walnutwatson wrote:A) So what? What's so bad about that?
B) Why should you? This is not an argument it is a description of an option of playing and one which could exist alongside friendlies.
Note: This is a generalized argument that fits a majority, not an individualized cause and effect. If you read through it, it answers both simultaniously.
The only way the scoring system shows anything now is if that player plays all types of games and does not specialize. If a player specializes, it is taking his best scoring, and leaving out any of the areas he is bad in, therefore, inflating his/her overall score.
The person who chooses to do this gives up many of the positive aspects of the site: numerous maps, numerous settings, and the many different people that person does not play because he/she chooses to play on a map that they do not. In the end, that person is only taking advantage of a very small portion of the site just to raise his score.
If there were unrated games; however, the scoring system would lose whatever is left of the credibility already in it. The reason we do not have very many farmers and specialists right now is because to do something like that, you have to give up a lot of the site, and many of them have quit and will quit because they become bored or frustrated, both caused by specializing to increase his/her score.
The effects of this suggestion are rather clear in this aspect. Almost everyone would start specializing for rated games, because they are aware they could still play unrated games and have to give up nothing in order to inflate his/her score. Those people who are planning on using this suggestion to play with friends and not get their score lowered will have the fundamental part of their want for this suggestion taken away: their relative score to others.
People want this suggestion so that they can play both for fun, and competitively. But, if it is passed, there will be far more people that play competitively by specializing and farming. The increase of specializing and farming will dramatically increase the amount of points held by those who do so, and those who do not. Therefore, those players who were planning on keeping their rank, while adding a few more games for fun will then have to make a choice:
1. Play the way I always have competitively, while playing games for fun, and stay at my
absolute high rank, while a lot of people rise above me.
2. Play only specialized games competitively, and play the rest for fun, thus keeping my
relative high rank.
In the end, those people will either themselves degrade the system, or lose points.
walnutwatson wrote:C) I don't care about points and I want to play unranked games for that reason and also to avoid the types that take this game seriously. I don't want a rank, I just want to play a game for fun and no other reason. Why then is my opinion and enjoyment apparently worth less than those who want to play for ranks/points?
My simple answer to this is that you are a unique individual, and I doubt that many people see much of a difference when people are playing to win points, or just to play, but I have a more complex answer if you care to read.
When there is a scoring system, people try to win, even subconsciously. They are playing to win, even if they are playing for fun, because they want the points, even if they do not care about them. It is nature, and that is the way it has created every species: to compete.
In a hypothetical unranked game, there will be two types of people: the ones with integrity, and the quiters. The ones with integrity will play as usual, and will fight to win, but take no offense when they lose, since there is nothing to lose anyways. Although I think that if a person was going to do this an an unranked game, they would do this in the ones we have now.
Then there is the majority of people: the quiters. When you place them in an unranked game, that game will become very bad. At any moment if someone attacks them, they could easily choose to suicide. If they get tired of a game, they will quit and go to the next. If they don't like you, they will do anything to kill you with no thoughts for themselves.
Even if these people are the minority, their numbers will increase when they have nothing to lose in a game, and nothing to gain from it either. I think that even 1 person in 100 will make unranked games unpleasant.