Is competitiveness in your blood?

The competitive urge in most people has them desiring to be ranked and graded. There's a competitive side to almost every person who regularly plays multi-player games over the Internet, otherwise why would they play? By indirect reasoning, the only sensible thing to do was develop a ranking system for online gamers. Unbeknownst to many, there has been one, since 1996.

Jeremy Rusnak founded Case's Ladder in 1996 as a way to rank users of online game services. According to Case's Ladder, it "is a simple, accurate, and fair ranking system for people who play games over the Internet." On June 19, Case's announced 75,000 active players were using the ladder system. Six months before only 10,000 players had been a part of Case's Ladder. The dramatic increase can be pointed to major online game services, such as TEN, Yahoo!Games, and Mplayer, partnering with Case's to satisfy their users' competitive edge. In the next 12 months, the site expects more than 200,000 players to join. The major contributor of membership is the new addition of classic games: chess, checkers, hearts, spades, etc. People of all backgrounds, not just serious gamers, know how play these games. They've brought a new membership base to Case's Ladder.

Case's Ladder offers the following about their service:

"You play the games on your favorite gaming service, report the matches to our site, and then watch your rank rise or fall on our "Ladder." You can find out the top 10 or 50 players, most wins or losses, highest skill rating, hot players, cold players, best win percentage and much more. You can play matches any time of the day against any player on the Ladder. It's easy to find opponents and there are no complex rules."

And the rules:

• You start out as an unranked user at the bottom of the Ladder.
• After your first victory you become ranked.
• When you win, you climb half the distance between your ranking and the person you defeat. (You are ranked #100 and defeat #1, your new ranking is #50)
• When you lose you don't drop in rank. (You are ranked #1 and lose to #100, your stay at #1. He/She moves up to #50)
• You drop in ranking when someone passes you up and pushes you down a rung. You can also drop in ranking if you lose to the person directly beneath you. (#1 loses to #2, they switch spots.)