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Old Oct 13, 2009, 03:04 PM // 15:04   #241
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Originally Posted by Space View Post
Or just remove HB zquest from the rotation / remove the BF reward.
I still don't understand why people are suggesting "fixes" for RR day or HB in general.

For the third time, they're removing HB. It doesn't matter. We'll get one more RR day MAYBE. It's not going to asplode GW for there to be 1 more RR day.

Let it go, people.
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 05:14 PM // 17:14   #242
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Originally Posted by tmakinen View Post
Um, that was uncalled for. I analyze and model systems for living.
Which explains why you don't get the problem. The problem isn't that players can communicate to solve a cooperative dilemma. It's that the cooperative dilemma exists in the first place. HB shows that Axelrod was more right than we thought; if the behavioral rule is well known, you can get communities to engage in repeated tit-for-tat behavior.

Behavior in the Hall of Heroes shows the impossibility of your approach. A similar tit-for-tat problem exists because the quantity of elite players is small. People gank for friends on long win streaks with the expectation of reciprocity. There's no way that you can prevent people from knowing who the holding team is, or the length of their win streak.

You solve these problems by altering the payoffs. Strip the zkeys so that only players interested in playing HB for its own sake (scarce as they are) do so. Punish people for failing in Halls when there are three teams.

EDIT:

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Originally Posted by Taddayo Kun View Post
My first point is that the amount of valuable items in the game are, for the most part, INfinate.
Then economics would not apply. The entire discipline of economics has no meaning if there is an infinite quantity of desirable shinies. The math blows up.

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Originally Posted by Taddayo Kun View Post
No matter how rare some of the items are, they can be obtained endlessly.
There's this thing called time. You can only acquire the items so fast. They have value because you have to exchange something valuable (your time) to manufacture them. (And for the really scarce stuff, there's no guarantee that they will ever drop for you irrespective of time investment.)

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Originally Posted by Taddayo Kun View Post
Back to the point of relative wealth, if a sudden influx of cash appears in the economy, it is rarely impacted for very long unless this extra cash is sustainable.
Were you around during the dupe? A large enough influx of currency will have a lasting impact, even if the influx is short in duration.

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Originally Posted by Taddayo Kun View Post
Since zaishen keys are mostly sold to players who intend to use them and will rarely get anything that they could sell on.
If 95% of them get used, then the other 5% still hang around. The fact that a good zkey sink exists reduces the magnitude of the problem. It doesn't eliminate it.

You've forgotten that gold is generated in addition to the faction.

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Originally Posted by Taddayo Kun View Post
The main thing to take away from this is that once HB is removed (or the z combat for hb is removed) it will not take long for the economy to stabilise and before long, the issue will be forgotten by the vast majority, regardless of which side of the argument they were on.
True enough, given that HB is either removed from the rotation or removed entirely very soon.

Last edited by Martin Alvito; Oct 13, 2009 at 07:05 PM // 19:05..
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 05:30 PM // 17:30   #243
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I wouldn't even bother with HB if it wasn't for the zkeys.
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 05:49 PM // 17:49   #244
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HB shows that Axelrod was more right than we thought; if the behavioral rule is well known, you can get communities to engage in repeated tit-for-tat behavior.
And that's where you, and almost everyone, have it DEAD wrong. What you wrote is common belief, but shows a lack of understanding of why RR works. RR doesn't require tit-for-tat to work. Not resigning is strictly dominated by resigning. In fact, considering that the likelihood of facing the same player twice on RR days is almost zero, RR is the least tit-for-tattable format in the entire game.

Even if tit-for-tat could exist in HB, any tit-for-tat behavoir other than something that looked EXACTLY like RR (which is not tit-for-tat) would be non-equilibrium and thus worse off for everyone involved.
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 06:15 PM // 18:15   #245
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1) Not resigning is NOT strictly dominated by resigning. If you cared about your rating, you'd always play. Your statement is true for most players on RR day, but not all.

2) This IS reciprocity on a mass scale. You map out because you can reasonably expect your opponent to map out when you draw blue. If you couldn't, it would make no sense to map out. Of course, you wouldn't be in the arena in the first place if you expected to have to fight.

What's interesting is that the T4T punishment mechanism isn't necessary for the cooperative equilibrium to obtain. You expect to see 'tit' obtain only because of the threat of 'tat'. What appears to be happening is that the expectation of observing 'tit' in the future makes the arrangement self-enforcing.

But that makes no sense. If the situation is as you stipulate and you never face the same player again, you're better off acting as though you want to play. The opponent will map out, your win rate improves with sufficiently low time investment to make doing so worthwhile, people eventually catch on and the cooperative equilibrium breaks down.

That isn't happening (yet), which is interesting.

Last edited by Martin Alvito; Oct 13, 2009 at 06:25 PM // 18:25..
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 06:44 PM // 18:44   #246
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I usually avoid threads like this because it seems they are inevitably filled with garbage. Imagine my delight to discover instead a discussion of game theory!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Alvito View Post
What's interesting is that the T4T punishment mechanism isn't necessary for the cooperative equilibrium to obtain. You expect to see 'tit' obtain only because of the threat of 'tat'. What appears to be happening is that the expectation of observing 'tit' in the future makes the arrangement self-enforcing.

But that makes no sense. If the situation is as you stipulate and you never face the same player again, you're better off acting as though you want to play. The opponent will map out, your win rate improves with sufficiently low time investment to make doing so worthwhile, people eventually catch on and the cooperative equilibrium breaks down.

That isn't happening (yet), which is interesting.
A handful of hypothesis in no particular order:

1. The GW playerbase is not perfectly rational.

2. The GW playerbase is not perfectly perceptive. They may believe they will see the same player again.

3. The GW playerbase is not perfectly intelligent. Working out with certainty that defecting is a better idea is probably beyond the abilities of some and, while within the abilities of others, too much mental work given that RR works "well enough" ("satisfice" mechanism).

4. RR yeilds some psychic benefits that defecting does not -- the thrill of doing the forbidden and the chance to "send a message" to a-net. Perhaps these psychic benefits are more valuable than the marginal improvement in win rate of defecting over RR.
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 07:03 PM // 19:03   #247
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All of those hypotheses are probably true. I'm not convinced that any specific one explains the observation fully. If the explanation is cognitive limitations, the equilibrium should be more fractured than it is.

Something systematic (generalizable?) appears to be at work here.
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 08:14 PM // 20:14   #248
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Wow.. have any of you ever read any game theory? You all bring up good points but somehow you fail to agree on a common model.

Here's my take on it:

1. Rational behaviour. This is basis for any model. This point should be unnecessary to debate IMO, it is something you can generally accept as given. The playerbase is large enough to expect rational behaviour on a general scale.

2. Complete/total information. This is definitely a crucial variable in economic/game analysis. It does influence how RR is played out, but as I will show the ladder element of HB will for all practical purposes remove this variable from the RR Game.

3. External effects. Chthon mentions "psychic benefits" which is one such external effect. I will get back to this as it does influence how RR is played out, however I can say already at this point that it's likely working in tandem with the reciprocal effect of the main reward. (title+faction)

In their conclusions I find traversc to be correct, and Martin Alvito wrong. (though he brings up good points!)

RR HB Game Analysis:

1. Introduction and problem layout.
AFAIK this phenomenon did not exist until about a month ago. The interesting thing is why this didn't emerge earlier and what makes it sustain itself and even grow proportionately. If you think this post is growing out of proportion skip directly to point 4.

2. Transaction costs.
Some activities may be favorable but are not set in motion because the entry threshold or the transaction cost is too high initially. In this case this is because no one was resigning, everyone played to win. Being the only one to resign would simply not help one bit. Someone(soldat and his friend I believe) became aware of how the rating system and pairing system worked(ladder). By losing a number of games in a row they would lower their rating substantially("tanking the rank") increasing their chances of playing each other and other low-ranked players by a significant margin. They extended their idea and invitation to GWGuru and a small base of people were effectively farming each other in the low end of the ladder. Even with waiting times and only winning 49% of matches this method proved quicker than playing "legit". In other words they had by sharing information and paying the initial transaction costs set up a favourable system for themselves.

3. A simple game.
To quickly show how rational behaviour can be generalised into a model I'm adding a simple game. This shows how acting in pure self interest will always be favourable in an unregulated system.
My action:
Selfish
Altruism(solidarity)
The action of others:
Selfish
Altruism(solidarity)
I would add this into a table at this point but I cba Basically it sums up to show that when acting individually it's always favourable to act in self interest(selfish). If everyone is altruistic(sharing the fruits of their labor for instance) I can still reap more benefits by not sharing the products of my own work. If everyone is being selfish it would still pay off for me to act in self interest, ie. why should I share when no one else is? If we assume(and we can) that everyone is rational and sets up this argument everyone will end up acting selfish in this system. This is a "law" and is the main driving force behind market theory. (Adam Smith and all that)

4. Why RR is a market model.
How does this translate to RR? Simply because the RR system that has been set up works the same way a market does. When everyone is acting in their own self interest it will be to the benefit of all. This is due to how the matching system in HB works. The system will try to pair people who have a similar rank(based on your rating), this is done to reach as many fair matches as possible(hence being more fun for the community, and it's a good thing). The winner will receive rating and the loser will lose rating based on a formula I don't really have present in mind.

Instead of actually playing games it is much quicker to resign half your matches and win the other half, the RR system lets you do just that by setting a common rule that "Red Resigns". This is not arbitrary, because red is always the player with the highest rating him resigning ensures equilibrium. If blue was to resign the higher ranked player would eventually climb out of the "RR area" and get into the "serious area" where people who play for fame and glory rather than faction alone prevail. This means that for both players it is rational to have red resign. Any other way of doing it will be unfavourable for both, the blue player will lose(bad) and the red player will only get an immediate reward. He will have to "tank" his rank back down again by losing about the same number of matches to get back into the RR area. So as long as this state of affairs has been set up it is indeed reciprocal and will remain so for as long as players find it rewarding. If the rewards are removed or rewards can be obtained more easily elsewhere the system will collapse and might not easily be started up again. (Reference to 2 about transaction costs)

5. External effects.
The main model can be modified by adding in other variables. However, I can't identify any variables that strictly oppose how RR works. For one as chthon mentions we have psychic effects. I would speculate that one effect would be the feeling of belonging to a community. When someone "is kind" and resigns to you you will want to pay the favour back in kind increasing your chances of resigning next time you are red. I believe this is true for the majority of players, it's human nature to repay good with good. Of course you have other elements like people who are upset about "cheating the system" and similar who will refuse resigning, maybe verbally abusing others etc. However, these are in a clear minority and the majority still finds it rewarding to partake in the system. Also chthon(wow dude, hardest nick ever to spell?) brings up lack of intelligence. This is true, some players out there(you don't know who you are! hehe) will not understand how the ladder works and will think they are being really smart by never resigning. Of course they will initially reap all the benefits but will ultimately bring themselves out of "friendly RR zone" and end up facing more people of their own kind (people who don't resign for whatever reason).

I think I've covered the most important aspects, and... long post is long I guess. Also I don't know why i use british spelling not american.. don't flame on that account, I'm just as likely to write american english in another post.

Edit: Screwed up my numbering..

Last edited by Sankt Hallvard; Oct 13, 2009 at 08:25 PM // 20:25..
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 09:34 PM // 21:34   #249
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Originally Posted by Sankt Hallvard View Post
AFAIK this phenomenon did not exist until about a month ago. The interesting thing is why this didn't emerge earlier and what makes it sustain itself and even grow proportionately.
I took this screenshot back in 2006:



This isn't anything new.
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 09:56 PM // 21:56   #250
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Originally Posted by Draikin View Post
I took this screenshot back in 2006:



This isn't anything new.
They removed the option of /roll in pvp for that specific reason long ago.
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 09:59 PM // 21:59   #251
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Originally Posted by Draikin View Post
I took this screenshot back in 2006:



This isn't anything new.
Yeah, you have a point. But RR is something new. Earlier it required players to accept on a system of rps and it was not directly linked to staying in "favorable RR range" so to speak. The transaction costs were significantly higher, you had to face up to a guy willing to roll where it would always be favorable to win the roll. This increases the incentive to cheat by various means. Each match required players to discuss and agree on rolling, performing the roll, abiding to the agreed upon outcome etc. The RR system is much easier to execute in this respect.

Last, but not least /rps command was removed. I think the /rps system was more similar to a tit for tat-system where agreements were made based on the assumption that people would play by the rules. The RR system does not require people to play by any rules.
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 10:26 PM // 22:26   #252
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Originally Posted by Martin Alvito View Post
2) This IS reciprocity on a mass scale. You map out because you can reasonably expect your opponent to map out when you draw blue. If you couldn't, it would make no sense to map out. Of course, you wouldn't be in the arena in the first place if you expected to have to fight.

But that makes no sense. If the situation is as you stipulate and you never face the same player again, you're better off acting as though you want to play. The opponent will map out, your win rate improves with sufficiently low time investment to make doing so worthwhile, people eventually catch on and the cooperative equilibrium breaks down.
The bolded statements are where you argument is flawed. There is ZERO benefit to staying on as red, simply as a result of the peculiar mechanics of the way HB works (which is different than any other PvP format).

Also, if you take the fact that most people aren 't completely rational actors and a percentage would rather punish others for trying to "beat the system," then there is quite a bit of downside to staying on as red.

Regardless of what your opponents do, it is better to both leave as red and to leave as blue if your opponent doesn't.

Quote:
This IS reciprocity on a mass scale.
This is a side point, so let's keep these arguments separate. Tit-for-tat REQUIRES a reasonable expectation that you will face your opponent again. Even if it is "reciprocity on a mass scale" (which I argued above, it is not) that's not tit-for-tat; you'd have to call it something else.

Last edited by AtomicMew; Oct 13, 2009 at 10:28 PM // 22:28..
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Old Oct 13, 2009, 11:21 PM // 23:21   #253
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Originally Posted by Sankt Hallvard View Post
Yeah, you have a point. But RR is something new. Earlier it required players to accept on a system of rps and it was not directly linked to staying in "favorable RR range" so to speak. The transaction costs were significantly higher, you had to face up to a guy willing to roll where it would always be favorable to win the roll. This increases the incentive to cheat by various means. Each match required players to discuss and agree on rolling, performing the roll, abiding to the agreed upon outcome etc. The RR system is much easier to execute in this respect.

Last, but not least /rps command was removed. I think the /rps system was more similar to a tit for tat-system where agreements were made based on the assumption that people would play by the rules. The RR system does not require people to play by any rules.
I'd like to point out it isn't anything "new." Coupled with the z-quest it is, but not the concept itself. I posted on the update thread as well as the HB forum (my thread there was promptly deleted by mods) within 2 hours of the update that removed /roll that everybody was just going to switch to resigning over the color, although I suggested blue resign, instead of the alliterative, and more popular RR. If cape color was taken away, HB players would just come up with something else, like rock, paper, scissors, or West/North player resign.
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Old Oct 14, 2009, 12:27 AM // 00:27   #254
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Originally Posted by HawkofStorms View Post
I'd like to point out it isn't anything "new." Coupled with the z-quest it is, but not the concept itself. I posted on the update thread as well as the HB forum (my thread there was promptly deleted by mods) within 2 hours of the update that removed /roll that everybody was just going to switch to resigning over the color, although I suggested blue resign, instead of the alliterative, and more popular RR. If cape color was taken away, HB players would just come up with something else, like rock, paper, scissors, or West/North player resign.
You're missing my point. I'm not saying farming HB is new. I'm saying the RR system with it's self-sustaining ability and market model functionality is. Contrary to any other method mentioned it will always pay off for the red player to resign, meaning that once the system is in place it will sustain itself until the functionality/reward gets manipulated by a 3rd party(Anet).

I made a rather elaborate post on this earlier in the thread. I'm fully aware that HB has been farmed by other methods before. The new feature here is the "game theory" aspect of it, fundamentally different from the other concepts.
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Old Oct 14, 2009, 12:28 AM // 00:28   #255
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Originally Posted by traversc View Post
Regardless of what your opponents do, it is better to both leave as red and to leave as blue if your opponent doesn't.
This can't be a stable equilibrium. If this were true, then an individual player can game this system by never leaving. By doing so, that player wins 100% of matches rather than 50%, and increases the haul per unit of time invested. Perhaps not in the long run due to the mechanics, but there is no HB long run.

Quote:
Originally Posted by traversc View Post
This is a side point, so let's keep these arguments separate. Tit-for-tat REQUIRES a reasonable expectation that you will face your opponent again. Even if it is "reciprocity on a mass scale" (which I argued above, it is not) that's not tit-for-tat; you'd have to call it something else.
Coin a term for it if you want to be precise about semantics.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sankt Hallvard View Post
Instead of actually playing games it is much quicker to resign half your matches and win the other half, the RR system lets you do just that by setting a common rule that "Red Resigns". This is not arbitrary, because red is always the player with the highest rating him resigning ensures equilibrium. If blue was to resign the higher ranked player would eventually climb out of the "RR area" and get into the "serious area" where people who play for fame and glory rather than faction alone prevail.
If we had the expectation that HB will stick around, this is true. However, we know that the arena and the quest will be removed soon. You're implicitly assuming an infinitely repeated game here, or at least one with an unknown endpoint.

The fact that red is always the higher rated player is interesting (and explains both why red resigns and why you get punished in the limit for deviating). It's unnecessary to equilibrium. If the blue/red assignment were random, either color could be the designated resigner. You'd still win and lose half of your matches on average, and the rating problem would even out (usually) by chance.

EDIT: Sankt, you're missing the forest for the trees. Hawk is correct that there is no difference between /roll resigning and RR. It's functionally the same game. The only difference is that you're not relying on chance to take care of the rating issue.

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Originally Posted by HawkofStorms View Post
If cape color was taken away, HB players would just come up with something else, like rock, paper, scissors, or West/North player resign.
Don't you think you're being a bit charitable calling them "HB players"?

Last edited by Martin Alvito; Oct 14, 2009 at 12:40 AM // 00:40..
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Old Oct 14, 2009, 12:55 AM // 00:55   #256
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Originally Posted by Martin Alvito View Post
This can't be a stable equilibrium. If this were true, then an individual player can game this system by never leaving. By doing so, that player wins 100% of matches rather than 50%, and increases the haul per unit of time invested. Perhaps not in the long run due to the mechanics, but there is no HB long run.
It is a stable equilibrium. When setting up for farming HB you are indeed planning for the long run, you wouldn't bother to tank your initial rank by losing 50 games or so just to play a couple of games. The concept of farming implies doing something repeatedly over time. I've written a long post earlier about why it will always pay off at the individual level to resign as red.

Quote:
If we had the expectation that HB will stick around, this is true. However, we know that the arena and the quest will be removed soon. You're implicitly assuming an infinitely repeated game here, or at least one with an unknown endpoint.
Yes and no. The model I laid out implies a lasting state obviously. I agree with you that when the knowledge of a final date gets more fleshed out people's behaviour might change trying to maximize a short term goal. (I'm speculating but for people farming in their last hour might want to play the "chicken game" with his opponent even if he is red, even at the expense of raising his rating since rating will end soon anyway.) The explanation is found in the theory itself, it does not oppose the theory. And let's be honest, plans made by Anet do have an unknown endpoint.

Quote:
Sankt, you're missing the forest for the trees. Hawk is correct that there is no difference between /roll resigning and RR. It's the same game. The only difference is that you're not relying on chance to take care of the rating issue.
I'm not actually. It's just that you guys keep missing my point. I'm solely trying to highlight the game theory aspect. The fact that higher rating is linked to being red is the core issue. With /roll or /rps or north/south or whatever you have to deal with a number of other factors. I will only name a few: For instance you have some motivation to cheat, even after losing a roll you might want to stick around and see if the other guy gives up anyway. It would be much harder to actually convince people of using this method. Using the method is not linked to being in a certain "rating zone", meaning you would end up facing people not abiding the "rules" considerably more often.

That's all I'm saying. I know it sounds very abstract and might not be so easy to see the direct impact on practical play. In short RR is a vastly more efficient way of farming and in all likelihood increasing both the players involved and the total output of zkeys compared to any other method(by a lot).
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Old Oct 14, 2009, 01:10 AM // 01:10   #257
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Originally Posted by Sankt Hallvard View Post
You're missing my point. I'm not saying farming HB is new. I'm saying the RR system with it's self-sustaining ability and market model functionality is. Contrary to any other method mentioned it will always pay off for the red player to resign, meaning that once the system is in place it will sustain itself until the functionality/reward gets manipulated by a 3rd party(Anet).

I made a rather elaborate post on this earlier in the thread. I'm fully aware that HB has been farmed by other methods before. The new feature here is the "game theory" aspect of it, fundamentally different from the other concepts.
Oh I'm not disparaging anything else you said. Very nice application of economic theory and game theory.
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Old Oct 14, 2009, 04:00 AM // 04:00   #258
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Tit-for-tat REQUIRES a reasonable expectation that you will face your opponent again. Even if it is "reciprocity on a mass scale" (which I argued above, it is not) that's not tit-for-tat; you'd have to call it something else.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin
Coin a term for it if you want to be precise about semantics.
It isn't just a question of semantics. There is no term for "reciprocity on a mass scale" because there is no equilibrium associated with it. Unlike tit-for-tat, defecting all the time would strictly dominate, since you wouldn't expect to play the same player twice (and hence, no retribution). Whatever equilibrium in place would be unstable, and quickly break down. (You even alluded to this situation in your initial post.)

However, the fact that the system hasn't broken down and won't any time soon shows a flaw in your line of argument. Sankt's post is basically spot on.

Quote:
The fact that red is always the higher rated player is interesting (and explains both why red resigns and why you get punished in the limit for deviating). It's unnecessary to equilibrium. If the blue/red assignment were random, either color could be the designated resigner. You'd still win and lose half of your matches on average, and the rating problem would even out (usually) by chance.
What you're saying, in one sense, is actually obvious. If color were decoupled from rating, the name of the game would simply change from Red Resign (RR) to Higher Rank Resign (HRR) with complete isomorphism. (Although, let's be honest, numbers are a difficult concept for the GW population compared to colors.)

Quote:
Perhaps not in the long run due to the mechanics, but there is no HB long run.
I know several people that have RR'ed THOUSANDS of games. Heck, the HB title itself requires 50,000 matches, and there are people who have RR'ed pretty much all of it. If you don't believe that is a "long run" I'd like to see what you think is.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sankt
Yeah, you have a point. But RR is something new. Earlier it required players to accept on a system of rps and it was not directly linked to staying in "favorable RR range" so to speak. The transaction costs were significantly higher, you had to face up to a guy willing to roll where it would always be favorable to win the roll. This increases the incentive to cheat by various means. Each match required players to discuss and agree on rolling, performing the roll, abiding to the agreed upon outcome etc. The RR system is much easier to execute in this respect.

Last, but not least /roll command was removed. I think the /roll system was more similar to a tit for tat-system where agreements were made based on the assumption that people would play by the rules. The RR system does not require people to play by any rules.
I think /roll is much more similar than you think (though not to disparage your analysis of RR). /roll was actually very, very common, especially in the lower ranks. When z-quests came out, /roll exploded naturally. Actually, HB z-quest was the reason /roll got removed, IIRC.

Actually, I'd say that /roll grew much faster than RR did. Given more time, the "range" would have developed naturally, and similarly, cheaters would push true /roll-ers down in rank, simultaneously, they would rise in rank and have to tank to get back down.

As martin pointed out, you don't need rank information to approach an equilibrium. You just need a way to make the game non-symmetrical, which color designation and /roll both do.

The difference I think is mostly psychological. With /roll, it feels like you always have a chance to win the game, even if it's always 50%. It doesn't feel so much like you are just giving up, as with RR. This could explain why it took so long for RR to catch on.

Last edited by AtomicMew; Oct 14, 2009 at 04:31 AM // 04:31..
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Old Oct 14, 2009, 05:26 AM // 05:26   #259
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Originally Posted by tmakinen View Post
I only addressed the particular exploit because that was specifically discussed in this thread. There was an implicit assumption that other loopholes would be similarly closed. Specifically, the game must not provide a way to create random objective asymmetry. Thus
  • the map must be symmetric
  • team colors must be subjective (everybody sees the enemy as red)
  • emotes must be disabled
  • local channel must be disabled
  • private channel to members of opposite team must be disabled
These from the top of my head, it's not rocket science. If you want to be really sure about it, disable resigning and map traveling as well, and treat logging out as a disconnect while the game is on so that both sides are tied to the instance for the duration of the match.
So your "solution" to the problem is to make all these complicated changes (that we know will never happen), when the simple solution is to remove the REASON for exploiting (or better yet never have introduced the reason to begin with)?

The removal of /roll was probably one of the most hilarious things in the history of Guild Wars looking back at it. Anet introduces people to things that make them WANT to exploit the game, and instead of removing this, they make a sad attempt at removing the exploit. The problem? As long as these things exist, people will always find a way to exploit your game to get them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Karate Jesus
I still don't understand why people are suggesting "fixes" for RR day or HB in general.

For the third time, they're removing HB. It doesn't matter. We'll get one more RR day MAYBE. It's not going to asplode GW for there to be 1 more RR day.

Let it go, people.
Yes they are removing it, so this thread is mostly worthless. But I think the events here speak to a greater position I have...that it shows how Anet manages things.

They introduce a problem into their game (titles), and instead of removing the problem (because too many people like it), they try to fix everything AROUND the problem (obviously to no avail).

Then they introduce another problem (HB), and instead of fixing the problem (because they can't), they remove it from the game (because not as many people like it).

It is a bit humorous to think about in this way.
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Old Oct 14, 2009, 05:50 AM // 05:50   #260
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Alvito View Post
Something systematic (generalizable?) appears to be at work here.
It is the following:

Every time you win, your rating increases.
The higher your rating, the higher your likelyhood of facing non resigning enemies.

=> The more you win, the more avarage time will you need to win the following match.

The opposite is true as well.

The more you loose, the less avarage time will you need to win the following match.


Every time a normal Player faces a "good" RRer, his chances of winning are ~100%
Every time a "good" RRer faces another , his chances of winning are ~0%
Every time a "good" RRer faces another "good" RRer, his chances of winning are ~50%

The two groups seperate rather fast, leading to RR nearly always facing other RR.
In the bottom regions, you will find the diehard RR players, zoning 10-15 seconds after loading, before the start of the match, sometimes even if they are blue, as waiting would cost you another 15-35 seconds to see wheter or not the opposite player may be afk. Those are the 600-800 crowed that only farm titlepoints, they are active even without the z quest and have been for month.
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