Ok - not boundary as in 4's and 6's
In programming (more specifically testing) terms - a boundary condition is when you test the limited absolute of a procedure and variable - normally in conjunction with testing attached or interlinked variables and pre-set limits at the same time.
Right (sorry about that)
The unbalanced nature of longer format cricket - as detailed in several threads here. I don't think there is a "Catch up mode" or a "Everyone's a VVS Laxman in the 4th innings mode" - I think a calculated (as opposed to pre-set) boundary condition is being exceeded.
I have not the slightest idea how the ball by ball outcome is calculated in this game (let's get that straight from the outset) but it must surely include a lot of factors
Batting ability
Bowling ability
Bat fatigue
Bowl fatigue
Ball age
Bowler type
Bandedness
Pitch
Weather
Played in batter
Played in for bowler
and many many more.
At some point during a five day game this goes pear shaped. Most typically it's the miraculous 3rd or 4th innings scores that totally belie everything that has gone before.
My guess (and it is a guess only) is that some calculated variable is either attritionally reduced or slowly increased during the course of a game based on the underlying playing conditions (most likely of the pitch) - but player fatigue, confidence or other factors that may or may not exist in the game could also do it - as well as hundreds of other variables which may or may not exist in ICC2010.
Now their should be a sensible cut off for most variables. A pitch can only get so bad - confidence can only get so high - a "devil may care" attitude in the face of a large deficit will only carry a team so far.
Well my guess (and I re-iterate - it's a pure guess) is that one or more of these calculated variables is allowed to increase (or decrease) past what most would consider a sensible maximum (or minimum).
After yet another series full of miracuous 4th and 5th day events (always the team behind at that point pulls off a stroke of dogged batting/great bowling and both) I've decided to put my thinking cap on and think about this issue.
Am I griping about this from a "sore loser" point of view?
No! I benefit from these miracles as often as I suffer at the hands of them.
But they happen all the time - I rarely play a 5 day game where one doesn't occur.
This is why I think it's attritional. 20 over, 50 over cricket plays fantastically well and right to a mean average of score/wickets/boundaries and individual performances that I personally find very much in line with both real life and my expectations.
4 day 1st class cricket in the UK plays ok with a few foibles on the 4th day. Matches that finish on day three seem perfectly normal - the longer it goes on though the stranger the events that occur.
Test matches - most of which go well into a fourth and 75% into a 5th day are totally baffling. Not "hard" I win as many as I lose to these strange results - but sides making 450 for 2 on pitches without a green light in sight for either spin or bounce happen so regularly that it can't just be conincidence. I'm so confident that I now always put the opposition in. Whatever they set me in the fourth - the chances are I can get it or save the game.
Strangely - this doesn't work just when it should. If the pitch is "ok" or perhaps just a bit better than "ok" for a 4th and 5th day I often fail ( say 1/3rd full of green on the pitch meter or spinometer or a little better when the 4th innings starts) I get bowled out then sometimes for a decent 4th innings score. Chasing 450 on an average pitch I get nobbled for 220-230 as the pitch wears a little.
But if the pitch is terrible - I will more than likely romp home or save the game.
If I was testing software the first thing I would think of is that a boundary condition has been breached - possibly ever reset
i.e say a variable for overall pitch condition is allowed to go to -255... a further deterioration "clocks" the variable and it resets to zero which might mean its suddenly a brilliant pitch. All the individual elements say it's terrible, but when added up in the internal workings of the game engine it's breached a sensible boundary condition and "bang" it resets
I've played every version except the 2001 Ashes version for literally thousands of hours. 2010 is the first time this has occured. I also notice that boundary conditions are breached all the time in older versions. At around the 1200 wicket mark it resets to zero in the individual player stats for example.
Like I said at the top of the post - I have no idea if any of this is the case. But as someone who tests software all the time (currently Beta for Star Wars the old republic and 2 other games) this is exactly the sort of thing I would look out for, and the sort of reason that may be given (when a developer decides to give a reason - many don't)
Scritty
In programming (more specifically testing) terms - a boundary condition is when you test the limited absolute of a procedure and variable - normally in conjunction with testing attached or interlinked variables and pre-set limits at the same time.
Right (sorry about that)
The unbalanced nature of longer format cricket - as detailed in several threads here. I don't think there is a "Catch up mode" or a "Everyone's a VVS Laxman in the 4th innings mode" - I think a calculated (as opposed to pre-set) boundary condition is being exceeded.
I have not the slightest idea how the ball by ball outcome is calculated in this game (let's get that straight from the outset) but it must surely include a lot of factors
Batting ability
Bowling ability
Bat fatigue
Bowl fatigue
Ball age
Bowler type
Bandedness
Pitch
Weather
Played in batter
Played in for bowler
and many many more.
At some point during a five day game this goes pear shaped. Most typically it's the miraculous 3rd or 4th innings scores that totally belie everything that has gone before.
My guess (and it is a guess only) is that some calculated variable is either attritionally reduced or slowly increased during the course of a game based on the underlying playing conditions (most likely of the pitch) - but player fatigue, confidence or other factors that may or may not exist in the game could also do it - as well as hundreds of other variables which may or may not exist in ICC2010.
Now their should be a sensible cut off for most variables. A pitch can only get so bad - confidence can only get so high - a "devil may care" attitude in the face of a large deficit will only carry a team so far.
Well my guess (and I re-iterate - it's a pure guess) is that one or more of these calculated variables is allowed to increase (or decrease) past what most would consider a sensible maximum (or minimum).
After yet another series full of miracuous 4th and 5th day events (always the team behind at that point pulls off a stroke of dogged batting/great bowling and both) I've decided to put my thinking cap on and think about this issue.
Am I griping about this from a "sore loser" point of view?
No! I benefit from these miracles as often as I suffer at the hands of them.
But they happen all the time - I rarely play a 5 day game where one doesn't occur.
This is why I think it's attritional. 20 over, 50 over cricket plays fantastically well and right to a mean average of score/wickets/boundaries and individual performances that I personally find very much in line with both real life and my expectations.
4 day 1st class cricket in the UK plays ok with a few foibles on the 4th day. Matches that finish on day three seem perfectly normal - the longer it goes on though the stranger the events that occur.
Test matches - most of which go well into a fourth and 75% into a 5th day are totally baffling. Not "hard" I win as many as I lose to these strange results - but sides making 450 for 2 on pitches without a green light in sight for either spin or bounce happen so regularly that it can't just be conincidence. I'm so confident that I now always put the opposition in. Whatever they set me in the fourth - the chances are I can get it or save the game.
Strangely - this doesn't work just when it should. If the pitch is "ok" or perhaps just a bit better than "ok" for a 4th and 5th day I often fail ( say 1/3rd full of green on the pitch meter or spinometer or a little better when the 4th innings starts) I get bowled out then sometimes for a decent 4th innings score. Chasing 450 on an average pitch I get nobbled for 220-230 as the pitch wears a little.
But if the pitch is terrible - I will more than likely romp home or save the game.
If I was testing software the first thing I would think of is that a boundary condition has been breached - possibly ever reset
i.e say a variable for overall pitch condition is allowed to go to -255... a further deterioration "clocks" the variable and it resets to zero which might mean its suddenly a brilliant pitch. All the individual elements say it's terrible, but when added up in the internal workings of the game engine it's breached a sensible boundary condition and "bang" it resets
I've played every version except the 2001 Ashes version for literally thousands of hours. 2010 is the first time this has occured. I also notice that boundary conditions are breached all the time in older versions. At around the 1200 wicket mark it resets to zero in the individual player stats for example.
Like I said at the top of the post - I have no idea if any of this is the case. But as someone who tests software all the time (currently Beta for Star Wars the old republic and 2 other games) this is exactly the sort of thing I would look out for, and the sort of reason that may be given (when a developer decides to give a reason - many don't)
Scritty
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