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Forum Archive :
Computer Dice
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I'm afraid I haven't been following this newsgroup (or playing backgammon)
as much as I would like to over the last few months, I've been busy with
other things. But recently I've noticed a large number of complaints
about all kinds of backgammon software -- I believe it could save us all a
significant amount of time if posters could in future please use the:
Official rec.games.backgammon Software Complaint Form
-----------------------------------------------------
I want to make as much noise as possible and let the world know about
a gross miscarriage of justice concerning the following software (check
all that apply):
[ ] FIBS
[ ] Games Grid
[ ] Jellyfish
[ ] Netgammon
[ ] Snowie
[ ] TD-Gammon
[ ] other (specify) ______________________
in the following manner (check all that apply):
[ ] it has a biased random dice generator
[ ] intentionally coded by the author to give "better" rolls to the
computer to create the illusion of an superior backgammon
program;
[ ] unintentionally coded by the author because he/she is too
incompetent to program one, even though satisfactory algorithms
for generating psuedo-random sequences have been published for
decades;
[ ] a conspiracy between the (specify) ___________ backgammon server(s)
and (specify) _____________ bot operator(s) that gives the bot(s)
"better" dice than me (I'm sure Elvis and the Kennedy assassination
are involved here somewhere too, but I haven't discovered how yet);
[ ] a conspiracy between the (specify) ___________ backgammon server(s)
and (insert names of players who beat you) ________________ which
gives them "better" dice than me;
[ ] deliberately coded by the author to give weaker players higher
rankings to encourage them to continue paying to play there;
[ ] it maximises my duplication and minimises its own self-duplication to
give the impression it rolls more "lucky" numbers than I do (this
must be cheating, right?);
[ ] it is horribly overpriced (I KNOW this because my 8th grade teacher
once gave us a lesson on economics, it's all about the law of supply
and something else, and the distributor(s) would sell lots more
copies and the users would all be happy and we'd achieve world peace
if it was cheaper, and I don't want to pay that much for it anyway);
[ ] and it cheats too;
(Accusations of cheating only) I have the following proof (check all that
apply):
[ ] I'm really good at backgammon, I can beat my grandmother and my
little brother but the computer keeps winning against me, therefore
it MUST be cheating;
[ ] it rolled double-7 and escaped my 6-point prime;
[ ] it rolled a miracle 4-3 which was one of only 6 rolls that allowed it
to simultaneously complete its prime and hit the blot I left subject
to only 3 direct shots; THEN I rolled 6-4 and 5-5 and danced twice in
a row on a 3-point board -- there's no way that would happen with
real dice, so it MUST be cheating;
[ ] (the software in question) rolled 3 doubles in a row while bearing
off -- this is clearly impossible, so it MUST be cheating;
[ ] I've been playing for (specify) ___ years and never seen this before,
therefore it MUST be cheating;
I haven't formalised my suspicions, presented a falsifiable hypothesis,
designed an experiment, gathered data and made reasonable conculsions
because I (check all that apply):
[ ] don't know how;
[ ] can't be bothered;
[ ] already KNOW I'm right so there's no point doing any of that stuff;
In conclusion, I demand the following (check all that apply):
[ ] The author publish the source code;
[ ] The distributors reduce the price to (specify) $_.__; (commercial
software only);
[ ] I pirated the software in the first place, but it still cheats so
it isn't worth what I paid for it, so SOMEBODY owes me (specify)
$___,___.__ (commercial software only);
[ ] Since the software is already free, the distributors should pay ME
(insert amount) $___,___.__ to continue using their @!^$(* cheating
software (free software only);
[ ] I be compensated to the tune of (insert amount) $___,___,___.__
for damages resulting from the above complaints;
[ ] I don't really want anything except to stir up the same old
arguments in rec.games.backgammon. Has anybody else noticed this?
Signed,
(insert psuedonym) __________________
PS: What's the registration code for (specify software) _________________?
Cheers,
Gary. (formerly gary@cs.auckland.ac.nz)
--
Gary Wong, Department of Computer Science, University of Arizona
gary@cs.arizona.edu http://www.cs.arizona.edu/~gary/
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Computer Dice
- Dice on backgammon servers (Hank Youngerman, July 2001)
- Does Agushak Backgammon cheat? (Mr Nabutovsky, June 2000)
- Does BG by George cheat? (George Sutty, Nov 1995)
- Does Backgammon NJ cheat? (Greg+, June 2010)
- Does Cybergammon cheat? (Goto Informatique, Aug 1996)
- Does David's Backgammon cheat? (Joseph B. Calderone, June 1998)
- Does GNU Backgammon cheat? (Robert-Jan Veldhuizen, Nov 2002)
- Does Gammontool cheat? (Jim Hurley, Sept 1991)
- Does Hyper-Gammon cheat? (ZZyzx, June 1996)
- Does Jellyfish cheat? (Fredrik Dahl, June 1997)
- Does MVP Backgammon cheat? (Mark Betz, Oct 1996)
- Does MonteCarlo cheat? (Matt Reklaitis, June 1998)
- Does Motif cheat? (Rick Kiesau+, Mar 2004)
![[Long message]](pics/Long.gif)
- Does Motif cheat? (Billie Patterson, Feb 2003)
- Does Motif cheat? (Robert D. Johnson, Oct 1996)
- Does Snowie cheat? (André Nicoulin, Sept 1998)
- Does TD-Gammon cheat? (Gerry Tesauro, Feb 1997)
- Error rates with computer dice (NoChinDeluxe+, Feb 2011)
- FIBS: Analysis of 10 million rolls (Stephen Turner, Apr 1997)
![[Recommended reading]](pics/Star2.gif)
- FIBS: Are the dice biased? (Kit Woolsey, Oct 1996)
- FIBS: Entering from the bar (Tom Keith+, Apr 1997)
- GamesGrid: Too many jokers? (Gregg Cattanach, Sept 2001)
- GridGammon: Are the dice random? (leobueno+, Sept 2011)
- Jellyfish: How to check the dice (John Goodwin, May 1998)
- Jellyfish: Proof it doesn't cheat (Gary Wong, July 1998)
- MSN Zone: Security flaw (happyjuggler0, June 2004)
- Official complaint form (Gary Wong, June 1998)
- Randomness testing (Brett Meyer+, Dec 2010)
- Safe Harbor Games dice (Michael Petch+, Aug 2011)
- Synopsis of "cheating" postings (Ray Karmo, Feb 2002)
- Testing for bias (Kit Woolsey, Jan 1995)
- The dice sure seem unfair! (Michael Sullivan, Apr 2004)
- Too many repeated rolls? (Stephen Turner, Mar 1994)
- Winning and losing streaks (Daniel Murphy, Mar 1998)
![[GammOnLine forum]](pics/GammOnLine.gif) From GammOnLine
Long message
Recommended reading
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