descentchampions.org

Why do we not show skill rating? Its silly if its just because you don't competition to be focused on that. Its a number for a goal. Have it setup like the stock market on the profile page so you can see trends and what not. Right now I don't see the point in playing on the ladder but that would give me a really big one. Be number whatever? I hate the fact that you lose one game and you take someones spot which is stupid IMO. Should be setup like a league where it would take a few takes to take their spot. I have a ton more to say on this topic but I know things don't change around here. Just leaving my two cents here because everyone's been asking about the skill rating.

make it public or wall it off. a small ladder where half the players have it and half the players dont is bad. i would prefer to wall it off but jedi might go through the bad DT's. it's Tom's creation so he can have access but no one else.

the short answer is that it's not the point of the ladder. It's just a tool that very roughly shows how pilots are performing, on average -- a way to make promotion and demotion challenges based on scores rather than votes or politics or administrative decisions. It's just scores + math. Most people who gain access to it end up obsessing, until they realize the day-to-day fluctuations are large and seem random to everyone but me.

It's not a perfect rating algorithm. It's just a tiering algorithm, and it does that job well enough as long as it's combined with promo/demo challenges.

Well, it would surely be helpful for play motivation, other things like actual rating and where you sit on the ladder at the moment, tends to push us further beyond our previous limits. T4!

it starts to becomes a alternative to the nature of competitiveness within climbing the ladder or going higher in ranks (in my opinion)

ARE WE VOTING ON SKILL RATING BEING REVEALED BECAUSE I HAVENT BEEN NICE ENOUGH TO CERTAIN PEOPLE TO FIND OUT MY RATING. REWARD ME PLEASE!

Whether it should be open or closed is a good question, but thats for you guys to talk over. The skill rating algorithm is necessary as Lothar pointed out. I have no experience of how it had worked without an algorithm to determine tiers, but I imagine it could be messy albeit without first-hand knowledge. Also, the advanced stats (i.e. kills vs expectation, average game, dominance etc) are interesting to look at from time-to-time too. However, if your main reason for playing Descent after twenty plus years is simply to appease an algorithm then more fool you *. Many of us have played Descent for those twenty plus years and are more than capable of judging our own performances against certain pilots, in specific levels and with different weapon loadouts/subgames. Even if you're relatively new to the game it doesn't take long for you to determine how well you are performing in contrast to how well you expect to perform.

I've never seen the skill rating algorithm but as its been mentioned above, I imagine for some it could be like Pandora's box. Is it possible that the current statistics available may deter some people from exploring a wider range of levels/loadouts/subgames? How would making the skill rating algorithm available influence flexibility? Obviously this depends upon the individual and does not necessarily apply to everyone, though I think these are fair questions.

In my opinion you should have faith in your own judgement, push yourself, explore everything Descent has to offer (pilots, levels, loadouts, subgames, D1, D2, D3) and don't get hung up on the statistics. Even if they don't look all too pretty (like mine for example) its not so much about where you are as it is about where you're going. If you think a pilot would destroy you in a specific level, play them and find out for yourself. Who knows, you might even take the win.

Descent is still being played after twenty plus years because it is an excellent game with plenty to offer. Whilst its easy to get hung up on statistics, its often much harder to see it for the gift it is.


*In saying this maybe the diamond guys are an exception as they have practically reached the summit and have no more tiers to climb (diamond seems rather lonely compared to the other tiers, just saying). Even still they are perfectly placed to judge their own performances and that of their opponents.

Wall it off, give access to only yourself, Tom. (and if Catherine gets a peek, who cares)

I believe it has definitely become a point of the ladder for those who have access, if not THE point. I view this as unhealthy, the pandora's box of obsession that Lee mentioned. I think it poisons the ladder a little. (yet i still wish i could look at it. cover your eyes, dont look directly at it!)

No one can understand the algorithm, so wall it off. If no one can vet it for mathematical soundness, then they don't need access. You're trustworthy, I can't imagine the algorithm gets modified at all at this point. We can set it and forget it and if some poor pilot gets repeatedly demoted or something (keep your hands and comments to yourselves, fellow pilots) you can check in on it. Because you have to. Because no one else can. Because it's gibberish to them. So they don't need access.

BUILD A WALL!

edited to note that i think the algorithm does a reasonable job determing my demotion dates, just making a little joke.

Melvin:

I don't know the math behind it. That's for sure. Yet I play a lot. I look at it after every game. I have seen it do things that do not make sense to me based on years of looking at it religiously and have brought it to the attention of the math Gods that wrote the thing who have then made appropriate adjustments when necessary.

That's worth whatever it's worth.

Personally I have previously asked to be banned from seeing it as it drove me crazy. Obsessing about moving .04 points this way or that way after playing this person or that one.

The POINT (that I sometimes forget) of the skill ratings is to figure out if you are Gold, Silver or Bronze basically.

It does that. It does it well.

People want to see it for 'motivation' to improve their game? It isn't motivational. In fact it can inadvertently make you want to only play levels you are good in and not play risky things like mega missile levels or non core. It wouldn't be good for level diversity imo.

I'm not personally opposed to a system that shows if you moved up or down in skill rating after a match but I'm not sure what good that would really do.

Competing for highest skill rating should not be a thing on the DCL. It is not the point of the DCL. The prize is 1st place on this ladder.....get it.....defend it.

Are there people out there that are questioning whether or not someone should be in their given tier?? Is that the issue?

Like are ppl wondering....why is bahamut not Diamond? The ratings must be wrong. Why is morfod not bronze? Why is code not GOLD? tongue in cheek but u know what I mean.