playBunny: I always think I'm looking at your stern when I see your face ;-)

srnity: Lolol. Shhhh, I'm putting on my "stern face". ;-)

playBunny: Wow - somebody should check their blood pressure...And to those of you who actually manage to have the time to play continuously 24/7 for "Action Points" - what's the secret to finding that kind of time, I wanna play too

Brian1971: "Before jumping on me you should read my entire post. IF people are here every hour, every minute of the day they need a life."

That is not a conditional statement and the IF, even in capitals, doesn't change it from a judgemental declaration.

"People who are here every hour, every minute of the day, need a life."

It's insulting and well worth jumping on you for.

Not only is it insulting but it's also naive. Have you ever seen a dance marathon? People who dance for hours until the last one's dropped? They have chosen to be in a competition that can be won only by constant, relentless attendance and attention, plus amazing endurance. They have a life and the've chosen to spend part of it in the competition.

Similarly this is a competition situation here. And while relentless attendance is not compulsory, nor an absolute neccesity, it does convey an advantage. That people have chosen to spend this part of their life engaged in such a pursuit of glory is not an indication that they have no life but that they are fitting this competition into their life. Your insults show lack of appreciation both socially and intellectually.

Brian1971: "This way people who play over a thousand games at a time dont drown out players who play much fewer games."

This is another point that you haven't understood. Look at the Pawns competition and be aware that almost 100% of thoise points are single points for non-tournament games. In the Rooks competition something like 80-90% are tournament points which score double. So multiply the Pawn scores by 2 and compare the lists.

And then try and explain how Pawns with 20 games maximum are far, far from being "drowned out" by Rooks having over 1000 games??

You'll notice that there are no Knights in the entire Rooks competition. Oops, I shouldn't have said Rooks there, because it's for non-Pawns. Why no Knights? Because they don't have the 100s of games and they don't get many doubled points from tournament games, Knights are severely limited (crippled, in terms of the competition) in the number of these that they can have.

But that's not quite true. A Knight with a fast connection and the willingness to compete (ie, put in the time) could, with the techniques that the Pawns use, beat the Rooks and win a prize.

And that would apply to anyone in these ranges of number of games that you've proposed. It's not only numbers of simultaneous games, it's turnover.

Brian1971: You're just the lastest in a series of people who come with an opinion on a topic that you haven't understood.

Have a read of a post I made to those other people. Competition resources and fairness/unfairness

And in fact I left out two resources from that list that give a clear advantage. For pawns it is free games slots with which to play a fast opponent. Pawns with only 4 or 5 are at a disadvantage. Of course they can resign some games and free up slots if they want to increase their competitiveness.

Another resource, one which has proved decisive, is connection speed. Someone on dialup has absolutely no chance against broadband users and the faster the broadband the better - provided you have sufficient speed in your opponents so that you're not staring at your game sheet most of the time.

there's another resource, lol, that it also "unfair" and that's the availability of BrainKing! Competitors who are in bed (or elsewhere) while Brainking is being down and being fixed will have an advantage over those who are ready and waiting to play clicky-clicky but can't log in.

jurek: Maybe if we got our virtual name in the hat for every won game or every hour that we make a move or some other category, and then at the end of the month have names drawn for memberships etc?


HRQLS... Having prizes for ratings etc would have its own pitfalls, IE it would promote more cheating, as it is not really possible to audit whether someone is using a program for example.

Brian1971: The players that play constantly through the day should not have an advantage over those who cant play as much each day.

Are you kidding?

I would even go as far as paying members and pawns having different competitions.

So it seems that the BK July action fits your expectations perfectly.

jurek:Ahhh, interesting idea.  Maybe Fencer should really give it some thought

Brian1971: I guess the main issue then is what the definition of "fair" is. If you want completely fair for everyone, then Fencer should just draw 10 names out of a hat each month and award some prize.

Hrqls: I like the idea of prizes for top players in various game types. I guess my whole thing is if you are going to have prize competitions it should be fair for everyone to win a prize. The players that play constantly through the day should not have an advantage over those who cant play as much each day. I would even go as far as paying members and pawns having different competitions so they are not lumped together. Pawns cant carry as many games and wont be able to compete with most paying members. Pawns should not be left out of any prize competition either.

Brian1971: i agree with you about the jumping .. i would not have felt offended by your post .. even if i would be online 24/7 .. it would not mean that i have no life .. but i wouldnt mind if someone else thought me to have no life .. it would just mean that i would have different priorities and made that choice myself

but lets not get off topic :)

in all kinds of sports there is the system that who practices most has the biggest chance to win .. thats why in match of professionals against amateurs the professional will win most of the time .. professionals means 'people who can spend all their time to the task and are getting paid for it so that wont have to spend time on making money otherwise'

the same applies to this system of action points i think .... i will never make a chance winning those prizes .. but i dont think that kind of prize is mine anyway

i would love prizes for any of the upper ratings/statistics/.. though ;) nice idea!

Erinity: Before jumping on me you should read my entire post. I did use the word IF. I say this to Watford as well. IF people are here every hour, every minute of the day they need a life. Again I stress the word IF. I know that most people are not in that category. However there are a select few that are, I am sure. My point ultimately comes down to that the odds of someone who doesnt have the time to play as much per day here has no chance to win a prize under the current action points system as there are going to be those who have all the time in the world to sit here play hundreds IF not thousands of games at a time each day to win the top prizes. I think personally there is something wrong with that kind of system Fencer has set up. Maybe a solution is to offer prizes for top players in various number of games ranges.

Example would be to divide people into categories based on average number of games played at a time.
50-100 games
100-200 games
200-300 games
etc etc etc.

This way people who play over a thousand games at a time dont drown out players who play much fewer games.

pauloaguia: Precisely.

Fencer: That's what I was meaning - the Action Points action was a clever way to pinpoint these problemas before they got out of control

pauloaguia: The server is fine. The small problem is with the database server which is probably facing some bug during a high load. But a workaround is already being developed. Nothing is out of control.

Looks like the server is really stressing up with all those people going for the action points ;)
This was in Fencer's plans all along: In order to test what our site is capable of ..., July is the Month of Action Points
;)

P.S: Since we have no way now to tell if game time is suspended or not, shouldn't it be posted on the news? Just a thought...

Chicago Bulls: The time for games is suspended.

I couldn't access it for the last 9 hours and before 5-10 min was really slow..... Now seems OK but i don't see any time suspension?!?! I guess again Czechs didn't have any problems at all to access it, so it's the internet's line fault, even if i don't understand for what general internet line Fencer speaks....For me only Brainking didn't work so i don't understand....?!?

And after the previous problems before 3-4 days i'm starting to think that something is not good despite Fencer's words that everything is fine.
Oh well, i hope this will not happen again.....

Lol. Yep. Fingers crossed .... :-)

SUper Dooper fast now

Iiiiiitttttttt''''''ssssssssssss rrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyy ssssssssssssssllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.........

Is the site playing up for everybody else, or is it just my end

Brian1971: I agree with Erinity, i also have a life, i work 5-6 days a week and raise my daughter on my own. Your post was rude and insulting. The line of business i am in, means i am based from home. I think, maybe next time you should chose your words more carefully.

Brian1971: I'm in the top 3 and i 'have a life'. I have a full time job, and I'm married. There's no reason for being insulting if someone is able to play faster than you are, or has different priorities than you. I see from your profile that you want to make friends here, and make your fellowship the best it can be. I am here to play games. I rarely talk to people, I rarely post anywhere. I read two boards, and play. Different priorities, different level of game play. Why be so rude?

Brian1971:
yes i agree some people are on 24/7

gambler104: I personally feel if people are playing virtually every hour, every minute of the day then they need a life. Brainking is a fun site to play on but please someone like me who has a job that leaves me away from home about 12 hours a day, plus a girlfriend to see in my free time and the responsibilities I have leaves me about 2 hours at the most per day to make moves. So someone like me will NEVER have a chance to win a prize using action points.

rednaz23: I think playbunny definitely runs away on the pawn side. On the rook side, I like imsoaddicted as well. Although that one is still up in the air. Short term it has made people move faster. Long term, I think you are going to see people go back to their original pace unless there continues to be some prize each month. Personally, if Fencer were to do something with the Action Points next month, I would suggest giving out 50 brains for a certain number of action points accumulated. Of course he would probably limit the number of brains you could accumulate per month this way. It would give people incentive to play, it would give people brains to enter into the prize with entry fee tournaments, and it would create achievable goals instead of having to play almost every minute of the day to win a prize.

Tycho: But there are 88 games, not 86. Only two to go for Marfitalu though!

I would like to thank all translators to finish the first version of the Player's Dictionary. All entries are available at all 15 supported languages, more to come.

nabla: I'd like to add Carcassonne. But there is a problem with the licence, as usual.

Tycho: All games ?? That is impressive, congrats Marfitalu !!
Fencer, what about a new game so that Marfitalu does not get bored now ?

Tycho: wow!

Congratulations to Master Marfitalu, our most active French-speaking translator! He occupies the first rank as then only player to have be ranked in all games! Such passion should merit Brains!

Who do people think will win the Action Points main prize for each side and how do you think it will effect the site in the short term and long term?

My picks are playbunny and imsoaddicted, even though Mihel is way out in front...

Pedro Martínez:

The patinece of Job...lol.

Normally two days would not bother me. It is just that I am consumed with accumulating action points as is or was this particular opponent. I have several games with slow players and will continue to make moves at their pace.

playBunny:

Thanx for trying help me out.

It is my own fault...clicked the wrong button and couldn't understand why the game was still there so instead of thinking about it for a moment I opened the other game and did the ssme thing again. I will send Fencer a message and hopefully he will be able to help me tomorrow. By then my opponent might have shown up....lol.

yoyudax: Two days! LOL...how about this one:
http://brainking.com/cz/ShowGame?g=1023427

gambler104:

I can see no way of withdrawing the offer.

yoyudax: Try withdrawing the draw offer and then trying to resign.

Fencer was online about 10 mins ago but has gone off since then. It's 11:45pm for him.

BIG BAD WOLF:

I would like to take care of this right away. How do I contact fencer?

yoyudax: Yea, it looks like once you offer a draw, you don't have the option to resign anymore. If the opponent does not move soon, about the only thing you can do is contact Fencer and let him know you want to resign the game.

Marfitalu:

hope that is the link

http://brainking.com/en/Profile?u=24500

Marfitalu:
It is not my turn.

whopper:

He won't mind ...I was just trying to free up my slots so I could work on my action points.

yoyudax: 2 days is not much, especially since he might have been unable to get in yesterday.

Marfitalu:

I cannot see a resign button anymore.

I am playing two "no time limit" games with the same opponent. He has not made a move for two days so this morning I decided to resign from the games. Unfortuantely I clicked the offer a draw button by mistake. Since this person is not online there will be no response and my games are now stuck in limbo. Is there anyway to resign these games or withdraw the offer of a draw?