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        Arimaa >> General Discussion >> Player of the Month Review
        
(Message started by: BlackShadow on Sep 3^rd, 2008, 7:20am)

Title: Player of the Month Review
Post by BlackShadow on Sep 3^rd, 2008, 7:20am

I would to propose a new way to elect the "Player of the Month", based on the fact that the "winner" shouldn't necessary be the "Strongest player of the Month".

So I thought to give points to a player when he teaches another player to play Arimaa.

This because just read rules, for a new player, is not so useful and he can find Arimaa not so exciting just because he can't play enought well.

The points that one should take for teaching a new player can be decided directly from this last.

For example 0 (if the teacher didn't teach nothing) to 10 (if he teached very well).

The player of the month, then, can be who collect the most points in that month and can reedem the points.

The points of others "teachers", in any case, will not be lost and can be redeem in next months.

What do you think about this method of elect the "Player of the Month"?

Title: Re: Player of the Month Review
Post by omar on Sep 3^rd, 2008, 12:21pm

Thanks for posting this BlackShadow.

Actually, I was playing BlackShadow in an interactive game over at igGameCenter and he asked why POTM was discontinued. I explained that it wasn't achieving what we had expected and that it was tricky to create a contest that was fair to all users and still tried to promote some objective. He suggested that the POTM should be given to the users who "teachs" the game to others since that could help attract more players. I had also been contemplating something like a mentor/referrer type of objective for the contest so I found his suggestion very interesting and we chatted for a bit about it and exchanged some ideas. Finally I asked him to post his thoughts in the forum to kick off a discussion. He was a bit hesitant since he was new and had never posted before, but I assured him that everyone is welcome to propose ideas here.

So the basic idea is that if you introduce someone new to Arimaa or play a game with them in which you teach them, you earn points. The points can be redeemed for prizes similar to the continuous tournament and the user to collect the most points in a month gets recognition as "Arimaa Teacher of the Month" and maybe some extra bonus points. The new player gets to decide if you have been helpful and requests points be given to you.

Of course there can be loopholes that could mess this up like creating fake accounts. But for the moment lets assume everyone is honest and that such activity can be traced and strongly discouraged.

Mainly I want to get feedback on whether this type of a contest would interest anyone. I'm a bit skeptical that such a contest would interest anyone since it is not about playing Arimaa competitively, but rather teaching it. But perhaps people do like teaching Arimaa to others and this contest could help encourage that. If such an object for the contest seems reasonable then we can get into the finer details of the contest rules.

Title: Re: Player of the Month Review
Post by aaaa on Sep 3^rd, 2008, 1:13pm

Check out the demonstration and teaching game types (http://www.gokgs.com/help/gametypes.html) in use on the KGS Go Server. If you decide to implement something similar here, then don't forgot to make the in-game chat visible to spectators (at least in those types of games).

Title: Re: Player of the Month Review
Post by omar on Sep 7^th, 2008, 3:15pm

Thanks for the link. There is currently an option to setup an unlimited time game when inviting someone. Such a game is basically an unrated postal with no time limit per move. For an unlimited time game the server allows unlimited take backs. Thus players can undo moves all the way back to the start of the game. This would probably be the best to use for teaching games.