Please No Win/Loss Tracking

This is basically my line of thought as well. It's like DRM, it doesn't stop pirates, it might delay them a bit, but in the end you're only hurting the paying customers.

Tracking your own Stats is fairly trivial and a lack of in-game tracking doesn't stop people from obsessing about stats, it does make it harder to judge other but still.

Frankly The Separation of Ranked/Unranked already addresses the core issue in my eyes, players have control over when the matches 'matter' and still allows the greater majority of players to use the stats "casually".

Mike

I generally agree with you. I really like stats, even more when they give a way to improve yourself.
Except for the win/loss ration: it is used by some people as a skill indicator.
And sadly it's not always possible to ignore those people. I remember in Starcraft 1 there were a lot of people were trying to play against weaker players just to try to improve their w/l ratio.
In team game, it was really a pain to see people leaving during the countdown when there were not with the better player.

It's an indicator that gives incentives to play against weaker player because people think it's their skill indicator while it's in fact an indicator of their opponent strength.

I just noticed this. How am I quoted on something I never said? Explain plz.

Assholes will always be Assholes, like I said, removing Stat Tracking doesn't mean those people won't be Assholes, just makes it harder.

Frankly, all non-Ranked Stats should be private by default, it's only the Ranked stats that should be public(but only viewable post-game)

You seem to assume that all games of any type affect the stats, but that's exactly the thing that more so the core of the problem rather than the Stats themselves.

Mike

Idk sorry. Ayceem made that calm and rational statement.

Not defective for me; defective for anyone else.

Zooming is a totally different matter in two very important ways:

Zooming is a direct application in enhancing strategy games and player decision making. Wheras stat tracking doesn't enhance strategy making in any specific way.

And the nature of how watching casters and just playing games online are enjoyed are different. The quality of the caster is paramount to the enjoyment of watching casts, because a good caster is sort of the whole point. But you only need to find and stick to one good caster and you can trawl through hours of their backlog of footage. Often the finding part isn't even necessary since the best ones are linked to everywhere on strategy gaming networks and forums. Wheras anyone wanting to play online does so because they just want to relax and not think about abusive assholes. And a public arena can assure no quality control. Half the time spent online can already be taken up by just waiting in lobbies, that if I had to be paranoid against every user and game host I encounter being a potential stat abuser on top of that, I would get tired of playing online fast.

What is the true dumbing down here is adding useless, bloaty features which make gamers forget that they are playing a strategy game and should be aiming towards the game's distinct goal, and the homogenisation of online environments into stat and achievement hoarding games. What's worse than no information is useless information filling up the screen which doesn't further the goal of the game.

Any competitive value to add to a game can be just as fulfilled with player ratings.
Most players don't even play online - let alone enjoy tracking stats. And again - many who do are likely the kind who also 'enjoy' padding, stacking, disconnecting, etc..
Command & Conquer: Generals's and Dawn of War attests against your claim that abusive players don't change without stats. And if your examples of stats done right demands one acount per key, then I don't want it. Come up with a system which doesn't take such drastic measures against the product and then I'll listen.

This is pretty much why I think hiding stats won't solve anything. The same people that will covet their stats will search them out if they are hidden. People don't change all of a sudden because stats are hidden, they'll just search for them. On the other hand, people who are just watching stats to enjoy themselves won't have that option if they're hidden, because they won't bother to look elsewhere.

Your point on DRM almost exactly reflects the issues. It will only delay the stat freaks, not stop them. Well said.

I still don't understand why the game is defective. You payed to play it and you can play it. Isnt that how it should be?

Also your view of online-games in general seems to be that half the people online are idiots. Maybe you should just not play with random people if you dislike them so much.

Blegh, I remember this in Demigod...

"YOU'VE ONLY PLAYED 200 GAMES!? I DONT WANT THE SCRUBNUB ON MY TEAM!!!!"

*kick*

but its true... people want to play with others of their level, and they need a way of deciding who is their level.

That's Ranked/Ladder/Competitive.

Mike

That was the whole problem with that game - there was no ladder system, but everyone could see how many games you've played as well as your win/loss record.

So basically this:

You need to play games to get your game count up and your win/loss record favorable ---> you start out at a low level ----> You keep getting kicked because everyone tells you to play more games to get more experience ----> So you need to play games to get your game count up and your win/loss record favorable ----> your level is still low ----> etc, etc....

It's a crappy cycle to be stuck in. You need to play games to get experience, and no one will let you play because you're inexperienced. This is pretty much why I'm against a score tracking system, at least one that everyone can see.

But, that's NOT a problem with Stat Tracking, that's a problem Stat Tracking MAKES WORSE, but didn't create.

If Demigod had a setup like I suggested, that issue wouldn't exist or would at least be severely mitigated.

Mike

If it's a system like that, I wouldn't mind. Having it in ranked matches makes sense, and post game would be better, like you said. I've just had bad experiences with it in the past due to the fact that a lot of games don't implement it well. When stats are public you often end up with -

"Oh, that guy... we don't want him on our team folks... give him to the other team".
"What? We don't want him! Aww, come on..."

It makes for a very unwelcoming environment sometimes when people know your stats.

I payed for my copy so everyone in the household could access it. Or friends or children years down the line.

But imagine if you will dvd movies had to be tied to one person...or one player. No one else can watch the movie - or at least as a similar case, select the commentaries and other bonus footage. Now everyone else can't access everything on the dvd. To everyone else, it's a defective dvd.

Not so much idiots as irrational. And if I can't play with random people(let alone discover faces after playing as random people) then that's the whole premise of playing online gone.



Anyway - the reason I posted again was to emphasise something else: Please no god damn profile "leveling" and "experience points". That truly is worthless sh!t; this isn't a role playing or pen and paper game.