Solo ranked preseason suggestion
Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 9:34 am
The current state of solo ranked made me think of Nobel price winner Kahneman's research on loss aversion:
“The response to losses is stronger than the response to corresponding gains” is Kahneman’s definition of loss aversion. “Losses loom larger than gains” meaning that people by nature are aversive to losses. Loss aversion gets stronger as the stakes of a gamble or choice grow larger...
Kahneman and Taversky found that people are biased in their real estimation of probability of events happening. They tend to over-weight both low and high probabilities and under-weight medium probabilities.
Consider the following example: which option is more attractive? Option A - $1500 with a probability of 33%, $1400 with a probability of 66% and $0 with a probability of 1%; or Option B - a guaranteed $920. Prospect theory and loss aversion suggests that most people would choose option B as they prefer the guaranteed $920 since there is a probability of winning $0, even though it is only 1%. This demonstrates that people think in terms of expected utility relative to a reference point (i.e. current wealth) as opposed to absolute payoffs. When choices are framed as “risky” (i.e. risk losing 1 out of 10 lives vs the opportunity to save 9 out of 10 lives), individuals tend to be loss-averse as they weight losses more heavily than comparable gains.
Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion
This server has a small population with a lot of history. For example, people have pointed out 6v6 matches I lost 2-3 years ago which shows that people care a lot. And people do not like the risk of losing MMR, including myself. Another example would be at the end of season 2 when there had not been any matches for weeks. Someone did a group-ranked match and streamed it on the ranked discord. Suddenly there were 24 people watching that match on the discord channel. However, none of those people queued for ranked.
I also really like the aspect of there being a leaderboard, but in the current situation, it's important to be pragmatic. There is now one month left of the preseason so I think this would be the perfect time to try something new. There has not been a single solo ranked match yet this week so there's not much to lose tbh.
My suggestion is to disable MMR to test it.
That way people could try solo ranked without experiencing the same consequences of losing and become socialized into the game mode. It would also give people a chance to catch up on the emblem farm and equal the playing field before season 3 starts. And the insignia rewards are almost gone anyway currently.
It might not work, but it would be an attempt.
The devs have done great work with the current system, and it's a shame that it's not being used, but at this point, I would just like to do some matches.
“The response to losses is stronger than the response to corresponding gains” is Kahneman’s definition of loss aversion. “Losses loom larger than gains” meaning that people by nature are aversive to losses. Loss aversion gets stronger as the stakes of a gamble or choice grow larger...
Kahneman and Taversky found that people are biased in their real estimation of probability of events happening. They tend to over-weight both low and high probabilities and under-weight medium probabilities.
Consider the following example: which option is more attractive? Option A - $1500 with a probability of 33%, $1400 with a probability of 66% and $0 with a probability of 1%; or Option B - a guaranteed $920. Prospect theory and loss aversion suggests that most people would choose option B as they prefer the guaranteed $920 since there is a probability of winning $0, even though it is only 1%. This demonstrates that people think in terms of expected utility relative to a reference point (i.e. current wealth) as opposed to absolute payoffs. When choices are framed as “risky” (i.e. risk losing 1 out of 10 lives vs the opportunity to save 9 out of 10 lives), individuals tend to be loss-averse as they weight losses more heavily than comparable gains.
Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion
This server has a small population with a lot of history. For example, people have pointed out 6v6 matches I lost 2-3 years ago which shows that people care a lot. And people do not like the risk of losing MMR, including myself. Another example would be at the end of season 2 when there had not been any matches for weeks. Someone did a group-ranked match and streamed it on the ranked discord. Suddenly there were 24 people watching that match on the discord channel. However, none of those people queued for ranked.
I also really like the aspect of there being a leaderboard, but in the current situation, it's important to be pragmatic. There is now one month left of the preseason so I think this would be the perfect time to try something new. There has not been a single solo ranked match yet this week so there's not much to lose tbh.
My suggestion is to disable MMR to test it.
That way people could try solo ranked without experiencing the same consequences of losing and become socialized into the game mode. It would also give people a chance to catch up on the emblem farm and equal the playing field before season 3 starts. And the insignia rewards are almost gone anyway currently.
It might not work, but it would be an attempt.
The devs have done great work with the current system, and it's a shame that it's not being used, but at this point, I would just like to do some matches.