Artificial intelligence?

I wouldn't worry about Skynet nuking the world yet, if this is the best automated response Yahoo! can come up with:

Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 12:18:33 -0800
From: Yahoo!Games <games-feedback@yahoo-inc.com>
Subject: Re: Feedback - Suspected Bug (KMM9555908V62684L0KM)
To: Jeffrey

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Games.

Ratings are available for Chess, Go, Reversi, Checkers, Backgammon, Hearts, Pinochle, Spades, Euchre, Cribbage, Canasta, Gin, Word Racer, Dominoes, Chinese Checkers, Literati, Go Fish, Dots, Naval Command, Pool, Go Stop, Graffiti, Yahoo! Towers and Toki Toki Boom.

The ratings for all games except Backgammon are based on the rating system of the USCF (U.S. Chess Federation). Backgammon uses the rating system of FIBS (First Internet Backgammon Server). When you create a table in these games, you have the option of choosing whether you want the game to be rated or not. Your ratings will change as you win (or lose) rated games.

The amount your rating changes depends on the difference between your rating and your opponent's rating. Also, in Backgammon, it is the length of the match that affects the change in ratings, not by how much the match was won.

Please note that your rating might go down if you play someone who has a significantly lower rating than you.

Partnership games (Pinochle, Euchre, Canasta, Spades, Dominoes) have additional rules to account for partnerships. The average rating of each team is computed. A standard one-on-one rating calculation is made using these averages. Each player's individual rating is changed by the result of this calculation.

In the free-for-all games (Hearts, Sheepshead, Literati, and Mahjong), a one-on-one rating calculation is made between the winner and each loser. The rating change for each result is added to the winner's rating. Each loser's rating is only affected by the one-on-one calculation against the winner.

Ratings for Word Racer and Graffiti are similar to the free-for-all games. The difference is that your rating is calculated against all players, not just the winner. For example, if you come in 4th out of 8, your rating will reflect losses against players 1, 2, and 3 and will reflect wins against players 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Chinese Checkers, Go Fish, and Dots use a straightforward extension of the USCF system to support games with more than 2 players.

In Go Stop, the ratings are calculated over 3 hands. At the completion of these 3 hands, your score/money for those 3 hands is calculated and the overall winner is determined.

Yahoo! Towers uses the same rating system as Chinese Checkers. The only difference is that since it's a partnership game, your rating and your partner's rating are averaged together, and then the rating calculations are made.

For more information on the USCF rating formula, please visit their web site at:

http://www.uschess.org/ratings/

For more information on the FIBS rating formula, please visit their web site at:

http://www.northcoast.com/~mccool/fibsrate.html

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Regards,

Yahoo! Customer Care

For assistance with all Yahoo! services, please visit:

http://help.yahoo.com/

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Name: Jeffrey
Yahoo! ID: greasypeso

What game were you playing?
Literati

Subject: Suspected Bug
Time and date: Sun Feb 15 2004 10:50 pm EST

Type your feedback here
While playing, I formed an eight-letter word that contained both a double-word score and a triple word score. It was scored like this:

48 points awarded to GreasyPeso. 'stressed': (1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1) x (2 + 3).

Obviously, that math is not correct. Perhaps you have a bug in the scoring system?

While Viewing: http://games.yahoo.com/games/login2?page=lt&cat=beginner

I suppose the "intelligence" saw the word 'scoring', thought it was a synonym for 'ratings', and gave me a page of useless information I didn't ask for. The important question is, will anyone actually read my bug report?