Guild Wars 2

So a more or less constant issue we hear about on the forums during every PvP Season are the problems people are having playing with new players and players that might not understand the game as well as they do. Of course it’s always frustrating to be on a team where your own performance might be great but you lose because your team didn’t know what to do and you lost rating because of it, even though you might have been trying your best to explain the path to victory in /t.

So why not use the rating system to teach players about the game? And at the same time encourage better team play?

So what I’m thinking is, why not give players the chance to avoid losing rating when losing a match if they meet certain criteria? Say, certain number of decaps, certain number of caps (be careful with this one since it may encourage players to stay on points they don’t have to), certain number of revives, certain number of kills etc.

While the thresholds may be difficult to set, Anet now has over 4 years of statistics available to them to help them figure out the amounts or even % needed. I’d also like to mention that using stats such as damage, healing, condi damage etc are probably not the best way to go since players can do a million damage without being a real benefit to their team.

The reason I am suggesting this is because we see a lot of frustration on the forums from people that may play great but they get dealt a bad hand in the team matchup. Now while a great poker player can play a bad hand great, there is still only so much you can do if your opponent actually has a good hand. And when you lose rating because your team plays in a “less than optimal” way, it can be very frustrating and discouraging.

I believe that if the rating requirements are made abundantly clear to new or less experienced players they may be less prone to “mobbing” or making decisions that are not to the benefit of the team.

What do you guys think about a rating system where you can retain or even gain rating through good performance? And a rating system designed to teach people effective PvP in Guild Wars 2?