Seasons

There will be ways to rank players (and their e-peens) in Diablo III over Battle.net. Both game modes, PvM and PvP, will be ranked, or tracked in some fashion. How and with what metrics, we do not yet known. The simple experience ranking ladders of Diablo II don't seem viable in Diablo III, so a new system that includes Achievements of all types, along with a hidden player score used for matchmaking in PvP, is a likely solution.

Much of Diablo III's Battle.net features remain underdevelopment, so these features are likely to remain in flux for some time, and will likely undergo additional changes post-release.

Experience Ladders in Diablo III

Players had expected top level ranking ladders, like in Diablo II. Those seem less likely now that we know the maximum level will an easily-reached Clvl 60. If every character can get to the maximum level simply by completing Hell difficulty, there will almost immediately be countless max level characters. Which would defeat the point of such a ladder.

Therefore it's more likely that PvM ladders will rank other things, or possibly just accounts, rather than individual characters. Account achievements, for instance. These have not been detailed yet, but the D3 Team has talked about lots of potential achievements, some of them ranking accounts in very long term ways.[1]

As far as the e-peen meter goes for showing off a higher level character, we think a proper achievement system is much better at this. There’s more variety, they’re more interesting and compelling for people to work toward. One important point of note is that our achievements are cross-character, meaning we can give achievements for things like leveling 5, 10... hell, 20 characters to 60. Certainly a bigger feat than a level 99, and we can give tangible rewards for it too.

However, where there is a vacuum the community will inevitably fill it with unofficial ladders that rank players by employing algorithms to weight regular and elite kills and calculate a kill rank.

Season Wipes for the Ladders?

It was widely assumed that the Diablo III ladders would be wiped from time to time. That there would be ladder seasons, or new ladders with patches that made big changes, or when new expansion packs were released at the very least. But when @Diablo answered some questions about that issue in regards to the PvP ladder in November 2010, the very concept of ladder wipes seemed in doubt. [2]

will there be ladder resets for the rankings on PvP?—Scyberdragon

Hrm, there’s no intent for design on something like what. Why do you think it would be useful?—Diablo

without resets, new players would have a hard time getting up in the ranks as people who have been playing for years.—ScyberDragon

Since it’s a personal progression system it’s not likely to be something where you’re looking at a leaderboard a whole lot.—Diablo

after a certain amount of time (a couple of months-years) the ladder would probably rarely change as far as the top rankers.—Scyberdragon

Potentially, but it isn’t really a competition in that way. I’ll concede a *shrug* though as most of it is in early design.—Diablo

Well, are matches paired by ranking? New players (lower ranked) will never get to play older players (higher rank)—Scyberdragon

Matches are paired by skill, which isn’t the same as personal progression.—Diablo

well, how is skill quantified/paired then? I assumed you got #up rank based on how well you did therefore rank representing skill.—Scyberdragon

Skill is quantified by your performance (win/lose) versus others. Your rank/personal progression always moves up. Think MW2.—Diablo

then what is the rank for?—ScyberDragon

A way for you to see your progress, compare against friends, and a way for us to (potentially) give some vanity rewards away.—Diablo

Obviously the developers don't think the emphasis of PvP will be on overall rankings (which would show wins/losses?). But maintaining the same overall ranking going forever though, through patches that re-balance skills or even through expansion packs that add new classes/items/skill runes/skills/etc doesn't seem viable. There are seasons and new ladders regularly for virtually every other online and real life competition or sport. Why the devs think that Diablo III won't behave in similar fashion is a mystery.

Even if the game itself weren't constantly changing, it would just be boring to see the same names on top forever. Especially as some characters will find clever strategies and rack up huge win totals in the early days, before the high level competition is very stiff. Rankings with the top characters forever; characters that have long since been retired since their build and equipment is no longer viable... doesn't sound like much fun.

Diablo II Ladders

In Diablo II there are ladders that rank characters by experience. These are sorted by character class, Hardcore and Softcore characters, and by realm. There have been numerous ladder seasons since Diablo II was released, and since D2X these ladder resets have been used to reset the player population and economy, since ladder characters must be created anew in each ladder season, and can only interact with other ladder characters.

Many players would like to see expanded ladders in Diablo III, with more stats tracked and ranked, along with ladders measuring PvP prowess, as well as guilds, and more. Those sorts of features get added very late in the development cycle, or even after release, so it's unlikely that we'll learn more about ladders for some time, yet.