Life In 19x19

Li Kao wrote:Yes I noticed an increase in Japanese opponents(automatch) for me recently. What did happen there?

Not sure. I've been meaning to ask that too. It's just been a noticeable increase, but I haven't seen the cause.

Probably a consequence of the influx of Japanese players. They open games in the Japanese Room (which is almost as big as the English Room now) so you don't see them, but automatch is the same for everyone.

Automatch is cool. I use it whenever I play someone on KGS I don't know (though last time was almost one year ago)

I think it works very well, especially for sluggards like me who don't play online very often and have trouble maintaining a solid rank, and it is rapidly becoming my first option instead of posting a game in the EGR.

I practically never play automatch just for the reason I can't choose a ruleset
and have to endure Japanese rules.

I know many people on KGS aren't even aware there are different rulesets and
even if they are , most don't know that a game on different rulesets plays out
the same way 99.9999% of the time. But it is the accepted standard I guess.
Filtering automatch games by preferred ruleset will make it far more difficult
for people to get paired with automatch so there's nothing you can do about it.

"endure" seems a bit excessive - is using Japanese rules physically painful? In 99% of games you could just pretend your favourite ruleset is being used instead, and it wouldn't even matter.

Simple. You're thirsty. There are two water fountains. One always has your regu-
lar , refreshing drinking water. The other has too , but very very very occatio-
nally it gushes out mud. The repair man tells you it's hopelessly broken and you'll
just need to find another one.

Which one would you pick ^_^ ?

Woodstock wrote:Simple. You're thirsty. There are two water fountains. One always has your regu-
lar , refreshing drinking water. The other has too , but very very very occatio-
nally it gushes out mud. The repair man tells you it's hopelessly broken and you'll
just need to find another one.

Which one would you pick ^_^ ?

Well, since I've never met a repairman who could point to a relevant example of the mud thing...

EDIT: Oh, and to further improve your analogy, people don't particularly want to play go with you unless you use the hypothetically muddy fountain. So you have to make go friends by hanging around with a sign stating your preferred settings instead.

I have found it the most reliable way to get a quick game in.

I prefer to play with Chinese rules, but, if that were allowed in automatches, processing a preference and displaying the ruleset used would add additional programming to be accomplished, tested, and maintained.

I think once players start getting to 1 dan and above, they generally don't want to give several stones as a handicap in a rated game. Even knowing that they have a good chance to win, there is no small amount of mental distress staring at the board the first 100 moves as white in a 3 or 4 stone game.

Similarly, no one at 4 or 5 dan is accepting 4 stone handicap games through automatch, so those 1 dan players aren't going to get their favors returned through the system.

cdybeijing wrote:I think once players start getting to 1 dan and above, they generally don't want to give several stones as a handicap in a rated game. Even knowing that they have a good chance to win, there is no small amount of mental distress staring at the board the first 100 moves as white in a 3 or 4 stone game.

Similarly, no one at 4 or 5 dan is accepting 4 stone handicap games through automatch, so those 1 dan players aren't going to get their favors returned through the system.

You can set automatch to +- 1 stone if you want and still get games.

Pippen wrote:What do you think? Is it used? Does it work? Should this feature be deleted soon because it doesn't work?

I noticed a lack of a "Should this feature be obligatory because it works so well?" option. And no, I am not suggesting that at all, although for ranked games the random matching can be used as an argument for it.

Woodstock wrote:Simple. You're thirsty. There are two water fountains. One always has your regu-
lar , refreshing drinking water. The other has too , but very very very occatio-
nally it gushes out mud. The repair man tells you it's hopelessly broken and you'll
just need to find another one.

Which one would you pick ^_^ ?

You forgot to mention that the reason that a lot of people prefer to take their chances with the "mud fountain" is because experienced users can minimize the risk of mud problems while also getting their water faster than with the other fountain.

I don't really understand what issues one can have with the KGS Japanese ruleset. It's not the (certainly bizarre and overcomplicated) official Japanese ruleset. It's just a very simple territory scoring ruleset with life and death status determined by agreement. It's simple and practical and doesn't require filling dame.

Well I have to say I - now - use Automatch exclusively and I'm happy with it. I think the time setting is OK (I use 25/30/5) and I just play even games (+/- 1 stone). I get quick games and I didn't have any escaper. I think the whole idea was good and paid out already.

Automatch is great for establishing an initial rank.

Other than that, I prefer to post a game offer and wait for someone to accept. I like to have a little say in who my opponents are.