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Positive Reinforcement VS Negative Reinforcement

Little Stick Man·10/28/2015, 10:40:04 PM·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

ModUlanopo10/28/2015, 10:45:47 PM3 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.

Vore Monster10/28/2015, 10:53:41 PM2 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

Calabok10/28/2015, 10:50:07 PM1 votes

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

Wind Breakers10/28/2015, 10:56:55 PM1 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"...

AJStarhiker10/28/2015, 10:57:00 PM1 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.

AJStarhiker10/29/2015, 3:24:22 AM1 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 Fizz10/29/2015, 5:04:44 AM1 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 Phil10/29/2015, 10:55:41 PM1 votes

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

Gaining rewards can be exploitable.
Longevity: What happens after they get their reward?

RAT IN GAME UwU 10/28/2015, 10:49:37 PM1 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