I hate point traders...looks like they've found ways around the match making system. BUT... If you don't count games under 2-5 minutes it would just be a way for a player to excape the game without taking a loss. Lets say you use your bolt on his pharaoh early in the game, he gets made and leaves thus taking no loss. That isn't good either. I would hate to feel like walking on egg shells for the first 2-5 minutes of the game. What if a player simply doesn't want to play against a certain civ, RA for example? How would you feel if he could just resign every game without a loss until he got the civ he wanted to play against? I think point trading would get worse if you didn't count games under 2-5 minutes. Then the traders could keep resigning every game until they were match up with their point trading partners and simply wait out the 2-5 minute rule.
Here is what needs to be done to correct the problem.
~Reset the rating of anyone who has 60% of their WINS or LOSSES from games under the 5 minute mark, or anyone who has an overall average under 5 minutes. Don't worry about the occational early resignation that honest players sometimes experience on both ends of the table. Playing mostly 10-20 minute "fair" games will balance out the resignations experienced by normal players in both situations of the resignations, I.E, You have to resign because you have to go somewhere, or someone you play resigns for an unknown reason. ~Adjust the match making system to reduce the likelihood that two players will play eachother for at least 5-10 games.
~Anyone that plays the same person for more then 5 times, AND has an average game time with that person under 5 minutes should have BOTH ratings reset.
I don't know exactly how the match making system works, but I have an idea of how these point traders are getting around the system. I think they are using very specific settings to insure a greater likelihood of getting eachother. That or maybe a hack of some sort.
I know there is a lot of people who think hacking and point trading are harmless, even companies like Blizzard take these matters lightly if they do anything at all. The truth is hacking and point trading DOES hurt the game and the company. Here is something to wrap your mind around. Ok, for now ES needs to take action and reset the rating of these players. If they DONT do anything the actions of those cheaters degrade the rating system, which makes people feel less like playing rated games, which makes people feel less like playing the game, which makes the company look bad if nothing is done, and if people can't trust the company they are less likely to buy future games from that company.
I use to complain about Starcraft on B-net all the time. For years Blizzard did nothing, and it really hurt my respect for the company. Only until recently did Blizzard even pretend to care (Suspending hackers for only two weeks!) Well let me tell you something. It only took one time for a map hack in a rated game to make me toss WCIII out of my life, but oh the hacker will be back in 2 weeks time if he even got caught! Think of all the players that this hacker might have turned away from the game! I refuse to play WCIII online, but the game was frustrating enough as it was. I hate any forms of cheating, whether it be hacking or point trading, something needs to be done.
My hobby is playing video games, and my dream is to someday get paid to do it.[This message has been edited by polaris_crd (edited 01-03-2003 @ 04:01 PM).]