exploit. Primarily because only a small minority of Outwitters players read the forums.

Nevertheless, the queueing and matchmaking system does allow for some shenanigans that allow players to gain FTA in significantly more than 50% of their games. This is a known issue and is hopefully adressed in a future patch.

[Joggies]

Appreciate your response Kami and acknowledge the tone of my post was overdone.

I also take your first point about dual motives. But having said that, it's not too difficult to have a full complement of games running without starting 20 of them simultaneously. Spamming new games will get those players a high ratio of first starts. On the flipside, it's not very fun for others to have to play each match starting on the back foot. While I've been able to keep a good record even as P2, I am experiencing it more and more consistently the higher I climb the ladder. It's a game and supposed to be fun, so I think people should be conscious that using this technique makes it very un-fun for those not doing it.

[Kamikaze28]

(08-12-2012 12:39 AM)Joggies Wrote:  I also take your first point about dual motives. But having said that, it's not too difficult to have a full complement of games running without starting 20 of them simultaneously. Spamming new games will get those players a high ratio of first starts. On the flipside, it's not very fun for others to have to play each match starting on the back foot. While I've been able to keep a good record even as P2, I am experiencing it more and more consistently the higher I climb the ladder. It's a game and supposed to be fun, so I think people should be conscious that using this technique makes it very un-fun for those not doing it.

There are two factors augmenting the effect you dislike:

• The higher your rating, the less people are available for you to be matched against.
• The higher the rating, the more competitive people get in general.

Like I said, I agree on the existence of this problem. There are people capable of taking advantage of this, so necessarily there must be other people drawing the short straw and getting aggravated. As I see it, if you are gaming the system for your own benefit, you are not likely to care about the entertainment value of others - the problem is, that there are bound to be people doing the mass creation of games without realizing the impact and without malice aforethought.

[Bren92787]

I just want to put it out there that I am facing a really similar problem, and I think the problem does get dramatically worse the higher you climb in the leagues. I am--or was--at the top of a master league division, but I've been falling pretty dramatically. I'm quickly finding that I basically win every game in which I go first and lose every game in which I go second against competitive players who know what they're doing. At the same time, I'm drawing the short straw like 9/10 games over the past two weeks, which, again, is obviously not sheer probability. I'm sure not all of the games I go second in are "cheaters," but I've reached the point where it's clear to me that:

1) FTA is very, very real in the game right now.
2) FTA can be gamed, and some highly competitive individuals are doing so.
3) FTA is causing me to lose interest in Outwitters, and feel quite frustrated.

[amoffett11]

You could just do what I do, which is beat them anyways.

Seriously though, what took me awhile to learn is that playing as P1 or P2 requires two different strategies, if you just use your favourite opening as P2 every time people will exploit it.