From: appelo@dutiag.tudelft.nl (C.J. Appelo)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: *** NET PC GAMES TOP 100 * DOCUMENT *** (repost)
Date: 27 Jan 93 12:09:33 GMT
Organization: Delft University of Technology


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 The Net PC Games Top 100                       Document - Version 2
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THE CHART...

The Net PC Games Top 100 is a weekly chart for PC games, compiled from
votes that are sent by e-mail. Every game player in the world, having
an e-mail account, is allowed to send his or her votes. The chart is
published every Monday on Usenet in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games and the
rec.games.misc newsgroups. It is also uploaded to the risc.ua.edu ftp-
site and can be found in the solutions directory. Whenever possible,
the chart is sent automatically to every voter.

THE VOTES...

When you send us your votes, you are allowed to spread a total of
20 points over several games. Different games may get a different
amount of points, but not more than 5 points may be given to one game.
As a result, at least 4 games should get points when all 20 points are
used. (It is allowed, of course, to use less than 20 points.) Try to
concentrate on the games you play now, and not the ones you played a
long time ago. The chart is not an all-time favourites list. It
reflects the popularity of games that people are currently playing.

The chart is compiled automatically by a program that reads and
processes e-mail messages. When sending your votes, be sure to have
the word "votes" (or "vote") in the subject of your message. Only
points may be given in messages having the subject "votes". Send
comments and questions in different messages using different subjects.

We understand that your votes will not change much over the weeks and
that it may be tiresome to send us a message every week. Therefore, we
use everyone's votes for 4 weeks in a row. So, when your list of
favourite games does not change, you only have to send a new message
after 4 weeks. You will be notified when 4 weeks have gone by, if you
haven't sent us new votes yet. New votes can be sent anytime. Your
previous votes will be automatically discarded.

THE SYNTAX...

The message holding the votes should have one game on every line. The
first thing to appear on the line is the number of points, second the
title of the game, third the publisher(s). The line has to be ended
with the ID (a 4-digit number) of the game, which can be found in the
chart between brackets []. This ID is quite important, for it is the
number used by the program that compiles the chart. Only for new
games, that are not yet in the chart, the ID-number may be left out.

Here's an example of a message:

Subject: votes

> 3          Ultima underworld            Origin/Mindscape [1019]
> 4          Wolfenstein 3D                      ID/Apogee [1013]
> 5          Push-over                               Ocean [1030]
> 5          Lure of the temptress                  Virgin [1046]
> 2          An American tail                     Capstone  
> 1          Comanche: Maximum overkill          Novalogic [1101]

Be sure to have the ID-number in square brackets []. A character at
the beginning of the line, like '>', is allowed. Try to avoid having
lines with unnecessary information, like disclaimers.

The easiest thing to do is to reply to the message containing the
latest chart. Copy the chart and delete all lines, except the ones
containing your favourite games. Delete the numbers that hold this
weeks and last weeks position and the number of weeks, and put in your
points instead. This way you don't have to worry about titles,
publishers and ID-numbers.

THE COMPILATION...

For compiling the chart, the Top 100 from the previous week is used.
The games get points corresponding to their position in this chart.
These points are exponential. This means that the difference between
the points of high positioned games is bigger than the difference
between those in the lower regions of the chart. This assures that
games can climb and drop rapidly in the lower regions, but have to
fight a much tougher battle in the top of the chart.

After allocating these initial points, the points sent to us by mail
in the last 4 weeks are normalized. This means they are multiplied
equally, in such a way that the total of all these points is a
constant number, used every week. This asserts that the number of
votes received in a week has no influence on how much changes there
are in the chart. More votes result in a more accurate chart, but not
in a chart with more movement.

After the normalization, the relative points of the voters are added
to the initial points. This achieves movement in the chart. When a
game gets few or no points from voters, it will automatically drop in
the new chart. For the final touch, it is measured how much traffic
there is for every game in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games newsgroup. This
results in extra points, that are also normalized and added to the
rest. The benefit of this method is the support for new games, since
new games receive a lot of attention in the newsgroup. This helps the
chart staying fresh.

As you should have noticed, it is not the case that the game that gets
the most points from our voters, will automatically be number one.
Instead, it will be the game that does the best climb up the chart.
This compilation system introduces a chart that is robust. Games can
only reach the top when they get many points for several weeks in a
row. The more usual "most points is highest position" system would
cause very strange things to happen, when the number of voters is
limited, like in this case. In our opinion, another advantage of the
system adopted by us, is that it is more exciting. Voters can
carefully watch the movements of their favourite games, and influence
the movements by balancing their votes. Of course, the influence of a
single person on the chart decreases, when the number of voters
increases.

THE TIP 20...

Together with the Top 100 another list is published every week. It is
called the Tip 20. This list contains games that people have voted
for, but which did not get enough points to enter the Top 100. It is
useful for detecting new games that some other voters came up with and
that you want to support too, to get them in the Top 100. The
compilation system that we use, assures that all games will enter the
Tip 20 first, before entering the Top 100. Also, in the Tip 20 games
will only go up, because they are be removed from the list when the
support for them drops.

THE RESTRICTIONS...

It is not allowed to give more than 20 points to the games or more
than 5 points to one game. Extra points are automatically discarded by
the program (at random).

You may send us more than one message a week, but only the latest one
will be used. (This can be useful when people change their mind.)

Do not forget to mention the publisher when giving points to a game
that is not already in the chart. There may be games around that even
we have never heard of.

THE DEADLINE...

The deadline for every chart is on Friday, around 1.00 pm (GMT).
Messages that come in after the deadline are used for the next week.
New charts are compiled and published on Monday.

THE PUBLISHER...

Jojo Productions
P.O. Box 3077
2601 DB Delft
Tel: +31 15 613510
The Netherlands

correspondent: Jurgen Appelo
appelo@dutiag.twi.tudelft.nl