Seems I have missed quite an interesting discussion here!
Here are some of my thoughts.
Its absolutly
essential for a thinkbased strategy game to have a skill based ranking system for all the somewhat experienced players, who want to evaluate the skill. On the other side I agree this need dosn't fit for most of the new players, for them the ranking must reflect their growing experience, which grows with every battle, no matter wether win or loss.
And its true, that if you like playing on the top, you feel obliged to show your very best play to your challengers to proof that you either do or do not deserve the rank. Allready out of respect to the great, hard fights you had with other players. This really sometimes takes out the fun of the game not having the option to play around here and there without fearing to loose, for what you put in hard work in some way. Its not the reason I am not playing a lot though
This could easily be solved by allowing different nicks, allthough I can understand the developers fearing abuse.
Of course thats one reason for thinking twice to accept a challenge from lower ranked players. I for my part would accept such a challenge if I see he means it serious. In that case it wont be an easy win and the risk of loosing lots of points is much too high. (Thinking of Pitor who accepted playing me while I was still in trial. Great players like this really shouldnt be punished for giving young motivated players a challenge!!)
Connected to that, in my opinion the top players should have some kind of need to play regularly, giving other players the possibility to proof their skills. Not like me having no time for playing but still being on the top spot after weeks.
So here are the possibilities I see:
- two ranking systems working parallel
- one ranking system, where if you reach a certain rank, for example major, you switch to skill based ranking-calculation(while this might be hard to implement in a good way)
- A kind of Ladder-system. Players can choose to join the ladder after a relativ short time, games will either apply to the ladder or to the standard ranking. (I wouldnt say anything against seasons ending in a tournament for the better ranked players allowing to earn life-time achievments in an eternal hall of fame
)
The last possibility would solve multiple problems at once. Veterans will much more likely play low ranked players outside the ladder. On the other side you know that in the ladder, players will be giving their very best play, so suceeding there is the biggest challenge available and the ranks are most accurate. Newbies know where they stand, getting points for all their games and getting experience going up in the nonladder-rank until they had some skirmishes with experienced players, feeling they want to try the ladder, not expecting too much on the first run.
think about it!