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Riot Should Reward good behavior more often

ylneveaH evoL·1/12/2015, 7:56:30 PM·23 votes·1,495 views

I took a first year college class in psychology and my sister has her bachelors of art in behavior analysis; she has taught me a lot about it. One thing I have learned (with over 7 years of experience at summer camps too) is that rewarding good behavior produces overall better behavior patterns rather than punishing/threatening negative behavior.

With the tribunal and the constant threats of banning, behavior has improved slightly in League, but there will be a drastic change in better behavior if Riot continues to reward the good behavior. When the badges of teamwork, friendly, etc. came out, I saw a big change in behavior for a little while. Unfortunately, Riot made it a lot harder to get them after pretty much everyone got them because everyone was handing them out like candy. Now I see pretty much 1 in 100 games of someone with a badge. If riot were to give, lets say theoretically, a mystery gift, or 500 RP or something small like that per month under certain qualifications, people would change their behavior more-so than with the threat of banning/tribunal.

These conditions can be: Not receiving ANY sort of mute/ranked restriction or ban. Not being under leaver buster due to AFK. Receiving a certain amount of honor (this one is questionable). Of course, you would have to participate in a certain amount of games to recieve this as it would be too easy to just play one game a week without saying anything and receive your reward.

I am willing to guarantee that there will be a lot less negative behavior in League if something like this was implemented on a regular basis. I would for sure shut my mouth knowing I have the chance of getting a free skin, or RP at the end of the month. Of course, there will still be a lot of negative behavior, but not nearly as much, and it will single out the constant debbie downers, rather than the frustrated-once-every-10-games person.

16 Comments

Drunk Rummate1/12/2015, 8:16:26 PM12 votes

they've already given 2 free IP boosts and now a skin.

they're rolling out positive reinforcement on a fairly regular basis since they announced the rewards, though i wouldnt expect anything as large as a free skin except maybe once a year. they do have a business to run, after all.

Kratos2631/12/2015, 8:14:40 PM7 votes

I agree without even needing to read. If you know negative behavior is punished and that's it, you're just gonna have a normal behavior since there is no reason to do more efforts than that. However, if you know good behavior is rewarded, and periodically, then of course more people will have a better behavior, since everyone loves rewards, and since they come out periodically, people also learn to keep that behavior.

It's unfortunate that schools don't understand that though. I also once went to a school that rewarded people that went from D to B for exemple, but nothing for those with straight As what the hell.

aaronconlin1/12/2015, 11:31:54 PM5 votes

I think doing something every month is a little much, it would reduce Riot's source of income and make skins less unique. Maybe offering small amounts of RP or IP boosts in increments as you display good behavior. Maybe each patch based on behavior they could give out a voucher for a boost or some RP. That way it would take a couple patches to get enough RP for a skin, but you're still rewarded.

Rueian1/13/2015, 12:56:51 AM4 votes

Doing it too often will lead to entitlement. Hell people are already acting like entitled brats over the skin announcement. Riot doesn't owe you for being 'good'. A much smaller scale of the community is actively positive. The vast majority are neutral. Be happy you get anything. Maybe try being a paragon to the community. Or help people having trouble. But don't feel entitled for being normal, rather be gracious that riot gave you a gift.

junglerboy161/12/2015, 11:09:14 PM4 votes

It only has an impact if it is not a frequent occurrence. If everyone who behaved well got RP or a skin EVERY MONTH, then it would become much less meaningful very quickly. I don't have any sort of degree in Psychology or anything, but I do my reading, and Scientific studies show that irregular delayed gratification is the best way to implement positive reinforcement. People who only get a reward once every 6 or 7 months or even once a year will respond far better than people who get it once a week. I would say, if Riot wants to implement a more frequent reward system, then a bi-annual gift would be optimal. It would be frequent enough to keep people interested, long enough apart that Riot could handle it and if needed hype it up some (the mystery gifting that they did was a massive undertaking), and long enough apart that it would still feel really special when it happened. The reason that irregular delayed gratification is the best is actually because it triggers the same mental reward system that is connected to addiction, basically meaning people would get addicted to behaving well in order to not miss out on the gift. another thing that makes this such a good system is if there are frequent yet very small rewards leading up to one annual or semi annual reward, which based on what I read some other people posted, appears to be how Riot plans to proceed with this system.

Jubbinaut1/12/2015, 10:30:23 PM4 votes

The plan for the coming season is to do exactly that. Last I heard, they were planning to issue small rewards (IP-boosts and the like) on a monthly basis, with larger ones (icons and such) scattered somewhat more sparsely - perhaps 3 or 4 over the course of the season. I also heard a rumor about continuing the "very large" style reward at season's end (like the recent mystery gift).

It's not that this was something they were unaware of. It's that it's something very difficult to implement, with a lot of questions that need answering. What are the right rewards? How often should they be issued? What criteria should be used to determine who receives them?

I don't think they know the answers to those questions yet, but I think this season, we'll get to see them exploring them, which - to me - is a pretty awesome thing.

LilRooster1/13/2015, 2:12:04 AM2 votes

+1 for science.

RoyaiChaos1/13/2015, 8:30:59 AM2 votes

A mystery gift or 500 ip per month is not small....

Narasimha1/12/2015, 11:16:27 PM1 votes

There would be less negative behavior, but it would also be less real positive behavior. If you give such constant incentives, then the act itself becomes meaningless. Rather than being good because its the right thing to do, people will act nice simply to get the reward.

PoisonedPeace1/13/2015, 2:52:05 AM1 votes

They are adding ways to reward good behavior 30 years from now when the new tribunal is released.

Raptamei1/13/2015, 2:32:55 PM1 votes

Back when honour was a thing, you got it not for being friendly but for carrying even if you were a jerk. Just saying.

Sarutobi1/13/2015, 11:46:13 AM1 votes

im sure theyll continue it but probably not as often as people would like for obvious reasons. i mean why even bother buying RP if Riot will always reward us? in my opinion once a year or even once every two years is a nice gesture.

Downfall1/12/2015, 9:42:47 PM1 votes

They give out badges to those who are well behaved, and thats an automated system. They give you borders for being good at the game and summoner icons for free in certain events, they give out IP boosts occasionally and now for the first time they've given out a skin. They also gave out 400 RP for free to anyone above level 10, and people who reach level 10 also get it now. They do multiple things, but they're not just gonna give out a ton of free stuff to everyone just because its generous, i mean they need to make money.