Fighting Game Woes

     Let me start this one off by saying that I am not a hardcore fighting gamer. I've dabbled mostly. As a teen, I played Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. I've played the VS. series (X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, etc.) For awhile I was "out of the scene" until Super Street Fighter IV was released. That drew me back in. My wife (Yes I'm a rare creature. I'm a gamer and I'm married.) and I started playing together and were like "Ok. This is fun but.... It's not really for us."
     Then the most awesome thing happened. Capcom, the company that made the game, announced that they were releasing the third installment in their Marvel vs. Capcom series. Which for those unfamiliar: It's the best of the best from both companies in a fighting game. You have a team of three characters facing another team of three. You fight, tag team style, until all the members of an opposing team are eliminated.
    As most of you may know, the majority of video games have off and online modes respectively. Where I want to focus this article is the online aspect of most fighting games nowadays.
    My biggest complaint with online fighters is the ranking system. Most players that are more into the genre than I am, play for at least four to six hours a day. I play at the most three on my days off. Grand total nine hours a week. (I know that I need to play more in order to get better but that's a-whole-nother enchilada.) If you do the math, hardcore players play three times more than I do. I'm not even going to get into how much professional players spend a week. All that being said, Let's get into the system itself.
     In online mode you have three main types of play; Ranked Matches, Player Matches and Lobbies. In Ranked Matches, You fight other players in a single fight in order to raise your rank to become the elitist of the elite. Player Matches are just single fights with with others with nothing gained or lost except pride. Lobbies are done "King of the Hill" style where up to eight players fight for the top spot.
    My problem is that there is only one way to track rankings in the other two play modes. Example. A player that has a lower rank like Beginner or Fighter but be of a higher level. I played with a person the other night who had a low rank but had pro-like skills.
    In the lobbies, you can set the room for only advance player or only beginners. If you are a low rank but a great player, you can be in a room just for beginners and get win after win. It may be cool for some but, I am NOT cool with it. If you're a good player, stay the hell away from me. I'm just trying to learn and have fun. If you want to imitate Combofiend (look him up), Go into the Ranked Matches and do it there. Rank up and play people just as good as you. Leave the noobs like me alone so we can practice against actual people and not the computer in training mode. I want to get better so I can hold my own against people like you.
    The ranking system needs to be consistent throughout the online mode. Eliminate the player matches and just have ranked matches. Or better yet, Rankings should be simply based on ones win/loss record. I'm sure there are some first person shooters that have a win/loss record system. It NEEDS to improve. I'm not going to want to play online if things stay the same.
    Anyway, If you have the new Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Hit me up on XBOX Live. Gamertag Bug Charmer. Hope to see you soon.