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Positive Reinforcement VS Negative Reinforcement

Little Stick Man··2 votes·1,396 views

I've noticed that in league there are a lot of ways to be punished with negative reinforcement (chat bans, game bans, low priority queue) but when it comes to positive reinforcement of good behavior we get honor badges and some end of season rewards. I think if players had more frequent rewards for playing in a non toxic way, league would see an upturn in positive players. My idea for a general reward could be a sort of mystery gift awarded after receiving honor in 5/10/20 games from allies or opponents, maybe a chunk of bonus IP for 5 consistent honors, 5$ of free RP after 10, and finally a random free skin and/or a special temporary icon that you could use the toggle key to have your most popular type of honor awarded float over your head (kind of like the worlds teams icons). I think awarding small things like this would actually give players a reason to be good and friendly other than to avoid a punishment.

Any other ideas for rewards? Would this even be a good idea?

15 Comments

ModUlanopo3 votes

This used to appear a lot on the old TBI/PB forums and Lyte's response was that they were headed that direction, but it's hard because motivating people with rewards is actually really tricky.

Little Stick Man1 votes

it does seem like a tricky solution but in my experience working with young children, we post a daily reward (juice box, graham crackers, piece of candy, etc) on the board at the front of the class room for kids who read quietly or generally just be good and helpful to get at the end of the day and it's been pretty effective. if the general attitude in this game is going to change into a less toxic one, people need something to work for instead of something to be afraid of on a smaller, more frequent scale.

ModUlanopo1 votes

Absolutely. That's why I said they're working on it. Lyte already mentioned a rework of the honor system. There are supposed to be other systems as well.

Little Stick Man1 votes

ayy sweet, i hope it gets implemented soon

Vore Monster2 votes

In psychology terms, negative reinforcement is actually more effective than positive reinforcement.

We also had a big reward system before, it didn't work out well

elduris1 votes

The reward system was for the Tribunal, not positive behavior within the game itself.

For the latter, we had the Santa Baron icon and more recently, the "two gloves handshaking" icon.

RAT IN GAME UwU 1 votes

the rewards system is meh, i got a 2 week ban on one account in my more toxic days, and a free skin on my other account in the same week LOL

Calabok1 votes

They had a system, but they found it was too rewarding, like welfare in USA

ModUlanopo2 votes

Well, yeah. After they caught Gragas spending all his gold on ale, they HAD to shut that down.

Wind Breakers1 votes

Ip is a great way to make people consider boosting moral in the game. Balance the reward like you would garens passive...

When ever You (garen) get hit by an attack (you become toxic ingame) it delays your next ip bonus reward.

How to be considered "Toxic" Per 10 consecutive games: If you get reported by 3 unique players in one game, you become "toxic" that game. Unique Players Definition: "Never have contacted each other before, not friends, not premade". So a random 5v5 no premades, only needs 3 reports to 1 champion.

Also the best way to require "toxic label" is to require 1 of 3 unique players to be a member of the enemy team to be a reporter aswell. Enemy team members lie less. If an enemy team member reports, there is more viability that maybe the person really did "feed"...

AJStarhiker1 votes

It's a great idea in theory, but the biggest problem with rewards at specific mile-marks is that it becomes an achievement. Once the achievement is reached, there's no incentive (beyond personal satisfaction/self control) to continue a particular behavior.

Although I believe they've looked at rewards at random intervals, which is actually a more effective reward system. Rewards would be for behavior in the interval since the most recent reward. The interval might be time (over the previous week) or units (last 20 games played). It's the same kind of psychology behind gambling. If players don't know when the next reward will come, as long as it happens often enough for people to talk about winning, that uncertainty will play on the "Maybe I'll get it next time" mentality.

Little Stick Man1 votes

adding randomization does seem like itd make getting the reward feel more special when it happens

AJStarhiker1 votes

I also remember getting a mystery skin, mystery champion, 350 RP, and some IP boosts. And more recently, they've started linking evernt rewards with good behavior.

Fisherman Fizz1 votes

Just to clear up technical terms, nothing you mentioned is actually negative reinforcement. What you're referring to are negative and positive punishments. It's not possible to punish someone using reinforcement because the two are opposite terms.

But yes, the reward systems in this game are severely lacking, and the ones that do exist like the honor system really need to be reworked

Doct0r Phil1 votes

I'll summarize the problems/issues that can come with rewards in LoL:

  1. Gaining rewards can be exploitable.

  2. Longevity: What happens after they get their reward?

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