I wanted to take a short break from discussing token balance changes and talk about something broader.
I believe that Elo ratings should be made public, and here is why.
Starting Point 1: Right now, very few players are of publicly-known skill-level. Players in the top clans or players who have done well on the leaderboards are known by some, but in general, nobody knows much about eachother.
Starting Point 2: There is a vast variety of players in this game, from very low-level players with no real videogaming background to the tippity top players with heavy competitive gaming backgrounds.
Starting Point 3: Balance discussions on the forums and elsewhere are being conducted with a random mix of low, mid, and top level players.
Starting Point 4 (the most important one!): The game is entirely different for low level, mid level, and top level players. What might be an extremely good technique at low levels (such as lights circle strafing heavies/assaults for example) becomes a somewhat risky maneuver at the mid level, and becomes utter suicide instant death at the top level. The game is entirely different at the various levels, and this leads to players at lower levels believing that they are all good players because they win half of their matches, they do well with whatever builds they are using, but because Elo is private, they don't know that they are playing primarily against lower-quality opponents (or getting paired with higher-quality teammates), and the main problems they face are due to their own poor mechanics (like bad aim or movement control). Players of different levels are playing different games, in a sense.
Conclusion: The input that players give in the forums is a horrid mishmash of tons of different players at different levels each arguing back and forth about certain balance changes that will affect them all differently. In discussions like these,
EVERYONE MIGHT BE RIGHT, RELATIVE TO THEIR OWN LEVEL OF PLAY! So we get things like "I have just as much fun in my jump-jet light as I ever have! Doesn't really bother me" at the same time as "I am now unable to excecute extremely important maneuvers such as pinpointing certain components on my ascent in my jump-jet light because of screen/reticle shake." The former statement I have seen come from several low level players, and the latter statement is the consensus of all of the top light pilots I have spoken to. Each may be right, but they are really living in different worlds, and are each reporting from a play level with each its own issues.
Solution:
Make Elo public. If player Elo is public, as players (and as developers) people will be able to look at someone's input and take it for what it really is. If we are trying to fix poptarting issues, we can see what is bothering low-level players, what is bothering top-level players, and see if there is a simple solution that helps both. (Hint: It's buff SRM damage!) The forums make it seem as if there is genuine disagreement among all players, and everything is a mess, but I do not believe this to be the case. In talking to many other top competitive unit members, the screen shake is a universally bad or at least unnecessary addition. However, it remains very popular among low and mid level players. I do not mean to generalize and say "only bad players want jumpjet shake," but there seems to be a strong divide between what seems imbalanced among low and mid level players, and what seems imbalanced to top level players. The reason isn't because of elitism or attending the "Church of Skill" but it is because there is such a vast difference between what happens in low elo pug games, and what happens in competitive tournament 8 man games. What is good and bad is genuinely different at different levels.
Public Elo would let us understand each person's opinion as it is. If we are wanting to make the game more accessable to new players or more enjoyable for low level casual players, then when someone with low Elo posts something in the balance forums with, people could better use that information to cater to that crowd. When there is an issue at the top competitive level, we would know exactly who has a high Elo and is qualified to speak on the subject. High elo players talking about Low elo issues helps nobody, and makes low-level players feel like their input doesn't matter. On the other hand, Low elo players under the illusion that they are good because of their 1.1 win ratio should not be clogging discussion of balance at the highest competitive 8 man level, because their win ratio is a function of playing against other lower level opponents.
Leaving things as they are right now will make balance discussions continue to be counterproductive, with nobody knowing where their opinion is most relevant, and choosing to simply insert it everywhere. Issues like "Jumpjet shake" and "Heat containment" are far different issues at different levels, and sometimes call for different or creative solutions. Throwing everyone into a pile and letting them go at it, each person not recognizing the perspective of the other (and most players not even able to know where their own perspective lies!) is leading to the awful forum debates that reduce to little more than attacks on fellow players (which I am myself guilty of!) Please, PGI or whoever is in control of this sort of thing, make Elo public.
EDIT: Another fantastic discussion on this topic:
http://mwomercs.com/...o-game-balance/
7
Sybreed, on 17 August 2013 - 04:05 PM, said:
For those that support ELO being public...[redacted]
) spend far more time in the game than on the forum. Some of the more blunt and brashly vocal forum warriors here should perhaps ponder that fact.
