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Ask HN: Why don't "hot" rankings replace daily leaderboards in games?

2 points by amichail ↗ HN
Since hot rankings don't involve removing scores, this means that a hot ranking would have a lot more players on it than a daily leaderboard.

This is particularly important for indie games, which often have few daily players. Gamers are more likely to keep playing a game that seems to be played by many people.

7 comments

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PaulHoule
What is a "hot" ranking?
amichail
A hot ranking would take into account when each score was submitted so that even really high scores would lose their high rankings gradually over time.
PaulHoule
Like the front page on HN?
amichail
Yes.
PaulHoule
Sounds like a good idea. It gives the person who wants to keep a high spot on the leaderboard a motivation to keep playing, for one thing.
antasvara
What do you see as the goal of the daily ranking (and by extension the new "hot" ranking)?

I ask because personally, the daily ranking allows me to evaluate myself on an "objective" basis versus other players on a given day (i.e. if I'm 50th out of 100, I'm roughly average).

Hot rankings don't exactly give me this, because how/where I rank will depend not only on my skill, but also how long ago I made the score, the timing of other high scores, etc.

The main benefits seems to be a larger leaderboards and a higher ranking when you get a particular score. Personally, I don't see those as huge benefits.