Agent of Kharma

Join Date 02/2008

+31

Weird?

Out of hundreds of games online, I can count the number of times on one hand that I've wound up in eco position or non-flank/non-suicide position. Every other time, it has been flank, or suicide spot. I find this strange. It isn't related to my position in the game room, because that changes every time. It isn't related to whatever screenname/smurfname I happen to use, because I've had a thousand of those. Near as I can tell, it is related to my actual account name "agent of kharma." My theory is that the software must take the people of the room in alphabetical order when assigning positions, and since my account starts with an "A," it always throws me on a flank or suicide.

About a week ago, I was in a 5v5 with a guy named "Abaddon-Xerxes" or something like that, and I said to myself "if that is his account name, he also starts with an A, so let's see what happens." We were BOTH put on flanks, facing each other in fact (we sort of dualed each other to a stalemate).

It's sort of boring, because all I can do in a flank position is spam out a bunch of LF or scouts to beat whatever rush is coming at me. I mean, I want to play the game for another reason besides "mash LF/scout" a million times to counter whatever zerglings the enemy is throwing at me.

At any rate, I was wondering if anyone else has witnessed this same phenomenon? Are you always being put in the same position in the game? SOMETHING is up, but if my theory about account names is correct, this issue may only affect people with account names on either end of the spectrum (A-ish or Z-ish), because if you are somewhere in the middle it is easy for another guy's account name to be before or after yours in the game.

multiplayer

Locked Post

Advanced Search

Watch this post

Do not email me updates for this post Email me updates for this post

Successfully updated karma reason!

I think it is strictly random, and the odds for falling into the Eco slot are less than you would suspect.

I can say that I've played hundreds of games too, under a middle of the alphabet name, and I also rarely get the eco slot. Lets say there is a 1 in 5 chance on a 5v5, and only a portion of those games actually spawn with 3 allies side by side. Say 1 in 2. Combined, doesn't that mean a 1 in 10 chance? So the odds of getting there might actually be quite small.

[Edited with odds calculated].

Successfully updated karma reason!

So yes, I do believe it is alphabetically organized, with eco in the early middle, and combat again in the later end.

I also tried this with the map designer "test map" function, and the A's are matched, too.

Successfully updated karma reason!

no, rofl thats not true at all... i think you're st

Quoting IrationalFear,

reply 2

I use this username and am usually in the eco spots. But that's usually because I'm sent to the farthest place from the rest of the team I'm on and do too little to warrant the attention of enemy players. I get to play at my pace and only have a significant fleet if the game is already won, mostly because I invest in more starbases than fleets.

So yes, I do believe it is alphabetically organized, with eco in the early middle, and combat again in the later end.

I also tried this with the map designer "test map" function, and the A's are matched, too.

are you high? no dude, this isn't right at all. they call it RANDOM, because its RANDOM

Successfully updated karma reason!

You didn't have to attack me to get your point across, I just syayed what I have noticed.

Successfully updated karma reason!

they call it RANDOM, because its RANDOM

They call it random because it is SUPPOSED to be random. But is it random in actuality? I can promise you my placement is far from random. Now, is this some fluke, akin to winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning? Hard for me to believe, if it is. I find IrrationalFear's story quite interesting.

Just got out of a game 5 minutes ago. 5v5. All the 5's were grouped together. I was on flank again.

Successfully updated karma reason!

There is a psychological explanation.

Suppose you play a game where you roll a die (high rolls = good). At the end of the game, you ask the players to estimate how many 6's and how many 1's (extreme rolls) they got. They almost always over-estimate the number of 1's and under-estimate the number of 6's. The results are even more pronounced when you ask them to recall long "streaks" of good or bad rolls. This means that humans naturally have selective memory for bad things, and are more likely to forget good things.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Not selective memory - I've actually catalogued this stuff. In fact, I came here to say that I just got out of yet ANOTHER 5v5. Each side had 4 as a group, and 1 suicide. I was suicide, as always. I had a 20% chance for suicide, and 80% chance to be non-suicide, but I got suicide.

I have replays, saved games, etc. I really can count the number of times on 1 hand that I was not suicide, and not on a flank.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Just finished another 5v5. All the 5's were grouped again (I KNOW, EXTREMELY RARE, I'm just reporting it as it happens). I was on flank again. So that's 3 5v5's today. 2 were groups of 5 - I was flank. 1 was groups of 4, with suicides - I was suicide. If I play any more tonight, I will report more results.

Successfully updated karma reason!

just quit

Successfully updated karma reason!