Online ranking system - what do you think??

[guggle]

As in Super Mario Kart and no doubt other online racing games, there is a ranking system in place that rewards and deducts points depending on whether you win or lose. The amount you win or lose depends on your opponents ranking.... What do people think of such a system in WOHD Online??

[OBH]

wipeoutHD misses out really on its online ranking / tournaments etc.
Its been mentioned before but they horde so many player stats.

The only game Id say i loved playing online as much as WO:HD was Battlefield 2, with the main reason being the sheer scale of player stats available. I loved seeing who id knifed the most, which player id killed most times in a row without being killed by. All sorts id never have

I can only imagine SL assumed it wouldnt be a shining success (hence the incredible price!)

[lunar]

Guggle and Haydn, I agree a pilot ranking system for online race results would be amazing. Ideally this would be in addition to TT and Speed Lap rankings automatically provided in a system such as on Connavar`s site. Alas, it`s not going to happen, I think. It`s also a shame because HD is a game without any significant cheating in it, so it`s ideal for having rankings.

[Peh-Hok]

It would be great to be able to check out our own stats, even if not visible online. The data is already there...

[Cerium]

The one thing I worry about with an online ranking system is favoring the people who play significantly more than others.

To clarify: Someone who gets tons of points just because they play more than someone else, even though they're just playing against people they can't possibly lose to. We don't want to get to the point where we have statwhores sitting at the top because they leave the room whenever someone who can beat them shows up. Now, if someone who plays a lot happens to also be a great pilot as a direct result... that's another story.

I've played a few online games which had it's share of statwhores, and I've got to say that they have a tendency of ruining the experience for everyone else. We'll have even more people dropping and quitting and otherwise being overly selective of their opponents; and that's kinda lame in my book.

[guggle]

Cerium,

I agree with what you say about statwhores. That is why a system that not only rewards winners (and deducts from losers), but also rewards (and deducts) depending on the nature of the result.

For example, a highly ranked player defeating a much lower opponent would only stand to gain a few points (and the loser would only lose a few points) because that is the expected result. If, on the other hand, a player with a low ranking defeated a player with a much higher rating, then the winner would gain a large number of points and the loser would lose just as much.

I believe that is the way chess rankings work...

[Connavar]

Yes I agree, the only good system is the ELO system, used in Chess and some other games.

[Cerium]

The problem is that at some point you need to cut off a player's points completely. If someone gets 1-5 points per race, but does 50 races a day, that's still going to add up more than someone else who does some "quality" races and earns like 25 points per race, but only does a few races daily.

And then you've got people like Wellington... :D

[lunar]

There are flaws in any system and there will always be ways to work a system to your advantage, but it`s still worth having and would be better than nothing, particularly a system like the chess rankings and if quit penalties are enforced. :)

[KIGO1987]

There are flaws in any system and there will always be ways to work a system to your advantage,

Yes. Like playing with one other mate online to acquire the highest possible multiplayer rank in the system.

[Wotan]

Lol , I saw that several times. For example I entered on the party of omenas (limited to 2 players) and he asked me to not use quakes or others weapons, for realize the best possible time. In my opinion it's pathetic and that's why i'm not interested on multiplayer's ("falsified") rankings

[MR-RICO84]

Maybe the person hosting the game could have the option to play for league point, this would then appear as a symbol on the main screen. Maybe also League races are automatically capped at a pre defined number against opponents and or total number of races per week?

[lunar]

Yes Wotan, that`s one reason why I think the best way for a game to do multiplayer rankings is by results, not times. Then there`s no way for anyone to up their ranking without taking on the "big boys." :cold ;) And then TT, SL and Zone provide the ultimate "pure" piloting skill challenge without any "turbo lottery." I think those 3, and then multiplayer rankings by results are all you really need.

I saw a multiplayer ranking system work really well on Outrun on PSP, so Wipeout HD should be able to handle it, so long as a few methods of abusing the system are addressed.

[TorquedSoul]

I think there are ways to crowd statwhores out of the rankings.

As was already mentioned, there should be some quality of victory scoring system. The better your opponents the better score for placement.

Second, I see no reason for a running total ... but a ranking score should reflect quality of the player and not how much they play. The players score should be an average of race results. for the first few months the system would be erractic but after some time it would be statistically significant.

Using this type of system has the opposite problem of people playing too much. Someone might achieve a high ranking and then not play too much to preserve it. You could deal with this problem by simply penalizing people for dont play for long periods of time. for example ... you pilot score drops by X number of points. By using this system, you cant help youself by "outplaying" someone but you cant hide from the competition either.

[Mateo]

also there must be a drastic penalty for leaving games before the end, otherwise i wouldn't accept any ranking system... but either way i wouldn't like one, wipeout is the first game in my life i enjoy playing online and thats just because it has NO ranking system (except for the record tables). ranking systems just destroyed too many online games...

[TorquedSoul]

also there must be a drastic penalty for leaving games before the end, otherwise i wouldn't accept any ranking system

Right I forgot to put that in there. any DNF results in 0 points for the race and gets incorporated into your average. and there should be a stat to track guys who drop from races or DNF.

None of these things are impossible ... the most costly is data storage and reporting. Maybe there are not seeing enough revenue from the game to bother. That woudl be unfortunate. But if they released add on content they might be able to increase their revenue.

I hope they plan on moving their system forward.

[okam]

I don't care about rankings one bit, so please give us the option between ranked and unranked races so we don't all have to put up with all the silly rules and tricks players use to get their precious points...

One thing you see a lot in other games is one player doing nothing while his/her friend plays and wins - effectively farming exp/points. Sure the loser loses nothing but time in most games, but even if the loser did lose points all you really need is a friend who doesnt care about the points at all.

[Darkdrium777]

As long as it isn't as senseless as Pulse's system (aka the more races you do the higher you rank). I love WipEout but I don't have the time to play it 24/7.

[Amorbis]

Ranking systems are a good thing for the most part but I can do without them. I like the current HD online set-up of only having best times. Sure it would be nice to have the stats harvesting of Pulse but I don't really care too much. Statistics are quite distracting, in games such as COD4 I have to constantly check my Kill/Death ratio to check that I still pwn :paperbag. I would happily have a ranking system in HD or the next WipEout but I would probably get too caught up in it and hope for an unranked match mode.