THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL

by **Paul** Mon 04 Jul 2016, 9:34 am

Mon, Jan 25 2010 1:28 PM

Greetings everyone!

I thought I’d add my two cents to this discussion in the hopes of answering any questions re: this forum’s speculation.

-          WGT does not have a system where you, as the player, improve your skills via an RPG-system like in other games -- i.e. arm strength, scrambling ability, luck (my personal favorite), etc.   In WGT, the attributes of your player are the same from day 1 on.

-          How you improve your ability and/or skill in the game is via two methods:

         1)      Like real golf… simply playing, learning & getting more experience
         2)      Earning and/or purchasing better equipment (balls, clubs, etc)

-          The equipment manufacturers select which clubs to feature in the game and we follow their guidance on their performance characteristics.   For clubs, as an example, the attributes for distance, accuracy, loft, etc. we list in the pro shop via the ratings. NOTE: We created the WGT clubs to fill-in a few gaps… especially for the starting player.

-          Whenever you equip a club, it’s performance/output will NEVER change based on your score, a tournament, who you are playing or, most importantly, your tier.

-          Clubs are essentially locked and there is nothing automatically changing/modifying their performance during a single game, series of games, the day, etc.

So put another way…

-          If you are a HACK tier-player… the performance you will see with a WGT STARTER is the EXACT same performance a MASTER will see.

-          If you a PRO tier player… you will see the PING G10 Pro+ clubs performance in EXACTLY the same way as a MASTER tier player using the same clubs.

That’s how we built the system – so everyone is on a fair & level playing field.

- MisterWGT

by **Paul** Mon 04 Jul 2016, 9:41 am

WGTniv
1,788 Posts Tue, Jun 8 2010 3:40 PM

Wow, you guys have made this so amazingly more complicated than it is. Let me see what I can do to simplify this...
The game is pretty simple. Precision controls your accuracy. Imagine it's like a circle that surrounds the flagstick when you aim at it. The size of that circle is related to the precision rating. The higher the rating the smaller the circle. Your ball can land anywhere in the circle on a dinged shot (left or right, long or short). It will ALWAYS land in the circle on a ding shot, though sometimes it may land in the center of the circle and sometimes it may land on the very outer edge or anywhere in between those two points. When it lands on the outer edge this is what you guys have come to know as "the beast". Was the shot pre-programmed? Does it know you're standing on the 17th hole at Kiawah? No, it's just unfortunate timing. The result you see is the logical spread dictated by the precision rating of the club over 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 shots taken on the site. No matter how big or small the sample it's amazingly consistent because it is after all only a simple mathematical formula. The shot data is spread out amongst all users, so there will be times when you run into a lot of "edge cases" (aka deviations, aka outside edge of the precision circle) and times where you seemingly can't miss the center (even when you mishit). This is the ebb and flow of the game and it's always been there. In the short term you will have "bad" days and "good" days. In the long term (providing they are using the same clubs) any one player will see the same amount of "edge cases" or "deviations" that the rest of the players do.
And that's all there is to it! The other theories can be put to bed. There's no behind the scenes tweaking, no changing club attributes based on skill and no hidden mechanism that knows when you're on a water hole. It's just a formula that runs exactly the same for every single shot and it has no idea (nor does it care) where you are on the course. It doesn't matter if it's the first tee shot on #1 or the winning 10-foot putt in the USGA Virtual Championship. The formula runs the exact same calculation every single time and you're always at risk for an "edge case". How far away an "edge case" can take you depends solely on your precision rating for that club. The higher the precision rating (and conversely the more lofted the iron) the less "edge cases" will take you away from where you aimed.
Course releases have ZERO affect on your clubs. When a course is released it's just assets, hole maps, minimaps, HD photos and stuff that has absolutely no affect on your clubs. Us adding a JPG picture file (or 100,000 of them) does not change the way your approach shot on Kiawah #2 interacts with the green. Each course has it's own settings and each course comes with it's own set of "surfaces". If you go into Oakmont expecting your clubs to interact the same way they do on Kiawah then you've already made your first mistake. Every course has it's own nuances right down to how the ball is affected by elevation and break and you'll have to figure that out with practice. While adjusting to those nuances you may forget the nuances you learned on the older courses and get stuck in between your adjustments. That happens to me too. A new course comes out and suddenly I can't make a putt on Kiawah because I've spent so much time learning how to play the new breaks on Oakmont. As a result I end up over-playing breaks on everything for a short time while I adjust.
Hope that clears some of this confusion up. You fellas certainly come up with some wild ideas, but it's no where near as complicated or convoluted as some of you seem to think it is. Remember, keep it simple because it really is simple. =)

by **Paul** Mon 04 Jul 2016, 9:53 am

Digg
Facebook
Send to Friend
Report Abuse
WGTpizza
1,656 Posts Fri, Oct 12 2012 12:16 PM

GlassMan27:
For the record, I would have quit playing here a long time ago if I ever truly believed I was not provided with a level playing field on which to compete

I'm glad to hear you believe in WGT, and the fact that we give all of our players a level playing field.

GlassMan27:
So, based on your comments throughout this thread... am I correct in assuming that in no way, shape, or form VEM being utilized on this site?

No, VEM is a crucial system within WGT. I can understand the confusion surrounding this subject, so I sat down with the CEO (and owner of the patent) and he helped me decipher the legalese so that I may share it with you.
Essentially, the patent is for legal protection. It does give us the right to change the properties of clubs and balls, which we do often, but mainly it is for protecting the legal side of WGT. Whenever we exercise our right to change clubs and/or balls given to us by this patent, we do so unilaterally, and we tell the community about it. The only reasons we would do this is for balancing or bug correcting purposes.
Now, back to the question that keeps coming up "Does WGT have the capability to manipulate individual player's equipment?" The answer is yes, we have thecapability to do nearly anything to anyone, any course, any time, anywhere. The next question you should ask is "Does the video game I play operate in such an underhanded way that they would practice this capability?"
The reason I say "the video game I play" and not "WGT" is because I want to make the point that similar companies has similar capabilities to manipulate the environment they produce. Think of any other similar online game you have played. Did you trust them to operate honestly? To provide a level playing field for all players? If you did, I assume you stuck around a while. If you didn't, then I wouldn't blame you for spending your recreational time elsewhere.
This is essentially what this question boils down to - yes, WGT has the power to manipulate the environment and/or clubs and balls they produce. Do you believe us when we say that we don't do so in an individual, unknown, shady deal but rather in a public, across the board manner that affects every player the exact same way? This is for the consumer to decide. We give you our word that we do not abuse the power of VEM, nor do we give our players the capability to do so. What you do with this information is your choice.
I am certain there will still be "conspiracy theorists" out there who believe otherwise, and that is expected and perfectly acceptable. The only problem is when these theories are stated as facts. When someone passionately devotes so much time and effort into mastering a game, it is inevitable that at certain times they will fail when they feel the opposite outcome should have happened. The natural reaction that humans come to when they think they have all their bases covered but still fail is transference.
I hope I was able to address all of your concerns and that I explained myself thoroughly. As always, my door is open, so feel free to send me a personal message or respond here with any questions

Stay classy,
-WGTpizza