Stardust KM: I'm guessing your comment about paid members & tournaments being held by someone else was about my comment to limit $$ tournaments to paid members.

The main reason I suggest that is I believe a lot of cheaters are not going to pay $10 just so they can cheat. (Most are going to try to cheat with free pawn accounts) That is why I think that will get rid of many cheaters.

Ok BBW ..you asked questions

He shouldnt invite to a tournament until all rules were 100% done, then he doesnt need to change them..ok?
Ive given this answer to Fencer earlier: Im not the genious, i have no idea how to guard the tournament from cheaters. BUT AGAIN..allow non paying member play and not paying members is wrong in my opinion. Stardust may think whatever he wants..the tournament is hosted by Brain King.

case closed

BBW : my post was dircted at andersp. He seems to think that just because there are two paying members of BK in his household they should both be able to enter the tournament. I agree with GothicInventor,there is no 100% way to stop cheaters. He (I think) is hoping to filter them out as best he can. This is not an easy task as anyone can attest to. One way he hopes to do this is by limiting participants to one per household. (And I think he explained his reasons for that quite clearly) This certainly in no way means that if two people from the same household entered they would cheat. It's just one way to 'squelch' it.

As for suggesting that all participants in the tournament be paid members of BK so as to hopefully filter out more cheaters...that seems to be a popular opinion.

Bottom line is this...The creator and sponser of the Tournament (of any tournament) should have the right to post his own rules prior to the commencement of said tournament. period. The host of the tournament isn't the one who calls the shots anymore than a landlord can govern who enters your apartment.
MHO

I agree with you Stardust & back up Gothic on this. Look, this is a test flight. Rules fluctuate as new possibilities are considered. Details must be ironed out. Let's get real, folks. If Mr. Trice put up a cool million I wonder how many would be popping out of the woodwork demanding their "right" to a shot at it. This is ridiculous. :o)

There will be two tournaments.

One for all the BrainPawns the site can withstand. You want to make 10 IDs and play under fake names, be my guest.

There will be another for all of the paying members.

Each tournament will produce a winner. These winners are automatically entered into the final round of the World Championship.

Each tournament will also produce winners for each section. With the exception of the sections winners who went on win the whole tournament, the remaining section winners, brainpawns and other brains alike, will duke it out for the prize money.

I will create a private tournament for the semifinalists, who were the section winners from each tournament. This tournament will also feature prize money for section winners and the overall winner.

The overall winner of the semifinals will join the two winners of the other tournaments, as well as myself, and the 4 of us will duke it out for the World Championship title, with, of course, even more money.

Is this satisfactory to all?

I don't see what could be fairer.

:)

I understand we all have our real lives, but do we really have to bare with players (?) like this one in our tourney (7 day limit) who has not completed a single game while most of us are done with all our games? I just checked on the profile, this person has about 200 tourneys going, with 0 completed games! So a bunch of people have to wait MONTHS to finish one round, because of one person who loves to JOIN but doesn't PLAY? I'm majorly upset about this. Yes, I am allowed to play in ONE tourney only, for the moment. But even if I were a paying member, I would be agitated!
Oh, the ID is Backoff KM.
PLEASE, PLAY!!!! (and I do know all caps and exclamation marks are rude, but.. jeez, buddy, why sign up if you don't have time for this, for US??!)
:(

I agree this can be frustrating.. but it isn't fair to be so upset with someone for that. The better solution would be to only join tournaments that have the time limit to your liking. This person probably signed up for a 7 day limit because he needs it. He is well within his rights to do this. If this angers you so much, you should sign up for tournaments with a 1 or 2 day time limit.
Just a friendly piece of advice. :-)

If somebody makes 1 move a week which is within the time limits of the tournament, it is NONE of your business to critisize him/her for that.

That is what turn-based playsites are all about: to be able to make when you want to.

If you want only fast games, play only fast tournaments. Your fault, not his.

I really do not think its fair for you to flame at someone when you are not even in that section of the tourney! I also see that he is not the only person to have uncompleted games in his section. And thirdly, your own section is not complete, there is still one game playing out.

I know its frustrating to be a pawn and allowed only one tourney at a time, which is why many of us upgraded our membership. I personally have around 150 games, and yes, I move slowly on some. But that is because I can only be online here at length at weekends. For that reason, I make sure I enter only tourneys that are at least a week time limit and usually are even longer.

Eriisa, is it fair for you to flame NoMeansNo back? For a person who is supposed to be in charge of Customer Service here at BK, it seems like you should know better and should take a gentler tone.

You miss NoMeansNo's point completely when you state, "I know its [sic] frustrating to be a pawn and allowed only one tourney at a time, which is why many of us upgraded our membership."

Remember, Eriisa, this is the TOURNAMENTS Board. NoMeansNo is NOT frustrated with being a pawn; he's frustrated with a slow tourney player. And btw, the last time I looked, paying knights who have upgraded their memberships can also only play in one tourney at a time.

I agree with those who say the slow tourney player is within his right. He is. In online tournaments, slow play is a tactic some players try to use to their advantage. Then again, some players honestly don't have the time or desire to move with any greater speed. Rod and WK pointed that out to NoMeansNo.

Your cheap shot at BK pawns, however, is very condescending. Think you're going to win any paying converts or new friends by talking down to them like that? Don't count on it.

Hope you'll treat the membership (paying and non-paying) better next time. Have a nice day.

peace

ok, im going to put in my 1.5 cents worth..hehe
i read Eriisa's message twice, peacepickle, and didnt read anything condescending? maybe it could have been gentler, she was just pointing out that sections arent complete in that tourney, she wasnt taking pot-shots at pawns.

second---(hope i dont get in trouble for this ;o)--) as far as the Gothic tournament for $3000-- i agree, no way can we stop cheaters, i dont think the revised idea about a sperate pawn tournament with a seperate paying member tournament and then the winner of each going to the finals, will make much of a difference from the original set of rules.... what if the pawn is another paying member using an alias pawn? that could be you, Gothic, it could be anyone.

i honestly considered joining, though i've never played the game, played only chess as a youngster, so have only rudimentary skills, but for the fun of it, not hoping to win... especially if Andersp (my husband) could join too, just to track how good or bad we both are doing, for fun, certainly knowing we wont win money. we do that now in all other tourneys, we love this site, its so much fun!!!
the options are wonderful (for all the tourney games til this Gothic one)... and im one of those ive read complained about, who have like 200 games... (personally i have over 500...hehe) and its my right... and i can go as slow as i want, if i time out, then its my own fault..(i havent timed out yet) so i dont like when people comment that there should be limits to how many games you can have.

I think, though, in commenting about the Chess tournament for $3000, that Gothic has the right to write his own rules... so therefore, only one in this household can join. its fair in the eyes of the rules, but its not nice to 2 paying players.


Antje

I'll stand by my words. What I quoted from Eriisa is very condescending. I'm a pawn, and am in no way frustrated here at BK as she assumes we pawns all are.

I'm here for one main reason: I enjoy backgammon and look forward to playing good players who can challenge me. From Eriisa's record, it seems she's here for other reasons and does not understand the true competitive spirit of tourney play.

It can be frustrating for ANY competitive player (not just pawns) to wait and wait and wait for players in his or her section to make a move. Sometimes anxious tourney players just need to be reminded that time allowances are part of online tourney play.

I take little pleasure in pounding weaker backgammon opponents in tournaments. One tourney at a time is all I want for now even though Eriisa thinks all us pawns are frustrated and feel otherwise.

Some people like to play 150+ games at once; others like to play only a few tourney games. Whatever floats your boat. The main thing is that we're all here to have fun. Right?

peace

There are no limits on the brain pawn ids, so let them go fight it out like the old west :) Any number of family members can play in either section.

One big difference: The top two paying members per section advance to the semifinals. Only the top section winner in the brain pawns will advance to the semifinals.

You keep playing on once you win your section, since if you win your tournament, BrainPawn or BrainPayers, you get seeded into the finals, and do not need to play in the semifinals.

The semifinals will be the mix of BrainPawn section winners and BrainPayer 1st and 2nd place section finishers. Whoever wins that goes to the finals.

There are 4 people in the finals, for those counting :)

Make it to the finals, collect your cash. $500 per person. Second place finisher gets $1500. Winner gets $3000.

I consider myself as being a candidate to get seeded directly to the finals. I hope nobody has a problem with that. So, the BrainPawn winner, the BrainPayer winner, myself, and the seminfals winner will duke it out for the World Championship.

No further concessions, take it or leave it.

peacepickle , i suggest only playing shorter limit tourneys in the future 1 or two days limit, or upgrade your account and play more games to keep you occupied , also for the small amount of going to a knight you can play one of every game there is in a tournament , not just one like you seem to think .
peace

what about the personal info?

personal info no longer needed.

A while back I invited a player to one of my tournaments. He said he couldn't play unless it had at least a 7 day per move minimum. The reason? He only had access to computers on the weekend.

I've noticed many players I've played are slow to move in our games too. But then they have nearly a hundred games they are playing. It's no wonder they can't make a move every day in games with me. And that is fine with me. Like WhiteKnight has said, it's really their business.

When we join a tourney that has a 14 day move limit, we have to assume that at least someone may only make a move every 14 days and ask ourselves can we live with that. Personally I can't so I try to avoid those tourneys.

My comments might not be any consolation to a brain pawn since I don't have the restrictions they have. However, for a very very small fee, 2 bucks a month, one can eliminate the limits. When's your next birthday? Chistmas is coming too. Where there's a will, there's a way. Join up. :)

peacepickle, my apologies if you felt I was condescending. I did not mean for it to come across that way. I did not think it was a cheap shot when I projected the feelings that I had as a Pown with what I thought someone else was expressing. You see, I was frustrated as a Pawn with the limitations and I suppose I thought others would share the same feelings. It's <sic> not an excuse, but it WAS 5:30 in the morning my time, and next time I will not post messages while only half awake. And lets make a deal, I won't assume about you if you won't assume about me. OK?

NoMeansNo, my apologies if I offended you in any way

My apologies too, Eriisa. I know my tone could've been nicer as well. No hard feelings here.

peace :-)

Artful - like $2 a month!! 50c a week! A pint of bitter costs £1.90 (or around $3.00 in USA currency). How pawns can live with the tournament restrictions is beyond me.

Now that I finally got on...

No Means No, why did you call me out by name? How about ohhh, everyone else in the section I'm in? I currently have 414 games going and with the site being the way it is right now, I play my games in "time till timeout" order. That tournament has 7 days per move. Sometimes I need that much. I don't sign up for games with a short number of days per move because of the site problems. When the site is running ok, I play all my games in one sitting. If you would like to play more games at one time, it would really help out the site to upgrade to a knight or rook. I'm not talking down to you or any other pawn, but it's just the truth.

and BTW, I just used a week of vacation and I'm still using some more in the upcomming weeks, I have 9 1/2 days till my next move is do in that tournament.

It is for me mysterious how you can play 414 games at the same time?
It must be your full-time job or you are moving without thinking!

I reckon that 80% of the time, you can play moves without thinking and another 17% neds a bit of thought (about 10 seconds worth). Gothic Chess is the killer; you can think for half-an-hour and still make the wrong move.

tell me about it :-(

Correction tonyh we speak about 414 not about 141 games!

Sorry, typing error - but the percentages are still generally what I find! Another game where you can think for hours and come up with the wrong move; tablut.

You're playing 414 games and have very low BKRs in everything, almost everything is way below 1500. What's your point of entering any tourneys??? Looks like you have your hands WAY too full.

RsBaby may be a slow tourney player, but at least he'll give you one heck of a game.

I think we should all remember that we are not all here for the same reasons. There are some who come to win and have high BKRs (but we are not all geniuses, irrespective of how long we think about our next move); there are some who come for the friendship where BKRs mean nothing; and some may come to just play and pass the time. None of these reasons are better than any other, they are just different. If they do not match your reasons there is still no justification for being critical.

If people play by the rules and within the time limits, so be it, leave them be! Please :)

im playing over 500, and my BKR's (except in backgammon which im only learning now, and have to let those creep up) is over 1700, and some in the 1900.
i agree with backoffKM, if the site works , i can mow through the games in little time, but the frequency of the site going down makes it difficult to get the moves completed, i go in the same order as backoffKM, those with the shortest time limits i complete first, those with 2 weeks or more per move, will wait.
i give the game the thought i feel it requires to make moves. since i dont play chess or tablut, it isnt a problem. if a move require more than 30 sec. of thought, its ok with me if i lose it.
its a site for fun, and if my ratings drop, its not because i have too many games, its because i didnt think carefully enough, and thats my own impatience, whether i have 5 or 500 moves :o)

here here Whisperz, well said :o)

If i were a pawn i should only sign up for a tourney with 1 day/move. If i couldnt find any of those tourneys i should create one. But then of course i had to pay money to become a knight or rook :)
But to complain about how slow/fast other people play isnt so nice :)

He observes the rules of play. Nuff said.

all this talk about not moving fast enough hmmm i have nothing against pawns at all i play a few of them my self , but quit complaining and upgrade your membership then you have all the games you want plus all the extra benifits (which as a pawn you wont have even seen) or you could play other sites (but you will more likely get even more rectrictions imposed on you )
ps i have around 300 games going and when the sites reasonable i do them at least one move each daily , i also have at least 13 games in the top 20 rankings , each to his own
**peace** ;))

I believe anyone can be in any tournament according what their respective level allows and the tournament rules. Slow players can move slowly and fast players speedily. Whatever.

RsBaby is an excellent player and a very nice person. I have nothing against him. He likes to move slowly, and that's his right.

Antje, you and I have played against each other in tournament play before, and I enjoyed our games. You're also a very nice person.

backoffKM....whatever floats your boat, guy. Have fun.

jason, hope you can comprehend this, but I'm perfectly happy as a pawn at BK for now. I get all the tourney time and social play I want, thank you very much. If and when I join BK, it will be because I want to financially support the site, not because I need any other benefits or perks. Now, that's my choice.

Hope everyone is having a good time...I know I am.

peace

Ok here's why I play:
1)For fun
2)If in doubt, refer to #1

BKR means jack to me. I play because I have a good time and there are alot of very nice and entertaining people on this site. I'm only 24 and I could spend the couple of hours a night that I spend on here doing other things, but I enjoy this. I'm not a serious, hardcore player of any of the games. I play by the rules and if I win, I win, if I lose, I lose. It's an internet gaming site. ESPN isn't going to cover any of our games. Nike isn't going to name a shoe after the winner of (insert tournament here). To me, it's about having a good time.

...when the new hardware comes online, the site will be fast enough to support real-time play. When you move, no waiting for the refresh to hit. Of course there is a great deal of coding to be done for this, and Fencer and I have not even discussed this as of yet.

I am just wondering if people would be interested in this real-time play option.

would the real time play be an extra option or for all games ??

I am not really sure. Maybe it would be specified as a fixed amount of time per move, like 1 minute or 20 seconds, or a total amount for the game, like 1 hour. As soon as your game is being viewed, your timer starts.

no i meant would be still be able to play our normal , turn based games too ?

sure, of course!

sounds good then ;))

I have never really liked "real-time" play games - which is why I stick around all the turn-based games sites.

But I know many people do like "real-time" games (and for some reason, many of those people want turn-based games sites to be more like real-time game sites)

I would actually like to see the programming time spent on new turn-based games/variations then have the time spent on configuring real-time games. There are already many real-time game sites out there, but only a few good turn-based games sites - and would love to see this site keep improving itself!

Hey, backoff! I think ESPN should cover our games! well, not tablut. I still haven't figured that one out yet!

lol, want a tablut game Eriisa?

PPppppPP only when I have a cold chance to win!

*looks nervously over at PP*
Oops, I better not say that! *starts hitting the delete key* giggle

LMAO@Erissa. I give you head start, I'll be white this time

oooooookay....I have no clue what you guys are talking about :)