[Dragar]

I understand that this is a suggestion that individuals can take or leave, however..

I'd hate to see a system like this lead people away from different and interesting choices in terms of nation, strategy, pretender etc in order to boost their ranking.. One of the nice things in this game is the diversity of choice people take, if we start really monitoring performance this way competitive spirit will tend to push people towards safe choices. What's that, Sauromatia, Niefelheim and Mictlan already taken? No thanks.

We might also find that while people are generally happy to play with whoever, they might start being choosy.. will a top player want to jump into a game full of new players who will all jump on him year 1 to get the bonus points?

As an aside, given that games take months, and that players' scores will change through that period, do you calculate ladder points based on starting, time of death or finishing rankings?