Grim_Reaper_4u wrote:QUOTE (Grim_Reaper_4u @ Sep 12 2006, 07:19 AM) - as long as nanning or probing gets no points it is unfair and detrimental to good gamemplay (not to mention that lotsa peeps wouldn't nan anymore and just go chase a newb so they could pod him /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" /> )
I am going to call bull$#&* on this and I am going to tie this into a general elo rant.
Based on my experiences when stats were collected, in the large period of time when stats were not collected, and from watching what is happening to elo atm.
In terms of fun, shooting someone else down is always more fun than dropping probes or shooting blue rings at a bomber. Noone, not even long time recognized nan whores like myself, enjoys nanning. You could make naning/probing worth double the points of dogfighting and that still would not change the fundamental fact that these basic activities are not fun.
But people still did them under the old point system, people still did this when points were not an issue, and people will still do this regardless of elo. Those activities win games, and regardless of personal enjoyment of dogfighting or point accumulation, winning is the ultimate drive that has supported these activities and will continue to support it.
Some people look at points to validate game play and that is just plain stupid. Pilots build reputations for themselves that transcend any silly ranking system. Simply playing the game will let anyone with half a brain build a dosier of their fellow players, who the uber whores are, who the nans are, the probers, the miner killers, the circle flyers, the people who others think are good but really suck, etc. And no ammount of points or elo is going to change that fundamental fact, at best it might make me shuffle a couple of people from one mental folder to annother a little quicker but thats about it.
My mental dosier is in general going to be stronger than any point system and will only lose out to my fellow players who may have a better mental dosier. Proof? The original point system was flawed and everyone knew that Gerald4 was horrible despite however long he might labor and try to improve. In the new elo system everyone knows Shizoku is a wonderful pilot despite the fact that his elo is dropping like a rock for anti-stacking.
Elo does not and will not ever measure a pilots ability. It is simply impossible. It does measure his ability to pick the winning side.
But what about the balance button? Well two scenarios.
Scenario A, we have balanced and unregulated games. Strong players like Shiz keep wrecking their elo doing the right thing to antistack, similarly weak players good at picking teams build their elo. Every so often we hit the balance button and these two categories of players suddenly unbalance the teams crazily but these single games do not end up correcting elo since they are too few.
Scenario B we only have balanced games. In this instance everyone should hover around a 50 50 win loss as increasing elo will become difficult as the higher ones elo becomes the liklier it is that they will draw crummy team mates and be knocked back down. At this point elo ceases to be a measure of skill in the traditional sense and instead becomes a tool to knock someone on a winning streak back down to earth.
Summary. I know my worth and the worth of most of the other players out there playing. So does everyone else. No point system or ELO ranking is going to change that and my personal knowledge is going to be better than those systems.
Oh and as for chasing noobs to pod them... Everyone should do it. It takes half a minute, feels good, and more importantly raises your kb so you can do something useful later.