joshi tm: Speaking of those stats in general, I wonder if Fencer could make a table for completed games each month - which might be a better was to see what games are more popular.

For example - Hyper Backgammon is a game which usually takes a lot less moves then Backgammon - so I would guess that Hyper Backgammon would be closer to Ludo & Backgammon, but can't get there with ongoing games since they end too quickly.

Completed games in the last 30 days of a game type. Or maybe there is a better was to show the popularity of a game type in addition to the ongoing games (that I can't think of right now.)

BIG BAD WOLF: One down side to determining the popularity of a game based on "completed games" Is that, unlike hypergammon, some games take many, many moves to complete a game.... maybe just use "started games" as a way to determine the most popular?

Czuch Czuckers: Um... we already have the "started games" stat - that is why I was suggesting a "completed game" stat.

Maybe a "moved in game of this type" stat for the day/week/month or something similar would be another idea.

BIG BAD WOLF: I can't find a "started games" statistics, just a "running games"... "started games" would be cumulative I guess :)

Mr. Shumway: Oh, did not catch the difference.

For "started games" - or amount that has been played, you can see the total of the game rules page for each game.

BIG BAD WOLF: Actually the totals at the rules page account for finished games. A game must be finished to know if it was won by black or white (or red).

This added to the ongoing is what gives you the "started" games. So Mr. Shumway your request is sort of granted already, just not all on the same place ;)

pauloaguia: So Mr. Shumway your request is sort of granted already, just not all on the same place ;)

It wasn't really a request, I just thought I could clarify things ;)


but started doesn't account for popularity alone.

Of course not. But Chuch already made clear how it was meant to be: instead of having a total sum of finished, and a total sum of running games, have the sum of how many games were started in <whatever period> (e.g. last month, last year, or even february 2005)

BIG BAD WOLF: Um.... Started games and running games are different. I was thinking how many games have been started, of a particular type, in a certain amount of time, for example one month, to find the most popular? Running games doesnt do it, since there are many running games started many months ago etc.... I think that if game A has 100 games started in the past 30 days, and Game B has 50 started games in the past month, then game A would be the more popular.

Mr. Shumway: but started doesn't account for popularity alone. Games that have been here for years will naturally have a larger number of started games than games that were introduced just a few months ago.
Ongoing gives you a more present figure.