Epic looks to serious Gears 2 multiplay alterations

Epic boss Rod Fergusson's posted on the company's site tonight to say a big change is being considered for Gears 2 multiplayer, in that experience level is to be used instead of TrueSkill.

From the message:

So we've been looking at all the feedback on our skill ranking system and we completely understand why simply making your TrueSkill level visible can be frustrating. The algorithm is complex, so it's not always clear how your rank will be affected by a particular match and your rank is based on the team's outcome and not necessarily your individual performance.

So we're looking to make a change.

What if, instead of skill rank, we instead showed your experience level. You would gain experience through your individual performance in Public multiplayer matches - the higher your score at the end, the more experience you acquire. Of course the experience gained across the different match types would be balanced so you couldn't just grind on the respawning game types to try and level faster. The experience requirements for each level would grow with each level gained (like a typical RPG) and we'd have 99 levels of experience for you to show off your leetness.

Generally speaking your level will always go up since you're always acquiring more score, hence experience, with each completed match. The only exception to that would be people quitting. Players that quit would gain an experience penalty that could cause them to be demoted. At the end of every match you will be able to see how much experience you've gained and how much further you have to go till the next level.

Fergusson goes on to hint that the changes could be made with future DLC.

See for yourself.