Rank and Position are calculated based on your current available points.

GR is not officially integrated into the site. It is currently maintained by Alderian. It is based off of ELO scoring, if you're familiar with that. You can read more about it here:

https://sites.google.com/site/phpdiplomacytournaments/theghost-ratingslist

That is an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, surrounded by mystery....

@NigeeBaby: Can I have that to go, with a side order of fries please?

Is that curly fries with melted cheese or curried sauce?

@Nigee ... I think you misspelled "enema".

Bob, it's virtually a different word ..... with different letters and a different meaning

So Rank is based on Available Points? What are the categories, are they known?

And position is based on Total Points? It's odd, I think I saw some people with about 500 but then still high in the position.

And GR, well I guess that I need to take a few weeks to look into that :-)

@Nigee ... you may need to recalibrate your sarc-o-meter

@Bob - Sorry Mr, I'm just not funny, ask any of the really cute intelligent guys on the forum, they'll tell you, and there'll carry on telling you even if you haven't forgot .....nothing sweeter than a repeater.
Do you mind if I use enigma/enema gag for my stand up?

Rank is political puppet below 100 and it goes up depending on how many points you have.

What are the different levels and do they stop at a certain point value?

I guess the highest rank in the point system is splitdiplomat, with ranks like master, diplomat in between. in the the GR it is str84ward: increase with decreasing skill/success against the all the others. I am no admin or so, but it seems to me that the ranks are not absolute but relative – depending on the percentages below and above you (@those who know for real: please correct me if I am wrong), but I would like to know about the different classes.

^ also curious.

In addition, do I understand GR correctly in that it uses the same victory criteria for games played (WTA, PPSC)? And one thing which is not clear to me is how often GR is applied. Does your GR change after every game? Or is it only calculated each month, and are all your games judged on the same Gr for that month?

In other words, if my GR is 100, and I play two games in succession which raise my GR by 10% each, is my GR calculated like:
A) game 1, 100+10%=110; game 2, 110+10%=121. OR
B) game 1, 10%*100=10; game 2 10%*100=10. New GR=100+10+10=120.

Which one is it?

When GR is calculated, it's updated game-by-game. So, sort of like A, but it doesn't quite work like "add 10%".

However, the actual numbers are only posted online on a monthly basis, so you'll only be able to see your progress each month.

For WTA games, it essentially boils down to the following:
1) Each player pays 2/35th of the GR into a pot.
2) That pot is split according to the WTA rules (a winner would get all of it or each d-way drawer gets 1/d of it, and losers get nothing).

The calculation for PPSC games is a bit messier. I think draws are essentially handled the same way, but PPSC solos are done differently. The GR pot is essentially split according to SC percentage, but the amount that each player pays in is normalized to prevent a player from having to pay more than 18/34th of the pot (or whatever the relevant win criterion for the variant at hand is) in order to prevent making it impossible for the winner to gain points if he is highly rated.

Sorry, that should be "pays 2/35th of [their] GR into a pot"

"When GR is calculated, it's updated game-by-game."

Wow, that's one complicated calculation to do for all the peeps on webdip. I'm impressed. How is it done?

So, if I wanted to maximize my GR score, I wouldn't have to do anything specific other than win according to the WTA and PPSC standards, correct? Which means solos are incredibly valuable.

The GR calculation is run game by game based on the end time of the game. The amount of GR put into the pot is based on your GR at the end of the game. The actual calculation isn't terribly complicated, just moderately complicated. And the rest is just a matter of setting up the different objects for tracking the games and players and such and then outputting it.

The calculation of WTA and PPSC matches how the dip points are handled. Draws are split evenly and victories are split as per WTA and PPSC rules. So yes, solos are very valuable, WTA solos more so since you get the entire pot.

Oh, and as for the rankings on the profile, it is based on available points as follows...

Diplomat - top 5% of players with 101 or more
MasterMind - top 10%...
Pro - top 20%...
Experienced - top 50%...
Member - top 90%...
Casual player - 101 or more
Political puppet - 100 or less

Note that because this is based on available points, you can go down in "rank" by joining a game. It really isn't too meaningful.

Super, thanks!

Yellbiz,

"The calculation for PPSC games is a bit messier. I think draws are essentially handled the same way, but PPSC solos are done differently. The GR pot is essentially split according to SC percentage, but the amount that each player pays in is normalized to prevent a player from having to pay more than 18/34th of the pot (or whatever the relevant win criterion for the variant at hand is) in order to prevent making it impossible for the winner to gain points if he is highly rated."

Do you know how it is normalized?

@Devonian: The formulas for Ghost Rating are provided here
http://tournaments.webdiplomacy.net/theghost-ratingslist

The part that addresses the expected result for PPSC can be found at the bottom of that page.

@yebellz - "to prevent a player from having to pay more than 18/34th of the pot"

This is not accurate. If there is something on that page that caused you to believe that, we can discuss.

In any case, for someone to pay more than 18/34ths of the pot, they would have to have a very high ghost rating and play a PPSC game against a bunch of new or bad players. For example, someone with a 450 GR (top 10 player) playing an Ancient Med PPSC against 4 players with 100 GR. For the Classic map the player's GR would need to be 675, which is to say MadMarx against 6 players with a GR of 100. Granted you could accomplish this with a lower rating if you play some really bad sub-100 GR players.

If someone that good chooses to play a group that bad in a PPSC game, well, that's their choice.

So ... the only really good way to game the GR system, then, is to get the players you are about to beat in one game all play really fast in another to win/draw, thus boosting their GR just in time for you to relieve them of those newly-earned rating points?

Or would that be meta-gaming of some kind?

No, the best way to game it is to pickup strong CD positions that get you a draw that doesn't necessarily gain you any diplomacy points but does gain you ghost rating.

Wait, what? How does that gain you GR?

@Alderian, my earlier claim was based on the equations listed at the bottom of the Ghost Rating page. The claim "pot" analogy is imprecise since it seems that the PPSC case might not be zero sum, but nevertheless the equations seem to ensure that a winner would never lose rating, by ensuring that the expected result is always less than 18/34.

@TMOW, the ghost rating calculation doesn't know that you bought into the CD position. It thinks you started that position from the start. So if you buy your way into a draw, which might even lose you points, the GR calculation thinks you started the game from the start and thus that draw likely gains you GR.

@yebellz, let me get back to you. And I mean it, not like gunfighter and JECE.

I think a winner could still lose rating if his GR is more than 112.5% of the sume of all the other GRs in the game. But that would be axtremely rare and only the top most players playing 6 of the noobiest of noobs would have to worry about that.

@yebellz, having looked over the PPSC equations, I'm still not sure which part has lead you to the conclusion you came to.

But here is what it does...

First, the PPSC result is one of two values.
- In case of a solo, it is your number of centers divided by the total number of centers. (If you win with 19, you get credit for winning with 19.)
- In case of a draw, it is the total number of centers divided by the number in the draw.

Then the expected result = (18 * chance of winning) + (16 * chance of surviving) / 34.

(The 18, 16, and 34 are for Classic. For other variants it is whatever the appropriate numbers are for the variant.)

The ghost rating change is then the amount everyone contributed to the pot * (your result - your expected result). No where does the amount you contribute to the pot get adjusted based on how your rating compares to the others' ratings.

"No where does the amount you contribute to the pot get adjusted based on how your rating compares to the others' ratings."
Doesn't the calculation of the "chance of winning" and "chance of surviving" implicitly do that?