I don't think a sports analogy really works here.  A mediocre sports 
team watches what a good one does and tries to emulate it.  If you 
have only mediocre teams playing against each other in this game, 
they never get to see what the good ones do.  I think lotto type 
games would go a LOT further towards improving game play.  It gives 
those players that are mediocre a chance to work closely with those 
that are good.  It gives players a chance to exchange information and 
strategy with players they don't normally play with.  I think this 
would do much more towards increasing the average level of play than 
having mediocre people play against mediocre people.

On 17 Dec 2002 at 23:52, pagan wrote:

> 
> Everyone starts somewhere... if your argument is applied to sports,
then you have absolutely no need for any teams below the handful of pros -
in any sport - at any age. Even the pro teams have their moments of
mediocrity  - does that mean you eliminate everyone
even thinking 
about playing but the single top team in any event? How exciting would any
sporting event be with one single team, off in the corner, playing by
themselves? Cool, we can pay a fortune to watch  run practice drills against themselves. 
> 
> If we all took that attitude, then we can just shut the servers down,
and leave only one single game up on one single server. The idea behind any
competition is to see who is the better team - you can't be better if
nobody shows up. That just makes you a survivor, not a winner.
> 
> 
> 
> >I don't think gearing games towards those who are mediocre is a
way to cure that, either.  
> 
> 
>

--- FEddy 1.4.03/modPHX