PS: Garriott is looking down on you RIGHT now Scott !

Most Americans seem to HATE a tie in an athletic competition, its one of the things that hockey and soccer still struggle with. College football used to have ties, and dumped them for a bizarre mini-game if tied at the end of regulation.

Personally, I’d be ok with a tie in that situation. I’m not a fan of something that is fairly subjective getting put through an overly scientific ruling process eg. Its nice that they have a nice formula where they can throw scores out for various reasons, but the scores themselves could be fundamentally wrong in the first place.

I equate this to my loot system. If two of my members compete for the same item and have the same point value I have to look at less tangible indicators. Sometimes I’ll use monthly percentage to judge who has “new points” and who has “old points.” I’ve even used attitude or guild activity as a judge. Often its easy because an item is geared towards one class or the other. In an instance like the Olympics, those indicators don’t exist. All “members” have the same points, are the same “class” and generally know how the system works.

Ultimately though, despite everything, when it comes down to two people who have the same points, everyone is going to want to know how I reached the decision on who wins the item. It is just good practice to point out BEFORE I make the choice how I will do so. My rules list that I can look at those things in the event of a tie or even if points are just close!

It seems here that the mechanic was not clearly defined and this happened to more than one athlete. Neither seemed to be aware of how “loot was awarded.” That just isn’t good policy, especially considering that the Olympics used a different system than the gymnastics association.

Did the athletes get cheated? No, by the rules they didn’t. Does it look like they were cheated and were they poorly informed of the rules? Most certainly yes and after all, Ferrel has always believed a simple math equation:

Perception > Reality

Edited to add: Which is every event except for Gymnastics, in a special tiebreaking rule that has never been put into place before now.

Another link, now that more stories are up:

Olympics: Gymnastics chief blames IOC for tie-break fiasco

* The system is poorly designed. (One sign of a potentially flawed systems design is when the creator/arbiter has to explain hidden elements to knowledgeable people after the fact, and even then it’s met with confusion/disbelief.)

* Had someone not designed an unnecessarily complex system for this particular set of events compared to others in the same Olympics, to solve a problem that didn’t need solving, her performance would have earned her a tie for the gold.

In an MMO, if you don’t like the rules, you and your friends can (generally) go play in another MMO if you choose.

It’s a little difficult to tell an Olympic athlete to just go compete in another Olympics, because this one’s rules are broken.
So, also IMO, there should be a slightly higher standard for lack-of-stupidity.

I’ve read the post twice and I still don’t understand what you are trying to say here. She came second in the competition, according to the rules of the competition. So she gets a silver. What’s the problem?

Well that must be a first.