Spotlight
newbieA (1781) / StonyDrew (1733) ®"undead turtled vs orcs" ~newbieA
[21/10]
newbieA dominates the charts as number 1!
[19/10]
StonyDrew is now king of the hill and ranked number 1!
[09/10]
newbieA easily takes the 2nd place.
[09/10]
vvd says there's only a few left to beat and enters the Top 5.
[02/10]
newbieA says there's only a few left to beat and enters the Top 5.
News
In the world of free software, which our beloved Wesnoth as well as this ladder belong to, we rely on community building and social networking It's all about the user base and how the developers and organizers of any project decides to handle it.
Several weeks ago I announced elections and that I would leave my admin position due to lack of time in real life and that I wanted the community to be self-sustained. I envisioned a gaming community not just for the players, but of the players. I also believed, and still do, that an administration should somehow get it's legitimacy from it's user base. It will make it much easier for most players to accept admin decisions and give the system a credibility if it's handled with care, thought and in a fair manner.
It's now the 8:th of November (GMT) and the time has ran out for nominations. All in all about 6 people were nominated. 3 of them (Knight, Cer and Nord) have retracted their nominations for different reasons. Only 3 remained. Due to the fact that there were also 3 admin chairs to fill there is no reason to have any election and I hereby declare the following as admins:
TheMasterOfBattle
Pelopidas
Svek
A mail has been sent out to them and they have also been given full access to the admin interface.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the time you have given the ladder project and hope that you have enjoyed it as much as I have done for the most part. It's been a bumpy ride at times but I think it worked out pretty well most of the time. I'd also want to give a special thanks to those that have contributed to the ladder code, especially mr russ and chains, which both have done some excellent work that surpasses my own from a coding perspective. If you happen to know PHP and read this you should also feel welcome to join the ladder development - the goal is to create a generic and highly customizable kick ass open source ladder system. If you want to start coding contact me at spam(at)eyerouge(dot)com or hit the tribal bliss link at the bottom to check out the project from the SVN.
I know there are split views about competition in the Wesnoth community and that people are either pro-this or against-that for whatever reasons they might have. The main thing to have in mind when playing is perhaps that it's a game. That we get it as a gift from the developers, and that we are free to use it in various ways. Preferably we all find our own to relate to it and to enjoy it. Some like ladder, others tournaments, yet again others like survival maps, while some only play certain eras or campaigns. The options are many. Personally I think it's what makes Wesnoth great and the community a nice one. Diversity is good, the sum of it can be a source of inspiration and development, if properly used.
When it comes to competition my own stance is that enjoying yourself should be the primary cause for why you'd decide to put out a lot of time on a game. Since Wesnoth is a strategy game there is also a lot of room for acquiring some serious skills. It takes a long time to master the game for most players, and even then I can guarantee you that you won't be king of the hill. I know some of you are win/lose fanatics 
and would walk over corpses to win a game. If you happen to be such a person I believe you're missing out on most of the fun gaming has to offer. When using an instrument like the ladder we should all take it with a smile: It's all numbers. The ladder is a tool which allows us to keep track of our played games, and an effect of that is what we can also compare, in some sense, our relative rating to other players.
I'm sad that many players haven't understood the nature of a ladder and it's inherent problems or flaws compared with, i.e. a tournament system when it comes to skill measurement. On the other hand, I can also say the same for the opposite group of players that don't understand what function a ladder fills which no other form offers. From my personal perspective a ladder is a middle step in between casual play and tournament play, or casual play that is logged. It's a form, mostly a tool for statistics. It can't ever, however it is coded and improved upon, display more proper ratings than a well arranged tournament. It can however give us a framework, statistics and somewhat approximative ratings while there are no tournaments. It is also relatively free and easy to access, and maybe most importantly, it is always running and never ending. A good competitive community will understand all this, and it will also mix the different forms and tools it has to it's disposal. Since they all fill different functions it makes little sense to favor one or the other. I myself will also contribute to that in the future by adding new functions to the ladder software (which the admins can enable or disable of course) to make it as complete and usable as possible,
Lastly, I hope the new admins will do a good job and that you'll all welcome them. Hopefully they'll run things even better than I did. I also look forward to see what you guys, together with them, will make of the ladder in the future. Remember that the only stuff that happens is what people make of things. If you shit, it smells funny. If you're creative, reasonable and good - it tends to all become even better.
Take care, and see you in the lobby (unless you play drake, then I run)
*wose kisses & vegan food for everyone*
- Important Map Rules Clarification
- Tournament of Champions 4
- Rule Change - Valid Maps
- new candidate
- admin & judge elections
- replay upload ope & change to elo formula
- first nominee
- more stats added
- tooltips added
- Admin Positions & Community Elections
newbieA (1781 / +70pts)