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Comments: 112 +- Games: BringIt.com Allows Players to Bet On Console Game Matches on Monday August 03 2009, @02:58PM
Posted
by
ScuttleMonkey
on Monday August 03 2009, @02:58PM
from the i'm-sure-it-wont-get-abused dept.
from the i'm-sure-it-wont-get-abused dept.
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money
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entertainment
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicgames.gif); width:68px; height:77px;
games
eldavojohn writes to tell us of a new service, "BringIt.com," that allows gamers to put their money where their mouth is with respect to their console gaming skill. "BringIt supports the PlayStation 2, the PS3, the Xbox 360 and the Wii. Players challenge each other on the site, but play on their consoles. BringIt holds players' entry fees until the game is finished. After the game is done, it verifies the results and credits the winner, minus the service fee. To attract players of a broad range of skill sets, BringIt has separate tournaments meant for novice players and expert gamers. Levin compared it to the handicap system in golf or the weight-class system in wrestling.
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rigged (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The service fee.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:rigged (Score:5, Informative)
yourself. Otherwise it would be plain gambling.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
yourself. Otherwise it would be plain gambling.
I'm pretty sure it's still gambling. That, or Pete Rose needs to be reinstated to the Hall of Fame!
Maybe he was just ahead of his time...
Re: (Score:2)
Pete Rose needs to be reinstated to professional baseball and then inducted into the Hall of Fame!
Fixed that for you.
Re:rigged (Score:4, Informative)
It's not gambling if it's a game of skill. You can charge an entry fee for a game of skill and pay a prize in pretty much every state of the US.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Not at all! If I can bet on the other guy winning, it's a sure thing!
Re: (Score:2)
Reminds me of Super Troopers:
Farva: What's this?
Rabbit: A chamois cloth.
Farva: Ha. Lucky guess. I just lost a buck. To myself.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Nothing, really. But it sounds like this is only bets between the competitors, not side bets. So you would come out even, minus the service fee.
On the other hand, if you played it right, you could shill one of your sockpuppets into appearing worse than it really was. Go up against an appropriately and properly rated opponent, and you might be able to win more matches than your rating says you should... at least until your ratings float high enough that you need to start again with new dupe accounts.
Great, just great (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Great, just great (Score:5, Funny)
This is just a simple way for geeks to get back their lunch money.
No, this is a way for Korea to become the economic powerhouse of the world.
Parent
Cheating (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
I'd challenge somebody to a game of L4D - except that, cheating is so rampant, there's no way to guarantee the results are legitimate.
Some are easy to spot, like aim hax, or fast movement. Others are harder, like somebody always knowing where the special infected are, even when they aren't making noise. It could be a skilled player, or something else.
And sometimes cheating is indistinguishable from bugs. One time a hunter pounced me on that board in Dead Air one, and the pounce didn't register. He was sitti
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
"... you suspect that your opponents cheat ... "
In other words, they won.
Go on, try to find an online game where when you win, you aren't accused of cheating.
This site will never work without owning nearly everything about the game experience. And even then it's tricky.
Wagers+HonorSystem= (Score:5, Insightful)
Usually the way it works is like this: I am playing a ranked match against somebody named some variant of '420niggah' (classy I know) and as soon as I am about to drop a coup de grace, they just quit. YOu what would make that even more fun? Losing real money each time it happens. No thanks.
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On top of that, what would they do if a network connection was dropped or something? I'd assume that if they refunded the money, people could just cut their system and say "Oh well it was a network problem"
The internet is full of sore losers, and I could see this being a big problem like you stated.
Re: (Score:2)
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That would the least of concerns. With so much cheating going on with simple games, imagine the level of cheating with games for profit. The invisible hand of the market place would definitely be pumping some lag switches.
Now, on the other hand, could there be a legal precedent in the making where someone can prove and sue someone else for online cheating? I believe this idea is doomed still (again) as there has never been a reliable way to prevent cheaters from ruining the experience.
InnerWeb
Re: (Score:2)
Well, if there was an ebay-type system which allowed you to give feedback on your opponents, you could reduce the likelihood of that happening a bit.
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I could've sworn gaming networks have tried that already, haven't they?
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Re:Wagers+HonorSystem= (Score:5, Insightful)
It might be a bit harder to get started but once you're established, it probably wouldn't be a big deal.
Also, I'd like to see a ranking system be implemented. Kind of like with Go. KGS uses a pretty decent ranking system with their online software. Basing your rank off the people you've played against. Have a separate rank for each game you play. Allow "rank" games with no wager and those with a wager so that someone new can work up their rank so people would play them. Require 20-30 ranked games before they can start betting and it would probably be a very robust system. Limiting the bets based on how many total games you have would also help people get their credibility up as more people would play you if they don't have to bet $20+ on someone with no reputation on the site.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Anyone you play will be better than you, and the winners would know better than to play each other.
Re:Wagers+HonorSystem= (Score:5, Interesting)
The majority of cheaters were stupid. Registering new accounts and posting 40 wins within an hour was a classic. Registering multiple accounts was another - we tracked IP numbers. Poorly edited screen grabs were easy to spot - lossy jpegs show changes easily.
In the end reputation was king. With a small number of people, everyone knew each other. We also took part in our own leagues.
The caught cheaters used to go to great lengths to get even with us for banning them. Forum exploits, DOS attacks, and general annoyances. Funny because we offered no prizes except a name on a 'winners' page.
Good luck to these people. They'll need it.
Parent
Re:Wagers+HonorSystem= (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Not just clever cheaters. If money is involved you can be sure there will be legions of third world players being PAID to play, bet, and cheat.
Today there are 2 kinds of cheaters (Score:2)
Probably the exact same situation as hacking where 99% of the kids involved can barely turn on a computer, much less run a compiler or low level debugger.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The reason eBay's system works is that both parties stand to benefit from the transaction. A buyer wants the product and a seller wants to get rid of it to a paying customer. If the transaction goes smoothly on both ends, both parties get a positive rating. Gaming is different. Everyone wants to win, but even moreso than that everyone HATES losing. If you're really good at any online game, you're automatically labeled a cheater even if you've spent hundreds of hours mastering the craft and the other person
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I could see this potentially working with a game like Call of Duty where they give you a weblink at the end of each match that contains the match results (which could potentially allow you to supply it to bringit.com to process for verification of winning).
but honor system? lol.. color me apathetic to this non-service.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm guessing Live records the results of matches somewhere, so they can be verified by a third party. They could always charge a higher service fee for false disputes.
Re:Wagers+HonorSystem= (Score:4, Informative)
I am playing a ranked match against somebody named some variant of '420niggah' (classy I know) and as soon as I am about to drop a coup de grace, they just quit. YOu what would make that even more fun? Losing real money each time it happens. No thanks.
Starcraft (and that's more than a decade old) recorded "Disconnects." Having a record like "15-12-37" would lead people to not play against you, either cause you're a sore loser or because you have a really terrible connection. I haven't used any of the current gen systems' online multiplayer services, but I think they'd be able to implement counting disconnects for each user easily.
Also, I didn't check out Bringit's rules but it makes sense that they'd put into terms that disconnecting counts as a loss.
Parent
Rankings (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Rankings (Score:4, Insightful)
How do they rank players? Couldn't an expert player just pose as a novice, and win easily?
Yeah I was chuckling thinking about that, and hearing their CEO comparing it to wrestling weight classes.
On the one hand, that makes no sense, because weight classes have nothing to do with separating people based on skill, but rather simple physical attributes and the unfair advantage that stems from them. Even the most skilled 110 pounder on earth is going to get smushed into the mat by a competent 275 pounder.
On the other hand, it makes perfect sense, because wrestlers are all about gaming the weight class system as much as possible. That's why they starve themselves, and run five miles wearing a dozen sweatshirts and/or plastic bags the day before weigh-in to lose water weight, all so that when they walk onto the mat in the "150lb" weight class they're sporting the body of a 170 pounder. In practice this just means everyone is really a couple weight classes heavier than what they wrestle at. But that's because you can't easily change your weight, and your weight class is defined by what you weigh at weigh-in. You can't wrestle at 130 a couple weeks then gain some weight but stay at 130. If you could? Yeah you'd see people cutting so much weight they couldn't stand up right just so that later at a more important match they'd have an advantage.
Anyway, I'm assuming/hoping it's a sort of ladder system and that the size of wagers is capped at each level. It's one thing to have someone sandbagging and pool shark you out of $10, yet another when Mr. Franklin gets involved.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Found it. Wager size caps are based only on how many games you have completed, historically. They start at $50/game, and go up in steps to $500/game once you have completed 30+ ranked games.
http://www.bringit.com/rules/
to help out those who don't speak sports lingo .. (Score:2)
or the operating system in geek world
ok (Score:2)
Too bad it only works with certain games (Score:2)
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How to stop (other) people from posting "first". [slashdot.org]
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They're usually modded down for being off-topic and flamebait, which they usually are. It has nothing to do with censorship.
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The difference is (and I've seen this argument made before because I've seen another site aimed more at pc gaming do this) is with poker and other casino games, there is some 'chance' involved.
Removing the cheating factor from a console game, the amount of 'chance' is about zero. i.e with most FPS, players remember where weapons spawn and when, so map control isn't a luck game. In RTS, he who knows the correct build order will win most of the time, etc.
This is under the assumption that its only the players
Re:Aren't gambling sites illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
FTA:
Not everyone can be the fratboy's newspaper of choice!
But the article does have a very valid point. Just ask McCain's in-laws.
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Why? Gambling of this kind is a state issue, not federal.
Four places (Score:4, Informative)
Delaware, Oregon and Montana now allow sports betting.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4162225 [go.com]
Parent