Player Rating System

mepbmlist
#1

I can understand some reluctance to reward players

based on what is perceived to be a flawed system.

Exactly.

  However,you appear

to be saying that there should be no financial incentive for doing
well with a nation,

I don't really have an opinion on that either way.

even if there is a handicap system to account for

the difference between nations and even if there are individual VCs
that reflect important things that the nations should be doing.

If we come up with a VC system which will "reflect important things that the nations should be doing" I will probably change my opinion. I haven't seen one yet that Harlequin can do that seems to do that. The handicap system allows all nations to compete, but doesn't address the problems in the system.

Quite apart from any personal benefit, there is a *reason* why it is
in Harlys best interest to give $25 away to earn $150 from a typical
game by encouraging folks to join more.

Why not give setups to the loser? The winner will probably start a new game anyway. Really, how many game winners do not start new games shortly after their win? If they start a new game anyway, how does giving them 25$ help Harlequin?

Winn

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#2

Yeh Sam likes this but rewarding winners is what more players like.

Why not give setups to the loser? The winner will probably start a new

game

···

anyway. Really, how many game winners do not start new games shortly after
their win? If they start a new game anyway, how does giving them 25$ help
Harlequin?

#3

--- In mepbmlist@y..., "Winn Keathley" <Gnaeus@h...> wrote:

I can understand some reluctance to reward players
>based on what is perceived to be a flawed system.

Exactly.

  However,you appear
>to be saying that there should be no financial incentive for doing
>well with a nation,

I don't really have an opinion on that either way.

even if there is a handicap system to account for
>the difference between nations and even if there are individual VCs
>that reflect important things that the nations should be doing.

If we come up with a VC system which will "reflect important things

that the

nations should be doing" I will probably change my opinion. I

haven't seen

one yet that Harlequin can do that seems to do that. The handicap

system

allows all nations to compete, but doesn't address the problems in

the

system.

The main problem in the system is the useless individual VCs. Of the
four main VCs, only one of them (gold) is truly measuring something
that isn't important for winning (and is arguably counterproductive.)

Yes, I know you can stack up big armies, characters, economies
and not contribute much to a team win. However, from looking over
dozens of end-game pdfs, there is a remarkably good correlation
between players who did a lot during the game and people who finish
strongly in these three categories. More to the point, there is no
good way to handicap the weaker positions without historical data on
what a good performance is for the northmen, woodmen, dragon lord,
etc. And, for better or worse, the current scoring system is the only
historical record that we have. I find it really strange that the
state of your position at the end of the game should have no bearing
on an evaluation of how well you did. I do agree that it would be
great to develop individual VCs that brought in performance of
important goals as a complementary ingredient.

>Quite apart from any personal benefit, there is a *reason* why it

is

>in Harlys best interest to give $25 away to earn $150 from a

typical

>game by encouraging folks to join more.
>
Why not give setups to the loser? The winner will probably start a

new game

anyway. Really, how many game winners do not start new games shortly

after

their win? If they start a new game anyway, how does giving them 25$

help

Harlequin?

Winn

This puzzles me a lot. Usually there is a reward for winning a game,
not losing one. And you'll get better games if you encourage the
better players to join new games.

Marc

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