9 rings - I don't get why some people pick the edge rings

Wiki page on nine rings.

I can understand people picking the center ring if they didn't do any calculations and went with the ring that wins more. I can understand picking the center if they just went where the most people are.

Personally I go for the corner rings since, while all rings have the same payout over time (meaning all are equal towards lucky title), the corners lose more (more points to unlucky).

But every time I've looked at the nine rings there are people who are AFKing on the edge rings (the rings that aren't corners or the center). I'm trying to understand why they pick the edge rings, but I don't have a clue.

Probably for the same reason you do. It's harder to get the Unlucky title apparently then to get the Lucky title. So people will work on their Unlucky while AFKing and still win some towards lucky.

pretty much what pwnd said. Hell can you break a lockpick with a high retain level? Nop? Didn't think so.

I sit on the middle ring so if i get a string of bad luck while AFK'ing i don't run dry, or i get a string of good luck and overflow bags

lose more idk about that. I think my win vs loss ratio for the corner alone is fairly good.

I Believe Someone did the calculations and showed that you actually win the exact same amount that you would in the middle ring. The benefit is that it actually helps your lose title alot more.

For an Example People sit in the middle and lost an average of 2 tickets per game, and lose only 4/9 times.

Well the people that sit in the edge ring have the same average of 2 tickets lost per game, but they lose 6/9 times so they gain the same in the lucky title but more in the unlucky.

Edit: Sorry your first post already said all this but your title is VERY misleading. By edge i think one of the corners. My bad

I have to agree..This years event seems to be hitting the outer corners 5/9 times.
I think they should rename 9 rings to 9 corners.
Is it just me, or am i constantly counting more games won by corner spots this year.

I think corners are hitting more also.

I worded the OP badly. I was referring to the edge non-corner rings. So I edited the OP to clarify it.

The tickets can be sold for the same price as you bought them for, so extra tickets aren't an issue. So I just spent 100k on tickets with the plan to sell back all the spares later while ensuring that I will not run out while AFK.

Would someone be willing to calculate the chance of overflow on someone who starts with x full stacks of tickets and one open slot ?

I'm taking a guess that it is very unlikely. If you have 2 or 3 open slots overflow shouldn't be an issue. So I'd suggest having at least 5 open slots when you go AFK.

I'm not doing the math, but I wouldn't leave with only one open spot.

I AFK'd in 9-rings last night (corner spot) with 10 stacks and 5 open spots. I woke up with 14 stacks! Unfortunately, 3 hours later I was down to about 3 stacks. Aren't fluctuations annoying?

The maths shows that over a long period the rings pay the same. You just pick where you want to stand in order to accelerate the particular title you want. Pretty much what others have said.... Said again.

lol the payoffs are the same in the long term, no matter where u stand.
As for why....
I sat there, on an edge ring for a while just for fun... but then my lucky exceeded my unlucky by a fair bit, so I'm sticking with the corners now =P

A corner square will lose exactly the same number of tickets/game as the centre square, but give more unlucky points. The centre square does have a small advantage in the fact that it is less susseptable to wiping you out due to small periods of "bad luck" and as such may be a better choice for those that want to last out the night afk, but do not have the capital to purchase large quantities of tickets. Edge squares would form the half way point between the "don't have enough capital"-centre squares and the "best bang for your buck"-corner squares... that being said, I imagine most edge standers are there because they don't know better.

People on the edge are banking on the premise that somewhere hidden in the servers randomization function is some code that will tilt the odds towards the rings with the least number of people (meaning Anet rigging the game so that players on average lose more then they should).

Thats the best I can think off, other then being too lazy to look at wiki.

Except that loading it that way would mean the corners "associate win" more often...

Oh, wait. I see your point.

What else is there to say?

I sit on the edge, no real reason. Still pretty much win about the same as i lose, haven' t fallen below 1.5 stacks yet (started with just 3, and have gotten up to 6 stacks from winning). Still building a title no matter which ring you stand in. Plus I get to stand by myself since not many stand on the edges.


Edit: What I won't get are the people who move from ring to ring after every time, unless they are trying to build only unlucky.

For every 9 plays (average), you will win 85 tickets, regardless of which ring you are on, for a net loss of 5 tickets per 9 plays.

The center ring wins most often, and so progresses the slowest for Unlucky. The non-corner side rings win second. The corner rings win the least, and thus the fastest progression towards Unlucky.

As such, the only reason I can see people playing on the non-corner side rings would be because they don't know the calculations and randomly chose a ring.

Two options are available for the center ring - it wins the most often, so people think they gain the most tickets there, or they are trying to avoid Unlucky while advancing Lucky.

i wasnt in corner or middle. and i did get lucky points nicely same with unlucky? and yeah i didnt care how much i get towards the titles i just wanted spent my cash fast. and get someting

Well I switched to edging this time around and have been happy with the results. The maths is true that in a perfectly distributed selection process there is no advantage to where you sit, so you will advance both titles the fastest on a corner ring.

Where the maths falls down is there is a random element to the game, so even over the time frame we get to play the results will not match a standard distribution. You can find your stash of tokens wiped out rather quickly and unpredictably when sitting in the corners (or should I say by "chosing" the wrong corner to sit on).

I find the edges this time have given me a leg up regarding the unlucky title, and produced a more predictable result in terms of token loss. This lets me manage token refreshing with long absences and little in the way of monitoring and management.

Just my 2 cents to answer the OP .