The next Turn

A clarification on connection issues: Because it is too difficult to sort out who has the real connection issue at times without juggling people around and resetting lobbies, and even then without success, the rule of thumb will be first come first serve. That is, whoever made it into the room first has priority. Obviously if no one can join because of 1 person than the rule can not apply, but this is rare. Lobby hosts should still make every effort to get everyone in, but they need to be reminded who was there first.

I have a question: Should the driver who appeared online an hour early and joined a practice lobby be considered first before the person who arrived right on time because of personal obligations?

AAR ABEnstein wrote:I have a question: Should the driver who appeared online an hour early and joined a practice lobby be considered first before the person who arrived right on time because of personal obligations?

When you setup the actual room whoever gets in first without a problem is safe. The person that comes later and can't get in is the one in trouble.

Well, things are really moving along in the league racing community!

Tons of people asking questions about the World Rankings list like, how does it work, where do the numbers come from, how soon will the next update be, could you consider rating other racing games outside of Forza, and on and on. Allow me to answer some of these questions...

The ratings formula we use is unique to Forza, but is somewhat based on other ratings systems that are more advanced like the FIDE system for rating chess players. In chess, only two players play at a time, which makes rating them easier and more precise. In Forza we had to have the ability to rate 16 or more at one time. This complicates things a little, but we came up with a fairly simple mathmatical solution that I won't go into.

The ratings scale we use is also somewhat borrowed from the FIDE, their's looks like this:

CategoryRating range IFCA

Grandmaster	2600 and up
Senior master	2400–2599 Pro
Master	2200–2399 Semi-Pro
Expert	2000–2199 Expert
Class A	1800–1999 A-Class
Class B	1600–1799 B-Class
Class C	under 1600

These are "where the numbers come from." Updates to the World Rankings list happen about twice a week. The most a driver can lose in ratings points is 5% of his total in a given race no matter where he finishes even if he lags out, but he can gain as much or more than 25% depending on how high the ratings are of the other drivers he beats compared to his. So for example, take the lowest rated B-Class driver in the 1700's and by some fluke he won in a room full Pro class drivers in the 2400's, he could gain 450+ points in a single race! This is never likely to happen, but we wanted a system that was more carrot than stick, a system that rewarded you more than punished you. In reality, average Expert drivers can easily gain 125 points if they beat higher rated drivers than themselves. At the same time, the most such a driver could possibly lose is maybe 105 points.

We have no plans to rate other racing games, but, there is some talk going on with an outside group who wants to lease our ratings program and place it on a more independent site outside the IFCA. Everything has its price I guess.