So I have released an app that has OpenFeint and am planning on updating it soon. However, I decided I wanted to change the way the scores are calculated. There aren't that many people on my leaderboards yet, but I wasn't sure how to change the scoring methods without upsetting previous users. I don't really care about how big the scores are, but I am adding more factors that affect the scores. Would you all recommend that, on average, the new scoring system make smaller scores than the live one now or bigger ones? Looking forward to hearing your answers, or your own experience with this issue.
Hey, I'm facing the same problem with my next update, since I have one score that is calculated as the sum of all individual scores for all levels in the campaign, and I'm gonna add a couple of missions. I think making the scores bigger is fairer, otherwise the new guys never have a chance of achieving the ranks the old players have
Yes, that is what I probably will do since I expect the number of users buying the app with this update to be a lot more than those who already bought it (since it's only been out for a few days). Plus, a larger percentage of the people who have version 1.0 now will update to the next version and have an equal chance to score in the leaderboards as everyone else. I'd like to please everyone, but since that's not possible I'll try to please the majority of people. The only way to do that is to basically change the scoring system to benefit new users.
I would personally recommend resetting the leaderboards and mention it in the update description. Some people will complain, but that seems like it would be fairer to the everyone involved. Once the game has OpenFeint integrated, I don't know if you can reset the leaderboards or not. If so, I would definitely recommend resetting at or right before release so that the beta testers who have been playing while the difficulty and scoring fluctuated don't have all of the high scores permanently.
OpenFeint supports different leaderboard lists for different versions of the app, you can set it up in the developer control panel. That way you can move to a new one, but the old one will be there on the server, it'll just be hidden in your new version. If people complain about their old scores, you can always flip a switch on the server and have the old leaderboard show up alongside the new one for historical records.
