I checked the ratings page today, and read the description of some new system. It sounded good except the part about ending a game early cuts your losses somehow. I've never bought into the idea of forfeiting games you can't win for a couple of reasons. The first and I think the most obvious is the negative effect it has on the community. If every new player forfeited every game he was going to lose in the first few turns.. well he'd being doing that forever, he'd never learn how to deal with the situations, he'd never see new tactics, he'd just start a game see his ratio start to fail and forfiet... the same is true to a lesser extent with experienced players. And more importantly when an experienced player forfeits a tough SA game to a new player he loses an opportunity to fight someone with solid tactical experience but at a handicap that allows him to see more strategies employed before the ultimate conclusion.
In addition to its stunting effect on the community, forfeiting games lessens the experience somewhat in my opinion. When my friends and I sit down to play a game of risk with random territories... people don't just drop out 2 moves in because they're scattered across the board and can't consolidate... they stick it out and everyone involved has a better time because of it.
If you don't want to change the ratings system thats fine, It just disturbs me a little to see that theres such an obsession with "skill" that a rating system is being implemented that actually discourages playing the game that its trying to measure. Thats just how I see it anyway.
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