Anything a player does that is within the rules (which is absolutely everything short of hacking since this is a computer game) is welcome in my book. Blocking a pocket is a sound strategy and not unsporting in any way. Just like using any means available to counter it too.

For me, in the end of the day, two things matter more than anything:

1. Games need to boil down to more than potting balls (contrary to what some of the snooker-haters seem to think)

2. Things need to have a certain balance, not only in terms of effort vs reward, but more importantly, different strategies must be viable. If you remove the counters to any given strategy, hence making it disproportionally powerful, you turn the game into a single track. Which isn't good for anyone.

whenever i have played pool in real life, sinking an opponents ball group has always been considered a foul yes. i accept in uk8 you are allowed to sink an opponents ball purposely on your first shot if you have acquired a carry, because that is in the game's design. the fact you are not penalised for doing so shows it is proper and not discouraged in uk, but in us8 it is discouraged, and when it can lead to such a disadvantage for the player that has played "above board", at the risk of sounding like im a tape on repeat, i do see it as unsporting.

i haven't played in real life tournaments with the rule of having to call your shot, but if that were established before the game, then sure smashing balls and hoping for the best shouldnt be accepted. i do think there is an element of luck in 8ball (as there is in most pool games), and smashing a cluster hoping for the best, aslong as done with a legitimate shot (hitting your ball type first, and not sinking any other ball type) i dont see as unsporting. sure it can be frustrating, but thats part n parcel with 8 ball, especially when you're playing at the lower end of the scale against more "hit and hope" sort of players

Surely? No i disagree. There's nothing unpure about slowing a game down, putting your balls on the table wherever you wish with legitimate, accepted shots. What i see as unpure is purposely going against the guidelines of what you are allowed to do to gain an unfair advantage from exploiting a flaw in the penalty system.


There is nothing unsporting about using a legitimate, accepted shot (a shot that is not a foul) in 8 ball. Both players are aware of what is allowed and accepted, and so they are both in control of what they wish to do. To choose to do a legitimate shot is not unsporting.

It may annoy you if it is blocking a ball of yours, but to say that a fair response is to purposely sink the opponents ball, ie; to purposely foul, and in some situations gain an advantage (depending on the position of the other balls on the table, and how many balls the fouling player has left eg; if they only have 1 ball left and then the black), can easily be described as unsporting.

yes, my point exactly

i agree with this. i dont expect funkypool to completely change a game just because i dont like aspects of it, but when numerous people notice a serious flaw in part of a game that is being exploited (because not all games are designed perfectly),it should be up for discussion.

while this thread started off with me being frustrated with someone exploiting this flaw in the game against me, it has moved on from there to show an example of a healthy exercise to discuss and debate the pros and cons of a game where people have differing views. & as ive said, i dont think theres any need for nasty shots or ill feeling between those discussing it, though i have noticed a little bit. democracy is good heh

edited 4 typos

Edited at 06:37 Mon 18/01/10 (GMT)

my point is that it isn't viable for deliberate fouls together with the foul on potting an opponent's ball group under any circumstances to go together.

it'd be absurdly impossible for both these rules to go together as it certainly increases the rewards of blocking a pocket by too much, since there wouldn't be anyway of clearing that blocked pocket if it were to be well blocked. of course there would be people who just blindly pot their ball without thinking and unintentionally clear the pocket only at the cost of a ball in hand.

if you do play with more unique rules in real life(which coincidentally is the same as funkypool's) don't mean that the other rules which are less unique around the world would be able to go together with it well.

of course i know that you are only saying its unsporting, but if it were to be deemed unsporting then i'd consider blocking a pocket just as unsporting. with your current view that rules should not be broken intentionally and anything within it is is perfectly ok, you wouldn't be able to accept what im saying. i can only say that it'd be best for u to not view intentional fouls as a rule so its perfectly ok to do it.

I'd say that the rule of pocketing an opponent's ball is being exploited. i wouldn't mind if it were removed in exchange for the rule against intentional fouls. i'd be the first to quit funkypool's us8 if both of them were implemented.

what about the deliberate foul when a player pushed black on cushion against a opponants ball when he/she is snookered from all of his/hers balls, yet another case for a deliberate foul.
thats another thing i would do if it was to gain advantage in the match

sorry to change subject a bit

I think everyone is agreed that within the confines of the gameplay engine you can play whatever shot you wish to - legal shot or a foul shot - there is no getting round that one.

It's a question of what the impact is on the player on the receiving end of the deliberate foul shot. In 8 Ball they are restricted simply to 'ball in hand' but having to strike one of their own stripes/solids, or the black if none are left, which can put them at a huge disadvantage. If you know that when you play a foul your opponent will have 'ball in hand' and a 'free ball', for example, that has the potential to make things fairer all round and, if nothing else, make you think a bit more carefully about what the consequences of your foul are likely to be.

I guess it's a question of striking the right balance with the rules since they are not an exact science and need not be set in stone. Whatever happens though, changes or no changes, everyone has to play to the same rules and adapt to whatever is in place.

Theres a grey area inbetween pure and unpure
A straight up potter, who can clear up after a break would be a pure player

I don't normally post but your all getting at johnny here when he's got a sound point.

Firstly, playing legal shots to put your balls over the pockets is allowed. There's no rules against this, you can hit your shots wherever you like.

However, to deliberately foul is unsportsmanlike conduct and results in forfeiture of the game:

"A player who clearly and intentionally plays a ball not "on" will have committed a deliberate foul resulting in loss of frame."


Difficult to enforce on a computer game but definitely something we should be discouraging players from doing.

On a side note, what is it with all you lot. Its a computer game for goodness sake not the world pool championships. Just have some fun and play fair

no matter how many times i read this, i cant make clear sense out of it, not to be the grammar police lol

the point of increasing the rewards of blocking pockets has come up earlier, & as i said then, it's not that simple to block a pocket with a legitimate shot. it has been said that it is easier to do things on here than in real life, but i think its a mixed bag of advantages and disadvantages from real pool to computer pool. as it has been stated, distance really is not an issue in this which is an advanatage for computer pool players. but then concerning shot power; particularly for gentler shots, i can be far more precise with how gentle i want to hit the cue ball in real life than on here. this would aid me far more in blocking a pocket than on here

so in saying that, i dont think it is so easy to just block pockets left right and centre, just like i dont think there's only one solution to having a blocked pocket from an opponent (to sink your opponents ball) like some people on here seem to think. a ball in hand would create an incentive for smarter play on here i think.

even though this is a computer game of pool, and intentionally sinking other people's balls in real life wherever i have played is not condoned, its a style of play that (as i have said) i do find unsportsmanlike when there are always other options, and so its a bit hard to stomach on here thats all. with there being no reasonable way to police this though, it is just hypothetically speaking.

Edited at 14:53 Thu 21/01/10 (GMT)

i can accept what youre saying, but i dont agree lol. in any game, doing what is not against the rules, & what is not penalised i see as perfectly sporting. people purposely committing a penalty, knowing the rewards for it are likely to be greater than the penalty is,is unsporting. they are going against what the game deems as correct and fair play (hence the foul shot/penalty given).in relation to this,another comparison i could make is a rugby team committing a penalty on purpose a minute from the end of the game(a try is needed for the attacking team to win), where the opposition were about to score a try. with this penalty given, sure the opposition gets another chance to attack, but the team that committed the penalty has been able to regroup/reorganise & are better for it now. this is similar to the said situation in us8, where the player purposely committing a penalty now has a far better position on the table having committed this penalty on purpose, & now the innocent party in this is left in quite often a terrible position

i agree it can be a grey area. a purist should be one who adheres to the rules and that which is deemed acceptable, in my opinion. purity doesnt necessarily mean the player will always want to sink a ball, as other tactics are a large part of pool and snooker. tactics where fouling/committing penalties on purpose i dont think anyone could reasonably justify as one being a pure player of the game

haha, appreciate the moral support mb1

Unfortunately people don't on here.

At the end of the day though, on here you can do it without much of a punishment at all, and there is no way a deliberate foul can be detected on here.

You use what rules there is to your advantage, we all have to play by the same rules, so anyone can do it.

Also keep in mind that people have different views about what is actually fun and more importantly, what is fair.


Another aspect to keep in mind when discussing topics like this one:

While deliberately fouling is not against funkypool rules, deliberately losing games is. People have been banned for it on more than one occasion and tons more have had their stats reset. It happens all the time, people stupidly think they can cheat the system by donating points.

Now, what is the definition of losing on purpose? You could easily argue that losing purposefully = not doing your best to win. And in turn, how do you define doing your best? At the very least play to the full extent of the rules, and not some artificial notion of nobly playing by another, more restrictive set of unwritten rules.

I'm of course not saying anyone is likely to ever get banned for being what they believe is "sporting", but at the same time you should be aware that this is a gray zone for sure, and the way from being "sporting" to being accused of handing games to your opponent is a short one indeed.

haha yea. think i left out a comma somewhere(dont know where to put it). im just saying those 2 rules shouldnt go together.

blocking a pocket isnt going to be something great if it becomes a really big part of the game. just like how everyone's able to pot really far shots.