I had this all written out, then my internet quit right when I clicked submit and lost it all. Thank you Comcast...

Anyway, a few days ago I got the urge to come back to funtrivia after a 2 year hiatus. About the time I left, the hourly scoring system was being completely revamped. (If you don't remember or are unfamiliar with the old scoring system, snoop at the Gold Madness game. That still has the old scoring system).

The problem I have with this system is that in no way is there direct competition with everyone else. As it is now, if I score 10 in 25 seconds in Piece of Cake, the score that will be added to my monthly tally is pretty much set in stone. In the old system, if I got 10 in 30 seconds in a World quiz, in one hour I might be in the top 2-3. Maybe a few hours later it was World again, and I got a 10 in 23 seconds...but wasn't even in the top 10. The amount of points that that went toward my monthly score was based on where I place, how many people I place in front of, etc. I remember back in the day, I was in second place for the month in Piece of Cake and I was trying to chase down WolrdB. No matter how I did, no matter how many games I played, I couldn't catch him. He steadily pulled away from me. I was over 1000 points ahead of 3rd, yet I ended up nearly 4000 points behind him. How could I get him the next month? I needed to get BETTER. I needed to improve my game.

Where's the competition? As it is now, as soon as I hit submit on an hourly quiz, that's that. I have no reason to care how the rest of the hour turns out. Where's the drive to improve? I'll admit, I was awful when I first started on this site. It took me a month to score a 10 in the EASY game, longer yet until I finally broke into the top 100 for the month, and still longer to make it into the top 100 in Who's the Smartest. I wanted to get better and hoped to become equals with those at the top, and maybe some day surpass them. As it is now, I click submit and go "meh" and move on. I remember sitting at my computer clicking refresh every five minutes to see if someone would knock me out of first for that hour, groaning in disappointment when someone got the better of me. But I would always think to myself, "Next time, they won't get me." THAT is why I loved funtrivia, because of the competition with others and because of that the strive to get better. But that's gone with the way it is now.

When the scoring change first came about, I was opposed and spoke my mind on the subject. Others felt that scoring needed to change so that newer players could have a shot at the top. But as I said before, it was because I was getting my butt kicked every month that I wanted to get better and challenge those at the top.

Maybe I'm a little old-fashioned about this, and I know it's been years since this change in scoring was made. But I still can't help but feel that the competition against other individuals and teams has been taken away. I just thought I'd speak my mind, and maybe start some interesting discussion on the topic.

Wow, this became long.

Ah, the good old days huh. Back then the top players dominated and those same top players were usually at the top of the score board at the end of the month, every month. That was before the badge mania and other changes. The focus now is far more diverse than it was back then. Of course back then you had to play 18 hours a day to have a good chance to win.

In this current system, there used to be an award for the top ten that was included in your hourly average so finishing in the top 10 was required to get a top average score/game. That seems to have dropped off, at least in the Piece of Cake game. And quite a number of people have already won those badges so other people can get them now by finishing in the top 50 or top 100.

And you could have at least spelled my name right if you were talking about me LOL

Heh. WorldB, you've caused me a lot of grief in the Speed Demon game!

I just wish the +100 average was reinstated in the Easy Hourly game. As it stands now, a 10/10 15 second score (985) is barely better than a 10/10 25 second score (975) because 10 points is almost zero difference, even though 15 seconds is tons better than 25. Guys who have an average of 968-970 have some top 10 averages according to the standings (Rank points of 490+), which clearly is not right.

Yes, Prison, the strategy has changed because of the scoring change. It's no longer worthwhile to play as fast as you can or even faster. I took off for about 2 months and am just now starting to play a little again. It will take me some time to get back up to speed before I can compete with the fastest players again.

I apologize WorldB, I type fast and sometimes a couple of letters get transposed. If it's any consolation, I had it right the first time I had all of that typed out, haha.

It's true that the same players were always at the top of both the easy and hard games. But what's stopping newer players from practicing and getting to the point that they can compete at that level too? After playing for 6-7 months, I was able to place in the top 20 in the easy game consistently, and was climbing the ranks in the hard game every month, little by little. When the scoring change occurred, it was intended to make it easier for newer players. But shouldn't those who have dedicated a lot of time and effort to improve offer it's own rewards?

Also with splitting players up into classes, I noticed that only overall rankings are kept now. Part of reason why the classes were made were to offer people competition with other players that are similar in skill. But now those level monthly scores are no longer kept. Shouldn't players be competing as a whole instead of in classes that offer little purpose?

I'm not necessarily suggesting that scoring be reverted to what it was, but there must be alternatives so that feeling of overall competition can be restored.

Classes were abandoned several months ago. Did you mean levels? But that system has been around for a good while. Aren't teams about the newest way to conglomerate players?

Sorry about that, I was referring to the Level Divisions.

No direct competition with everyone else? That's funny. I didn't know I was playing the hourlies by myself. There still is competition in the hourlies. You can either go hour by hour and see where you place, or you can go by the monthly standings, or there is the ELO rating when you become a champion. The ELO in the POC game is where my competition lies. After I play, I check the game from time to time to see where I am because I have to catch Prison. Competition is what you make of it.

The monthly rankings are based on two criteria. 1) Your average quiz score and 2) your total quiz points scored. It has nothing to do with how you directly compete with other people. The system is passive at best.

Rankings for any given hour don't really mean anything. It used to be that placing first (or in the top ten, for that matter) meant you scored more points than others in that game. And if you go way, way back, a tally was kept throughout the month of the number of games you won.

The monthly rankings DO have something to do with direct competition. Say you are in 21st. To move up, you have to play better and more often than the players ahead of you. That sounds like direct competition to me.

Rankings for any given hour DO mean something. A couple hours ago, I beat Prison in a movie topic. I got extra ELO points for that. If I can get closer to him, and he wants to hold me off, then he has to beat me in the games. That sounds like direct competition to me.

It may not be what you remember, and I remember those days too, but there IS direct competition in the hourlies.

There is another aspect to the competition set up in the hourlies and it has to do with team standings. On a small team only 7 players from a team can get listed in the top 200. If you're at 150 and there are seven of your teammates already above you, you do not get listed. Someone that would have been #201 gets listed instead.
So there is now competitin within teams to see if you can be one of the 7 who's score gets counted toward the month's final standings.