OK so mods stand for moderators... What exactly do they do? What power do they have over the game? How did they get that responsibility? Are they the site programmers or did they get picked some other way? Are they players as well? Can they make unilateral decisions or is there some knock off of the Jedi Council that they have to go through first?
About the Ghost-Rankings (this might be better directed at the guy that makes the rankings than just anybody). I understand that it goes through multiple sites and that each individual site has it's own point-based ranking system. But if the Ghost-Rankings really do work on the basis of who beat who and who lost to who, isn't it vulnerable to a lot of the same problems that the BCS is? Situations like the Big 12 South last year with an ostensible three-way Round Robin Tie? With the fact that it's thousands of players and not hundreds of teams competing isn't that problem greatly magnified? Also, becuase no one is "undefeated" like you often find at the end of a football season can it come down to pure win percentage? The experienced players have been in scores of games, is it possible to trawl through all of them to determine "strength of schedule?" Or do you just have far more dedication than I ever could and have found a way around these various obstacles?
The skill vs. luck debate: Batting averages aside the win percentages help my point more than hurt it. If given competition on par with the level the expert Diplomacy players face, Doyle Brunson or Mike Matusow would probably win 60% of their games at a seven-man table because poker does boil down to a fair bit of luck. However, an expert football team playing conference-style in a group of seven, against decent to goods teams will win far more than 60% of the time. (i.e. when was the last time USC didn't win the Pac-10?) That is because a football game, though it still retains an element of luck, chance, etc. is more often than not won by the better team. Don't get me wrong, there is skill involved in Diplomacy. Experienced players will know the map better, make better decisions owed to their experience, and the better ones WILL have good win percentages. However, their success in any one situation is not guaranteed becuase the game will be influenced by forces (luck, chance, whatever you want to call it) outside their control.
I hope that I didn't just piss off everyone in aposition to answer me. Thanks in advance if you do respond. Sorry for the over-long sentences.
Ad Multos Annos
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