API Request: include start time in gamelist queries

by **barrycarter** on Tue Sep 21, 2010 6:22 pm

Any chance CC could include the game start time in response to a
gamelist query?

The XML event logs don't include this, but the information IS
available, since the HTML game logs have it.

You can get the end time by looking at the "won the game" event, but
there's no such trick for start time.

by **ender516** on Tue Sep 21, 2010 8:52 pm

What time do you want to see, the time when the game is initialized (due to the last empty slot being filled), or the time when the first player begins his first turn?

by **barrycarter** on Wed Sep 22, 2010 12:57 am

Ideally, both, but if I had to choose one: game initialization time.

We could then answer questions like "what's the highest number of games I've had 'open' at one time?", since most people include "initialized-but-no-turns-taken" as "open". Of course, most people joining a game that now becomes full take their turn pretty quickly (?).

Ideally, the game creation time (when the creator made it) would be good too, but, of the 3 choices, initialization time is probably the best.

by **ender516** on Wed Sep 22, 2010 8:35 am

In a sequential game, the last person to join a game is not necessarily the first one eligible to play, so that person may not even be online to know that the game is ready.

by **barrycarter** on Wed Sep 22, 2010 10:52 am

Yup, you're right. OK, I still think the game initialization time is what most people count as the "start" of the game, so, if I had to choose one, that would be it.

by **ender516** on Wed Sep 22, 2010 12:16 pm

I feel that I should point out that despite my coloured name as a member of the Tech Team, I have little more influence over such changes than you do. I asked my question mostly because I thought those who can make such changes would want the answer. I will see if I can draw more attention to your request.

by **barrycarter** on Wed Sep 22, 2010 10:41 pm

Given permission, I'd love to simply download the full logs (HTML) from all games, but given that there are over 6 million of them, I'm guessing that's not going to happen

by **ender516** on Wed Sep 22, 2010 11:48 pm

What on earth would you do with all that?

by **barrycarter** on Thu Sep 23, 2010 3:18 pm

Create a really big database to answer many of the questions in the other threads.

Whose played the most games at a time. "What's my best map"? "Which opponent am I best against?" etc etc etc

I'm already doing this for my own games, but there might be some players out there interested in other games.