| |
BGonline.org Forums
Error rate differences
Posted By: Timothy Chow In Response To: Who is the better BG player: the one who has the lowest error rate, or the one who somehow maximizes the difference between his errror rate and that of his opponent? (happyjuggler0)
Date: Thursday, 11 November 2010, at 3:25 p.m.
It doesn't look like anyone has tried to address your question as stated in the subject line (although I felt compelled to change the subject line since such a long subject line hurts my eyes), as opposed to the question that I think you intended to ask.
I have in the past pondered whether the relative error rate is a good measure of what you're asking about. The trouble with using error rate to gauge a person's ability to adapt to the opponent is that the error rates are still measured against (the bot's estimate of) perfect play. If, when you and I play, your moves are weak vs. perfect, but my moves are weaker vs. perfect, does that mean your moves are good versus me? Seems plausible at first glance but I don't think it follows logically. Suppose your ER when training against a bot is typically about 3, whereas mine is 7. Suppose further that when you and I play head-to-head, your ER is typically 4 and mine is 12. Are you doing better against me than a bot would? Are you even necessarily doing better against me than you would if you played your normal 3 and I played my normal 7? Maybe I'm the one who knows how to take a big risk against you to elicit an uncharacteristic error that gives me a great chance to win the match. In these sorts of atypical situations I don't believe one can automatically take a difference in ER and translate that into MWC.
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.