Last week i played a guy that was an amature with a 119 ave, he shot -4 for nine holes and closed me out by the 7 hole, now of course my first reaction was to bolt through my monitor and choke the daylights out of him. ( my firrst red flag should have been, when we were settig up the wager he asked me ifi wanted to play for more) But after the round was over and my tarnished pride started to heal, not to mention i got hustled out of a buck, that could have clearly went to better use lke one of those snazzy avitars, or a vapor ball . I started to think (and that always gets me in trouble) but decided to go look at the his profile, and i see he has beena member for a good seven months, but has played four ranked rounds, but has played over 105 match play events....DUH, not hard to figure out what is going on.The problem i had was, he was using ping drivers, woods, ad hybrid, and the best balls, now if you are using a driver that will go 255 yards, and balls that ad even more distance, and you are hitting from the AMATURE tee box....yeah you guessed it, he hit driver, wedge on every hole, had i knon that , i would have never played him, (well, thats not true, avitar lee could call me a wuss, nd its on like donkey kong, but thats just me, i wil play anyone on this site, and i have the losing record to prove it) but when we are setting up a game , nobody takes the time to check out their profile completly, i mean the ranking system we have should be good enough right?.....WRONG... Here is what i would like to see happen. that i believe would help, and please any input from everyone else on this would be greatly appreciated First off , there are two main issues sandbagging, and equal and fair play all around. As far as sandbagging goes, I think more attention shouldbe paid to an individual profile, that is the only way you can be assured the type of person you are playing. I can play a master level 31, but that tells me nothing about how he got there, this sysem does nothing for sandbagging what so ever, if people want to "pad" their score, they can do it with what ever system there is. Here is what i propose:
1-Have qualifying rounds for tournaments,do away with "ranked" rounds, all a ranked round means, is practice sandbagging. and devise a rating for that player based on their qualifying rounds, and their tournament play. People are not going to shoot high scores for a qualifying round, or they wont qualify for tournemants, and they certanly will try their best while in a tournament, so use only those scores for a ranking system. If you are only a player that just plays for fun, and never plays in a tournament, then tthat would be different catagory ranking, so when i go to play match play, i can decide much easier if this is someone I would llke to play. If their ranking is based on their qualifying and tournament play, then i can be assured it is probably pretty true to form.and have this either as a number ranking , or a one click button , that we can not only get t quickly but also decide right away if this person is someone i want to play. Thinking about it, that person i played has done nothing wrong, im sure he played the best he could on all four of his ranked rounds, and then decided to only play mpc from there on out....kinda smart if you ask me, he is not dishonest, just playing the part of the game he likes. Why he is able to do that, is the fault of the current system.
2-with players averages truer to form, then the equipment should be unlocked more fairly. If you are a legend player, you represent the best of the best, and should be able to have access to the best equipment, but also just like in the pga tour, the courses should be set up to the highest challenges, the pin placements in the most challenging positions, hit from the tips ect. or if its a legend only tournamnt, then set up any way wgt sees fit, as long as its equal all around, who cares. And do away with the tournament speed greens, except for the majors, not just because i suck at putting on them, but if you have them routinly played, then players are use to them when it come to the majors every yr. (that is really irrelivent to this, i just hate them and woud lie to take the opportunity to say so every chance i get) i have no problem playing a legend player, if im hitting from the pro tees, and able to use comprable equipment, because the way i see it, if they are hitting from the championship tee, then they should have a driver that goes 275 yards, and i should hit from the pro tees, but only have a driver that goes 260 yrds, kind of like it was before, what was wrong with that? which leads me to my next point.....
3- If anything, fine tune the equipment more, if you are going to have seven tiers, have seven sets of clubs, one for each tier....seven drivers, seven sets of irons, seven putters, seven balls...whatever, or how many you want, just keep them all equal within their prospective tiers. In real golf, a handicap system is set up so that a reg player can compete with players of all skill levels, clearly this is a video game so a handicap system of that nature would be a breeding ground for sandbagging, but i think my two cents would be a about as close as you can get to having a handicap system without actually having one.
4- and finaly, i have never understood the whole issue on "quitting" ive always looked at this as a video game, and if someone else needs to use the computer, or i dont like playing with the person im playing with, or im just flat pissed cause i just lost my third ball, and want to quit, then i will quit, its not a priority in my life , but that is just me. Even taking the time to write this thread makes me look like im addicted to this site, which is so far from the truth its not like i have my home page set t wgt.com, or go shopping for gaming mice, and while im there anyway, might as well get some ram so the meter...err...i mean the computer itself will run more smoothly, and i have NO idea who put this little piece fape with all these little lines on them stuck to the monitor, in hopes of better putting accuracy, now THATS an addict.......heh
as far as the new ball goes, i will lose those probably just as equally, so im still plugging for a ball retriever, now wgt starts selling those, and you have a happy camper for life, but like i said before , then you have to get a marshall out there cause Lou will be out there in his hip waders holding everyone up , looking for balls......i tell ya,....no end in site......