My take on boosting
2012-04-23 1:55 AM PDT
Okay, so recently boosting menace literally struck AC Revelations multiplayer. Previosly it was mostly restricted to FFA Assassinate teamplaying, but now there is constant stun score boosting in team modes as well. And because of that I decided to write down what I think about all this nonsense.
First of all. I dont give a shit about scores. Seriously, people, why do you even post score screenshots? It's especially funny to see "great records" with easy to spot AFK players in same session. And now why I don't care about leaderboards:
1. Boosters. Pretty obvious, almost all top scores in most modes are boosted.
2. Luck. Even "legit" scores do not bear much meaning, most of them are set by abusing newbies. Something I really dislike. I don't see lobbies full of 10-20 level players as good oportunity to break Guinness record, I see them as good oportunity to have fun. By being polite to this players and use something different, like playing with default sets. And IMO really low level players tend to play more stealthy than most players with 2-digit prestige numbers, especially in modes like Assassinate. I see level 20-49 players consisting mostly of crazy monkeys as higher ranked players' fault.
3. Top score is a very bad way to measure skill. Because of uneven skill of players you play with. There is better alternatives, like often used in RTS games in some way or another Elo rating. Elo can't be even boosted, at least so easily. But it's just not there.
So what boosters do essentially? They waste their time to do boring repetitive task to gain nothing. Nothing but shame really. It's obvious even to complete idiot that you can't get 20k in Escort legally. I don't check top scores for modes more often than once in a month. And even this I do just to see a more recent list of boosters. But then there is also friends ladder and friend points. Ridiculous system since it's based on same top score crap. Yes, currenly I'm overall number 1 in mine. Not that I'm really that great in any mode, it's more like Jack of all trades sort of thing, I just love variety. But back to this friends ladder. It's almost always shown in game menu and you often reminded about so called "dares" at the start of the session. So maybe this is the point of boosting? To be higher in friends ladder? Guess what? I simply remove boosters from my friends. Yes, I dont care about this ladder, but there is no contradiction here. None whatsoever. I remove boosters for following reasons:
1. Wasting time on boosting is retarded. I dont feel like playing in team with retards, sorry.
2. Booster may care about that friend ladder, so I don't want to give that pleasure of being "higher ranked".
Did I boosted even once? Of course not. But I did some things that can be classified as boosting by some players. I will try to remember and list all my "sins" ^-^
1. Once I was convinced by one of my friends to follow "not kill in Assassinate" policy. I followed this for 2 games and just left. No, I didn't teamplay like some players do it, I kept huge distance from that friend just leaving him alone. But even after this I figured out one simple fact. Not only it feels like I'm still doing bad thing but this also considerably hurts points income.
2. If my group got split in Artifact Assault (this mode gives you a freedom to do anything you want for 10m freely) I sometimes just fool around and don't go after artifact. It never results in good scores anywhere near a new record for any of us.
3. Once, just once, I allowed my friend in other team to stun me several times. It was to get hack streak for him and kill all stupid AA campers (I just hate those who do nothing but camp with knifes and guns) in my own team. In the end that friend wasn't even close to breaking any score record this time so for me it was perfecly fine and I personally don't consider this boosting.
4. When I join boosting sessions as a target I don't leave. I stun. Pretending to be one of boosters. So there is a chance that you can record a video of me participating in this shit. But then I use hack streak to kill all "stun targets". Usually boosters leave almost immediately after this. If after this I will be close to break my personal record for this mode I will leave that game as well. Be sure of it.
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First of all. I dont give a shit about scores. Seriously, people, why do you even post score screenshots? It's especially funny to see "great records" with easy to spot AFK players in same session. And now why I don't care about leaderboards:
1. Boosters. Pretty obvious, almost all top scores in most modes are boosted.
2. Luck. Even "legit" scores do not bear much meaning, most of them are set by abusing newbies. Something I really dislike. I don't see lobbies full of 10-20 level players as good oportunity to break Guinness record, I see them as good oportunity to have fun. By being polite to this players and use something different, like playing with default sets. And IMO really low level players tend to play more stealthy than most players with 2-digit prestige numbers, especially in modes like Assassinate. I see level 20-49 players consisting mostly of crazy monkeys as higher ranked players' fault.
3. Top score is a very bad way to measure skill. Because of uneven skill of players you play with. There is better alternatives, like often used in RTS games in some way or another Elo rating. Elo can't be even boosted, at least so easily. But it's just not there.
So what boosters do essentially? They waste their time to do boring repetitive task to gain nothing. Nothing but shame really. It's obvious even to complete idiot that you can't get 20k in Escort legally. I don't check top scores for modes more often than once in a month. And even this I do just to see a more recent list of boosters. But then there is also friends ladder and friend points. Ridiculous system since it's based on same top score crap. Yes, currenly I'm overall number 1 in mine. Not that I'm really that great in any mode, it's more like Jack of all trades sort of thing, I just love variety. But back to this friends ladder. It's almost always shown in game menu and you often reminded about so called "dares" at the start of the session. So maybe this is the point of boosting? To be higher in friends ladder? Guess what? I simply remove boosters from my friends. Yes, I dont care about this ladder, but there is no contradiction here. None whatsoever. I remove boosters for following reasons:
1. Wasting time on boosting is retarded. I dont feel like playing in team with retards, sorry.
2. Booster may care about that friend ladder, so I don't want to give that pleasure of being "higher ranked".
Did I boosted even once? Of course not. But I did some things that can be classified as boosting by some players. I will try to remember and list all my "sins" ^-^
1. Once I was convinced by one of my friends to follow "not kill in Assassinate" policy. I followed this for 2 games and just left. No, I didn't teamplay like some players do it, I kept huge distance from that friend just leaving him alone. But even after this I figured out one simple fact. Not only it feels like I'm still doing bad thing but this also considerably hurts points income.
2. If my group got split in Artifact Assault (this mode gives you a freedom to do anything you want for 10m freely) I sometimes just fool around and don't go after artifact. It never results in good scores anywhere near a new record for any of us.
3. Once, just once, I allowed my friend in other team to stun me several times. It was to get hack streak for him and kill all stupid AA campers (I just hate those who do nothing but camp with knifes and guns) in my own team. In the end that friend wasn't even close to breaking any score record this time so for me it was perfecly fine and I personally don't consider this boosting.
4. When I join boosting sessions as a target I don't leave. I stun. Pretending to be one of boosters. So there is a chance that you can record a video of me participating in this shit. But then I use hack streak to kill all "stun targets". Usually boosters leave almost immediately after this. If after this I will be close to break my personal record for this mode I will leave that game as well. Be sure of it.