I see a lot of assumptions about other players made within these comments. Most particularly about "casual players". I am a casual player and yet I play games consistantly. The definition of a casual player changes from person to person. I dont spend 4 hours a day playing MP but I do come back to it once and a while just to kick back and relax. I will still be contributing to the life of the game. Thus some arguments are null and void about casual players such as myself.
I am sorry but personally it sounds like a lot of personal issues people are laying out because they want a game to be developed in a manor that suits them and only them (which most if not all complaint threads are).
Am I opposed to a ranking system? Nope. I just dont see a point to it either. Any player can be beaten on any given day by any person. That is just the way it is. One day a person is on top of the gaming world and the next they get crushed by a person who just played for the first time. So to me it makes little difference.
One issue I see that has not been addressed is the armory issue. What would the ranking system do to the armory? If a person is unable to achieve said rank they are then being denighed the unlockable armor for that rank? Or are you people proposing to have that as a seperate system entirely? If thats the case then they have a huge amount of coding to do (well in either case its a lot of coding) which I just dont see happening.
One other thing, what about the campaign, does that not mean it has a long life span or do you people (just trying to include guys and girls, not being racist or anything) only play the campaign once? I for one play the campaign multiple times. I still go back to CE's campaign and play that. Its one of my preferences.
Please keep in mind, I am not trying to argue with you or anybody else. Just pointing a few things out from my viewpoint. Thats all. Not saying your wrong or that I am right.