Tired of sore losers…

ellyssian · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 11

I have been playing free online backgammon for a few months now and I am facing a very annoying problem. It seems that usually when there is a close to 100% chance that I am going to win the game my opponent drops. I guess I understand that maybe they see that it’s not worth their time to keep playing when they know they are going to lose, but imagine the position I am being put in! For starters, because they are dropping all the time, my wins aren’t being added to my rating so I have no idea which level of players I should be playing against. Aside from this, I would like to use my rating in order see how my game is improving and I just can’t see this if none of my wins are counting because my opponents are dropping! Why can’t these sore losers just play it out to the end? Is there anything I can do?

Catalin · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 18

This does tend to be a problem with Internet backgammon. If you were playing backgammon against a computer and saw that you were going to lose, 100%, then you would probably start the game over and that is what your opponents are doing. Unfortunately, they have no respect for the fact that you are a real person and not a computer and they probably don’t realize how much it upsets you.

Some backgammon sites will list a record of each player’s wins and losses and how often they have dropped games. Check this out before you start the game. You can also feel free to mention before you even start the game that you have had a recent problem with droppers and tell your opponent that if they would consider dropping if they were losing then you will find a different person to play against.

Pigeon · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 13

I have faced a similar problem with droppers… What I do is keep a log of players that I have played against and tend to play against the same group of people again and again. These are people that I trust not to drop and that I enjoy playing against. Maybe you should try something like this.

Stack · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 24

If you want to keep a record of your improvement then I would recommend that you download a free program like Gnubg or Jellyfish. These programs allow you to play against the computer and they rate your game as well as analyze it and give you suggestions for improvement. Measuring your skills with a program like this will give you an accurate measure of your improvement, as the skill level of the program remains constant. Measuring yourself against other online backgammon players won’t give you as accurate of a measurement. As you have seen, too many players are altering their ratings by dropping when they are losing and other techniques that you never really know anyone’s true level. Wishing you well and may you avoid droppers in the future!