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Inside the Largest Virtual Psychology Lab In the World
bearhuntz writes: Riot Games has been using League of Legends as a psychology lab to run scientific experiments and reduce toxic player behavior for a while now. This article explains some of the experiments they're doing, and what the results have been. "For example, one product is a restricted chat mode that limits the number of messages abusive players can type per match. It’s a temporary punishment that has led to a noticeable improvement in player behavior afterward —on average, individuals who went through a period of restricted chat saw 20 percent fewer abuse reports filed by other players. The restricted chat approach also proved 4 percent more effective at improving player behavior than the usual punishment method of temporarily banning toxic players. Even the smallest improvements in player behavior can make a huge difference in an online game that attracts 67 million players every month."
A/B testing is using feedback from your users to determine how to configure your product so that it is most useful to them. What LoL seems to be doing is using feedback from their product to change the users to be more useful...
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
I played derivatives of it like hon or maybe dotA, I forget. But in my brief time playing trying to get the hang of it, I just remember being told that I was a retard and a faggot and that I should kill myself. I think I missed something in mid as well.
I've played fps with voice chat, and people get mad when objectives fail but I think most people are just doing their own thing and try to make up for crappy players by upping their own game. Some don't even care because it's more about having fun than anything else.
Nothing in dota, lol or hon can be fixed with a mute button or a report button. I'm convinced the game mechanics simply flips a switch in normal people. Like an exaggerated version of that shitcocks image that is used to explain forum trolls.
I'm somewhat disturbed at how often we see Westerners, especially ones who should know better (like academics, students, and professionals) so actively supporting and forcing outright censorship on others.
While they have the right to express such ideas, anyone claiming to support Western ideals just cannot support censorship at the same time. It's inherently contradictory, and extremely hypocritical, to do so.
It's bad enough when censorship is used by those in power to maintain or increase their power. But it's far more disgusting when censorship is used for "improving player behavior", or worse, when such abusive action is taken in the name of stamping out other allegedly "abusive" action!
When it comes to online communities, Reddit and Hacker News are among the worst offenders. They often go out of their way to quench and destroy any sort of original thought. If your ideas don't conform to the existing beliefs there, then you will be down-voted at best, but more likely banned. Every time I read HN, I see numerous other comments wrongfully voted down, numerous unjustifiably "hell-banned" users, and of course the typical accusations of other commenters being "disingenuous" or "snarky".
I think the most hypocritical people are probably those in the anti-bullying movement, however. Here we have them saying how it's wrong to target a specific group of people and direct negativity toward them, yet that's exactly what we see them doing to people they have alleged to be bullies! These anti-bully advocates target bullies with more ferocity and outright hatred than we ever see the bullies direct toward anyone else.
I sure hope this trend toward censorship and intolerance ends soon. It's far worse than whatever ills it may be trying to "cure".
...addressing the common theme in the above comments collectively. Trying to make people act less anti-social, in a privately run setting, is horrible censorship and a terrible evil? Trying to get people to act civilly is more unethical than telling people to kill themselves? Are you serious? I hope you don't take that approach raising kids, or managing workers. Jesus Christ.
Why can't you just use an /ignore function? Why impose your idea of what is abusive on everyone else? We have the technology to implement censorship at the client, without forcing prior restraint upon anyone.