First Turf Impressions After Zero Point Chicken Fix

Racer Kai

One turf behind us now since RR changed the turf point scoring rules to discourage the point swapping behaviors. I spent maybe 5 or 6 hours total this past turf to get a feel for how this change would affect my own point scoring and other's feelings toward the change. Here's what I learned, and of course some feedback for RR.

So just how bad was point swapping in the first place? We all saw it going on in the turf lobbies from people chatting, "swap points?", but to warrant a rule change, this activity would really need to be having a major effect on the top 100 winners. Even more so than other expected cheats like dual devices/accounts (single IP) used only for losing races/cars. Right? I'm not even sure RR knew for sure just how many points were given to point swappers, or the outcome it had on top 100 finishes. I heard people in the lobbies complaining they were being bumped out of top 100 finishes due to point swapping teams. But no convincing evidence was ever presented that this practice really was, without a doubt, changing the outcome of the top 100 teams in a way that required a rule change. Point swappers were being publicly disgraced in turf lobbies and it seemed to be a practice that few wanted to be a part of just prior to the rule change. PERHAPS PUBLIC PRESSURE AND DISTASTE FOR SWAPPERS WAS ALREADY CONTROLLING THE SITUATION.

To know if the rule change had any affect on swapping, we'd have to examine points earned before and after the rule change. I decided to look at the data available (not much around) but I found I could compare the 25th place team winner's points prior to swapping seemingly getting really bad (October of 2014) and the turf immediately following the rule change (Tokyo 1/30/15).

Looking at daily average points scored for the 25th place team (Rio, 179,122 points, Tokyo 200,929), there were more points earned per day AFTER the rule change (I took into account the switch from 4-day to 3-day turfs when calculating daily average points scored).

This requires a WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?. MORE points on average scored by the 25th place team AFTER the rule change? Didn't you think that a rule change to eliminate swapping would decrease the overall points earned? I did. Unless the swapping was rampant for teams that had no chance of placing in the top 25 anyway! Or maybe even the top 100! WHAT AFFECT, IF ANY THEN, DID THIS RULE CHANGE HAVE? WHAT IS THE OUTCOME?

The rule also affected LEGIT chicken out points earned (and no one disagreed with this game behavior). Let me explain. Prior to the rule change, if I were willing to Pinks you and you chickened, I earned points. If I raised you money and you chickened, I earned points. This was a legitimate and respectful way to earn points. Not anymore. The rule has not only discouraged point swapping, it has also taken away points earned from people willing to put their money, or their car, on the line. I COMPLETELY DISAGREE WITH THAT AS AN OUTCOME OF THIS RULE CHANGE.

So I looked at the #1 team for these same two turfs, RivalS WarriorS, to see how they were affected by this new point behavior. Now people can see the racer is with RivalS WarriorS and just chicken out with no consequence. Turns out, they've lost about 100,000 points per day average after the new Zero Point Chicken Fix (before: 472,413 points per day average, after: 363,172 points per day average). With a team of 20, that's a loss of 5,000 points per day, per team member as a result of the new rule.

Now, I'm sure just looking at 2 turfs and two teams as examples isn't exactly up to scientific standards, but it's more inspection than anything else we have, or anyone else has presented for that matter. I really don't think point swapping had any real effect on the top 100 place teams. Racers were dealing with those people in chat, creating an awareness that most didn't like the practice and those that did, were lower than dirt. The rule change has also removed an honorable way to earn points when you are willing to risk more than the other person. Now, even that is gone. My simple suggestion after all this? REVERT BACK TO HOW IT WAS. The new rule hasn't made any significant improvement in outcomes. Even worse, the new rule ENCOURAGES CHICKENS MORE THAN EVER! How is giving chickens an equal say in the outcome of a race any better than the cheating point swappers? They are both scum.

[RR] Ryyst

So, when Point Swapping became a big issue with players I looked at it and said to myself, "This wouldn't affect anything really. Maybe just annoy some players, but I'll have to see a few weeks of data to see what the affect is." So I did. A couple weeks later I compared the Turf Wars a month prior to when point swapping became rampant and 4 weeks after. The percentage of points earned from Chicken outs prior to the big uproar around the holidays was around 15%. Which was acceptable. It was working the way we expected Then the average percentage of points earned due to chicken outs when point swapping became all the rage rose to around 40%. So yes... there was a reason why we did what we did.

So what do we do? Do we punish teams for their teammates choice to gain points without any consequences? Do we take away points? Do we come up with some convoluted equation to make it so that you don't gain points sometimes, but not all the time depending on several factors?

The fact is, several of our solutions required code changes and a redesign of how the points system works. Resources we could not spare. So we chose the lesser of many evils.

The philosophy is now you have to race to gain points. Does this make it harder for those of you that counted on chicken outs to gain points? Yes. Are people going to chicken out with no fear of giving you points, sure. Are teams going to gain points by swapping? No. Are teams going to gain points for not doing anything? No. Do you actually have to race in a racing tournament in a racing game? Yes.

We'll continue to monitor the situation. If the outcome is not what we want. We may take different measures.