GAM3 OVR
06-22-2004, 08:28 AM
From: pondarosa | Posted: 6/22/2004 1:41:34 AM | Message Detail
After my 2-month account expired and had been royally screwed over after the new ranking system was introduced, I just decided to start a new account with a one-year card and never play ranking again. I enjoyed playing ranking every now and then, but I haven't really missed it over the past few weeks.
Still, I couldn't help but wonder why Ubisoft took a system that was already very flawed and "fixed" it by making it even more pointless and frustrating, especially if you don't exploit glitches or other non-recreational forms of playing. But then I realized why Ubisoft had implemented this new system.
One of the biggest complaints people had was that the levels of some of the top players were obviously overstated and fluxuated. Certain players would either use dummy accounts or low-level friends and take advantage of the "safe haven" of losing no points during levels 1 and 2 to play ranked game after ranked game and quickly rise up the leaderboard with no problem at all. By making it to where you lose points regardless of what level you are, people would be less likely to help these guys out.
After I thought of this, I was like "Oh, that actually makes sense". But a few more minutes later, I realized it actually dosen't make sense. Ubisoft meant well, but here are the main 3 reasons the new ranking system is completely ineffective.
1 - The cheaters are still on top. - Now there may be a small handful of players in the top 20 that actually got there by being good, but let's face facts. The majority of the top players have either somehow "magically" managed to win more games than they've even played or managed to win 100 games in 90 minutes. While the new system may make certain formerly sympathetic low level players say "Hey, I don't want to have -500 points so this guy can feel better about himself", it still does nothing about players using dummy accounts. They are DUMMY accounts, and the people who just use them to bump their other profiles up could care less about how low it's level gets. I don't even care about guys who do this - bump your level up to your hearts content. I mean, you have to have something to tell your kids about someday, right? But this is a problem the new system meant to fix, and it has failed miserably.
2 - "Level 0" is completely ambiguous. - Last time I checked, this game has over 50,000 ranked players. A friend of mine who is a Level 1 and has 12 points is almost in the top 10,000. What does this mean? It means that close to 70-80% of the players who play ranked games are level 0's. What was meant to be a scarlet letter of sorts for people who constantly drop or cheat has become the standard. This group includes people who get disconnected, people who have their host return to the lobby on them, people who lose ranked games honorably and dishonorably, etc.
There are level 0's that are probably just as good skillwise as people in the top 10, people who completely suck ***, and people whose sole purpose is to annoy others. You never have any idea what you are getting with a level 0. Many of them get kicked from games immedietly just because they are a level 0.
The fact that nearly 80% of the SC:PT online community is in this one hole makes the idea of a "ranking" system completely laughable. A person can buy the game, play one ranking match, not have a clue what he's doing, have a really good partner, and all of a sudden, he's in the top 20% of all ranked SC:PT players. That's just silly.
3 - Level 1's should not lose points unless they drop. Period. - As I explained above, taking away the "safe haven" of level 1 and 2 has not detered glitchers in the slightest. Ubisoft tried to ruin the game for people who cheat to up their score, but actually just ruined the levels of more than half the online community, while cheaters just found another way to do it. LET THE CHEATERS HAVE THEIR BIG RANKS. I could care less. But for God's sake, why ruin the ranking system for the other 49,000 or so players who actually use the ranking mode correctly?
After my 2-month account expired and had been royally screwed over after the new ranking system was introduced, I just decided to start a new account with a one-year card and never play ranking again. I enjoyed playing ranking every now and then, but I haven't really missed it over the past few weeks.
Still, I couldn't help but wonder why Ubisoft took a system that was already very flawed and "fixed" it by making it even more pointless and frustrating, especially if you don't exploit glitches or other non-recreational forms of playing. But then I realized why Ubisoft had implemented this new system.
One of the biggest complaints people had was that the levels of some of the top players were obviously overstated and fluxuated. Certain players would either use dummy accounts or low-level friends and take advantage of the "safe haven" of losing no points during levels 1 and 2 to play ranked game after ranked game and quickly rise up the leaderboard with no problem at all. By making it to where you lose points regardless of what level you are, people would be less likely to help these guys out.
After I thought of this, I was like "Oh, that actually makes sense". But a few more minutes later, I realized it actually dosen't make sense. Ubisoft meant well, but here are the main 3 reasons the new ranking system is completely ineffective.
1 - The cheaters are still on top. - Now there may be a small handful of players in the top 20 that actually got there by being good, but let's face facts. The majority of the top players have either somehow "magically" managed to win more games than they've even played or managed to win 100 games in 90 minutes. While the new system may make certain formerly sympathetic low level players say "Hey, I don't want to have -500 points so this guy can feel better about himself", it still does nothing about players using dummy accounts. They are DUMMY accounts, and the people who just use them to bump their other profiles up could care less about how low it's level gets. I don't even care about guys who do this - bump your level up to your hearts content. I mean, you have to have something to tell your kids about someday, right? But this is a problem the new system meant to fix, and it has failed miserably.
2 - "Level 0" is completely ambiguous. - Last time I checked, this game has over 50,000 ranked players. A friend of mine who is a Level 1 and has 12 points is almost in the top 10,000. What does this mean? It means that close to 70-80% of the players who play ranked games are level 0's. What was meant to be a scarlet letter of sorts for people who constantly drop or cheat has become the standard. This group includes people who get disconnected, people who have their host return to the lobby on them, people who lose ranked games honorably and dishonorably, etc.
There are level 0's that are probably just as good skillwise as people in the top 10, people who completely suck ***, and people whose sole purpose is to annoy others. You never have any idea what you are getting with a level 0. Many of them get kicked from games immedietly just because they are a level 0.
The fact that nearly 80% of the SC:PT online community is in this one hole makes the idea of a "ranking" system completely laughable. A person can buy the game, play one ranking match, not have a clue what he's doing, have a really good partner, and all of a sudden, he's in the top 20% of all ranked SC:PT players. That's just silly.
3 - Level 1's should not lose points unless they drop. Period. - As I explained above, taking away the "safe haven" of level 1 and 2 has not detered glitchers in the slightest. Ubisoft tried to ruin the game for people who cheat to up their score, but actually just ruined the levels of more than half the online community, while cheaters just found another way to do it. LET THE CHEATERS HAVE THEIR BIG RANKS. I could care less. But for God's sake, why ruin the ranking system for the other 49,000 or so players who actually use the ranking mode correctly?