[geoschmo]

Point inflation is a problem with the "unequal" system I suggested most recently. Point inflation is bad because you are giving ome players more points then you are taking away from other players. This makes it harder on new players to climb the rankings.

The "round-robin" style on the other hand has point multiplication. It's not inflation in the sense that you aren't generating points out of ether, but the massive point swings generated by such a system are an unfair and potentially damaging factor. If you play two games, lose one, and win one, you should basically be back close to where you started. Not exactly of course, becasue it will be factored by the the relative abilities of the players you played. But if you play a 20 player game and lose, you will have to play and win 20 1x1 games to get back close to where you started. That's just not fair IMHO.

Gpa's recent suggestion, call it "Round-Robin/2" has the same problem, only to a lesser degree because of the artifical manipulation of the results.

My original "fractional" suggestion doesn't have any point inflation or point multiplication. Gpa's point that it doesn't allow for enough rank movement isn't really accurate. The reason there isn't much rank movement isn't because of the point system being used, it's because SE4 games take a long time to finish. It's inherantly slow. Much slower then chess of course.

I am not wedded to the "fractional" system at all. I would welcome an alternative suggestion. I just haven't seen one yet that isn't what I wouldn't call seriously flawed.