Boards›Announcements

Player Behavior Design Values: Reward

Riot·1/29/2015, 9:11:00 PM·1 votes·96,186 views

TLDR: Our player behavior philosophies include punishment, reform and positive reinforcement. With rewards, we have to be careful to design systems that don’t simply incentivize positive behavior for a small duration, but provide reasons to stay positive all the time.

Hello again!

Last time, I mentioned that Drevarius would go into a deeper dive on punishment in this blog, but with the surprise Mystery Gift for positive behavior going out to 95% of players in 2014, we wanted to take the opportunity to jump ahead and explore our philosophies around rewards and positive reinforcement.

One of our core philosophies is that there's no silver bullet to improving player behavior in online games, and you always need a mix including punishment, reform, and positive reinforcement.


End of Snowdown Mystery Gift

In 2014, we focused on the community and self-reflection. We ran a few experiments, including an exercise where players reflected on their last 10 games and we all came to the conclusion that the one negative experience that happens occasionally should not define our community. With Snowdown’s celebration of everyone coming together to be a part of the Legend of the Poro King, it was a great opportunity to deliver a positive behavior surprise.

One of the keys of positive reinforcement is the idea of “schedules,” or the expected frequency of a reinforcing event. Introducing surprise rewards unrelated to specific activities or durations is one of the most effective ways to encourage positive player behavior. The surprise element is crucial: imagine an achievement system where, if you are sportsmanlike for your next 10 games, you unlock a free skin. Players could simply behave for 10 games, unlock their gift and go back to playing the same way they were before (whether that’s positive, negative or neutral). So, instead, we’ll continue to surprise players once in awhile for their positive behavior. Because players aren't sure what the next reward is (or when it is), players will strive to be sportsmanlike in a larger range of games to try to get all the surprises.

For positive players in the game, this won't really affect them and they'll just get surprises every so often for being awesome. For neutral players, this effort might convince some of them to put in that extra effort in a few more games to get the next surprise. For negatively behaved players, this effort might also encourage a few to change their ways although we expect the biggest impact to be with the neutral players.


It's All in the Surprise!

In future roll-outs it’ll be possible for players to earn the next surprise so long as they've been positive since the last surprise was awarded. So, if you were chat restricted and missed a surprise, you could still be eligible if you were positive in the time range between that one and the next.

Also, keep in mind that not every surprise will be a mystery gift. Every surprise will differ in magnitude, and be tailored to different players. For example, the last surprise before the end of Snowdown gift was an IP Boost, mainly beneficial for newer players still building out their champion pools. Other surprises may include collectibles like unique summoner icons (which some players will remember we’ve tried before with the Santa Baron icon).

In the last blog in this series, we’ll be back to discuss punishment as a deterrent for negative behavior and our philosophy around it. Thanks as always, and we’ll see you in game!

- Lyte

503 Comments

Quantum Weeb1/30/2015, 8:35:03 PM82 votes

Interesting blog, but I'm not sure how effective such surprises will be in influencing neutral players. You get the surprise as long as you weren't negative, which really doesn't incentive becoming a positive player. In the same vein, currently positive players don't have all that much tangible incentive to stay positive rather than just becoming neutral players.

How do you believe a system like this will make neutral players gravitate towards becoming positive than the other way around?

Thank PB team!

Fulcrous1/31/2015, 3:01:22 AM53 votes

You better watch out, You better not shout, Better not pout, I'm telling you why: Riot Games is coming to town. He's making a list, And checking it twice; Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice. Riot Games is coming to town. He sees you when you're griefing. He knows when you afk. He knows if you've been feeding, So be good for goodness sake! Oh, you better watch out! You better not shout. Better not pout, I'm telling you why: Riot Games is coming to town. Riot Games is coming to town!

thebootknifer1/30/2015, 11:03:26 PM32 votes

I am still thankful for the mystery skin you gave us positive players! (Bear sej woo! Now I have to choose between bear and poro sej... my life is so difficult).

IP boosts, skins or what ever it may be is always appreciated but not expected to keep all of us positive in game.

If you want a new idea for a reward maybe we can have 50% off a champ or skin purchase. (Excluding 1850+ skins of course). Or add an extra refund to our accounts. I still have 2 refunds left and I don't plan on using them any time soon, but some people would really appreciate that.

Thanks again riot.

Civility1/30/2015, 10:54:46 PM23 votes

Positive reinforcement is a good thing, but the rewards should be something that people will feel. A bonus skin is fine, and I wouldn't want to be ungrateful, but what I'd really like as a surprise reward is a free Loss Forgiven token that I could use when one of my teammates is AFK for over half the game (especially when in a series).

Otherwise, I mostly hope that the people I report will be punished, so that they can either learn from it or no longer have the opportunity to abuse others again (by being banned). When things go sour in-game, people tend to forget that there's a loss for every win, and I feel like all of the negativity has rubbed off on me. It would be encouraging to know that players I reported were actually punished. I'd even be happier having evidence of what came of the report when they're not punished at all. Perhaps another reward for good behavior would be the opportunity to participate in the Tribunal again.

Genova Wolf1/30/2015, 10:41:14 PM19 votes

Sounds Awesome to me! But I agree with Quinntuple Kill. You need some sort of exponential reward system. For example, a tier set of rewards, maybe cumulative year prize (so 10 days: ip, 1 month a champ, 6 months, a mystery skin etc), such as Any skin you want! Some negative players might work towards that goal who don't plan on changing to being with and then end up not being negative at the end of the year due to habitual action! For those of us who are sportsmanlike all the time, it becomes a Christmas present! I hope you will take to heart my idea since it offers things to a wide variety of good and neutral players!!!

VedalkenHeretic1/31/2015, 7:49:31 AM19 votes

I think the reporting system is broken overall , for one it doesn't take into account the actually context or who was the abuser and who was the abused. Often times I've gotten called a retard by my entire team for a bad game, i finally just get fed up and tell them "im done" but i continue to play and help the team yet i get reported for negative attitude. It also throws people into too broad of a range. I see people saying "rekt" and "stfu" almost every game and I get reported for things taken out of tone, because its impossible to tell the tone of someone typing. It also doesn't actually make people positive, it forces them. I see the 95% of "possitive" players lose their temper and let out all their anger after you cannot see what they say. Which really does prove how ineffective this system is in actually changing the way people act to each other. Your system doesn't change people it just removes their right to speak the way they do. Nobody wants to be forced to speak a certain way in a game, it isn't fun. Yes they shouldn't be rude and verbally abusive but even when you aren't you can still be reported just for loosing hope in a game.

Seth the Bum2/1/2015, 3:56:16 PM14 votes

Lux "I never think about losing." Lux "Focus on the battle." Lux "Stay positive." Lux "We can do this."

Drogeist1/31/2015, 9:57:24 AM12 votes

This is pretty cool, and I'm grateful to Riot for attempting to reward its positive (and even neutral) players. So thanks!

However, while I agree with the psychology behind it (ie, random rewards are better at promoting the desired behavior or non-behavior), I would also propose that there are additional things that could be implemented that would allow players who are exceptionally positive to distinguish themselves, and yet still retain the element of an ongoing and/or random reward that is so important for sustained behavior change.

For example, perhaps players can have a limited amount of honor to distribute that should be given to only the most positive players in their games. Of course there needs to be limits on this like only random players in queue, not pre-made, friends-list, etc. As people accumulate more and more honor their chances of winning something gradually increase. This means players can earn their reward sooner with exceptionally positive behavior, but maybe not earn more rewards than other people. The random element here is time (ie, when you get something), but it could also still be the reward itself. In this case you wouldn't know what you'll get, but you have better odds of getting it sooner if you are super positive and helpful to other players. This example still contains the problem of ceasing the positive behavior after earning the reward, but there are workarounds like maybe an unknown but tiered reward system for accumulating honor, or being eligible for multiple rewards even after you earn one.

As another example maybe very positive players can earn chances to play a mini-game of some kind that has a small chance of rewarding the player with something neat. Everyone can play the game, but exceptionally positive players can play more, or have better odds of winning when they play, or have larger prizes (e.g., longer ip boost, etc). Here again, the reward has a random element because you might not win anything, and/or you have no control over what you might win. However, the goal of being very positive and friendly to players is promoted through the opportunity to maybe win something, or to have more frequent opportunities to win. In this example there is no incentive to stop being a positive community member after earning a reward (like there is in the "10 games to be a positive player" example above.

Jeez, the reward for being super positive could even be random a little popup message that occasionally congratulates you for being such a positive teammate or opponent.

To promote ongoing sportsmanlike behavior, maybe the reward can be temporary access to a neat profile border or icon, and unless you sustain your behavior, you'll lose it next week/month/etc. I've always thought the ribbon system we have now has so much unrealized potential. Why can't you have multiple ribbons simultaneously? Why can't you or others view ribbon(s) earned in your in-game profile? Why don't ribbon(s) appear on the boards, or in chat?

Long post, I know. But there are some ideas for expanding this really cool program and potentially dramatically improving player interactions and behaviors.

Kisses for Kills2/1/2015, 10:20:00 PM11 votes

If you REALLy want to improve the community, integrate voice. I always invite people to Skype with me, and over dozens of games, no one has EVER flamed in voice chat. It's just harder to vilify someone who you can hear.

But getting people to jump into Skype is like pulling teeth. Some people don't want to do it because they're leary of giving out their info to strangers. Some people have another preferred voice app. Some people probably want to hide their age or gender.

If voice were integrated, more people would participate, more people would be nice, AND it would improve the overall quality of players, as they can coordinate better and get immediate, verbose, constructive feedback.

Luna Loves Lulu2/1/2015, 5:05:21 PM9 votes

I think "Leaving the game/afk" and "Disconnecting from game" need to be two different options on the report menu. It shouldn't be too hard to locate most of the time. if the person is making a long series of band choices, being toxic, or something along those lines, then suddenly vanishes? Yea, that was on purpose. If the person is holding the team on their shoulders, they almost win, then suddenly poof, that person had a problem with internet or the Riot servers which needs to be reported for the sake of getting fixed, and not punished.

AntipopeTeemo1/31/2015, 12:01:17 AM7 votes

[deleted]

trooperdeth1/31/2015, 9:37:04 AM6 votes

I don't feel like this is effective at all to be honest. I'm a player that's out to win (in ranked) normal's (i could careless about) but ranked i'm a player that is not afraid to hold people accountable for. which is something that has gotten me suspended for ( not because i'm a rage/ flamer) but people don't understand that ranked shouldn't be for dicking around or trolling. the incentive of a mystery skin isn't something that's going to make me in league terms a less of a "toxic" player because i feel like the people that troll ranked need to be removed from the game.... and the players in games that arnt pulling their weight should be told so.... i'm sorry those people cant handle the truth. I feel like if i'm playing like garbage people should be able to say that to me and i wont cry about/ report them for being toxic if we can do it in a respectful way. the fact of the matter is the game is so broken right now in the sense of trolling in all levels of the ranked system that people like myself that are sick and tired of being jerked around by there match making system that we are being suspended for voicing our opinions / holding people accountable....for example suspended because i said fuck twice in a game because i said i was sick of being matched up with a troll after i was matched with 7 afk players in a row yes I dropped the f bomb twice in that game but i was accused of calling someone a F@ggot.... which after review chat logs was not the case and after i brought that to their attention the reasoning was because i said the F word to many times ( for those that don't believe me i will post my entire ticket if needed)...so at the end of the day a mystery skin will only be incentive if riot can figure out how to better hold players accountable for their garbage play and not ban people for saying the Fbomb twice

lnfiniti1/31/2015, 4:13:54 PM6 votes

Very interesting article but here let me explain something. Lets say that you were in promotion from silver to gold and you won your first two games then lost the next two because of trolls. So now you feel a little frustrated; you are first pick and you chose vi jungle it goes down the line and everyone chooses their roles and then all of a sudden the last person locks ammumu jungle and says jungle or feed. You think omg another troll but in chat you say fine i'll support. During that game the ammumu who got jungle feeds the other team bad and then loses your promotion series so you curse him out because you are pissed. You get reported by your team and get chat banned. Explain to me how I am supposed to respond the the scum of the community for example that ammumu? Chat muting doesn't really stop feeding.

Lemony2/2/2015, 12:41:51 PM6 votes
I don't know if anyone agrees with my opinion, but it is logical. Why would we base our ranks off of W/L in Solo/Duo? It doesn't make sense to me at all. When you go in and you are a great player, you can't help that you have a crappy team. You can be the best player on your team, but then you get trolls that feed, players that are toxic, afk players, or people that just suck in general and you can't help that. Then you go into gold ranks to check it out and you'll see people with 187 kills and 300 deaths. If I wanted to be ranked by how well my team does, I would just play Ranked Teams???? Maybe ranks should be off of how many objectives you get and/or your K/D in Solo/Duo? A lot of us put time and effort into this game spending money to buy champions and skins, and perfecting several champions, because let's face it, we are all gamers at heart. So why should us good players be punished by having these teammates that bring us down?
Ishvalan Warrior2/2/2015, 10:10:47 PM6 votes

Please take a look Riot because you could be doing it so much better! Positive reinforcement, and rewards in general have their best effects when the reinforcer or reward are clearly made contingent on desired behavior. You do X then you get Y. Without a clear connection then you are actually using non-contingent reinforcement which in business, instruction, and anywhere you're trying to get a specific behavior to occur will more than likely not get you the results you want. The "schedule" doesn't have to be very dense to get desired behavior but if we have learned anything in over 80+ years of research and application, the reinforcer must be contingent on desired behavior.

I'm a 4th year doctoral student in Behavior Analysis with a concentration in Organizational Behavior Management, I can provide you with countless research articles to validate this point. Please find someone with a degree in behavior analysis to help you guys out.

Tehemai1/30/2015, 11:04:41 PM5 votes

So basically you're watering the rewards down with the same old crap no one wants again. I guess that means people will be toxic right after getting a good prize while the terrible ones are being rolled out.

Crzymstrbkwrm8761/30/2015, 10:44:53 PM4 votes

Isn't possible that it could go the other way around? Say someone is depressed, maybe had a bad week, raged for a few games, and got punished. It happened to be right before you released a reward for positive people. They are so upset about the bad timing that they go and rage more. And so, they get punished more. They get upset about the punishments, and rage more. They spiral deeper and deeper into the whole until they are so deep that only Chogath could NOM NOM NOM his way out of it. I know that you're trying to stop ragers by making them always consider whether a gifting is around the corner, but I think it could backfire.

P.S. Are you going to update Taric soon? He needs it :C

Crackmaster690002/2/2015, 5:08:35 PM4 votes

Often times, what happens is that the reporting system works but against the wrong person or doesn't work at all. This will help fix the latter which is really nice since it is a topic of frustration among a lot of people...however, my issue is with the former...I noticed in a normal game I was playing that I was playing with a premade team of 4....I happened to mildly criticize the jungler for never leaving the jungle the entire game(no exaggeration, even when they were in our base and killing nexus turrets he was taking enemy red for some weird reason)...what happened was that the premade group turned on me and I just ignored knowing that it was a losing fight for me....however, after the end of game screen, I still got a chat restriction warning....so my question is...when are you guys gonna try to stop this kind of abuse of the system where pure amounts of reporting end up in negative consequences for someone.

Another game as Nasus, being a typical nasus, I tell my team that I will be split pushing unless its a big fight when I have tp up....they refuse to listen and end up reporting for not communicating and I get a warning...another example pure quantity of reports creating negative effects...pls do something about this...its not fun...and since rewards are being introduced I really don't want to miss out on then because of something stupid like this...i liked the last reward...:o

BettyWhiteLifts2/1/2015, 12:21:33 PM4 votes

I'd just like to say that I received a reward for good behavior, but I haven't been good really. I assume it was an oversight. I was gifted Defender Leona for good behavior and I'd really rather it was taken back as I did not earn it.

fireballmx1/31/2015, 8:10:46 AM4 votes

Can we get something fixed in the tribunal, where people who bait others into toxicity or start it are punsihed too?

Dragan Czechic2/10/2015, 1:14:45 AM3 votes

I think that the honor system has been nerfed too much. There was a large amount of buy in at the beginning and many people earned ribbons. Then it was nerfed at the same time as participation waned. Now I almost never see an honor ribbon.