I would say the average IQ amongst average players here is probably around 120, though I don't put a lot of stock into IQ tests. I've never taken an official IQ test, and neither have I taken the crappy ones they offer on the internet designed to steal your information and inflate your ego. I've taken several tests that have a certain correlation to IQ, such as the SAT's and I've always been top 2% or higher, but I don't want to take an official IQ test.

Congratulations to everyone who's done decent or incredibly on an IQ test, but I really do feel that IQ tests miss out a large portion of human intelligence. I think many people recognize that it only linearly measures one aspect of human intelligence, but I still feel that the logical pattern recognition aspect of human intelligence is overstated in importance and difference. It's not like charisma comes from your liver, or creativity comes from your heart. The distinction creates some level of intellectual arrogance as well as anti-intellectualism that often ostracizes high IQ individuals (stereotypical nerd in high school) or has newspapers asking questions like "Is Obama too smart to lead America?".

hellalt, you have a ways to go before you'll be an effective troll. Many of your posts are defensive in tone and you seem to genuinely care if people think you're smart, and you're actually trying to use somewhat logical remarks to try to disarm the barbs of your opponents. A real troll remains emotionally detached from the forum character they've created for themselves, and waves aside logic with simple ad hominem and just burns the criticism as fuel for their hate machine.

@Chrisp - I've only taken the tests because the schools practically made me and it was a much better option than being in the classes where people generally don't know what is going on, the educational system in America is utter crap :( Out of curiosity though would you refrain from taking a test from the fear of it attempting to measure you and placing "below" what you'd expect? Or is it a stance against how worthless the test is? (Only worthless outside of the school benefits I enjoyed from it.)

interesting comment chrispminis. I' ll try to improve in the future...

Well, if it's lower than expected it would be a blow to my ego, and if it's higher than expected than it will inflate my ego, and if it's just as expected, then what's the point? I don't feel that the test is worthless. I just feel that it's importance and difference is overstated. It probably has some utility, but I don't feel that the way it is sometimes used to measure someone's worth is well-justified.

I don't think Hellalt is a troll, just opinionated. He may be supporting Sub (who definately is a troll and excessive with it) but when I've played with Hellalt he was friendly and played well.

@ Sayjo, I didn't do an internet based one, I did one for the UK Civil Service Fast Track process.

@OMGNSO - Hellalt is an admitted troll (in other threads). That doesn't mean he can't be a perfectly reasonable person when he's not trolling, or that there isn't some seed of sincerity to why he's trolling in this thread, but he is most certainly a troll and was most certainly trolling here at least a large portion of the time.

I'm not a troll.

See, hellalt... That is how a troll acts. Instead of trying to proclaim his trollness, he protests the accusation. As Gertrude said of the lady in the play (who, unbeknownst to her, was her theatrical doppleganger) "me thinks the [troll] doth protest too much."

my aim is not to play a certain role, troll or not troll. i come in many different variants. as far this thread is concerned above all i felt some urgent psychological need to protect submariner drawing attention to myself

Interesting remarks about IQ tests. I also always thought they were incomplete. There is much more to intelligence than recognizing patterns and the other bogus questions on IQ tests. Chrisp just put into words what I have been thinking. (Although his words were much more eloquent than my thinking)

@Submariner - thanks... not sure why you felt the need to say that just then, we were talking about hellalt, but thanks for that...

Your opinions about IQ tests are partially true. I also wouldn't say that they aren't the ultimate tests to find out your limits or anything like that. But they remain a strong challenge like diplomacy...
I'm talking about the official Mensa tests (45 shape quizzes in 20 minutes) not about the crappy internet iq tests. There is big difference between the former and the latter. I score 145 at internet iq tests while i only got 120 at the official one. You cant even find the official variant over the internet. Of course i'm also sure that taking the test again will give you a better result. You cant expect someone to score great at a variant he has never seen before. btw you need 133+ to be succesful

hellalt's profile:

* Points: 9
* Position: 16427
* Joined: 16 Mar 09
* E-mail:
* Home page: http://beam.to/koutsouvelis
* Comment:
o "Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future"

"Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless"

Personal Info:
Greek Lawyer studying Internet Psychology & Web Science

Hobbies:
Diplomacy, Trolling, Tennis
====================
Why not OMGNSO?

I believe the Mensa society's home page has practice exams, and I have a number of the Mensa Society's books as well. I prefer there Kakuro to the "black belt" Sudoku or Kakuro books. They are larger and more challenging.

And I truly believe the typical person on this site would probably score well above 130. This game attracts people who can think both strategically and politically and don't like the randomness of rolling dice.

ooo figle got you!

Yeah, it's been discussed that the average person on this site is probably decently more intelligent than the average person in society.

I remember Edi being disturbed by the poor retention rates on online Diplomacy sites like this one, playdip, and others. I thought that this made a lot of sense because Diplomacy isn't really a game that will appeal to everyone, just the real mean, conniving ones. =P

If you play it F2F, you have a higher retention rate, but I think that this is partly because the people who finally decide to play F2F are already somewhat attracted to the idea of Diplomacy. However, if any of you have ever tried to organize a F2F game with your social friends, it can be really difficult, because some people aren't as interested in this sort of game, though others eyes simply light up at the concept of pulling the wool over another intelligent and capable human being. Though it's funny, because I found my Diplomacy skills very useful when trying to persuade people to play Diplomacy F2F.

Here, people can start playing without even really knowing what the game is about, and I don't think it's that surprising that a lot leave, just like a lot don't initially want to play a F2F game. We have a lower retention rate, but a higher initial attraction rate because of the difference in time investment.