I in bf 2 I didnt care about my rank, those who had many ribbons tended to be actually pros who knew what they were doing. There were really few.
So it meant that somebody played a lot.
If I have to grind for a month, just to gain one rank, I'm probably going to lose interest due to the sheer amount of repetitiveness. I'm not a grinder kind of gamer. Being a creature of efficiency, and time being valuable and all that, I do like to feel like I'm making decent progress.
@ChugKendallare you playing to grind or are you playing due to the game having great gameplay ?
Grind may offer an artificial longevity and make you addicted to said game.
I played bf 42, vietnam, 2, 2142 so much offline vs bots usually in mods. It is not recorded and even if it was, they wouldnt have the data anyway by now. Additional infrastructure for no reason, other than to keep the good stuff away from single player - like PKM in bf 2 was. (compared to minimi, RPK-74 and chinese lmg Type 88 or something)
To me personally rank means nothing. I do not try to compete versus a million others unless I would be willing to throw away nowadays intolerable amounts of time. Does it make some people happy, or important ? Sure. Is it the core gameplay mechanic ? No.
In some cases people might feel 'social status', that they are this and that important within a group. And then, when high enough, are important enough to call the shots, I guess. Maybe.
