Ranks are dead, but . . .
To quote GoodboyKaru's post summarizing the Dev stream:
RANKS ARE DEAD.
There are no more ranks in this game. Full stop.
GRADES ARE NOT USED FOR MATCHMAKING.
These are used to measure playtime and give rewards at the end of any given season. These have absolutely zero relevance to matchmaking however. Please stop sending Patrick screenshots about Grades being weird in games because they don't matter anymore. They are gone, kaputt, zerstören, and have been fired.
There's a lot of chatter about the new system, and rather than debate the efficacy of the new one (that's been done and continues to be done across various mediums), I wanted to pose a separate question to the community. Take all of the noise surrounding grades and ignore it for a moment.
With the old system, you had a rank that was visible to yourself and others. Now we've all been there and seen someone who was at red ranks who didn't "belong," or someone who was a green and played like a red. So yes, ranks were not totally reliable and could've used some tweaking. But for many, the rank itself was a goal, or a source of pride.
It is human nature to strive for something, to show off, to compete, to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. Having a red rank to achieve was that for many. I remember seeing people say in streams things like, "I watched you (not me personally, the streamer) and got so much better! I finally made it to rank 1 and I'm so happy!" Or people arguing about something and saying, "I'm a rank 1 Billy with X amount of hours, I know what I'm talking about." Ranks were something we used to measure ourselves and judge each other. That is now gone. And I can't help but feel that this change overlooked that part of human nature, the part that likes to strive and brag.
But what do you guys think? Is there a bit of human psychology that got overlooked with this new system? Is there room to improve it/account for it, on that specific front?
And keep in mind, there isn't a wrong or right answer because the answer is based off of your psychology. As a business, if the majority of the people feel a certain way, then following that is the right move for BHVR. But your individual opinion and my opinion are just reflections of our brains' reward centers, not moral absolutes. So I'm curious to hear your opinions.
(FYI, the rewards are nice, but they don't accomplish for me psychologically what the old system did. Personally, I would've liked a tweak to the old pipping system with an added reward based on rank (so a hybrid of the old and new system).)
Comments
With a system that attempts to enforce a 50% escape rate, there's no motivation to do anything.
Good point. When I was on a winning streak, it felt great. If I got my ass handed to me by a great Killer a few times in a row, it got me fired up to try harder.