Cheating

Forum Archive : Cheating

 
How to tell you're playing a computer

From:   Douglas Zare
Address:   zare@math.columbia.edu
Date:   31 December 2003
Subject:   Re: Can you tell if you're playing a computer?
Forum:   rec.games.backgammon
Google:   3FF33096.E570DA07@math.columbia.edu

> Can you tell if you're playing a computer when playing backgammon?

It is usually very easy for a strong player to tell that not all of
his/her opponent's moves are made by a computer. It just takes one
mistake (or one good play) that a bot would never make.

Against a very strong player, it can be tough to tell in a short match
or session. Post-mortem analysis with a bot usually makes it clear that
the opponent played with a very different style from the top bots, which
tend to agree with each other more than they agree with the best human
players.

The types of errors made by current bots (whether told to add noise or
not) are very different from the types of errors made by humans. Bots
rarely overlook plays such as switching points in a blitz. Humans often
do. Bots will rarely make huge blunders. Even the top players in the
world still make occasional blunders larger than 0.400 EMG, and many
more checker play mistakes worth more than 0.200 than bots do, for
example, in mutually advanced positions.

Douglas Zare
 
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Cheating

Advantages of online play  (Donald Kahn, Nov 1999) 
Avoiding loaded dice  (Gregg Cattanach, June 2000) 
Collusion in Monte Carlo  (Kit Woolsey, Aug 1995)  [Recommended reading]
Dealing with live-play cheating  (Gregg Cattanach+, May 2006) 
Dice magicians  (Paul Weaver, July 2010) 
Dice manipulation  (Paul Epstein, Nov 2005) 
Dice manipulation  (Kit Woolsey, Jan 1995)  [Recommended reading]
Gamesmanship vs. cheating  (Albert Steg+, May 1994) 
How to tell when somebody's cheating  (Michael Halpenny+, Feb 2001) 
How to tell you're playing a computer  (Douglas Zare, Dec 2003) 
Premature roll and late pick-up  (Ian Shaw, Feb 2002) 
Taking advantage of computer players  (Matthew J. Reklaitis, July 1997) 
Using computer to aid online play  (Paul Weaver, July 2006) 
Using computer to aid online play  (Ken Arnold+, Mar 2006) 
Using computer to aid online play  (Patti Beadles+, Jan 2003) 
With a baffle box  (Joe Russell, Aug 2009) 

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