What is the point of player stats on ICO?

from Sins Forums

Hi everyone,

I have wondered for a while now whether or not the player stats i.e. games / wins / losses function is useful in its current state when playing ICO. There may be other threads to this effect, and if so, then I'm sorry for repeating it! I do however feel that it is an issue that could possibly be recosidered. My reasons for saying this are that it is easy to increase your win / loss ratio by simply setting yourself and another player or players or the AI as all on the same team and then starting the game. The game then recognizes this as a win a few seconds after starting. Perhaps there could be a function incorporated to force the presence of opponents in the game before allowing it to start?

A further issue I have noticed is that if your host crashes or you have to reload a saved game for any reason, your stats for the number of games played also increases. Now, I'm no developer :-) so i may be proposing the impossible here, but would it be possible to somehow incorporate a function that recognizes an unintentional player drop from a deliberate (and dishonourable) quit? I know it will still be possible to reboot or disconnect yourself if you want to make it appear as if you were dropped, but hopefully most players won't go to those lengths.

To summarize: my main issue is the fact that the number of games played increases very fast if you have to reload a few times, yet you may only achieve 1 win / loss from one continued game e.g. reload same game 4 times but only win once. This gives the impression that you are a quitter even though you are not. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how this could be improved?

Otherwise the only alternative (to my mind) is to allocate a drop as a loss or to pay no attention to the stats at all as they don't seem representative as is. Just some thoughts...

Keep well!

multiplayer
9,533 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
The Win / Loss / Played numbers are informative, but you have to take them with a grain of salt.

Someone may have a lot of wins or losses, but you have no clue what kind of conditions they got the win or loss under. A win might be a couple buddies mauling a single AI, and a loss might be a hard played fight on a FFA map.

Yes, the numbers can also be totally manipulated, but to what end? Fake wins don't make you a good player. (Though fake losses sometimes mask a good player who is being sneaky.)

To your point about disconnects, we all have them. Every time the game crashes or we have to rehost because someone leaves 2 minutes into the game, we get a played....as long as you finish some games, that stat will be the main stat people look at, because we all have a much larger played number. The main thing I look for is a healthy ratio of wins OR losses against total played games. When I see someone who has lots of played games but no wins or losses, I have to suspect they are bad. When I see a good ratio of losses vs played, and maybe a few wins, at least I know this person is more likely to fight it out and see a game through to the end.

Maybe sometime a ladder system will get implemented to give a real indicator of skill...until then, the Win / Loss tally is a very rough measure of what you might expect from a player.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
A friend and I play this game over Ironclad online and actually have terrible stats. Though we win most games versus impossible AI's (I know, to some they are easy, more power to you if you think that) but it doesnt upload our wins. We have lots of games played, yet no wins or losses.
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Same here. Even though I've only played one game online, and I won it (played co-op against AI), it didn't register as a win.

-HM
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
i've wondered about this my self and found myself content with the following conclusion:

i seem to enjoy games most when playing people with a) more than 4 games b)1-2 more losses that wins. shows a least a bit of dedication to the game and enough humility to be able to surrender now and again.

anything out side of that pattern and i know the game won't be much fun, mainly due to beardy players thinking it's ok to insult people becuase they're not physically there. and never play a 10+ games player with 0 losses, they won't take things kindly.

other than that they are complitlyuseless as you can just use a different name if you want.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks guys...your opinions and views have been very interesting. I'm particularly interested that the AI matches didn't register as a win for some of you, it did for me when I played with a friend against AI's. Perhaps its a bug or something :-)

Thanks mrlarone and Cyker...I think I will adopt similar views to you guys :-)

Hope to see you online.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Just played another game last night vs. the AI, with a friend on my team, and lost. That registered.

Perhaps the bug that affects MP save games got us originally, and that's why it didn't register. We did save that original game a couple of times and go back to it, as opposed to last night's game, which we did in one sitting.

-HM
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Hi everyone,
I have wondered for a while now whether or not the player stats i.e. games / wins / losses function is useful in its current state when playing ICO. There may be other threads to this effect, and if so, then I'm sorry for repeating it! I do however feel that it is an issue that could possibly be recosidered. My reasons for saying this are that it is easy to increase your win / loss ratio by simply setting yourself and another player or players or the AI as all on the same team and then starting the game. The game then recognizes this as a win a few seconds after starting. Perhaps there could be a function incorporated to force the presence of opponents in the game before allowing it to start?
A further issue I have noticed is that if your host crashes or you have to reload a saved game for any reason, your stats for the number of games played also increases. Now, I'm no developer so i may be proposing the impossible here, but would it be possible to somehow incorporate a function that recognizes an unintentional player drop from a deliberate (and dishonourable) quit? I know it will still be possible to reboot or disconnect yourself if you want to make it appear as if you were dropped, but hopefully most players won't go to those lengths.
To summarize: my main issue is the fact that the number of games played increases very fast if you have to reload a few times, yet you may only achieve 1 win / loss from one continued game e.g. reload same game 4 times but only win once. This gives the impression that you are a quitter even though you are not. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how this could be improved?
Otherwise the only alternative (to my mind) is to allocate a drop as a loss or to pay no attention to the stats at all as they don't seem representative as is. Just some thoughts...
Keep well!


SiALON.. i am DEFINATLY agreeing with you on this,
i've got the game ever since it was released and been playing online all that time

in the starting days.. leavers and crashes wre normal.. and happend more often then a win or a loss... in the end ive got about 80 games so far... about 15 wins and 15 losses


people acuse me of being a quiter, i even got booted from 4 games so far becuase someone was funny enough to say that he knew me and that i always quit (wtf???)
(im just glad i aint playing with that lier ;)



but still annoying, i got myself a new name 2 avoid this.... even old people who were 2 sucky to accept defeat now annoy me with.. your a faggot u changed your name cuase i owned u.... (WTF again????)

either add a squelch option or remove the total game count (and quit = draw!!!!!)



"edit"

after rereading some stuff about looking @ wins and losses. alot of people look at the wins and even losses 2 determine if he'll stay or not. i agree on this tough alot of players look at the total game count and count in wins (then add the strong players to their team and the bad players on team 2.... funn... see this in EVERY online game...)

i got my own system of losses and wins
if people annoy or act lamish in games.. i try 2 ignore it,,, if they continue i'll warn with leaving (depends on how games go)
even worse if a player wins from me and acts like a total fool "AHAHA NOOB I FUCKING OWNED URE ASS" ... (y alot of peopel respond this way) .. then OFCOURSE im going to quit.... i'm not giving away a win 4 people that just insulted me..... no matter how.. i will only surrender as apropriate if people act normal and acknowledge that its only a game

(so far i have 0 losses....... that sortoff determines the state on how many underaged peopel actualy play this game)

S_o_L
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Seems like a pointless option too me due to its working. Would make sense to just have a ladder system in place, for clans & people to upload victories with X rules in place.