Shillen said:
As far as I know there have been histories of cheating in marathons. But I'm not sure what the possibility of cheating has to do with having a scoring system.
It doesn't have anything to do with having a scoring system (which I entirely favor). It has to do with whether the GOTM is like the Boston Marathon. AlanH's original analogy was to compare the GOTM to a "world-class marathon". It's not like a world-class marathon, because it doesn't have the world-class, professional competitors that a world-class marathon does, because the possibility of cheating is much greater and this makes it hard to take comparisons
too seriously, because the ultimate goal of the game is different for different players and no one scoring system can capture the differences, and for a variety of other reasons. Personally, I think that all of those differences are entirely for the good: I like the GOTM
better than I would the "world-class marathon" type competition, which might be conducted under controlled (monitored) circumstances, with professional competitors, and only a single strictly defined goal. The more that GOTM is like that, the less fun it will be.
Shillen said:
If there's a scoring system then the competetive players trying to win will play towards the scoring system.
That's right. But all of the
rest of the competitive players, of whom there are, in my observation,
more than of those trying to win, will play as they like. And I think that is a
good thing and it would be a
bad thing if all of the best players felt very strongly motivated to play for the highest GOTM score. Which never happened in Civ 3 GOTM (at least during the time I was playing), and I hope won't happen in Civ IV GOTM.
Shillen said:
I realize you haven't really argued "against" a scoring system. But if you're not arguing against one then I don't see what your point is. Many people do view the GOTM as primarily a competition while others do not. That's a fact.
To put it as simply as possible, my point is that people, especially those new to the GOTM, should feel to enjoy the GOTM without being much concerned with the scoring system. The original post in this thread is all about the problems with the scoring. My reply to that poster, and anyone in a similar position, is to encourage them to enjoy GOTM, and play as well as they can by their own standards, and not care at all about the score. The scoring simply doesn't matter, unless you choose to let it matter to you.
That doesn't mean there can't be a scoring system for people who do care. It just means that I encourage people not to care. If, despite my advice, they do care, of course that's their decision.