I know the reasoning behind why there is no leaderboard. However, I was wondering, what would staff think about having a personally viewable stat on our page which says something like "You are ranked #456 in Duel"? It could only be viewable by the player him/herself and no one else. That to me would make Duel way more exciting. To me it is one of the least interesting of the games although I wouldn't say for that reason. For one, I'm not very good at the game.

Great idea!

I'm not very good at duel either but it would be fascinating to know that particular piece of info.

A benefit to it would be, say if I knew my rank, but I didn't know how far behind the next person I was, I could be 1 win, I could be 100 wins, that would provide incentive for me to play everyday because I would never know when exactly my standing would improve.

You can always see how many wins you need to move up in rank by checking the Players Near You link on the duel page. It doesn't tell you what the rank is but does let you know how many wins you'll need to pass the next 13 people.

Duel is not about long-time comparisons between players, it's about the one single duel and about your progress down the path. We have avoided a complete ranking list because it would be very unfair, given that some players have different opportunities to play than others (Gold members versus regular).

Remember: You are always one win away from your next win!

I'm sure Triviafan22, as I am, is fully aware of how the game is intended to be a game for solo play without ranks. I just thought it was a nice idea as the info would be personal and not out there for everyone to look at, just as the players near you shows only players near to you!

Players near you already flies in the face of what you say about the game anyway. 'Duel is not about long-time comparisons between players' but you are able to track the 12 or so players that would be your direct competition and therefore make comparisons with them.

It's not a big deal of course, it's trivial, the game is perfectly satisfactory.

Wes and I had a chat. We have decided on this:

I'm going to add a MONTHLY ranking chart (number of wins) for GMs to ensure fair comparisons.

There may or may not be challenges that go along with that.

I had no idea that was there. Thank you.

Thanks Terry.

I just have a couple thoughts, especially now with the new Dueler up-gradable badge. It concerns ties: "It's a tie! No winner! No loser!" There are instances where there is a loser. Such as, over my time playing Duels, I have lost the 15 for 15 badge 9 times because of a tie, as high as 998! Also, for the upgrades on the new badge, the percentage goes up each level. Last month, I had 15 ties which means I basically lost an entire day of scoring. I already have 7 this month. Would it be more fair, since it is not supposed to happen to often (although I wonder sometimes when I get 3 or 4 ties in one 15 match set) to have "It's a tie! Both are winners!" and each get credited for a win. Just asking! :-)

To my mind it would make just as much sense to say "Both are losers!" Neither is correct; a tie is just that, neither a win nor a loss. I'm against any changes, as I have been every time this discussion has been had.

Three or four ties a day seems a bit harsh. I wonder if Terry could program the limit of ties each day to only one?

It's a pity the tie badgelet isn't upgradeable. That might stop the cycle of people complaining about Duel ties. Right now, after the tie badgelet is acquired, a tie feels equivalent to a loss.

The other thing one could do is arbitrarily declare one player the winner, just like in KO. Indicate that you tied...and Player X won the coinflip. That way, at least if you tie, you have a 50/50 shot at getting a lucky win, so one feels better about achieving the tie.

I really like the idea of upgrading the Tie badgelet.

There would still be the issue of how to resolve the ties even if limited down to those, I presume...very rare instances of even a 2nd tie, much less a 3rd or beyond. Would the opponent who isn't over the "excessive tie threshold" also get bumped up to a free win?....seems kind of unfair whether that answer is yes or no.

There is so much arbitrary one or two point shifting here and there based on seeing different questions in your respective sets...or having the right answers in different positions among your choices.. (for instance...if you know the answer immediately...it is much easier to get the full 100 points when the first answer is the right one than when it is the third or fourth.)

Is a tie really worse than something like, say...landing somewhere in the top 10 overall of daily scores for a category, and getting paired with someone higher in the top 10, thus losing with a score good enough for a win vs over 99% of all of FT?

The upgradeable tie badgelet might be a good idea, though I thought I remembered some mention of wanting to restrict the upgrade items to just full badges?
I like Wesley's "bad beat" idea too. (Badge for a loss over some very high number..I think 980 may have been the initial suggestion) That could be an full badge. Seems to make a bit more sense since it requires a notably good score. coupled with the bad luck of getting outscored by someone who really had a good game.l (rather that just the arbitrary event of a tie, possibly at not a particularly good score). At least in that case you have to hit a certain threshold and maybe ties over 980 (or whatever the threshold is) could be rolled into that as well. Call it the "I coulda been a contendah!" badge or something like that, thus allowing for both losses and ties. In the case of a tie both parties get either the badge (or a credit toward the next tier if they have it already.)

My vote though would be leave the existing ones as is. The entire advancement system of duel is based on straight win count, not winning percentage ... and a tie is not a win.

I've been adamant about ties from the beginning. It would make sense to either give each person a half point and have the Duel progression be based on points rather than wins (1 point for a win, .5 points for a tie, 0 points for a loss) or just reword the Tie part to "you have tied, you and your opponent both lose and get nothing". With the half point for a tie then each Duel match has 1 point given away.

What's keeping the system from recording units less than a second? Ties are still possible, but 99% of them would go away.

Edit: Assuming hundredths like the easy game (also, why isn't this a thing on mixed and smartest too, given that Elo is calculated and playing after someone with the same score places you behind them?). If having ties be more common for the badgelet is desirable, then tenths could be done and 90% of ties go away.

Not much has changed. 5 ties in the last four days. Sure is hurting my percentage to get the dueler upgrade. Total of 12 this month already! That is just like completely missing one day.

I'm sorry. Why am I sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't a second faster or slower. You and I would not have tied yesterday if that had happened.