The mods basically just give you a title based on whether or not they like you. That's why I have the title "Most Excellent Lord High Bishop".

I don't know the order, but it is based on available points. Because I have 5 available, I'm a political puppet.

I'll make sure to bring my seduction A-game to acquire my desired title of Highly Esteemed Painter of Diplomatic Wonderlands.

@YCHTT Interesting that these titles are linked to available points, rather than totals. Not that these titles matter in the end, but still. Thank you for the explanation!

If you think about it, any points in play are points at risk and not really yours. They no longer belong to you, but to the game. It's much like a buy-in at a poker tournament. It's not my 10K every year when I compete at the WSOP main event, but the tournament's money. If I do well, I will get it back with a profit, but I may see none of it if I bust out early.

This is the official source code, but it seems vdip has changed it - because doesn't match with what I'm seeing:

$rankingDetails['percentile'] = ceil(100.0*$rankingDetails['position'] / $rankingPlayers);
$rankingDetails['rank'] = 'Political puppet';
$ratings = array('<strong>Diplomat</strong>' => 5,
'Mastermind' => 10,
'Pro' => 20,
'Experienced' => 50,
'Member' => 90,
'Casual player' => 100 );
foreach($ratings as $name=>$limit)
{
if ( $rankingDetails['percentile'] <= $limit )
{
$rankingDetails['rank'] = l_t($name);
break;
}
}

I suppose the change is in the distinction between vPoints and dPoints so the rank title is probably correct, but it's really the ranking position that isn't reflecting this (the code says that the percentile of your rank should match the title, i.e. if you're in the top 5% you are a Diplomat, top 10% Mastermind, etc...). However, the presented vDip rank percentile seems based upon something other than points, so there's a mismatch here.

Actually that's a fair point YCCHT. Then again, it would be quite silly that if someone has let's say a 1000 (and corresponding high rank), invests 950 in various games, that person suddenly drops to the rank of Political Puppet ;-). Luckily, these ranks do not make any difference game-wise.

d-ice, the ranking percentile system would strike me as the most logical. Yet it is indeed not the case that the actual rankings are a reflection of this source code. Also, if this code would be in place, would that mean that one would immediately get rid of Political Puppet after the first game? (I'm not too advanced with reading code, but the lowest 'rank' would then be Casual Player, no?)

That's correct Bob, assuming that you get a ranking position after your first game (I haven't looked)

I'm a "political puppet" with 300+ total points and a 1288 vpoint rank. Methinks the code isn't exactly as it seems.

Fight the system

I've fallen so far since joining the tournaments, I don't even want to look anymore...

The Hall of Fame offers a better version of ranking if you want the rank to reflect one's performance closer - they do some sort of Elo calculation.