I am a User experience and User interface developer. A Ux/Ui dev for short. My specialty is in creating environments that make the user feel good after using a product (basically). I work from home and have the luxury of being able to spend a lot of time on the things I love–Video games and app development.
I spend a lot of time with persons from marketing and management explaining my designs. I have to guide them and help them in creating an experience that they want. I can not do this with creating laws and rules and forcing everyone to do what I say because “its right”. I must employ my tactics of game theory and science in order to create an argument for them to understand why we need to create or do something in a certain way in order to maintain a Nash Equilibrium.
In Game Theory there is an equation called the Nash Equilibrium. Obtaining a Nash Equilibrium would be creating an environment that has a set of rules that no person would want to break (even though they can) in order to create the best possible outcome for all persons involved. This does not mean there are no rules, but it does mean that you can go outside of the rules but by doing so removes a person from maintaining the Nash Equilibrium for the people involved.
As a developer and designer it is our job to help drive the behavior of the users in order to maintain the Nash Equilibrium without forcing a law with repercussions. Users do not want to feel governed. They want to be rewarded for the choices they make. Creating incentives to maintain the Nash Equilibrium rewards the users for doing what is in there best interest but with behavior if you only reward the behaviors you want then you will create a system that feels linear and removes player choice. The idea is that you are rewarded but not penalized for the choices you make by the application no matter your choice. By allowing the player to make a choice of there own allows them to create the reward that they want without feeling like they had to give up something for another. A person will be more rewarded for following the Nash Equilibrium choice by design. The application does not reward them more for choosing it but by having a system that rewards choices enables persons to chose the Nash Equilibrium without them feeling like the sacrificed something.
We can use a Punnett square to create a list of possible outcomes. We can then evaluate those outcomes and help guide design and development around those results. Following these rules makes it so that updates and changes feel like rewards and positive things and less like a problem fix as updates roll out.
This can be applied directly to OW. As an example: Nash Equilibrium: 2-2-2 composition. 2 tanks, 2 healers, 2 dps. This is the unwritten rule for team compositions after thousands of games played at all tiers of play. Right now the system does not encourage nor discourage the Nash Equilibrium. There is no incentive to chose the Nash Equilibrium.
There are rules that are governed by the OW application and devs and that creates a negative experience when choosing the Nash equilibrium and when not choosing it. When a person is forced by fear of reporting and the threat of bans for character choices the person will choose the Nash equilibrium and have a negative experience doing it because there are only negative incentives to chose the most optimal condition. A Nash equilibrium for this example would be a system that rewards the individual player for choosing the Nash Equilibrium the 2-2-2 (which is the best choice for all persons involved not just the individual) and also rewards the person for choosing a varying option but the reward is not as good by making that choice. Winning and losing are the end result rewards and not a part of the Nash Equilibrium but rather an end result of opinion. That means that you can play the game, lose and still have a positive experience. an example of this would be like a runner who improves his best time, yet still loses the race. Even tho the person lost they still had a positive experience. Currently the systems only reward is a win or loss without an individual reward. There is no incentive to drive behavior but rather a consequence. Using negative consequences as a drive for behavior creates a negative experience using the application. A way to drive positive behaviors would be to have synergies between choices. an example would be having some additional benefit to the team by choosing 2-2-2 outside of character choices. The synergy given to the team that chooses 2-2-2 will have a different reward than the synergy benefits between other compositions. Another example would be in a 2-2-2 comp you get the following: dps get a damage boost, tanks get an imune, and the healers get movement speed boost–a team of 6 dps would get a heal steal affect. a quad tank build would give the tanks a boost in health. all of these things would be rewards and benefits for making choices. the benifits do not even have to be directly linked to play, but rather other rewards such as cosmetics or other things. and as a developer you can encourage certain behaviors you want but also allow individual choice. you can enhance this by doing even more unique bonuses based on character choices.
Currently there is no incentive or reward for a choice, but rather a consequence. I pick a tank because if i don’t we will get rolled over. I pick a healer cuz no one else did. these are the reasons that are driving behavior and that is out of the Nash Equilibrium. Another example of how to drive this behavior would be to give a player a skin or emote for playing a tank 50 times, a bigger reward at 100 and a 1000. You can do this for every role and every character and it will feel rewarding for each person to make a choice and they will be rewarded. another example you get a rare skin for every 100 times you pick a tank, healer, or dps. all roles are rewarded and encourages a person to pick that role or hero.
I do not think that my solutions or examples are the exact way to go but it does help give an idea as to what would help drive behavior in a positive way. This also relieves the pressure from developers and customer service because the system will feel more rewarding even when not playing the optimal 2-2-2, you will still be rewarded and not feel like you are making a negative choice. This will drive purchases. A player will have incentive to log on and play all the different varieties. This could even encourage certain rewards for weird play styles that are not meta and that would be a great experience for everyone and people will reduce the impact of other players imposing a negative experience on yourself. Ya we may have 6 dps, but if i play 10 games with 6 dps i get a troll skin for torb as another example. this would encourage people to play all the characters and that is a positive reward even when Nash’s Equilibrium of 2-2-2 is or is not being done. This would overall drive positive behaviors, yes there will be negative experiences but it would create a lot more positive ones. People would spend more money and there would be less maintenance on governing peoples social behaviors (toxicity).
I hope someone reads this and it helps spark a positive force that brings about good to all. Please share this.