Measuring the Anonymizer

[Rexxie 10,789]

So, the Anonymizer. As far as I know, no one has really measured the impact it has on gameplay; I've only found one arty focus based test that didn't really publish any of its data. I'm thinking wotlabs can do better. I really need some help getting your unfiltered pre-and-post-anonymizer replays in the same tank. Some stats that might be interesting are your winrate in that set of games, damage dealt, damage blocked, received HE hits, time alive, and spotting damage. I will be using the wot replay analyzer to pull the results.

The three questions I really want answered are:

1. Is the anonymizer useful?
2. If so, how useful?
3. In what ways does it impact results?

Any help would be super appreciated! Again, I'm looking for a solid chunk (probably no less than 40 total) of replays in the same tank with the anonymizer both on and off. 

[Madner Kami 405]

Looking forward to someone actually testing this. My expectation: It will not have any appreciable influence on average. Good players generally are uncovered more often, due to moving more, playing more agressively, firing whenever they can and thus make themselves a more obvious target on their own.

[GehakteMolen 2,063]

when u are ano, there is also a risk of especially arty shooting you on purpose, so that also makes it less effective...

[H4NI 138]

Playing with anon mode since day one and nothing is changed. Maybe i'm not purple (enough) so it's different perspective, but i still get focused/yoloed like i used to before the mode was introduced.

[Private_Miros 2,969]

I've always been of the opinion that xvm focus was a largely a myth.

In general good players get focussed because they are far more than anyone else in a positions where they are a threat and in the fray.

In the rarer instances where a player was focussed by an enemy because of stats, it generally was in the favour of the player being focussed, since now suddenly an enemy player is not farming Steve on your team, and less likely to damage you for the same amount in the same time span as they would have farmed Steve.

[Deus__Ex__Machina 989]

3 hours ago, Private_Miros said:

I've always been of the opinion that xvm focus was a largely a myth.

In general good players get focussed because they are far more than anyone else in a positions where they are a threat and in the fray.

i dont think its a myth, while it may be over hyped in-terms of how often it happens. its 100% very real and sometimes you can blatantly tell when its being done to you. also outside of vxm focus things like clan tag focus also exists which in summary comes down to focusing players in better clans which is essentially focusing on the belief that they have better stats. 

there is also this old gem 

coming from my own experience as someone who has used anon since day 1, id say its effectiveness is a coin toss.

it can be useful to hide both stats and clan tags to help keep people from targeting you for those reasons, but at the same time it can be a target itself as there are players who focus anon players under the assumption that they are good players trying to hide ( these are typically the same people who would otherwise xvm/clan tag focus) 

i have had games where ive been mostly ignored despite my aggressive play style because arty is busy focusing a non-anonamized player (typically a good/decent player or a good clan tag), or because there are multiple anon's on my team and i just so happen to not be the one they choose. 

overall is it useful? sometimes. again its really a coin toss, dependent on what kind of players you get on the enemy team and how they view anon's. is it worth using? i cant really say 100%, i still use it myself because of those games where i really notice it helping. but again it also can very noticeably hurt you at the same time.  

stats wise i dont really think it impacts anything on a significant scale because of the randomness of how good/bad it can be.  

 

  

[Fulcrous 2,073]

There's a difference between XVM focus and getting shot at because you are in an inherently contested position.

To deny XVM focus is a thing is downright delusional.

[Nicarasu 35]

Would it be helpful for a potato such as myself to contribute some data? I can start saving replays for science. I've been using anonymizer since release of it to help dilute attention on people who are actually good using it, ha.

[Rexxie 10,789]

25 minutes ago, Nicarasu said:

Would it be helpful for a potato such as myself to contribute some data? I can start saving replays for science. I've been using anonymizer since release of it to help dilute attention on people who are actually good using it, ha.

Sure! That would be great.

[Nicarasu 35]

34 minutes ago, Rexxie said:

Sure! That would be great.

Cool, I'll turn on recording then and I'll let you know once I have some replays gathered.

Edit: do you want at least 40 battles each with it turned off and on, or combined?

[Rexxie 10,789]

50 minutes ago, Nicarasu said:

Cool, I'll turn on recording then and I'll let you know once I have some replays gathered.

Edit: do you want at least 40 battles each with it turned off and on, or combined?

Combined, but the more the better!

[3MAJ86 126]

I think that there is a difference, and also the amount of toxic messages I get after the battle is lower (i guess bads are lazy to check player stats after the battle, as they can't just look you up in the player search after they are killed early on - they just switch to another tank and move on). And I am far from super unicum, but when you change your overall to blue, you kind of stand out from majority of orange / yellow / green players. Of course this is subjective, as I don't have the data to back it up. But at the same time, i stopped playing wot for more than a year, and i returned to the game after anonymizer was introduced. I have been using it ever since. 

 

But I am willing to participate in the experiment. I am trying (for the n-th time) to 3-mark the T-34-3. I will play 40 games with and without anonymizer. Just tell me, is it critical to stay in each battle until it ends, or I can leave the battle when I get killed?

 

 

[Rexxie 10,789]

47 minutes ago, 3MAJ86 said:

But I am willing to participate in the experiment. I am trying (for the n-th time) to 3-mark the T-34-3. I will play 40 games with and without anonymizer. Just tell me, is it critical to stay in each battle until it ends, or I can leave the battle when I get killed?

You can leave the battle as soon as you die. As long as the replay is recorded, you're okay.

[MagicalFlyingFox 1,022]

It was never XVM for me. It was my clan tags that caused issues. There are only like 3-4 clans on the server with recognisable enough names for people to target. I'm back to using anonymiser again because I'm back in one of them. 

[crapcannon 67]

I had no idea this was a new feature till I saw it here! Thanks for the heads up!

[echo9835 168]

@Rexxie I can get you some replays in about 2ish weeks, I don't have my computer with me for the next week, but I can run a couple dozen games with the anonimizer on then turn it off and run a dozen more or so next week. I was thinking of usining the AMX ELC for 20ish games, the Charioteer for another 20, and maybe the Leo PTA for the last 20 or so games. 

In my experience it it only works if there are more than 5 or so players on the team using it. If only one player is using it the  the clicker scum just assumes that the one player anonimized is a unicum and nails them over and over. It also doesnt help much if you are platooned with good players who dont run the anonimizer and it doesn't do a thing if you are in a reward tank. 

I should also say that I am by no means a unicum player, so I have no idea how that may effect things.

[Nicarasu 35]

@Rexxie I'm almost done with a pack of 40 replays in my Patton, 20 on 20 off, how would you like me to send you those when I'm done?

[Rexxie 10,789]

Something like dropbox would probably work the best, you can pm them to me

[3MAJ86 126]

I'm like 60% of the way in making my 80 replays. Sorry it takes more time. 

 

Also I will play 4 tanks, 20 games each, 10 on and 10 off. Is it fine with you? I first said I will play T-34-3, but having in mind it has preferential matchmaking it may distort some of the KPIs that you will be observing. 

[Rexxie 10,789]

Sounds good to me! I'm not in a rush.

6 hours ago, 3MAJ86 said:

Also I will play 4 tanks, 20 games each, 10 on and 10 off. Is it fine with you? I first said I will play T-34-3, but having in mind it has preferential matchmaking it may distort some of the KPIs that you will be observing. 

It could distort some things, you're right. Im not sure just how much, but it's something I'll keep in mind if I do start reading into pref games.

[kolni 69,670,872]

it matters, but hiding your stats basically tells anyone who can tell right from left that you're a player above 50%

it's not as bad as having triple the digits of the next best player on your team and a FAME tag alongside it but it's there

it's negligible imo, with or without - i play the same, perform about the same and the only occurence is that someone occasionally recognises me 

(don't hide your stats if they're below 50)

i'd say it's still a buff to anyone at 60+ - xvm shitters can't tell whether you are 55 or 60 so they'll focus you just the same - just get used to it and you'll improve as a player eventually

[sundanceHelix 356]

On 10/4/2020 at 6:41 PM, MagicalFlyingFox said:

It was never XVM for me. It was my clan tags that caused issues. There are only like 3-4 clans on the server with recognisable enough names for people to target. I'm back to using anonymiser again because I'm back in one of them. 

That kind of shit exists on ANZ too? I thought only HK had that kind of shit

[MagicalFlyingFox 1,022]

Its worse on ANZ.

[_Juris 216]

I've played with it off and on since it came out.  At least at my level, it does feel like it makes some difference, but i'm happy to do the replay data collection for you and see what we see, as long as you don't mind if it takes a little while to collect it?  Was three-marking shitty tier 8s, unless you'd rather data from different tanks...  you're probably getting either VK75.01 or T42 replays. 

[BadLuckCharm 41]

I used that once. Gave me a name i didn't like, so i never used it again. Not that it matters much at my level. It's mostly at opposite ends of the spectrum that'll see a difference, i'm guessing. Less focus at the top, less* bad-mouthing at the bottom.

 

*People bitch and complain about anything anyways, but yeah, at the start of a match, a bad player might get outed less for bad stats.