(An attempt at) The top 40 TPA players from leaderboard scores

Tarek Oberdieck said:

Thanks for this quick support.

If it´s difficult to develop a sofware security system for the leaderboard I suggest the following as quick resolution:

Someone with a little bit of pinball knowledge remove all suspicious scores weekly or monthly from the leaderboard and put them in a backup database. Create a special mailadress and publish them on the website. Anyone who think "Hey, where´s my score?" can send an email to reactivate the score.

This solution should be a good improvement for the quality of the board.

For the community side I don´t understand why most of the top players always use nicknames.
I haven´t seen anyone like "MickeyMouse69" in the IFPA list.

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For me it's simply that I like having some little degree of anonymity about the things I do online. I don't really feel comfortable any random dude on the internet being able to link everything I've ever done on the computer to my real information. That said, I've already spilled my real name in a TPA newsletter so I guess that ship has sailed, but it was a good idea while it lasted.

e: Notably though it only links this account name and my real name. I don't tend to use the same ones in different places for the same reason.

Tarek Oberdieck said:

Yes, this one is legit. I also stopped after approximate 10 hours with 4 EBs left:

I will always make screenshots for every score as from now...

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http://digitalpinballfans.com/showt...-a-quicker-scoring-system?p=206917#post206917

First time I've noticed somebody messing with me: the 5.44B by "vikingerik" on Addams Family was not mine. I just put up 4.3 billion that actually was mine and that's why I noticed.

Update: the new 7.1 billion is indeed mine, the 5.44B still isn't.

fromduc said:

I disagree, there's a lot of interesting stuff in this thread and i often go in previous pages to find informations i need, i almost remember on which pahge i can find which information, looking for old threads would be a pain in the ass. For me the best way is to keeep this thread and keep posting the leaderboard here AND create an other thread in sticky blocked to comments with only leaderboard updates.

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That would work fine as well. I am quit curious to see the next update and the progress I have made. I have played far more than I should the last two months!

I think I had a pretty big month. Can't wait until Friday to see what happens.

Anything going on with the website? I can't log in right now. All that happens is I get a message saying "email validation required" and nothing happens. Very odd.

Also I just noticed that the Account tab goes to pinballanalytics.com instead of pinballarcade.com - a quick whois of pinballanalytics.com shows it's owned by FS. Not sure if that's new or not!

[Edit] Hmm if I manually change the URL to http://www.pinballarcade.com/Account instead of https://www.pinballanalytics.com/Account I can log in from there. Hello, rabbit hole.

I got a request, maybe i'm tthe only one interested or maybe Invitro has more time on friday than on Sunday, if it's the case no worries and big respect for ur great work dude

Wouldnt it be possible to have this leaderboard updates at the end of week ends instead of the beginning? I guess most of us have work/school and play more during the w-e, so i think it would be better to have the results after our w-e of "work" ^^ More than that, tables are usually released on wednesday, thursday on Europe (and even friday if us PS3 players are lucky this week), so it would let more time to everybody to play new tables.

Again if i'm the only one thinkin this way or if fridays are more friendly for Invitro, forget about it, but i've always disliked fridays for updates, and i got to admit i say it this special week coz we should finally got the 5 (!) tables we wait for 5 months on PS3 and it's a pain to have to wait another month (when we'l be again late of 3 tables) for takin it in our tops

fromduc said:

I got a request, maybe i'm tthe only one interested or maybe Invitro has more time on friday than on Sunday, if it's the case no worries and big respect for ur great work dude

Wouldnt it be possible to have this leaderboard updates at the end of week ends instead of the beginning? I guess most of us have work/school and play more during the w-e, so i think it would be better to have the results after our w-e of "work" ^^ More than that, tables are usually released on wednesday, thursday on Europe (and even friday if us PS3 players are lucky this week), so it would let more time to everybody to play new tables.

Again if i'm the only one thinkin this way or if fridays are more friendly for Invitro, forget about it, but i've always disliked fridays for updates, and i got to admit i say it this special week coz we should finally got the 5 (!) tables we wait for 5 months on PS3 and it's a pain to have to wait another month (when we'l be again late of 3 tables) for takin it in our tops

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First off, there has been a lot of action in this thread recently, and I am definitely reading everything, but I haven't replied yet due to laziness. I have been working on another TPA-related project, and also when I start investigating these other impostor reports I always end up writing another program or three... anyway, I will record the impostor data and make appropriate comments real soon now.

I could post results on a Sunday rather than Friday, sure, they are the same to me. Anyone else want to issue a preference? And I have been very casual about the time I start grabbing data on Friday... sometimes it's like 12:30am (ET) and other times 9:00pm... maybe I should try for a later time if people are counting on it.

I will now return to Whirlwind where I hope to break my high score...

vikingerik said:

First time I've noticed somebody messing with me: the 5.44B by "vikingerik" on Addams Family was not mine.

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I saw that earlier actually. Please keep me updated on these if possible, and I'll take care of them.

EldarOfSuburbia said:

I get a message saying "email validation required" and nothing happens.

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If you experience this again you will need to use the forgot password function to re-validate your email (at least for the web login). As part of an increase in general security many accounts will likely need to do the same

invitro said:

when I start investigating these other impostor reports I always end up writing another program or three

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We also are keeping track of these, and will shortly delete them along with some other outstanding offenders. If you are compiling a list, perhaps we'll wait so we can compare notes just in case we've missed any.

invitro said:

And I have been very casual about the time I start grabbing data on Friday

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Please note that we have limited the web leaderboards to the top 500 scores, while the downloads remain at the top 2000. The "Master Data" is updated every Sunday, but the "Current Table Data" is on demand

LAW said:

If you experience this again you will need to use the forgot password function to re-validate your email (at least for the web login). As part of an increase in general security many accounts will likely need to do the same

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That worked, thanks.

I would say that new tables shouldn't be counted until they've been out for x days/weeks. With many platforms not accounted for those scores will have too much impact. One could grind a table for hours to get a great score but a new table could "easily" give you a great "Invitro-score" until most other platforms catch up. That will give your high score-list an unjust shift towards those platforms.

For example, I remember my best score ever was #2 on WhiteWater (2.2B), which I got the first week. I was quite proud but it was mainly because I was quick to get a good score - not necessarily because that was an amazing score.

What are your thoughts about this, [MENTION=446]invitro[/MENTION]?

AntonR said:

Same thing happened to me last September.
I think I did mention about it in this thread, but I guess you didn't notice my message.

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I have blocked these scores:
$GLITCHES{BlkHole}{AntonR} = 148_951_870; # impersonator, added 2015-05-12, #6
$GLITCHES{Gorgar}{AntonR} = 9_845_760; # impersonator, added 2015-05-12, #11
$GLITCHES{BlackKnight}{AntonR} = 258_741_650; # impersonator, added 2015-05-12, #7
$GLITCHES{BigShot}{AntonR} = 1_578_420; # impersonator, added 2015-05-12, #9
$GLITCHES{Genie}{AntonR} = 11_584_630; # impersonator, added 2015-05-12, #7
$GLITCHES{FirePwr}{AntonR} = 6_814_950; # impersonator, added 2015-05-12, #6
$GLITCHES{CentralPark}{AntonR} = 17_846; # impersonator, added 2015-05-12, #5

The other table for which there are two scores (of rank <#500) is BSD; you have the 48B score you've claimed, and there is also a 5,006,857,350 score.

All these scores (not the BSD one) were made within a week or so of your original post on 2014-09-16.

Mmmh, it seems there's a glitchy score on Jack*Bot:


It's my ID and I don't even own this table! (PS3 player...)

Storm Chaser said:

I would say that new tables shouldn't be counted until they've been out for x days/weeks. With many platforms not accounted for those scores will have too much impact. One could grind a table for hours to get a great score but a new table could "easily" give you a great "Invitro-score" until most other platforms catch up. That will give your high score-list an unjust shift towards those platforms.

For example, I remember my best score ever was #2 on WhiteWater (2.2B), which I got the first week. I was quite proud but it was mainly because I was quick to get a good score - not necessarily because that was an amazing score.

What are your thoughts about this, @invitro?

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I know that it is somewhat unfair to the platforms that don't have certain tables to allow points on those tables. But I feel that waiting on a table to make all platforms would be worse. I think this is the main issue, but there are some other quick things...

- I think that most (all?) tables have been out for maybe at least three weeks (on the non-delayed platforms) before I've included them. This may not have been true every month, I actually don't know. I don't think I'd want to include a table after only one week, but I'm not sure, and I may have already.

- Sure, you can get more points that you should early on, but that is transient, and you'll need to defend your ranking or your points will go down. Like I'm going to get big points this time for #18 Jack*Bot, but that won't last. I think omitting Jack*Bot this month would be worse than allowing it, though. Also, if all platforms had all tables, well, getting good on a table quickly is a real pinball skill. The old PAPA tournaments always had brand-new tables in the finals partly for this reason (maybe they still do, I don't know).

- I don't know exactly which tables are not on which platforms... maybe there is a list of this data on this website somewhere, but if not, that would be another set of data to keep track of.

- The number of tables you can get points on is limited to half the total number of tables partly/mostly for this reason.

- I have a little bit of platform bias here, since I'm on PC and think some people should just toughen up and get the game for their PC sorry kidding some, don't get (too) mad at me! But really, has time passed me by so much that now iphones and ipads are considered something that people are expected to own (I don't have either and don't want either), and a PC is a luxury or obsolete like a typewriter?

Tarek Oberdieck said:

Completely different problems for me. Since a few hours someone post scores under my name:

Addams Family Gold Edition 37,343,833,520 - I do not own this table.
Tales of the Arabian Nights 61,997,370,350 - I have never played this one seriously.

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I have blocked these two, and also the PotO 239M score.

EldarOfSuburbia said:

Of course there are still plenty of suspect scores out there still - like the top 3 scores on Firepower, for instance. If Tarek can't get 10M on that table I seriously doubt anyone can. Let alone 100M. Or, say 250M on the nose.

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This is a late reply so perhaps you've already resolved... I've had the 627M and 250M scores blocked for a long time, and FS has filtered out both. I don't see a bad 3rd score though, now or on 2015-04-17, or in the leaderboard history.

vikingerik said:

First time I've noticed somebody messing with me: the 5.44B by "vikingerik" on Addams Family was not mine. I just put up 4.3 billion that actually was mine and that's why I noticed.

Update: the new 7.1 billion is indeed mine, the 5.44B still isn't.

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I blocked the 5.44B score, and it was apparently actually deleted entirely by Farsight (not just filtered), sometime between 2015-05-10 and 2015-05-12.

LAW said:

We also are keeping track of these, and will shortly delete them along with some other outstanding offenders. If you are compiling a list, perhaps we'll wait so we can compare notes just in case we've missed any.

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The only impersonators I know of are the ones mentioned in this thread: invitro, Tarek Oberdieck, vikingerik, AntonR, Ouazegaga. There are numerous (100 to 200) instances of a username with two leaderboard scores for one table, but I don't know how many of them are impersonators.

Well also there is Rschwantner with 19,999,999,990 on Starship Troopers. I say that is an impersonator only because I have a note that says this username is an employee of yours .

LAW said:

Please note that we have limited the web leaderboards to the top 500 scores, while the downloads remain at the top 2000. The "Master Data" is updated every Sunday, but the "Current Table Data" is on demand

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I am sad to see the limit to 500 scores per table, but I'll deal with it , 2000 is certainly plenty for the Top 100 list. It was very interesting to track the total number of registered players per table per month, which I suppose is no longer possible (I want this data if anyone knows how to get it ).

I need to get on the job of using your csv data, which I've barely looked at. Having to go there to get 2000 scores will provide good impetus .

Tann said:

Mmmh, it seems there's a glitchy score on Jack*Bot:

Code:

#4.  Ouazegaga
                112,986,986,940

It's my ID and I don't even own this table! (PS3 player...)

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I have blocked it.