Playing the Slot Machine - or Why RNG Works: The Variable Ratio Schedule Explained

Aisle9 · January 2018

To quote a friend of mine: "You want to know when you farmed too much Sunderflame ? When you have PTSD at the mention of CoA".

Also, awesome necro.

zaria · January 2018

Cherryblossom wrote: »

Interesting read.

However doesn't stop RNG annoying the hell out of me.

This also if drop rate is to low like it was for weapons then it was sharpened or nothing before trait change i felt that its was crafted weapons and fantasy weapons who required you to run an dungeon hundred of times.

Carbonised · January 2018

Aistlaw wrote: »

Thank you @Carbonised for sharing your personal opinion and the knowledge of basic behaviorism. I study the social program here in Sweden and we have the subject psychology as one of many courses for that.

It's amazing how I could stumble across this not only in real life but also in games such as ESO. I agree with what you are saying and you are making a good point here:

There needs to be something surprising and random, to keep us engaged and to avoid too much routine. However, this needs to be a small element of the experience, this needs to be like spice, carefully applied to enhance the dish.

Because you are giving me the vibe, that there needs to be relativity, and this is something I think everyone needs to understand to a certain degree, where you can speak open about it. I think games such as ESO has gotten off on the wrong foot - not to knock it down, I think the game has qualities that are unique and positive. But as you are indicating:

When you build an entire gaming experience around the element of VRS, you are playing on the basal level of human behaviour dynamics. You are little better than the tobacco industry of yore, adding chemicals and other compounds to their product to maliciously and purposely raise the possibility of addiction.

I think that the people of the ESO-community and especially ZOS themselves needs to hear this. You are in my opinion, pointing in the right direction because it is a merciful feedback, as well as some anger in you. I am angry for this too.

I equally like ESO as much as I dislike the game. And so I tend to see it for what it is, a game. However the avarage person is (as I believe) caught in this trap you are talking about and that is not very good, not only for the game and it's developers but also for the individual. And I think that the game should be based on the principle of mutual trust (not to intentionally be irrelevant) and not on a mechanism. This is the type of psychology (and futhermore philosophy) that Alan Watts speaks of.

Thanks for digging up my old writeup. I do also agree with all the points and comments you make here.

Sadly, the industry is drunk on variable ratio rewarding these days, and has been so for the last few years, what we in this game gall the RNG. I used the metaphor of a spice in the original thread, and much like a good meal requires a select use of spice, you can also ruin the dish by pouring too much salt and pepper in. This insight seems not to have reached the developers of ZOS and many other online and multiplayer games. I believe most of the playerbase and customers are now seeing through the RNG schemes and Skinner boxes for what they are, base behaviouristic manipulative mechanisms to artificially prolong the extent of the content, or lack thereof, and eventually I hope developers will steer into another direction.

I can once again recommend this video that does an excellent job of explaining the details of the random rewards in video games, and this follow up video that explains some of the dangers and pitfalls of a purely variable(random) ratio reward system, and proposes some alternatives.

Waffennacht · January 2018

I don't get it. I don't know why I would care.

Lol all I know is 1/6 chance not happening in 40 tries gets me to give a big middle finger

So many un-completed sets, I think that will never be completed ( f you Winterborn ring)

Elsonso · January 2018

A year later and the OP reads like it was written today. Almost nothing has changed, except for Radiant Apex rewards, which is perfectly explained by the OP.

[Deleted User] · January 2018

Hello everyone,

This post is to let you know that we've felt it necessary to put this thread down, as it seemed to have died some time ago. At this time we'd like to try and keep Draugr threads from roaming around front page, pushing down newer and more lively threads. Please feel free to continue this discussion on a recent thread under the same subject, or create one if a recent one is not available.

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