Posts:
124
Registered:
Jun 8, 2008
From:
Stillwater, Oklahoma Banned: For abuse of mm_ai8
Changing the default setting to unrated ...
Posted:
Nov 13, 2009, 7:20 AM
If you are a newbie, it may not mean much now, but after you play here a while, you will understand the rating system here is a very big deal to several players. For the record, I think the rating system is fair and accurate, but ...
The level of play here is very high. Even if someone has played the game of Pente for years; if they are new to Pente.org, chances are, they will lose most of their games. If a new player plays rated games, before they even realize it, they can lose hundreds of points.
We need all the new players we can get. So, if a new player gets slapped with a low rating right off the bat, it can be discouraging. Some new players, have told me they feel ashamed to come back and play just because of their low rating.
This is horrible.
When someone is new, it doesn't mean they are not any good, they are just new. It takes time to get up to speed here; so I tell new players to wait a week or even longer before playing rated games. Veteran players should try to help new players, not discourage them right off the bat. Its bad enough to lose, but the rating system makes them feel marked them for life.
And, veteran players tend to forget how everything looked when they were new. All the settings, rules, noises, chatting, personalities, etc.; all that on top of trying to concentrate on making moves on the board!!! That's way too much to fully appreciate until you've been here a while. A newbie doesn't even know about the rating system, much less where the check-mark is, or that they can chose or deny a rated game.
The default setting is to play rated, so new people are more or less tricked into playing rated before they understand what is happening. Seems like it would be more hospitable to change the default to unrated. What say you?
Re: Changing the defaut setting to unrated ...
Posted:
Nov 13, 2009, 4:00 PM
In the beginning I thought it would be rude to deny a rated game; silly me. Some players try to make you feel inadequate if you don't accept; they raise their scores on the backs of unsuspecting new players. Too bad. It would be nice to have a "room" for those of us whose scores are low where we could play one another in the hope of getting out of the pit we've fallen into. We may not be master players - lots of us just enjoy playing for the fun of it.
