Development Cycle Archive
Thread: SWG Forum Ranking Changes...
Bajonett
Sat Aug 21, 2004 5:17 am
#326
Great idea..
What about the bannings?
What about the combat balance?
/sacasm on.
CB was delayed die to implementation of the star system.
/sarcasm off.
Akaara
Sat Aug 21, 2004 5:22 am
#327
How do you know your star rankings? Is there a way to see this? Curious what mine would be...
SpiceIndustries
Sat Aug 21, 2004 5:36 am
#328
I don't like the star ranking system because I think it can be too easily manipulated. No matter what controls you put in place, it will get manipulated to the point where it may become meaningless - like hologrinding. Nonetheless, I like the idea.
If you must go forward with star rankings, I'd rather you limit the number of rankings that count for a particular account to 1 a week. Also, the best way to prevent abuse is to have accountability; It would be great if each week you could see who ranked you andothers could easily see who youranked.
Once you vote for someone, you shouldn't be able to vote for them again, for one that counts towards ranking, until another month. This would at least reduce some of the you stratch my back I'll stratch yours type votes. The person you voted for also shouldn't be allowed to vote for you, for one that counts towards ranking, until another month also.
To get any ranked points at all, or to receive any ranking points, you must have at leastranked 6 different people.
To prevent people creating accounts just for ranking maybe you should also require a minimum time an account must be active before it can accumulate ranked points. Let's say you need 12 votes over 3 months to become novice.
It would be nice to connect the Forums with the game more directly. So how about you give us badges for reaching certain levels. Or FS XP for obtaining a certain star values.
Buka_Starwalker
Sat Aug 21, 2004 5:54 am
#329
This is a great idea as it will encourage more constructuve posts instead of flame wars back and forth. Myself included. BUT the 1-star bandit will definiately play a major role as ppl who dont care for a particular poster will 1-star em out of spite and nothing more.
There should be a feature to see who starred you what for your post at least. Some sort of star tracking system should be available to forum posters at least at the higher rankings.
SioBabble
Sat Aug 21, 2004 6:05 am
#330
The problem with any system based on peer rankings is the assumption that people are disciplined enough to not inflate (or deliberately underrate) to game the outcome.
SOE is making the same naive assumption with any rank system tied to the star rankings as they did with SWG in general.
That power posters won't abuse the system. The same way that they assumed away power gamers power grinding through professions when SWG first came out, and when profession mastery was revealed to be the path to force sensitivity once the players figured out out enough of it. Then they just threw up their hands and flat out stated that power grinding was the path to Jedi.
As many have stated, this ruined the game.
Same principle applies with this ranking system. Tossing in the stars will diminish it; you see this sort of thing on private boards all the time as those who cannot resist the temptation to postmeaningless poststo raise their rankings will do so. With star bandits raising and lowering average ratings again and again, based not on the content of the post but on whim, the ranking system begins to lose meaning and credibilty.
Kharrissa
Sat Aug 21, 2004 6:33 am
#331
"How do you know your star rankings? Is there a way to see this? Curious what mine would be... "
It is listed under Dashboard.
Run your cursor over the Average Message Rating and it will give you the numeric value.
haun
Sat Aug 21, 2004 1:45 pm
#335
haha this is so stupid.
it's just going to add more competative spirit to an overly competative game.
people won't post what they think in fear of losing rating and people will one start others to screw them up.
big waste of time.
Spacedog
Sat Aug 21, 2004 2:11 pm
#336
Normal Ranked:
Required for rank 1 (Community Member same as current) 1 month minimum 50 post
Required for rank 2 (Sr. Community Member) 3 month minimum75 post
Required for rank 3 (Community Contributor) 3 month minimum100 post
Required for rank 4 (Community Veteran same as current) 6 month minimum125 post
Required for rank 5 (Community Guide) 6 month minimum175 post
Required for rank 6 (Community Elder same as current) 9 month minimum250 post
Required for rank 7 (Community Advisor) 9 month minimum2.75 starrating300 post
Required for rank 8 (Community Leader same as current) 9 month minimum 3.0 star rating350 post
Required for rank 9 (Community Advocate) 12 month minimum 3.0 star rating750 post
Star Ranked:
Required for rank 1 (Advisor) 1 month minimum 3.1 average rating given 50 post
Required for rank 2 (Steward 3 month minimum 3.2 average rating given75 post
Required for rank 3 (Emissary) 3 month minimum 3.5 average rating given125 post
Required for rank 4 (Diplomat) 6 month minimum 3.7 average rating given150 post
Required for rank 5 (Galactic Counselor) 6 month minimum 4.0 average rating given250 post
Required for rank 6 (Galactic Ambassador) 9 month minimum 4.2 average rating given 250 post
Required for rank 7 (Galactic Senator) 9 month minimum 4.5 average rating given 350 post
Required for rank 8 (Chancellor) 9 month minimum 4.7 average rating given 500 post
Required for rank 9 (High Chancellor) 12 month minimum4.9 average rating given 1000 post
This is a nice idea, but having the title being determined by the highest rank will make it very difficult for veterans of 1 year or greater to obtain any "star" rankings; the only one that they can hope for is High Chancellor, which requires a nearly-impossible ranking of 4.9. Below that, and the "star" rankings will always be trumped by the normal rankings.
After having one year on the forum, the star rankings will become essentially meaningless to the poster unless s/he can pull of the 4.9 ranking which, given the tempermental nature of the forums, is nearly impossible even for the most constructive poster.
This idea is a great starting point, but something needs to be done to integrate the two systems more rather than having them be parallel like they are now.
HolyAvengerOne
Sat Aug 21, 2004 3:43 pm
#337
Great ideas, Garva ! More diversity to these forums, along with reponsible posting incentives, can only better our experience out here.
Now I just can't wait to see what our new super-powers will be 
Martbar
Sat Aug 21, 2004 3:51 pm
#338
Sounds super! Love the new ranking system. I don't post very often so its nice to know you are taking into account the length of time weve been posting on the forums.