Posts:
2
Registered:
Jun 20, 2012
From:
Southern California (yes, the land of no seasons).
Age:
16
Why is no one willing to play a live game around here?
Posted:
Jun 20, 2012, 10:30 PM
I've searched high and low for a website dedicated exclusively to pente that has the feel of actually sitting down with another person and going head to head. Perhaps the unwillingness of people to attempt live matches spawned due to a number of factors such as limited user base, consistantly empty lobbies and real life stopping people from playing at the same time. However, such a vicious cycle won't vanish without effort. Then again, maybe it's just me. Perhaps everyone is used to games by mail and is totally comfortable with it and im the odd man out on this issue. Perhaps. Regardless, I won't know better until I actually post something, so might as well.
Posts:
28
Registered:
Nov 12, 2008
From:
Franklin NC
Age:
62
Re: Why is no one willing to play a live game around here?
Posted:
Jun 20, 2012, 11:13 PM
I find the gameroom has become a ghostroom lately. Some days I will log in several times and will find NOBODY. Mostly guests that decline my invitation to play live. NO people = No donations, so I think this site will vanish without support. Will be a sad day....
Posts:
2
Registered:
Jun 20, 2012
From:
Southern California (yes, the land of no seasons).
Age:
16
Re: Why is no one willing to play a live game around here?
Posted:
Jun 21, 2012, 12:08 AM
Perhaps widening the net of pente players would do? Any sort of effort to draw more attention to the game would work miracles, even for all sites hosting the game. Perhaps that should become a top priority for everyone on the site...
Posts:
28
Registered:
Mar 22, 2008
From:
Cambridge, England
Age:
27
Re: Why is no one willing to play a live game around here?
Posted:
Jun 21, 2012, 3:23 PM
I can play few games after today's match between Czech Republic and Portugal. If no extra time and penalty kicks it should be over by 10 pm UK time. Is anyone interested?
Re: Why is no one willing to play a live game around here?
Posted:
Jun 22, 2012, 7:04 AM
Hi imewtwo,
When it was last like this, I attempted to stir up interest in playing live games, but the moment I stopped pushing, the number of live games steadily reduced to nothing.
I did some stats on the database (it took like, forever!), and Weekly Pente Night at its peak had 20+ players on average on line at the same time, a total number of players logging on over the 'night' was up by 300%, and the number of real time games played increased by 70% over the same time on the previous year. All these numbers have now dropped back to virtually nil.
It seems to me that if people have the confidence that enough people will be here so as to improve the chances for a game with an evenly matched opponent who is open to live play and in a reasonable time from when they logged in, then they will come. But this confidence seems to come from one or more people being seen to openly drive this. Once that driving force disappears, people lose confidence and one by one they stop coming, Pretty soon the concurrent numbers (people simultaneously in the game room) drop below some tipping point (I think that number is around 8), and the chances of getting a game soon after you jump on, decline exponentially. (Believe it or not, there is actually a mathematical theorem that describes this very precisely). Once people experience this a few times I think they lose interest, and then pretty soon no-one comes here.
Many of the red level players say that this all has to do with rating systems and so on, but while I mostly agree with what they say about the problems with set based rating, I think it seems to be an issue that only high level players seem to raise as a reason for not coming here any more. It may be the reason for some of those serious players to not want to play, but for the rest of us mortals I think it is simply a case of wanting to be able to log-in at a convenient time and have a good chance of quickly finding a like minded well matched person and playing a few good games.
Unfortunately, I cannot make time right now to renew my push to get more live games played, and no-one else has stepped forward to pick up the batton. My feeling is that until this happens the site will continue to be a ghost town until the owner shuts it down, which I feel could happen very soon and this would be a great shame.
I feel personally sad for this and particularly given that I also ran a donation drive last year which did bring in a fair amount of money. This did not quite cover the cost of running the site for one full year but at least it has kept it going this long, but if no-one is here what was the point? Thankyou to those poeple who generously donated money to the cause.
As I will not be in a position to push this myself this year, and I will be moving overseas at the end of the year, I don't see that I will be able to renew my efforts at any stage in the foreseable future. I hope someone else steps in soon and tries to get a renewed push going for live games, as I believe this has been shown to be effective in getting the numbers up.
Thanks for raising the issue imewtwo
Alison
Message was edited by: alisontate at Jun 25, 2012 9:26 PM
Posts:
112
Registered:
Dec 16, 2001
From:
cottage grove, oregon Home page
Re: Why is no one willing to play a live game around here?
Posted:
Jun 25, 2012, 5:04 AM
It would be nice to here players explanations of why this site/pente died. For me, pente was very time consuming and I realize that a lot of other players felt the same way and that it eventually had to wind down. Tournaments were what always kept me going at "itsyourturn" before playing here. Brain King tournaments/ratings got me playing there. No tournaments here anymore kind of breaks up this sites activity. Out of all the times I come here in the last year or two and want to play some pente, no one is in the game room.
Posts:
19
Registered:
Feb 21, 2010
From:
Tucson, Arizona Home page
Re: Why is no one willing to play a live game around here?
Posted:
Jun 26, 2012, 2:19 AM
Hi Gaylen, Hi all OK, since you asked and because I really care: I find it often to be the case where the better/higher ranked players that I find interesting and challenging to play, will typically play me until another higher rated player enters the room and then it's see ya later, bye! I couldn't care less about the ratings and I know I could learn a lot from higher ranked players, but some, not all, seem to find more interest in winning then making suggestions and encouraging us small fries... I love coming here, playing, live or time based, but I really hate being dissed and sidelined, which has happened here more then I care to share. If I enter a room with a set going on, it will rotate around the two higher ranked players and I find myself pretty much reduced to watching. Invites from "some" higher ranked players can be an experience of getting my *** whooped and then dumped. I don't mind losing and learning, but those opportunities feel just a little bit scarce these days. Please, no one take offense, I obviously don't mean YOU Years ago when I found this site I learned the most from a few higher ranked players who are no longer here. We would play a friendly game and often back the moves up and replay a move that I just didn't see at the time. It really made a difference in my game until I was an even match for those player. After that, we started playing ranked games. I miss that... learning is way more fun than just winning! I would compare this game room to the disappearing middle class of America. I feel that this site has been turning into a place for the leaders and the beginners. JMHO...
Re: Why is no one willing to play a live game around here?
Posted:
Jun 26, 2012, 5:40 AM
I rarely use my computer any more . . . just sitting there gathering dust since I found out about the iPad. Since this site isn't iOS friendly, I've been over at .net. Anywho, if anyone wants to play a few live games here one night, just send me a message and we can arrange a time. Most evenings are good for me. My timezone is Eastern.
Also, if you want to play some TB on .net, let me know and I can battle you from my Lazyboy.
Re: Why is no one willing to play a live game around here?
Posted:
Jun 26, 2012, 7:24 PM
what this site needs to get back to the old glory days is for someone from this site to go on the "Tonight Show " and talk about how great this pente site really is !!!
Posts:
172
Registered:
Jan 23, 2002
From:
Forest Grove, Oregon
Age:
47 Home page
Re: Why is no one willing to play a live game around here?
Posted:
Jul 3, 2012, 7:55 PM
Live play is still fun and this is the best site for it, but it's tough for me to get a couple of hours of dedicated non stop timer'd play. It's much easier to get the time I do have and make a move here or there (turn-based).
even when the game board has a 20min timer likely both opponents will use most of that time (each) so it's like almost 40min to play one game sometimes. lowering the timer helps but it just depends on how serious you're taking the game, and many rated games are serious to many players.....so you get stuck playing long sets
I play live on here when I can (which right now is like once every couple of months) but I'll try and pick it up a bit.
as far as I know the site isn't going away, dweebo is busy as hell working on that BabyESP thing for smartphones and that seems to have taken off pretty well for him...thus not much time left for coding this website (which albeit was mostly a hobby for him).
It would be a sad day seeing the old DSG return a 404 error though, hopefully we'll draw a few more live players now that it's summer.
For those interested in how DSG looked back in the day, here's the Way back Machine just enter in pente.org, & pick a day and that's how "Dweebo's Stone Games" looked back then....big differences since 2000.
Re: Why is no one willing to play a live game around here?
Posted:
Jul 8, 2012, 3:37 AM
I usually play the computer when loged in- though I do/will accept invitations from players when I'm challenged by pop-up messages. I'm not a strong player by this website's standards, but(like everyone else here) love to play Pente. Will make the effort to play some live games once in awhile(promise!).
