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General Discussion / Re: Ladders
« on: January 03, 2011, 08:39:07 am »be very careful with elo based ladders. the common assumption in elo is that each person has only one identity and is active. this system falls apart whenI think these problems would largely be solved by having an ELO system on top of the current tourney system. In tourneys, you're assigned players to play, and often-times, card rules are in effect (so that using nymphs is either disallowed or not really advantageous, unless you have a particular one.. then again, how is that different from any card game when you have a rare card and your opponent doesn't?).
1) players create "smurf" or "alt" accounts to snipe other players. do not underestimate the amount of time and effort people will put into screwing over other people, sometimes without any direct benefit to themselves or everyone
2) higher rated players wintrade, avoid playing once in the lead, and generally play a subgame of "we win, you wont". check WoW pvp forums for some examples (ill provide them if asked)
3) card availability, specifically lack of. nymphs and anything that cannot be bought easily provide a hefty advantage to "luckiness". while useful as a money-making or carrot on a stick replay tool, actual fair play demands equal access for everyone
there are more reasons to be careful, but just a few off the top of my head. i do think that pvp provides the best lasting value for the game, if only people would learn to push spacebar faster
You'll never be able to solve the problem of "alt" accounts in an online game. A dedicated group of 4-5 people in a computer room can overtake a tourney en masse (each person 'managing' 5-10 players) so that they are guaranteed to win. After all, award codes can be used by any account, so they can just keep awarding themselves on their main accounts. So this problem has existed before the rating system, and will exist after it too.
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