Business Idea?

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Avatar of PawnSt4r

I've been playing vote chess since @mohotma67 got me into this group a few months back. I'm enjoying it and I think this club is amazing and thanks to @n00bm4ster for founding it and everyone for taking part, I've learned a huge amount.

 

However, I feel there is a distinct lack of care for it by the developers and I really feel that there are a tonne of improvements that could be made. I guess that Vote Chess just isn't popular enough for them to make it a priority for development. Doing some research around, I can't find much in the way of vote chess or even collab chess. Here are some problems I've encountered:

  • Poor notifications! They are just awful.
  • Poor experience on a smart phone (mobile, cell whatever you guys call it lol)
  • Large games can make it difficult to contribute. I played a game for "Team England" with several hundred players in and it was impossible for me to keep up with the flood of messages. Also I felt that I just wasn't good enough to be able to contribute to the discussion. I could follow and learn but I may as well just study a master game!
  • Games can be unbalanced. It's not obvious who is on the other team. Is it fair that 10 people ~1400 vs 10 players but one of them is 2000+? This point is an interesting one as this could actually be a really good thing, several players coming together to beat a master for example but probably it's not a fair match in most cases.

 

This has got me thinking a lot. I'm a Technical Lead/Software Architect. I'm an employee but I've been on the lookout for a business opportunity for a while now and I think there might be something here. Especially with the recent boom thanks to the Queens Gambit on Netflix!

 

What if there was something like "Collaboration Chess". Not "Vote Chess" although there will be similarities! Here's how the above problems could be fixed:

  • Poor notifications: Games don't always wait to make the move at a set time. If all players have voted, make the move straight away. It means notifications are easy as it's just like Daily. Could have notifications for low time or if you are the last person to vote.
  • Poor experience on a smart phone: Just build a decent app! Moves could be made as a suggestion before voting. Could have some configurable rules like no voting during first x hours or until all players have commented or made a suggestion etc. If you make a move as a suggestion it might help with the language barrier for teams spreading nations, not everyone speaks English after all.
  • Large games, difficult to contribute: Set team sizes and with rating ranges to keep it balanced. You could play and be randomly assigned with a pair of similar rating. There is a good chance you will learn a lot from each other and of course you would be matched against a similarly rated pair. This would work with any team size. Also of course, you could create a team and play tournaments and leagues.

 

The app would be focused solely on this collab idea, where teams/pairs have a rating. You could join an open seek as a pair but you get assigned a pair of similar rating and vs a similarly rated pair. It might be possible to write some algorithm to create a personal rating based on a team rating.

 

This kind of project is obviously pretty huge and in all honesty, probably not something I will realistically pursue but just putting ideas out there, a bit of "blue sky" thinking. If there is a strong love for it though, I might! Chess.com could fix a lot of the problems with the poor mobile experience and notifications but the Collab idea might have some weight. Maybe I could develop something and just sell it to them!

Any thoughts?

 

P.s. On the very slim chance that I did develop something and the slim chance we move over there, I'd still want our fearless leader to be our captain happy.png

Avatar of createsure

I like the idea, especially balancing out the level of members on the same team. If one person is rated much higher, they are pretty much playing the game on their own often times.

Avatar of createsure

And limiting the number of people on each team to something like 6.

Avatar of N00BM4STER

This idea is definitely something I would appreciate. Daily matches obviously have many of these things, but as you said VC doesn't, and it could definitely use some improvement. I haven't played on the mobile app, but the rating restrictions, player restrictions, and stuff about making a move once all players have voted would be incredible. 

If you can think of a way to bring these ideas to chess.com and offer to try to figure it out, I would back you in any way I could. I am no tech guy, but I would definitely support this. 

Avatar of completelycool

My only question would be about the ratings. On chess.com the ratings are based on daily, blitz, etc, but this app wouldn't have those options, correct? Just collab chess? So would the ratings be based on collab chess games? Just curious. But I think it's a super cool ideahappy.png👍 same as noob, I would definitely support this

Avatar of PawnSt4r

Thanks guys. I'm not sure. There would definitely need to be a rating system. I think similar to rapid, bullet, daily etc, collab would indeed have it's own system but you'd still be rated as an individual so you are not tied into a team and you could play in multiple collab games at once. So a pairs game might consist of a 1400 and a 1600 vs a 1700 and a 1750. So the players in the first team get more points for the win than the 2nd. You might take the average or the max rating per team and do the calculations from that. Maybe the rating spread has an impact.

Avatar of completelycool

Cool 👍 that makes sense I was just wondering

Avatar of PawnSt4r

Seems someone else mentioned this on chess.com in 2012! https://www.chess.com/forum/view/suggestions/2v2-3v3-4v4-options-and-more

Would anyone want to help me try this idea out as a rough proof of concept? I was thinking I could test it out loosely on chess.com. Ideally, I want 4 players similarly rated and I would set up 2 temporary teams on chess.com and you would play a 2v2 vote chess game against each other. I would then just want feedback on how the game went and in particular how it compares to regular vote chess. What was better, what was worse, what extra features would you want etc.

Anyone want to help or just play for the experience?

Avatar of completelycool

I think it's a super good idea. I don't feel like I'm nearly good enough or devoted enough to chess to be a good choice for this though. 

Avatar of PawnSt4r

It's not about being a good enough player, it's about the experience and your opinion is definitely valuable if you're up for it.

Avatar of completelycool

I guess I can 🤔 I volunteer

Avatar of masterdean00

For a casual 2v2 type thing to help you test it out, I'm happy to play. It doesn't have to be a particularly competitive game since it's mainly to help you see how it goes, so we could just do something crazy. If there's a big ratings imbalance, the stronger team can agree to play an unsound but fun opening, like the Halloween Gambit, to try and even things up a little bit.