Rewards for good play to "educate" players?

Holly_Johnson · January 28, 2021, 10:36am

TL;Dr
Can we simultaneously motivate beginners and casuals to play better and reward good players for being good?
Covers ranking system, mixing core/casual players, Teamplay and minor other points.
German. So bad grammar.

Start with why
Why am i thinking about this at all?

I play Halo since day 1.
I evolved from the double smg wielding H2 Noob to a H4 killjoy for casuals.
Since i became good i always hated to have people in my team that play like lemmings.
Jump right into the action without a clue what their doing, resulting in 20 death and ruining the game for every serious player.
I felt like being punished without doing nothing wrong. When i die i want it by the hand of someone who deserved the kill.
Someone who was smart enough. Good enough. Worthy. Not by someone who had a lucky moment.

Matchmaking/Ranking System
It startet in H3 when ranks become somewhat irrelevant for matchmaking just to give casuals the chance to become General.
No true skill system anymore. Just put everyone in the mix.
The result was punishing casuals by let them die every few seconds against human aimbots.
Also ruining the competitive experience for better players by pairing them with not giving a -Yoink- “teammates”.

Why not separate good and bad players?
Casuals would have more fun against her kind.
Better ones have a greater challenge to prove themselve.
Win-Win

I see the challenge in smaller player pools like in the golden H2 days.
But i dont see the benefit of unfair matchings.

Possible Solution 1: Let beginners play unranked until they prove to be ready for ranked.
F.e. set a threshold. K/D 1.0 or higher after 50+ games. Didnt die more than 15 times the last 10 games. (omg even that sounds horrible)
Or beat campaign on normal. Something that proofs its a human and not a dog that chews a controller.

After that have ranks that means something and dont spread +/-20.
I always felt rank 30 meant nothing. Only after rank 40 you would face the better player.
I would love to wait a minute longer to start a good game instead of getting paired with -yoinks-

Possible Solution 2: Rewards for playing good
Thresholds could be the same. Its just a different approach.
A unique armor set. Armor Colours and skins.
Or unlock things. Badges. Forum benefits. Load out options.
Forge slots. Play 1 ranked match a day as incentive. Earn multiplier for exp/ingame currency. Unlock Campaign challenges or difficulties. Easter eggs.
Endless possibilities.

Incentives for Teamplay
Everybody loves the sniper.
Everybody wants it. Not everybody is good with it.
In a team, each one should have his role. Lets say there are some kind of Ordonance drops or load outs.
Have sniper only available after you reached the threshold. I see it as an incentive.You want it? Get better. Till then dont punish the team.
Give rewards for not dying the most in a match. What about negative medals for dying the most?
There are expectation in school, in business, friendships and relationships. We have to behave to function with other people.
Why shouldnt that be implemented in multiplayer? After all its a social experience. Its a teamplay.
You dont like it? Play FFA, unranked or customs with friends.
Why should we allow some to ruin the fun for others?

Motivation. How?
Part of my Job as Business Coach is to motivate staff.
Can you even motivate people? Short answer: No.
People motivate themselves. Others can only inspire and incentivise.
Intrinsic motivation is driven by goals. Activated by hormones. Anticipation triggers Dopamin. It makes us active. Moves us towards the goal.
Each goal triggers certain emotions which than activate different hormones.

So to be motivated you need a goal.
And only intrinsic goals motivate us over a longer period to help us overcome hard times.
Extrinsic rewards have only short time impact. A badge for playing your first game? Wow. I forget about that after 5 minutes.
A social general that has no meaning? I reached that by dying my way to the top. That does not fulfill for long.

But getting better is human nature. As kid we never stopped to do our first steps. No matter how often we failed.
School plays a big part in punishing our drive to thrive. Too much disappointment and we quitt.
You see the connection to halos matchmaking? You got demolished one time too often and you quitt. You have enough.
That is why after enough time, the only people still playing matchmaking are the ones who never stopped evolving.
Natural selection. Survival of the fittest. The preys quitt.

How to stop that?
Let them have more fun. Let them have more success.
Let them play against equal ones. Let them experience fair matches.
Let them experience times when they won the game for the team. When they made the difference.
A warm feeling of achieving something of worth what so many tryhards thrive.
If you let casuals play with us killjoys, you rob them of that experience. All you give them is grief and pain.
No wonder they lose interest in that.

Summary
I believe a mix of goals (the harder the better) and rewards can motivate beginners to get better. Play for the team.
And in that way stop ruin the fun for us tryhards.
In making it too easy we make it worse for both.