Gears of War 2 Ranking System

- Original ranking system based on Xbox Live TruSkill system
- Original ranking system included 5 ranksTeam Xbox: Gears of War 2 Ranking System Explained
- Proposed system would more directly reflect experienceGears of War 2 Forums: OFFICIAL: Proposed Rank Change

Epic Games is considering an overhaul to the ranking system in Gears of War 2 in response to fan feedback. The idea is to offer an experience-based ranking system in addition to the current system.
Title Update 3

The patch released on March 24, 2009, called Title Update 3, introduced a new experience-based ranking system to the game. The TrueSkill system is still used to set up the most competitive matches possible, but skill ranks are now hidden.Official Site: Gears 2 Title Update 3, New Maps Inbound (March 12, 2009)
Ranking System Details

The original ranking system in Gears of War 2 was confusing to many players. The system contained five ranks and was based on Microsoft's TruSkill technology. Epic Games' community manager said the following to Team Xbox:
TrueSkill is like the chess ELO system, which tries to predict who should win the match based on the skill of the players. If you were predicted to lose and your team wins, then your TrueSkill goes up more than if you won and you were predicted to win. This holds true for the inverse scenario: If you were predicted to win and you lose, then your ranking drops more than if you were predicted to lose.Team Xbox: Gears of War 2 Ranking System Explained
Since fans have been unhappy with the current ranking system, Epic proposed a new system in their official forums. The full text of the post appears below.
So we've been looking at all the feedback on our skill ranking system and we completely understand why simply making your TrueSkill level visible can be frustrating. The algorithm is complex, so it's not always clear how your rank will be affected by a particular match and your rank is based on the team's outcome and not necessarily your individual performance.
So we're looking to make a change.
What if, instead of skill rank, we instead showed your experience level. You would gain experience through your individual performance in Public multiplayer matches - the higher your score at the end, the more experience you acquire. Of course the experience gained across the different match types would be balanced so you couldn't just grind on the respawning game types to try and level faster. The experience requirements for each level would grow with each level gained (like a typical RPG) and we'd have 99 levels of experience for you to show off your leetness.
Generally speaking your level will always go up since you're always acquiring more score, hence experience, with each completed match. The only exception to that would be people quitting. Players that quit would gain an experience penalty that could cause them to be demoted. At the end of every match you will be able to see how much experience you've gained and how much further you have to go till the next level.
Since I know what one of the first questions is going to be, initially we wouldn't have achievements for gaining experience levels because of Xbox LIVE rules that require all post release achievements to be tied to new DLC content. But when new DLC is released, it's a whole new ball game then.Gears of War 2 Forums: OFFICIAL: Proposed Rank Change