wayney: I think games end up timing out when the script is read only after the time hits zero and not when it actually hits zero, but im not sure how long it takes, if it is every hour or what....

Czuch Chuckers: but my point here is it kinda makes the strict time limit pointless for a need so exacting suck as a 1 hour game

Agreed...

LIVE BACKGAMMON TOURNAMENT!
Sign up til 11:00 est
starts approximatly noon est

http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?trg=9767&trnst=0

Time Limit 1/0.12/2
That means you start with 1 day and get a bonus 12 hours every time you make a move and can build up a maximum time left of 2 days.

wayney: That sounds correct to me...

Czuch Chuckers: yes I know it is correct and wasn't asking, I was just explaining it for others who may not understand the format.
I think I set the games open to 1700+ bkr

You would have to ask Fencer the exact times, but like Czuch said - I'm sure there is a script that runs every so often which "time out" games which are past their limits.

I don't think it is every hour - maybe every 5-10 minutes? Again, that is just a guess.

I was watching the "live" games and did notice that a couple of you were at 0 minutes left - but even still without them timing out, it looked like the tournaments worked very well - and pretty quick.

BIG BAD WOLF: as chuck said, his game was about 2 hours and he was well and truly over his time limit. The script definately did not pick it up until more than 5 or 10 minutes

wayney: Well about 2 hours sounds right. The opponent has an hour, and he had an hour - the other person used almost all their time also along with chuck - so a total of 2 hours is about right.

I don't think any games took (much) more then 2 hours.

It was fun. But yes, with WebTV, the 1 hour format was WAY too much pressure. I'm pretty sure the computer users had no problems though.
I was probably actually at -3 minutes with Skittles, and probably -1 minute with Czuch.. 2 hours would have been perfect for that length game with WebTV. 1 hour would be fine for hyper though.

If some are made later today, I might play again.. Maybe I'll set up a 1 hour Hyper one..

rod03801: Yeah, I found myself rushing way to much and yelling for the moves to be made faster. Sometimes I would just stay on the game and hkeep hitting reload until it was my turn and I was still playing over twice as slow as the computer users :(

Czuch Chuckers: I could not figure out why you were playing so slowly! It was Ok when all four games were running, but way too slow when it got down to the last two, and I left the computer to read the paper for 5 minutes between turns - and still had over 30 minutes left in each game. Maybe we need "Web TV" and "Computer" variants so people don't get bored!

Czuch Chuckers: You might want to look at my reply on the tournaments board if you have not seen it yet.

how it is setup, it could take up to 4 hours - and more then 5 people signup, then add up to 5 more hours to it.

Ok, I made it an 8 person maximum with 8 player sections, so it will all be a one section tournament, and there wont be more than 1 round.

Czuch Chuckers: can you play 7 games in only 2 hours chuck? You struggled with 3 or 4 in 1 hour last night

Ok Ok all the negativity!!

I changed it again to a maximum of 5 players, so that onlt 4 games for me.... better?
LOL
Im gonna go play on a friends computer anyway!

Is webTV cheap? What is the attraction other than that? Just curious is all, I've never seen it, or heard of anyone I know using it.

It's cheaper than a computer. I'm not sure how much the new ones are (MsnTV2), $200 or so, I think. But you can get the originals for under $100 ... The monthly charge isn't any cheaper.. (19.99 for the old classic, 21.99 for the newer classic, and 24.99 for webtv plus.. Not sure how much for msntv2) .. It was intended for the unit to not only surf the net, but enhance your TV viewing experience.. I don't know much about that, because I only use it for the net.. (And it's the Plus unit that has the most interactivity with TV)

It's other marketable quality is its ease of use. You don't really need to know a thing about computers to successfully surf the internet with it.

My personal reason for the preference is that I like sitting on my couch to surf and play my games. I don't want to be stuck at a desk..

Anyways, I guess this is kinda off topic. lol..

grenv: Well, it is cheap (and off topic?) its inexpensive too. LOL

a hundred bucks is all I paid. But you get some advantages besides the expense (we still pay a good price per month for access though) First, no viruses and stuff like that. Our monitor is our tv set (I have 3 tvs, a 27 inch screen one just for my WebTV) I sit on the couch and type away on a remote keyboard or we have a regular remote as well which functions all of the options as well.
We also have a lot of tv functions as well, which is important to many. Picture in picture so you can surf the web and watch tv at the same time. Plus it is great for recording tv as well. You can search the tv listings and click a show to record anytime it is on or search by artist and it will record anything they are in anytime, for example.
It really does anything that most people do on a computer ie email, search, play games, whatever, but w3e are not compatible with many sites, especially if they use flash and such. Thats why so many of us are here, because Fencer does a great job upgrading this site without leaving us behind! Also, like I said before, no viruses to worry about or buying programs like spywear etc.... because we dont really have any hard drive. But if you really use a computer, or demand high speeds, it probably isnt for you.

Czuch Chuckers: I see. Thanks.

Computers that surf the net are about $500 these days, monitor and all. I couldn't live without high speed having had it for years.
Never been bothered by a virus, most of them are developed by the vurus software companies I think :) I can also surf and watch TV, but of course I have to turn my head!

Back to BackGammon. Can you make the tourny 3 hours total, would that help? I would play that if the timing was right.

with a TV card and/or a simple cable, you can use your TV as a monitor for a computer too. It's quite a trip seeing BK on a 60 " projection TV. Likewise, you can watch TV on your monitor too with the same features. But I don't know of a computer in the world that's virus proof with all those ports open out there, thought they rarely bother me. Does WEBTV have some sort of email feature too?

redsales: it's called yahoo! That way you don't need to change email when you change ISP.

grenv: I am starting to like gmail better than yahoo, and have always hated hotmail
Gmail takes a bit of getting used to but it is quite quick and has some cool features

neither one really suits my tastes, but google is much more invasive. You can access common ISP mail from anywhere in the world if you know how to configure the settings, but it's good to have a backup just in case of a change.

http://www.google-watch.org/

1600+ in waiting room, feel free to accept some games. Nice and fast

Yes, WebTV has its own Email..

user cookies on their central server, which makes it
almost usable for serious purposes like my private
hide cookie, noting 51 new msgs, showing 10 indeed. ~*~

danoschek: Hey! No fair.....

This tournament was created at 7pm cet, started 8pm. At 9-30pm, Bobes makes his first move and DUH!!! has 1 hour left...

Basic01 Pedro Martínez
10. July 2005, 20:05:03

Time for game (?): Time: 1 hour, Bonus: none, Limit: 1 hour (11. July 2005, 21:05:03 is the last term before timeout for this move)

Pedro Martínez: Looks like the time had not even started to count down in the games with Basic01 - unless I'm missing something, maybe that is something you need to add to the Bug Tracker.

BIG BAD WOLF: There was a bug in the timeout checker, it should be fixed now. If such anomaly occurs again, please report it to the Bug Tracker.

New games in waiting room for 1700+ Hyper Backgammon. Fast players only please
1/0.8/2

New games in waiting room for 1700+ Hyper Backgammon. Fast players only please. All welcome

This time I am trying 0.8/0.8/2 so fast players can still build up a 2 day buffer. (not that it is needed in hyper anyway)

To find the same two players playing Hyper Backgammon and only moving 3 0r 4 moves and then one of them resigning. I can see one or two times this MIGHT happen, but 14??

In Hyper, it really isn't over until it's over. Doubles can turn a lost game into a win (and often does) in one turn. And if you're good, you'd know this. Why would someone play that many games and resign only after a few moves (and all with the same player) ?

ArtfulDodger: Who? When? Sounds like a rating fixer.

ArtfulDodger: I've seen this in other games as well. Could be the same person with multiple ids, especially if one or both are pawns.

Report them to Fencer. If it happened 14 times in favor of one of them, it's clear cheating.

Pedro Martínez: I'll go back and check but I think it was back and forth between the two. I'll point it out to Fencer if I see it's lopsided. I don't see the advantage if they swaped the win/loss. Both have a rating over 2100.

http://brainking.com/en/ArchivedGameList?u=11991&op=14225&tp=66

Pedro Martínez: Yes, that's it. All the games in question were lost by the same person who resigned. In a few cases the scores were very close and there was much game left. (63-68; 57-72 that's close in hyper; 49-51 and white resigns even though he just rolled double sixes)

Interesting.... since DragonPope is JamesHird aka LongJohn. ... (I only know this because Jameshird was banned on a board I moderate, and the name is now DragonPope).. So, if this is cheating, then is Wayney LongJohn TOO??

rod03801: That part I don't know about. Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe even better. :)

Even the finished games show signs of cheating. Look at the first game in the list, move 12 for instance.

Wayne was playing Anti Hyper Backgammon there.

Pedro Martínez: Either cheating or stupidity. But I'm with you, it looks like cheating to me. His chosen move practically gurantees he will lose. He had the option of sending one pip back and being behind as he was, that was the only smart choice. someone rated that high knows this.

ArtfulDodger: It is so evident. If anybody is in doubt, check out this game:
http://brainking.com/cz/ArchivedGame?g=868711&i=23
Go through it move by move...

Pedro Martínez: Without a doubt. I think Fencer needs to see it. Hope he looks in on us. :)

Now both have me on block. Doesn't matter. Whoever they are, they are clearly cheating and my guess is that they will not try to explain themselves.

Game Guidelines:

NO CHEATING. This includes using outside programs to help play and losing on purpose for the goal of boosting ratings. Your account may be banned, and ratings will be removed.