I noticed most people find it hard to get the concept; I noticed even some of the smarter players in the forum; so here’s a conceptual “story” that demonstrates the real problem.
Step 1: There’s congestion of worse gameplay at bottoms of ranks; those people should not be there; they probably had 1 lucky streak once and then got stuck there.
Step 2: A better player enters that rank-bottom for the 1st time; that better player will not stay there for long; but the better player will be there for a while interacting with the worse players who got locked there because of Step 1’s situation of locking the ranks after lucky streaks too.
Step 3: The better player steamrolls them contributing making it feel a mess; those worse players should not be there at all; hence THEY WHINE BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE DELUSION THEY BELONGED THERE TO BEGIN WITH.
So you’re saying that everyone who gets stuck in a certain rank is actually deluded about beloning there?
So, me being stuck on ~5k legend every single month is a case of “luck streaks” and not me deserving 5k legend instead of 10k legend or 1k legend?
Is that what you’re saying? Even though there is NO rank locking on legend 5k. I’m stuck there because I consistently beat 10k legend and lose to 2k legend. Even then?
Base situation: Player who deserves to be in Platinum gets a lucky win streak and makes Diamond 8. Then they can’t handle the other Diamond players, get stuck at Diamond 10, and whine incessantly on the forums because they have are under the delusion they’re Diamond 8 material.
Post “fix” situation: Player who deserves to be in Platinum gets a lucky win streak and makes Diamond 8. Then they can’t handle the other Diamond players, so they lose until they’re no longer in Diamond, then they whine incessantly on the forums because they have are under the delusion they’re Diamond 8 material.
Conclusion: proposed solution would not actually prevent core problem
Hearthstone’s ladder has always had problems, however the locked ranks helped out a lot. The way it was before even the best players would have to play like 5 hours every day to get to Legend each month. With the locked ranks players just have to play long enough to get back to where they were, and if they play more than that means they are enjoying the game.
If you cant climb out of a rank you are at the rank you should be at. If it was a lucky streak then ok so what? It resets in a month and they have to climb back to that rank because the stars will only bring them 5 ranks below last months rank.
I don’t see the issue here. Is OP complaining about weaker players that complain a lot? Is OP frustrated that players are getting to ranks that they can’t compete at? I think there would be more complaints if there weren’t ranked floors and people could derank further. If someone had a lucky streak and won their way into Diamond, then proceeded to lose their way back into Gold or Silver, they would probably stop playing Ranked for the rest of the season.
I think the true Ranked Ladder actually starts in Legend. You can keep deranking on the Legend leaderboard and if you don’t deserve to be higher Legend, your placement number will reflect that.
Really? Again with the strawman thing? xD COME ON BRO
@ Scr0tieMcB this is what I was talking about, bro
That’s what I’m telling you. You don’t have to have rank locks in order for people to get stuck in a certain rank. People can get stuck between diamond 1 and diamond 2 or diamond 1 and legend just the same.
I’m ashamed of my rank. I need it to get better soon. Today I won my first warrior mirror, so I should be fine xD
Nope but I’m happy you agree with the technical reality of how it works (unlike in other threads we had).
It’s not the same at all because at least now they have a LABEL that blatantly says “you are at that rank my dude so you are that good my dude!”.
The psychology will be extremely different when they see “dude: you are now back at that low rank with the other dudes of that other rank”.
Come on but that’s not a problem that you fix by locking ranks.
That’s a problem of “you don’t reward people enough”.
You can solve that with rewarding them earlier (if you think they should do that) (e.g. they could have people who are currently “Legend” become Legend much earlier (with less effort)) because the rewards are one thing and who is the best (the prestige) is another (it’s not like that right now Legend 10 is anywhere near the quality of Legend 5,000[for example]).
It already is like that. If you want easy legend, just wait for 29th in the month and cruise to legend with something like 25-1 score. I guarantee you that’s possible - that’s how big of a diff it is between a diamond v and average legend.
I didn’t say it’s a crime against humanity but it’s a clear problem with the ladder right now.
Why shouldn’t people be free-floating to return to a lower rank: to not insult their feelings?
Besides you can still “lock” their rewards(only) and not the rank so it’s purely a psychological problem that becomes an even worse psychological problem (the way I describe it in the OP) the way they do it.
It is precisely in Blizzard’s self interest, for pack sales reasons, to convince players that they are better at the game than they actually are. That inflated ego is what gets bad players to spend real money on the game. What happens after that isn’t their concern.
Rank floors are a marketing mechanic and they’re going nowhere.
Yes and no. I mean I agree with what you’re describing is probably the Devs’/Executives’ thought process,
but I think they’re wrong: long-term a better game will be even more profitable (and I believe they are routinely doing that mistake in WoW too for years (it’s probably someone at Activision enforcing it)).
The problem isn’t the rank floors, it’s a combination of poor balance, bots, and star bonus that elevates people beyond their ability.
For example, I’m sure a pile of players rode pirate warrior to a higher rank than they ever had before or since, and then they can’t win a game for the rest of the season after it’s nerfed because they didn’t have a clue.
Honestly at this point of course that’s wrong, the game’s already ten years old. That’s ancient. Realistically squeeze the game for every penny you can before it dies
I don’t think you’re right and your thought process is exactly the mistake they’re doing.
For example they started milking WoW with short-term profiteering when it was already 10 years old; it’s not dead yet; but it could have been bigger because the internet has 10X more users now and the game only has 1/10th of its peak.
Also TECHNOLOGICALLY the world is different now; video games will not be hugely with different graphics in 10 years (because the transistor started reaching its quantum-mechanical limits gradually years ago); it’s not the early 2000s or earlier when games “died” because they just looked BAD (let alone there’s also the Minecraft culture of simplicity).
Why would rank floors be a problem? Play until you get where you want and them meme or don’t, but it won’t hurt you to experiment.
I don’t play meta decks in casual, so I actually have lots of fun in that mode.
Edit: It isn’t the rank floors that makes the skill so different in lower ranks, it’s the bots and the stars. If people weren’t artificially pushed up the ladder there would be much more parity at different ranks. As it stands, a competent player isn’t tested until diamond or platinum, and that doesn’t make any sense. The system is designed to get nearly everyone to D5 if they are even remotely proficient.
