Xenuria wrote:I am on the fence when it comes to blink.
When I started asking questions I was warned to stop or I would be banned from the ingame channel.
I asked somer herself some of my questions and she was evasive to say the very least.
Here are some key questions you should be asking.
"Why are their people in somer blink with win ratios over 95%?"
"Why is the majority of the statistical data hidden from the end user?"
When I make an effort to determine if something is bogus or not I ask for the data on wins and losses for everybody and everything with names and personal information partially redacted. Every legitimate organization I have ever requested this from has provided me with this, except somer blink.
In answer to the first question - It's answered anecdotally in the thread above you. :) Some folks get lucky on their first few blinks, and stop forever. It's the same reason some people have win ratios at 0% - they get a bad first run, and stop forever. I grant, it's something that would be addressed with the "fixed win percentage" idea outlined earlier in the thread, but that's just not something we're willing to do. Every draw is, and will stay, independent to every other draw. :)
In answer to the second question - Large swaths of database queries readily available to the public in a unified location are a server-melting fiasco. Blink receives around 700-2.5k individual users per hour, most of which stay on the site for 27-42 minutes each, and hammer F5 like a rabid monkey while they're there. Some concessions have to be made to technical performance :)
In answer to why YOU specifically aren't given large swaths of statistical data with personal information redacted - if that's what it would take for you to play, we're okay with you not playing. :) Even if we did take the time to hand all that over, a day later you could make the same demand for information again, and again, and again. If someone really distrusts our service that much, we're totally cool with you not using it :)
In answer to Rakshasa Taisab:
Each blink does have a unique identifier, it's Blink ID number. It is visible on even the currently active blinks, in the lower left hand corner of the Blink (highlight the text there to see it). The results from that are viewable to anyone who played on that Blink - though I grant, they're not perpetually visible to anyone who wants to look.
And, again, all that said - I absolutely concede there's zero way we could guarantee that all of that code didn't change right after you looked. The answer to that one will always be: It wouldn't benefit us to do that. It would catastrophically cripple us. But if you disbelieve that, it's totally cool to keep not playing. :)
Edit to add: Re-reading, I misunderstood what you were looking for from a unique identifier. Random.org doesn't have any type of identification API, so that's not possible (to my knowledge) while using them as our RNG source.