The Proteus Paradox by Nick Yee Read Free Book Online Page B

game provides incentives for these repetitive gestures whether this is leveling up or finding a rare weapon on a slain monster. From the perspective of an outsider, who hasn’t been carefully trained by the game to desire these virtual incentives, many online games may appear tedious and boring. In fact, gamers themselves have a word for the repetitive monster killing that slowly levels them up: they call it
grinding.
    A well-studied psychological principle called
operant conditioning
helps us understand how a system of rewards can make an inherently uninteresting task appealing. In its simplest form, the principle seems obvious. If you reward a person for performing a certain behavior, he or she is more likely to repeat that behavior. The way you providerewards matters a great deal. Imagine training your dog. After a dog has successfully learned the “sit” command, you might use a fixed schedule and provide a treat every two times the dog follows the command. Or you might provide a treat after a random number of successful “sits.” Studies have shown that the latter schedule is best for maintaining behavior. If a fixed schedule is ever broken, even accidentally, it is easily detected, and the behavior quickly ceases. A broken variable schedule isn’t immediately obvious, and the behavior continues. 1
    Another important lesson is that small, rapid rewards can be used to shape incremental progression toward a complex behavior. Your dog will never spontaneously perform complicated tricks such as jumping through a hoop and then running up some stairs to fetch a colored balloon. How, then, to provide a reward to a behavior that doesn’t spontaneously manifest itself? To train the dog to perform this trick, the trainer first rewards the dog for moving toward the hoop, then another reward for jumping through the hoop, then another reward for moving toward the stairs, and so forth. Once the dog has learned all the steps, then the dog’s owner can maintain the complex trick with just one reward for each complete run.
    Online games employ many operant conditioning principles, through both historical trial and error as well as deliberate design. In the early part of the game, many small rewards help players understand the basic paths of advancement. A lowly level 1 character can kill a rat in ten seconds, and after killing ten rats, the character has already become a level 2 character. This initial shaping helps new players learn about combat, monsters, leveling, and equipment. Gradually, the game offers rewards less frequently. Monsters take longer to kill, and it takes twenty-five monster kills to reach level 3, and then a hundred kills to reach level 4. Very soon, it takes hours ofrepetitive play to reach the next level, and only rarely is a useful piece of equipment found on a monster.
    To facilitate the study of operant conditioning in pigeons and lab rats, B. F. Skinner, the father of radical behaviorism, developed a self-contained testing apparatus, an operant conditioning chamber, better known as a Skinner box. These boxes of wood and glass give the researcher a clear view of the interior. Inside the box are levers that a pigeon or a lab rat can press on, as well as a food-dispensing mechanism. The researcher can release a food pellet on a predetermined schedule after the animal presses a lever.
    Although online games clearly rely on much more than operant conditioning, the overlapping elements are undeniable. Online games shape a new player’s behavior toward complex button presses using a schedule of rewards that is tightly coupled to specific actions. The game rewards correct behaviors rapidly until the behavior is learned, at which point the behavior can be sustained with less frequent rewards. Many rare items, whether magical equipment or quest items, are dropped by monsters using a variable schedule. You may know that killing the glowing monkey will make it drop a glowing shard, but