On 4, Mar 2010, at 9:19 AM, Nick Wedd wrote: > ... > I received no complaint from anyone obliged to play it. But after the event, > I received instructions from the British Go Association not to do it again - > they had had complaints from players who feared they might have been obliged > to play it. > > I think these people would have an even stronger case nowadays, now that bots > have no novelty value, and anyone who wants can easily play one on a server. > > Nick
At the Cotsen Open there was only 1 person who requested not to be paired against a computer, and there were several who really wanted to play against it. That one person lives in an isolated place and traveled to play against people he did not know. It is worth noting that the AGA President, Alan Abramson, is not anti-bot. He attempted to set up a compromise situation where the anti and pro bot individuals could each get some of what they wanted. I am sure that he would do the same today. That Congress was the one where Mogo won a handicap game against Myungwan Kim, the person who won the Open, so there was a sense that programs were starting to become "real." There have been some changes in AGA officers that might now make it easier to get real (or at least conditional) ratings for bots. With respect to the "no novelty, I can do that at home on a server" argument, the exact same thing could be said about playing Go against people too. In the meeting at the Portland Congress, one participant argued that he goes to tournaments for the social interaction, and that there is none with a computer. I found that fascinating, because the reason I absolutely hate tournament Go is that you sit opposite another person for an hour, and it would not be appropriate for either of you to say a word! It seems quite anti-social to me. If you can talk to your opponent after the game and review key points, why is the same conversation with the author of the program not social interaction? ... ok, so we are nerds ... but other than that? ;^) At the Cotsen Open an operator must take the opponent's move from a real board and play it into the computer's interface and place the computer's moves back onto the real board (and operate the clock accordingly, thus there is a distinct time disadvantage for the bot). Thus, there is always another person "playing" opposite any human entrant. Cheers, David _______________________________________________ Computer-go mailing list [email protected] http://dvandva.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/computer-go
