I couldn't agree more.

Even though I've seen such rating systems before, and understood that the starting number was pretty much arbitrary, I was dismayed at the rapid plunge (200-300 points) my rating took in my first games.

For me, there's a sense of accomplishment in seeing my rating rise (reflecting my developing skill), especially when I break a round number. However, the satisfaction in breaking 1100 and 1200 was greatly diminished for me, because I've technically already been there, and was only "regaining lost ground". This affected me even though I knew that the original 1300 was meaningless.



I don't understand if this is supposed to be a joke or not. I improved my deck and my game quite a bit before I broke 1300. A lot of people never do. 1300 is the rating of a reasonably competent and experienced player.

Maybe I should just not display your rating until your uncertainty is below a certain amount.

Yaron I know you tried to convince me that it wouldn't effect overall rating if we start people off lower but I still think it would just lower the overall numbers and we would end up with the same effect in 6 months.

Et to... I understand what boths sides are saying here (experts vs. jed), but I'm going to say two things:
1) No ranking until uncertanty settles: big no-no. Watching rank drop doesn't jsut demoralize people, it also pushes them to work harder. The rank drop is jsut so severe it drains everyone. I remember when I lost a hell lot of rank, getting steamrolled by mist, yaron, mex, uber, pug, and just about every expert in TFW. If it wasn't for pug (who'd told me earlier about how rank drops quickly), I would've quit, right then and there.
2)As what jed said, yes, who you face in your early matches has a huge impact on whether you quit or not. However, the current ranking system makes it easy for n00bs to get paired up with noob_mexicans.

No noob_mexicans were offended in the above phrase.

What I'm suggestign is that we keep the rank, but at the same time, we enginneer a hidden skill ranking based on wins and loses.(0 =n00bs, 100=Angelatheist) As noobs win, skill rank increases. As noobs lose, skill ran decreases(which is obivous what all noobs eventually have to do). That way, newbies fight newbies.

Also, this would make it easier to check with who can enter certai tournament where we limit the players by "Rank", as we could cap certain ranks at a certain point so people don't chisel their own ranks dow nto get advantage.'

Cheers, hope this helps.

Another suggestion:

I suggest we add a "Hard Player" Mode that automatically pits the player who selects agaisnt a player with high skill rank (above post). That way, n00bs now have the choice of getting their ass kicked like most of them are right now and just playing agaisnt people their level.

This is probably another reason Story Mode and Forced Tutorial would be great: n00bss will definitley get a stronger grip on the game if they play more ai battles first, which is what most n00bs tend NOT to do (I'm lucky If I even face a newbie that has taken the tutorial T_T).

More ai battles for noobs= More Experience and phantoms= Steamroll Resistance


yaron, it wasn't a **** joke(I'm actually a bit insulted, getting my opinion called a joke.). I may never break 1300, much less 1100, but I highly doubt we have to lower the rank drastically, because the first defeat of a newb often already lowers them by 150-300. Better players like a newb that I steamrolled this morning(and then he used money and made one of those unbeatable decks that normally steamroll me, and the obvious happened.) will recover and jump back in, and even the crappiest player has a loss limit (I'm thinking about JONSAN, who stayed in until his rank was 280).

There are times like this forum discussion where I want to totally stop playing and never come back . DarkJello, if you have any punch line here, use it now. If you don't, then **** it people, cheer up.

Ok say I'm a new player, I don't start playing a game thinking I'm going to be ranked higher than a player that has been playing the game for months. I would think I would start off ranked much lower and the fun comes from trying to gain experience and rank. So if you start all new players and guests at say (1000-1100), now they will play other newer players. They can get their feet wet, not run into much stronger decks, (I found this highly annoying when i first started playing and had a default deck and first ran into a blind assassin.), and not run into higher ranked players.

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Blind Assasin is like crap if everyone around him got killed. I'd say 1000-1200 is probably is a little better, because sometimes people may want some advice and some reality, besides battling each other. Getting feet wet is always good, but you can't stay at the coast forever.

Or, there's always the skill system I put up above.

EDIT: One other note, if we had many new players already in the game at once, it decreases the chance experts steamroll them. Once again, it's the bigger player base issue.

Themist, I agree with most of what you are saying. I do not believe starting new players out with a lower rating will prevent them from getting steam-rolled by experienced players.
You beat the AI a few times, then try to get a match against a real person. If not many people are on, you cannot get a sim match so you click anyone match. BAM.
I do not propose eliminating anyone games, but I am not sure how to prevent this from happening.

Skill System? Maybe you could cap anyone games and limit it to a degree (the point of anyone is to get a game with anyone).

Few Suggestions:
*You can't anyone with a skill rank 30 above you (this is using the skills system I posted above).
*If you play someone with at least skill 20 above you, you can't play them twice in a row in anyone.

This doesn't always happens, but Zblader(and perhaps everyone who posted), you haven't considered a few situations.
*Entering a Free Sealed/EC/Free Draft staight off upon entering the game.
*New players with MTG (A la Cyclone "Tragic the Gardening") experience. Players who have that kind of experience can prove to be formidable players.
*If Campaign Mode is implemented, how are you going to attract people to it? I've seen people who said "Screw the Rules, I'm Great as this kind of stuff!" and go straight to MP with only whatever old experience they had.
*I know you are considering advertising, and that this is, like Psyclone said in his Tournaments section, a buisness that needs money to survive, but I think you might be losing track of what the player base wants. Times change like the second hand on the clock.

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When the full moon of darkness appears, the great werewolves shall descend!