I run a few round-based browser-based MMO's (think travian, tribal wars style games) and in my games, and I have many different stats where I show players how they rank against other players. I also have an overall/official ranking system that usually combines several of the specific stats/ranks. My existing games are small (a few hundred to a few thousand daily active players) and this *seems* to work fine and contribute to the overall competitive nature of the games.

I'm now working on a more traditional MMO (space-themes) that is meant to be mostly sandbox, but bits of theme-park thrown in.

I plan on using the same approach when it comes to stats/ranks but I'm just making sure I have more discreet ways to show the ranks (by faction, by home galaxy, etc.) so that I can hopefully create many pockets of competition.

I'm wondering why most MMO's don't seem to show overall rankings? Is there a negative message to a player when they see "You're ranked 9,102 out of 33,291" that outweighs the positive feeling you get from knowing that you moved up from 33k up to 9k?

I chalk this up under "the cost of the global village". Back in the day, I was king of Goldeneye in my town, nobody could beat me and I enjoyed a sort of small-time nerdy celebrity. When I went to college, I was good, but not in the top five. Now I play on XBox Live, and I am always in the same rankings with the best of the best, which means my mediocrity is on display even when I achieve my personal best.

Global leaderboards have a certain charm, but only for global events. If you want to give a free t-shirt to the top player on a server, then by all means use that as a metric. If you want to honor the guys who have freakish, youtube-worthy skills, then do so. But you run into trouble when every player is being stacked against every other player, because you feel like a casual gamer who isn't doing it "for real" when you compare yourself to the whizkids. Plus, cheating.

I've seen grown men scream at televisions about modded controllers and how their opponents are only better than them because they don't take time out of their Halo schedule to bathe or pursue romance with non-blood-relations, and I've seen videos uploaded to the internet where top-scorers run keyboards on their groins while asking the community at large whether or not they like the way it feels when he penetrates the entire world at once. It's not good.

So I am against global leaderboards. The alternative that I would recommend is event leaderboards. Have sanctioned tournaments and rate participants and trade bragging rights that way, don't just measure everyone every day and post the results. That way, trash talk can lead to a natural "I'll see you in the ring" conclusion, and there will be less room for the, "You only beat me because..." commentary that's intrinsic to unregulated competition.

I was talking about this with a friend and one idea we had was having multiple visible rankings. For example, your high scores page might show 3 tables at a time, with one constant table and the other two being chosen to flatter the player. There might be dozens of different possible high score tables and the game would pick two unrelated tables where the player had the highest percentage ranking.

Not one of the top ten greatest heroes of all time? Well you did at least come in 3rd for most Neutronium mined in the past 48 hours. Also, you are 7th for "most improved penmanship!"

Yeah, and there's nothing to give a player the warm-and-fuzzies like achieving a top ranking in something ridiculous and not entirely praiseworthy. Like in Worms or Super Smash Bros - 'Most boring', 'Most friendly worms killed with a single shot', 'Most kills with a Mr. Saturn'.

Thanks. Those are some good things to consider. I think I'm leaning towards probably not having the stat-based leaderboards, but still showing a player their individual progression on many different vectors so I can constantly send individual "attaboys!" that aren't just tied to leveling up. Then, give some special title/recognition to the top 1-2% in certain areas to continue to encourage competition among the true die-hards.