Most of their research is about how do we get people to not be a–holes. . . . Who s going to object to that aside from hardcore trolls?
– Jamie Madigan, video-game psychology expert, telling the blog Backchannel about League of Legends maker Riot Games very public effort to use psychology experiments to improve online behavior. According to the Backchannel report, Santa Monica-based Riot has turned the massively popular online game into a virtual lab with more than 60 million test subjects, experimenting with ways to encourage positive behavior and tamp down negative interactions. Riot s experiments include testing colors for emotional responses, penalties for abusive language and random rewards for good behavior. Unlike Facebook, which ran into problems last year for experimenting with the tone of users news feeds, Riot s transparency has garnered mostly praise. In terms of using big data, I doubt Riot is the only game company using player tracking and so forth, Madigan told Backchannel. But I think they are unique in how they re taking an experimental approach that is more scientific.
At top: Riot Games image
