Idea is intriguing.
Is the game to be played chess, or a chess-variant?
If it's chess, I probably won't participate, because I don't have time to play fast games, and slow games can be affected by people using engines.
But if you play a variant (at least one non-standard chess piece for each side) then I might like to play (casting votes in a game).
One of the last games to be played in this style I think was in 1999 "Kasparov versus the World". Unfortunately from what I gather, there's no more interest in this type of play, because engines are now very fast and better than any human, and both side's votes may just end up coming from the result of engines.
But a game which has no engine could be fun!
It's not a variant per se in the sense that the rules are standard chess. (Apologies if I posted this thread in the wrong forum!) However if the idea is popular enough, adding support for variants may be possible.
I too am concerned about the use of engines to compete, so I made the voting completely blind. You can use an engine, but there's no guarantee that everyone else who happens to be looking at the same game is using an engine, and even if they are, their engine might not come up with the same move. The use of random ballots to assign points also adds a bit of mystery to which votes are actually picked. The more popular moves have a greater chance of being picked, but there's a chance that a less popular move will be chosen first.
As far as the speed of the game, right now it's very slow due to lack of users! The idea is that this is something where you don't have to commit to an entire game within a certain time frame. Every time you play you're shown a different game in progress. It may be a game you've already participated in, or it may be a game you've never seen. The unit of play is the move, not the game, and points are awarded on a move-by-move basis, not game-by-game. As such, it might appeal to more casual players or players (like myself) who prefer random position puzzles to standard one-on-one gameplay.
Since you said this project is in its infancy, I hope you don't mind some ideas/ thoughts:
1. Chess games are better when better moves are played. The theory of "vote-chess" is that the best move is decided by the move receiving the most votes. If the algorithm is somehow adding randomness, and best moves are not being played, the game is dimished. (The "World" was nearly able to beat Kasparov, which shows voting by many players can produce high-level play).
2. Unless there's too many users, there should only be one game at a time. People who join should become committed to a game, and the goal should be to go for the "Win". It's team against team. If you miss a vote, your game goes on, but you can come back later and keep voting on your game.
3. Not sure if this is possible, but a bulletin board for each team would be awesome (not viewable by other team). It's a place where each team can discuss and decide on their next move. The bulletin board for the "World" team against Kasparov often became very heated, with serious analysis, and competing opinions and personalities. The discussion became BIG drama.
4. Since best play from normal chess comes from engines, some slight variation of the game will make it better. Otherwise the game can degrade to engine vs. engine. Even a variant game that has some a weak engine could work (such as Capablanca chess), because these engines cannot yet beat the best players.
5. One other option is "Human team" vs. "Engine", or "Human team" vs. "World Champion". Some possibilities:
Capablanca chess (World team vs. Chess-V engine)
Seirewan chess (World team vs. Fairy-max engine)
Bulldog chess (World team vs. World champion)
(We don't have a world champion yet, but may within a few weeks, and I don't know if he would be willing to play against a vote team)
These are just some ideas. Good luck!
That's a great list. Thanks so much! I'll definitely spend some time thinking about the points you raised. Although I feel like I haven't hit the right idea yet, I think there might be something worthwhile there if I can strip away the bad mechanics. Your suggestions will definitely help.
Keep us updated. Based on the game that is played, I might like to play.
After a few days of furious coding I've incorporated several of your excellent suggestions. I especially liked the idea of players belonging to teams. There's now much more transparency: you can see the entire list of active games even when you're not logged in, the scoring logic is easier to understand, and there's a leaderboard so you can keep track of how you stack up against everyone else. If you have time, check it out and let me know what your thoughts are.
I signed up and voted for a move in one game. After you take a rest from coding, one more small improvement:
Looks like ranks are numbered, but not files. When I play black, I like to see the file numbers (since it's upside down compared to my usual view).
I'll keep voting occasionally to see (from my point of view) if everything is working OK.
The files are actually numbered, but the pieces are so large and the numbering is so subtle that it's hard to see. One of the things on my to-do list is to address this.
I've also been trying to dig up some more users on social media, but I haven't had much success yet. Marketing isn't my strong suit! Hopefully we can get some more players soon so it's not just us.
It's a nice clean crisp interface. I like the presentation. A few comments on a game I'm voting on:
I started playing as Black, and I voted for 1...Nf6.
I see 1...d5 was played instead.
Is there anyway for me to see the moves suggested by other players, and number of votes for each?
And although playing Black, today the game is letting me vote on a move as White.
Can we vote on moves for both sides? (I'm playing Black, so my votes for White will be voting for bad moves).
For the past month I've been working on Move by Numbers, an experiment in what I've been calling "massively cooperative chess". The basic idea is that rather than competing against individuals, each game proceeds (and points are awarded) based on votes from people all around the world.
This project is very much in its infancy and still under development. If you find the idea intriguing or have suggestions for improvements, I'd love to hear what you think.