[tetrinext] Scoring

[Jared Johnson <solomon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey all, the concept of the rating system in tetrinet has been silently brewing
in my head for awhile.  Anybody who knows much about tetrinet knows that its
rating system is not that sensible -- if you beat more people, you have a higher
score; thus, if you play for a really long time against weak opponents, you are
the bomb.  Obviously nobody wants that to be the way TINT does these things,
right?

The ICS (chessclub.com) and FICS (freechess.org) are both chess servers that
lots of people probably know about.  They use pretty fair rating systems for 
their
games -- which of course only involve two people playing against each other. 
Basically, score adjustments are made up and down based on your own rating and
the rating of your opponent -- i.e. a lower-rated player will get a substantial
rating boost if he beats a higher-rated player, while the higher-rated player 
will
lower hit rating.  This is ultimately very fair.  Also, players have standard
and blitz (timed) ratings, and there is an option to play unrated games, at the
consensus of the other player.

Something like this ought to be incorporated into TINT.  As far as I can tell,
there are two problems with this:  (1) anywhere from 2 to 6 to maybe more
players will be competing against each other at the same time; (2) players of 
course
team up

I think that these can both be overcome; basically, if the odds of a player
coming out on top in any given situation can be calculated, then the appropriate
rating adjustment can be calculated.  Rather than basing the adjustment on wins 
or
losses, it would have to be based on rank (1st thru 6th, for example) -- that
way someone wouldn't get the same adjustment when they come in 2nd as they would
if they came in 6th.  As far as teams go, it might be a good idea to maintain
seperate ratings for teams and individuals; the individual's score being 
adjusted
during team play (but in a different fashion, based on his rating, his
teammates' ratings, and his opponents' ratings) -- but also adjusting the 
team's rating. 
It's been suggested to me that entities similar to "nickserv" and the
equivilant of a "teamserv" be created, so that people "own" nicknames and teams.

This would all be very cool, but preventing people from "cheating" the rating
system as well as the "fooserv" stuff would probably be difficult, but 
possible. 
Creating the rating system itself seems like a big, hard statistics problem.

I'd like any suggestions from people as well as, if we're lucky, someone to
volunteer to come up with this rating system, preferably someone with an insane
amount of statistics information in his brain.  If nobody feels like it, i'll
probably crack a statistics book or 2 or 3 and get cracking myself.  We'll see 
=)

--
Jared Johnson
solomon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.
                -- The Book of Bokonon / Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

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