Should I play handicap or even games with stronger players?

[joellercoaster]

To say that there are lots of beginners and new players on OGS, there aren't many handicap games that are played.

Just my feeling, but I suspect that is because nobody trusts the handicap system on OGS (or rather, people don't seem to trust its ranking system to divide people such that one rank is reliably worth one handicap stone) and almost all games are ranked.

If I am a 10k and I give a 15k 5 stones, and rank is at stake, then I want that 5-stone game to be an even contest. There doesn't seem to be a feeling that that's the case, yet.

(I play unranked handicap games on OGS, though not many - I would happily play more.)

[DrStraw]

If you are right about that, JC, then it will continue that way until people start playing ranked games and stabilize the system. If human pride is getting in the way it will never work.

[Uberdude]

One of the problems with the preponderance of non-handicap games between differently ranked players on OGS is it contributes to unrealistic ranks. If a 1d plays a 8k in a properly handicap game and one player times out or their browser hangs etc and loses then that game result of 1d beats or loses to 8k with 8 stones is not a surprise and neither rank changes much. But if it is an even game and it's the 1d who times out or loses for whatever non-game reason then that result is a big surprise and both players' ranks will change a lot (but not in the reverse situation, an asymmetry is introduced). This was a problem with me playing real-time games on my phone on new OGS, as I would often misclick in even games against much weaker opponents and then time out waiting for them to give the undo (the undo system on OGS is poor, you can't request it on your move so must resort to sending chat messages, which the opponent might not see/comprehend), or resign if they refused undos for misclicks, or time-out due to bugs necessitating a (slow) page reload.

(I believe this "even game default" is a carry-over from the old OGS days where there were only correspondence games, which tend to be more serious and suffer from fewer non playing-strength related outcomes than live/blitz games; there was also a system so that many time-outs when a player left the site would become unranked.)

[joellercoaster]

it will continue that way until people start playing ranked games and stabilize the system. If human pride is getting in the way it will never work.

That is an excellent point, well made.

We (OGS people) all need to play more rated handicap games.