2012 Ladder scoring has problems

[Askari19]

After browsing this thread, here's another $.02, just to confirm that there is some diversity of opinion among us.

I had no idea about the whole concept of "bonus points" until now, and I'm not sure I care for it. Not that it matters for anything.

I understand that many Blitzers put lots of time and effort into designing (and testing) H2H scenarios, and I applaud them. I did the same back in the prehistoric (boardgaming) era but these days can barely, guiltily, carve enough time out of my life to play CS, my favorite game system. When I dabbled in game and scenario design, recognition or reward was never the point, beyond offering other gamers information or products that might enhance their gaming... and in the work of design and development itself.

My own perspective on scenarios is that there are many H2H scenarios that I purchased from Matrix with the CS games, that I haven't yet played; I have only downloaded one additional from this site, for the WiF tournament. I am not a big consumer of new scenarios, and may not live long enough to become one. That's just my perspective, which I know is not shared by folks that have been playing these games a lot longer. But for me, the primary values of the Blitz community are the pool of potential opponents, and the fun of competition.

PBEM in a wider community then we ever had in the face-to-face gaming days is great, not least because it permits a (friendly) competitive atmosphere to be created and sustained. But if the points earned by playing (winning and [u] losing, I like that feature) are overshadowed by arbitrary and unknown bonuses, and incentive rewards for scenario design and testing, then the ladders aren't what I imagined they were at all.

Could there not be some other way to recognize these efforts, leaving the ladder to recognize competitive gaming activity only?

Bill