The New(?) "Human Declares" Robot Games ...threat or menace?
#1
Posted 2012-July-27, 22:48
Anyone else have major thoughts on this either way? I think I basically like it, but perhaps I'm missing some ramifications. (About my only complaint is the giant info boxes telling me the table has been swapped, which block my hand until they go away again.)
Also, is this a completely new feature, and will it likely spread to the for-pay robot games?
#2
Posted 2012-July-27, 22:58
Heron, on 2012-July-27, 22:48, said:
Anyone else have major thoughts on this either way?
This was probably the most requested change over the past two years.
#3
Posted 2012-July-27, 23:01
Heron, on 2012-July-27, 22:48, said:
#4
Posted 2012-July-28, 10:30
We're mulling over what to do with this. To me, it seems like making the human declare is an obvious improvement over letting the humans matchpoint/$ reward be a function of how well the bot plays ( agree, human may have steered contract there).
My instinct is to change all the robot games to Human-must-declare. But we're trying to gain more data. We're likely going to pop out a quick survey in a day or two.
An alternative of offering Human-declares as a choice seems to me like it needlessly fragments the games (which are already too fragmented, probably)
U
#5
Posted 2012-July-28, 10:34
We now have the ability to force the human to declare when he is the dummy. We do this by temporarily flipping seats with the robot who is declarer.
To me, this is a clear improvement over sitting there while the bot does something to you or for you.
Is this as clear to you? Let us know. I added a poll to the top of this thread
U
#6
Posted 2012-July-28, 10:47
Tournaments are supposed to measure skill in playing bridge.
The more hands played by humans as opposed to robots, the more comparisons we have and the more accurate the resulting estimates.
#7
Posted 2012-July-28, 11:15
Nice work on this.
Winner - BBO Challenge bracket #6 - February, 2017.
#8
Posted 2012-July-28, 13:20
#9
Posted 2012-July-28, 13:34
uday, on 2012-July-28, 10:34, said:
Just felt like stating the obvious... it's well-established that forum participants are not a representative sample of BBO players... it would be nice if you could somehow poll those players who would say/admit that they do not declare as well as GIB does.
#11
Posted 2012-July-28, 16:14
#12
Posted 2012-July-28, 16:57
#14
Posted 2012-July-28, 23:36
uday, on 2012-July-28, 10:30, said:
Thanks! I'd actually tried that, but my laptop is just slow enough that it doesn't clear right away and I thought it was just timing out and going away on its own. I'd still hate to accidentally click something under it with bad timing, though. For both this and the other messages that are presented in the same way (like "CHAT IS NOW BEING DISPLAYED IN A TAB ON THE RIGHT"), how about centering them vertically in the playing area? Impossible to miss, an errant click is harmless, and it doesn't interfere with bidding.
Actually, having the big messages at all for the table rotation seems like overkill; it's quite obvious what's going on without them. Seems like it could just be an autogenerated chat message if it needs to happen at all.
I declare worse than the robots in the bookkeeping department (a cat will jump on my head or something and then I'll be all "wait which red spot card was good again?") but their overall strategy is hideous at times. Overall I'd rather get the extra play, and it makes the robot games more meaningful as a test of bridge skill instead of robot manipulation.
I'd rather leave the bingo races as they are, though. I think a big part of those is actually perverting the bidding into a robot-declared game on the card. It's weird goofy fun that's not really bridge exactly, but I like it.
#15
Posted 2012-July-29, 01:56
#16
Posted 2012-July-29, 11:43
#17
Posted 2012-July-29, 12:39
barmar, on 2012-July-29, 01:56, said:
#18
Posted 2012-July-29, 12:59
"Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself."
"One advantage of bad bidding is that you get practice at playing atrocious contracts."
-Alfred Sheinwold
#19
Posted 2012-July-30, 06:16
#20
Posted 2012-July-30, 06:31
Zelandakh, on 2012-July-30, 06:16, said:
Par contests might be an interesting addition to BBO, however, even if we look at declarer play in "isolation" taking inferences from the bidding (or lack there-of) is a key component of the game.