Rewards and Punishment

Paul Taylor 2010

What is a reward?

What is punishment?

Balancing Rewards and Punishment

Psychology 101

Positive Reinforcement

https://intro2psych.wikispaces.com/file/view/Press.sized.jpg/32395879/Press.sized.jpg

http://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/144219-i-suck-at-games-negative-reinforcement-negatively-reinforces-everything/isuckatgames2-noscale.jpg

Positive Reinforcement

• Rewards for good behaviour

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1018157/Pictured-The-worlds-intelligent-fish--plays-football-basketball-limbo-dances.html

Punishmenthttp://www.digitaljournal.com/img/9/8/3/3/2/6/i/4/0/8/o/butt_bustin.jpg

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://newgalinlaciudad.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/punishment.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.psychologicalscience.com/learning/2010/01/punishment-rules.html&usg=__Fo3rM6G2Kta6GB2DVxik81ex0ik=&h=351&w=350&sz=37&hl=en&start=8&zoom=1&tbnid=8D3E8HUqiR_J-M:&tbnh=120&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpunishment%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DbB1%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26biw%3D1152%26bih%3D529%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1

Punishment

• Adding a negative to decrease a behaviour

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:8D3E8HUqiR_J-M:http://newgalinlaciudad.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/punishment.jpg&t=1

http://www.pollsb.com/photos/o/25389-crime_punishment_judge_orders_shoplifters_wear_signs.jpg

Negative Reinforcementhttp://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/144219-i-suck-at-games-negative-reinforcement-negatively-reinforces-everything/isuckatgames1-noscale.jpg

Negative Reinforcement

• Behaviour is reinforced by the avoidance of a negative situation

• Here pressing the lever will stop the shocks

http://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2003/skinbox3.gif

Negative Reinforcement is ALWAYS this ugly

http://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/144219-i-suck-at-games-negative-reinforcement-negatively-reinforces-everything/stfunoob-620x.jpg

What Negative Reinforcement can breed...

• Griefers

http://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/144219-i-suck-at-games-negative-reinforcement-negatively-reinforces-everything/isuckatgames4-noscale.jpg

Extinction

• “Dammn, was that today?”

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Science/Flash/profiles/images/mass-extinction.jpg

Extinction

• Removing something to reduce a behaviour• This is perhaps the worst method of learning

• What do you do when a baby annoys you with a rattle?

Extinction: You take the rattle

The Behaviour Management Grid

Good behaviour Bad Behaviour

Give something Positive Reinforcement

Punishment

Remove something

Negative Reinforcement

Extinction

Glitchers

Glitchers vs Youhttp://www.gamesetwatch.com/glitch_dilemma.jpg

The most famous glitch? The Zerg Rush

• AKA Red Alert ‘Tank Rush’• A simple strategy of flooding your enemy with

cheap, quickly built units• Typically viewed as a ‘Noob’ tactic

– Commonly banned in online battles• An exploit that is difficult to balance out

– See SC2 ZR defence tutorials

http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/akvamme/DyNl1ObeqVEIvj14PoiBfDKB1hxA1jlmt0rACnr8DaW04q6PRXnlpJoT8mN6/zerg_rush.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg

http://www.halolz.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/halolz-dot-com-starcraft-siegetankrush.gif

The Zerg Rush

How to balance these players?

• Dynamic Updates, MMO style

• Player Merit Schemes• Afford good players good rep• How do we make this happen?

Step #1 What already exists?

• MMOs• FPS

• Ebay

Step #2 – Fill in the holes

Some light further reading

• http://www.enotes.com/management-encyclopedia/reinforcement-theory

References

• http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27487/The_Psychology_Of_Games_The_Glitchers_Dilemma.php