A friend asked me what my Ranking was in DB. I told him this season I only played one game because the Ranking game mode takes too long to connect, and I value my time. But curious I decided to see what my time was worth. I played a Ranked game and a game of Stopwatch and compared the two outcomes. In each game I was the top performer so each game I’m considering a good showing on my part–this way I don’t measure a bad game against a good game. Below are my results.
RANKED - Underground
-Time to complete game: 34 minutes, 22 seconds*
-XP earned: 21000 (I rounded down since I couldn’t remember the exact number)
-Return on investment in Ranked: 611 xp/minute**
*This includes having the match disconnect twice because players left prior to starting. About one-third of total time was spent connecting to a game–not playing!
**Calculated from 21000 xp / 34.367 minutes
STOPWATCH - Chapel
Time to complete game: 10 minutes, 48 seconds^
XP earned: 11,141^^
Return on investment in Stopwatch: 1,031 xp/minute
^I joined about 3 minutes into the game (first half), so I got most of the game in.
^^Calculated from 11,141xp / 10.8 minutes
So which mode wins? It depends on why you’re playing. If you’re…
- Just having fun (alone): Stopwatch or Ranked
- Banking for XP: Stopwatch
- Seeking more xp per minute: Stopwatch
- Banking credits: Ranked``
``Ranked wins because of the bonus earnings. Add a booster and it’s even more. However, you can catch up with the bonus earning using a booster in Stopwatch.
CONCLUSION: I have no interest in credits, since I have nothing of use to purchase. After 93 levels of gaming, credits have truly lost any value. So for me Stopwatch is the better value for my time. However, if the Ranked server was set up to connect like the other servers I’d prefer to play and be ranked.