I realize this has taken me a while to actually write about. The matter of a Top User in a point system like what we have was a very popular feature of the site in the earlier days of MyMTGO.com that the removal of said such point system really did take a major effect on the system activity. Let me recap what actually happened to cause the original point system to be deactivated.
When I enabled the point system on MyMTGO I had it enabled but really not configured properly. That was a mistake on my part initially in not realizing the potential for all the points that could be earned. When I realized what needed to be done to get things under control there were a small handful of people who had a large amount of earned points. In addition to the points earned, I had a system where points could be converted to MTGO Event Tickets. I think the ratio was 1000:1. And it was amazing to see the activity sky rocket the way that it did. Someone then showed me how people could earn essentially hundres of points within a few steps and potentially ruin the entire reward system. After this was verified I had no choice but to take down the entire point system for every player. I did reward every player who earned 1000 points with an event ticket. But the damage was already done in my eyes those as site operator. People enjoyed fighting out for that top spot or even breaking the Top 10. I'm also afraid to admit we, as a site, lost a few players who were heavily active on the system who may or may not have earned points legitamatly.
Over the next couple of months I learned the software a bit more and now have re-initialized the point system. Unfortunantly (at the moment) I have removed the reward system for converting 1000 points into an MTGO Event Ticket. I do have other plans at this time to reward top active players and I think, at least at the end, everyone will appreciate all the effort that has gone into bringing this point system back to MyMTGO.com. One of the key factors has been that now, instead of disabling point system-wide, I can now disable points on an individual player level. There is now also a system-level audit trail of rewarded points that I have access to at the admin level to see rewarded points.
I am currently working on a different type of reward system for spending earned points. I would love to tell you I'll have it up in a matter of days but, as I have learned, it's very important to make sure that I have things setups properly at a system level before announcing to everyone what that new system is. So far after about a week of the points being active, things are looking like they are working properly and that is extremely encouraging. Activity is up, player interaction with the system is up and overall I'm very pleased with the results. I hope everyone shoots for the top points :)
