KGS sucks
So I finally broke down and started a blitz account - mainly because I have no time to play lately and no desire to play a long drawn out game! You know what the problem with KGS is, though? ? ? ?
Ok, I’ve probably said this a million times, but KGS has a major problem - ranks. I know there are lots of blitz players out there, and a blitz game takes a minimal amount of time (especially for those who play a million of them a day). So why are people so damned afraid to play a “?” account? It’s a blitz game. If I win, my rank goes up. If you lose it probably doesn’t affect you at all. If I lose it still HELPS ME GET A RANK.
I offered a match to a number of people who had blitz games up, but all were declined. I left my game up for a while with only one hit — and he was new to Go (supposedly - he played a quite good opening) and was only playing his 3rd game (at least on that account - the others were with bots). Unfortunately I had to keep giving him time and still won W+T.
I just don’t understand what the problem with “?” is. KGS was always touted as the “friendly” server, but when it comes to actually playing games it misses the “friendly” mark completely. I guess that once I’m rated I won’t have such a big problem… as it was, I had to play a bot to at least upgrade my rank to “13?” instead of just “?” - maybe that will work as a starting point.
I personally think that KGS should get rid of the “?” competely. Imagine there’s no “?” after your rank (you can see it but no others, perhaps). This means that by playing a ranked bot you could get an initial ranking (or just set your own, novel idea IGS & others) and start at [13k], no question mark. Other players would be more willing to play you, not knowing you wont affect their ratings at all (not until you have enough games under your belt) which means you’ll have a much better way of GETTING more games to gain a solid ranking.
What are the drawbacks? The only one I can see, from the point of view of solidly ranked players, is that they won’t know just how much a game will affect their ranking. From my point of view this isn’t a drawback. I’ve broken away from the incessant need for a higher ranking (yeah I want shodan and above, but that’s a long term goal that I’ll set at AGA rated tournaments). The whole concept of online rank is the thorn in Go’s paw. Blitz isn’t much better, but playing games with long time control is more emotional. If you lose, you’ve lost all your games for the day - it’s hard to pick up a new opponent and play again. You haven’t wasted the last hour and a half (on the contrary…), but if you played a poor game it feels like a waste. In blitz they’re all poor games and you don’t learn as much, but it’s much easier to pick up after a loss and play again…
… perhaps it sounds shallow, but the choice is between playing one long game poorly or one bad blitz game and one good one. This choice often turns into the choice between playing two blitz games or not playing at all. (Where I stand now, I also think blitz will help me regain my fast opening - I lost it somewhere in the “territory is important” realm, and I can’t seem to find it again).