Allowing bragging rights to come from a maxed out town to those inhabiting it assumes that towns are bound to people.
They aren't.
Just because they were the first to max out a town means only one thing: the town was the first maxed out town. That doesn't give anyone bragging rights, because a town is never fixed to a person or inhabitants. How do you know that the current "founder" or mayor (the black hat one) is the one that started the town? You don't! The same goes for it's inhabitants
It doesn't say anything about the quality of the town, the process of building it, the quality of the players in it, because that can all change. If I join as a lvl 1 character, and join the best town in the game, what bragging rights should I be entitled to?
The current ranking system is pure nonsense, because it doesn't rank anything anymore. It was fun while towns were racing to the top, but as soon as the second one hit the top, the fun was off. Simply change a name and you're first on the list. What value does that list have then?
I also oppose diggo's approach: the first town ever should not be ranked first for ever. That way a town is depicted as a hollow shell, with no kudo's for those inside or those that helped building it.
Towns are a community that only lives because of the players in it. Therefore, if you want to rank a town for quality, you should look to the players in it. The players are the dynamic variable that you want to rank. A town is just a name with some static statistics that never change once it's been maxed out.
By ranking the town using the players as the foundation of it's score, you give credit where credit is due: to the actual inhabitants of a town at that particular moment in time. I believe that will also fuel a usefull persuit: staying on top of the list. This will be a motivational factor for those in it, and those are factors a game needs.
