Online Leaderboards

[Glen-i]

I was catching up on Masahiro Sakurai's YouTube channel, where I saw this video:

He talks about about how leaderboards can sap motivation to improve just as much as it may provide a goal to reach. He also talks about why he went for a more inverse ranking system in Smash Bros, called "Global Smash Power".

Personally? I fall into the camp of "Online Leaderboards suck because all it does is show me how not amazing at a game I am". It's just demoralising, I much prefer something like Global Smash Power, because I know that in Ryu's Classic Mode route, I'm better then 15,825,811 people. Having no frame of reference for how many people were better then me really motivated me to improve in that mode, which made me better with a lot of characters in that game. (Not Diddy Kong though, nothing can make me good with Diddy)

But what do you think? Do you think the more traditional method is best, or the inverse method Smash Bros uses? Or maybe you just hate any form of online ranking system?

Edited December 24, 2023 by Glen-i

[Cube]

Global leaderboards I hate, but I do enjoy leaderboard type things for random stats and stuff they only compare with your friends. Although even then, I prefer it without rankings - just the game telling you when you're close or have beaten your friend. 

 

Although I did find it funny when I did something in Forza Horizon 5 and it made a happy noise and a message saying that I am better than 0% of people.

 

One of my favourite versions are in Burnout Parade. When you're online, it has a little leaderboard for various things you can do. However, these are just stuff that happens in that particular online session, so it encourages some firefly competition 

[Dcubed]

Personally, I only find interest in Friend leaderboards.  I’m usually more interested in competing /comparing against friends than strangers.

Edited December 24, 2023 by Dcubed

[Gadwin]

I like leaderboards in games with smaller population. 

A game I spent many nights climbing back in early xbox live days was a rhythm game called Boom Boom Rocket.

However in games like the recent Forza Motorsport which puts you up against millions of players it puts you in perspective of how much you can improve.

I think leaderboards can be a good motivator to "git gud" if its a game you enjoy playing a lot.

[Hero-of-Time]

Saying that, I do like looking at trophy leaderboards every once in a while. 

[bob]

Just Cause 3 (and 4) used to have leaderboards for random stats like distance fallen and total shots fired. You could choose if you wanted friend leaderboards or global leaderboards, but the global ones never really worked well, and they often showed glitched stats where people had 300% headshots or something.

I thought they were quite cool, but I would have never seeked (sook?) them out if they hadn't been included in the game.

[Julius]

42 minutes ago, bob said:

...but I would have never seeked (sook?) them out...

...sought? 

Spoiler

Price point. 

 

As for the topic, though (a fun one I really don't think about too much – thanks @Glen-i!), it really depends on the game for me.

Small, friend-based leaderboards, as others have mentioned, are super cool for smaller and more casual modes in games (license tests in Gran Turismo, training stuff in FIFA, etc.) as a bit of added incentive to hone your skills in particular ways without feeling like you're grinding it out so much? Whereas being able to swap between that and a global leaderboard for something a bit more competitive (for example, the speed running courses I got addicted to for a hot minute in Astro's Playroom) is nice to have, too. 

Struggle to think of any situation where I'd want the global leaderboard to be front and centre as the default, though, unless it was for a particular mode or event where you needed to rank in the top however-many for some sort of reward, to gauge where you are and how you're doing?