alanback: You know, Fencer has been doing different things - like AutoPass which seemed like something that we would not see on this site.

Maybe it's time to see if Fencer is interesting in putting in place different rating "systems" for different types of games.

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For those of you new, the rating system that BrainKing uses is a type based on Chess rating system - a 100% skill game. A game where a 2000 rated players should beat a 1500 rated player 99% of the time.

For Backgammon (and other games with luck factors), I would say Backgammon is around 60-75% skill game with 25-40% luck (others would say higher & lower - but that is a stupid debate to have - but everyone agrees that there is more luck to it then say Chess). Anyway, a 2000 rated backgammon players should beat a 1500 rated players probable around 75% of the time. Since bad dice can come into play. A good player can still win with bad dice (that is where skill come into play.), but enough bad dice can doom even the best gammon player.

So there are certain Gammon rating systems out there, which in my opinion should be used for Gammon - and other games with luck factors (Battleboats, Dice Poker, etc...)

Fencer - any chance of having different rating systems for different games? I'm not sure of the formulas off-hand, but if you were interested, I'm sure someone can help you get the correct formulas and such.