The New Point System

[zoraster]

(01-31-2013 11:26 PM)phineas94 Wrote:  A league is a place where teams of a similar skill level battle it out. If the most skilled team loses to the least there is no difference in points gained/lost and at the end of the season, when everyone's played the same number of games the league champions are there in black and white.

I personally think the new point system is a dramatic improvement over the last system which to me had descended into a random number generator. I think I read this on the forum that it'll take a couple of weeks for the new point system to mature, so lets see what happens then.

I know the hidden skill rating is taken into account in the new system but to a much lesser degree so we do seem to be approaching a fixed point win/loss system that I've advocated on other threads. The whole " they've played more games than me boo hoo" argument can be resolved by multiplying your own score by the highest number of games played and dividing by your own total. So someone who's played 20 and won 10 will come out on top of someone who's played 100 and won 40. Have a minimum entry level to official recognition of say 20 games finished and voila! I understand that points will be harder to get (and easier to lose) the more skilled you are so this may mean a lesser skilled player moving up through the ranks may end up on top - but hey, they've had the best season, fair play. I'm always one for the underdog

It seems, from all your concerns, that there are players out there who will, to the detriment of their hidden rating, forfeit games just to elevate their league position. This would dispose of that problem. Perhaps this sort of behaviour is a failing in the game in that not enough emphasis is given to the hidden rating either in the initial blurb or tutorial. I know my interest in this amazing game was enhanced by my inclusion in the top 200. Perhaps a top 500 is called for? Also, as mentioned previously this strategy would surely lead to dropping skill rating and dropping in rank which, as we know, is pointless. I could go on ... Ok , I will.

On being promoted to the next tier I think it only fair if you were to start on the same points as the lowest scoring player. What would you rather be? A #1 Master or a #48 Super Titan? On being demoted I think taking all your points or fraction of would be palatable.

Your thoughts please

We don't even know how many games each player has played, so your "fix" (insofar as it solves any problem at all) won't work. All we have to go on is number of wins, and it's hard to tell how many people had last week versus this week.

Overall I just think the statistics and rankings of the game are underdeveloped in comparison to the very well thought out game balance.

The thing to understand about casual players is not that they "just wanna have fun." It's that they want to achieve things OR they want really mindless fun. Farmville wasn't a success because nobody cared about whether they won or lost (since you can't "win" that game), it was because you were ever developing. Obviously Outwitters does not lend itself to that kind of thing, but I don't think this hidden system with a dearth of information about game statistics helps (no win-loss record, no showing what % of games you've played as which team, no records indexed by map, etc.).

A suggestion for Adam and Alex to earn more money: Pay a couple of bucks to get detailed statistic information including your hidden rank. Should obviously also reveal other people's statistics.