Why the Blizzard ladder is great - Page 6

On April 07 2011 04:59 IntoTheEmo wrote:
Yeah it may not affect anything with regards to indicating skill, but the fact that Blizzard decided on this for us and at such an early stage of the game is scary.

On April 07 2011 04:43 enigamI wrote:
I agree wholeheartedly with OP. My only complaint with the system is the inability to off race conveniently, I really wish you could have a separate MMR for each race...

On April 07 2011 00:23 [F_]aths wrote:
With Patch 1.3 and the removal of the total games played for leagues below Master, it is not possible to calculate the win ratio. Many users see this as the final proof that the ladder is good for nothing since it no longer has any meaning. Blizzard is just pleasing the noobs to sell more copies. Competitive play is not really promoted since anyone can get milestones or achievements while he still has no more than 12 drones at any given time in the match.

But let us look on a casual gamer with little RTS experience. Let’s him call Bob. Bob purchased Starcraft 2 because he likes military science fiction or because he was told that the game is good. Or he stumbled upon a Husky cast as a friend forwarded him the Baneling video and now Bob dreams of beeing a terran general to commandeer some battle cruisers.

Bob did play through the campaign on the easiest level and still had trouble with “All In”. He started the online mode and got crushed. He started another game and got crushed again. After practice league and placement matches he finds himself 0-5ed in Bronze. Five or ten games later his MMR adjusted and he fights other guys like him and he eventually gets close to a 50% win ratio, even though he cannot see it unless he digs up his match history. Anyway, he now thinks that he has improved while in fact he has not, he just gets opponents of equal skill. But the important thing here is that he has fun and that he plays. Bob will perhaps never get promoted, but he gets into Top-8 of his division and he tells a friend that this Starcraft thing is very fun and he should buy it, too. Now they can play custom 1v1 with no attack until 8:00 minutes or do a 2v2 with double sixpool.

Eventually, some players who got into the game will be interested to get actually better. This is my main point. Sir Taste-A-Lot and Striderdoom once were nubs, too. They nubbed probably for months, if not years, in an environment with no real competetive pressure. Everyone should have the chance to play online against players of equal skill without having to worry to get a poor ladder statistic. In SC1, everyone could create a new account at any time to hide the inglorious past. But this promoted smurfing, and it is not fair to let mid-skilled players bash noobs.

To have more players at pro level in the long term, Starcraft should attract the masses. It is not good to sort out the players who cannot stand the pressure before they had a chance to develop love for the game. Imagine a balance discussion between Bob and Jack, both bronzies. May be their views are horriblys wrong, but it is important that they talk about Starcraft. May be a friend overhears a conversation how imbalanced the Dark Templar is and purchases the game just for having a chance to feel great to crush someone with a DT rush.

It is also important that they watch some pro leagues because leagues need an audience to get sponsors. An elitist attitude regarding Starcraft will only drive away the masses, not letting the scene develop into mainstream.

We need people who play, or we will run out of fresh blood. Blizzard is doing the right thing to ensure new blood for any league. Blizzard is right awarding activity with a good placement in the division. If you want to see your win ratio, you can earn this honor by getting in Master. If you want to see your real skill with no bonus pool adjustment, you can sign up for a tournament and see who you can beat.

The Blizzard ladder is constructed to get people play the game and it does its job well. It rewards just playing the game, it keeps people playing because it removes the fear of getting below 50%. More players overall today = more pro-gamers overall tomorrow.



edit Technical note: With exception for the lowest and the highest league, if you keep playing, your ratio will be close to 50% regardless. If you have much more (or less) than 50%, you did not just play enough for the MMR do adapt. Having >50% in Diamond is no sign of skill. It's just a sign that you did not yet play enough games for the MMR do adapt.

Now let's say you had a bad day, you are a bit tired and afraid of playing 1v1 since you could lose a lot of games today. You could decide to rather not play to keep your 51% win statistic. Okay, a week or two weeks later you feel great but you are afraid that the strategies developed further and you would get crushed. Having not to worry about stats will make it easy to play regardless of your condition. The more players are hitting the search-game-button, the better the system works because it can match you to someone with similar skill very fast. This keeps the interest in actually playing instead of worrying about statistics.

On April 07 2011 04:18 Ghost-z wrote:
How the hell can some oh you argue that seeing your win/loss ratio will actually help make you better? I don't care how good/bad you are at Starcraft but 95% of us will never see win/lose ratios outside of 45-55% range. Is it really going to change your personal meta-game when you see your record is 50-45 instead of 50-55?

Blizzard ladder is much improved from BW and who gives a shit about wins and loses.

On April 07 2011 16:53 [F_]aths wrote:
To remove the win ratio, also removes a lot of unnecessary discussions so people can focus on playing instead of talking.

On April 07 2011 16:53 [F_]aths wrote:
It's good that Blizzard removed the choice to have it because Platinum and Diamond also has players which are currently slightly above 50% and are afraid of playing the game since they could fall below 50%. It never will work to convince all players to not judge someone by his win ratio. Even if Blizzard manages to tell everyone that the system will get you close to 50% anyways, people will see >50% as a proof that they are good since they even tricked the system (while in fact they just did not play enough games yet.)

On April 07 2011 04:43 Excalibur_Z wrote:


While that is true, your wins at least have a direct impact upon your progress toward unlocking portraits, decals, and achievements.

On April 07 2011 04:43 Excalibur_Z wrote:
Also, to the rest of the thread who are still posting about "WL was removed for noobs", I want this earlier point acknowledged:

On April 07 2011 00:52 mustache wrote:


if this system is so perfect whats wrong with showing someone a 50/50 win ratio. thats not discouraging..

On April 07 2011 06:49 dmillz wrote:
Its easy, your W/L is very close to 50% unless you are high masters or very low bronze. Seeing the exact number doesn't change the fact that the MMR forces you to be around 50% W/L until you're in masters.

If you want to see your real skill with no bonus pool adjustment, you can sign up for a tournament and see who you can beat.