As an upshot, I suppose those of us who lost long-standing ranks will now be mirrored less by players who do not know us. My standings have declined quite a bit since Hinterlands so I guess I don't mind, but I can see that I would be kind of annoyed if I had still been at the top and lost my position.
After playing 10,000 games (including a heavy stretch at BSW) I have grown a bit bored with Dominion, but as a guy with a lot of financial obligations it is hard to give up an absolutely free form of entertainment. My play style has relaxed and I have become much more experimental and my results have been reflecting that. Last week Geronimoo chastised me for trying to circumvent Mountebank, and I had to laugh because he was dead-on right.
I suppose that ultimately I assumed that Isotropic has an unseen self-destruct mechanism installed, and that the leaderboard would go with it, so I might as well not worry about my rank. The shadow game that is supposedly forthcoming will provide a clean slate, and if I choose to buy it I expect to see a lot of the same people.
Now, I can understand Dougz's attempts to keep the leaderboard sanitized of outright manipulators and I also get the frustrations of established players who may be losing rank from infrequent play. I also am having a few doubts that a commercial Dominion online product release is eminent. But what do I know? It is all guesswork and speculation at this point. I am not in the inner-circle, but I can tell you as someone who organized online tournaments I did consider the possibility of the downfall of Isotropic when planning them, and I see the DSC tourney as a good omen. From DonaldX, the last I remember hearing was that Isotropic would be up through Hinterlands release.
Pragmatically, I guess if this leaderboard change is permanent we must play in order to defend our rank.