Negative Feedback Loops

The one-sentence "definition" that should be in italics.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Wikipedia has an entry on Negative Feedback. The chapter Games as Cybernetic Systems in Rules of Play look extensively at positive and negative feedback loops and their use in games.

Examples

Mario Kart series and Super Monkey Ball series

Using the pattern

Negative Feedback Loops are used in games to balance part of the game state over time. This is often done to provide players with Balancing Effects or Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, which can also provide subtle Comeback Mechanisms. However, it can also be used to prolong the time it takes to play a game, balance powers in networks with Internal Rivalry, or makes points about the futility of trying to disrupt balances in games that aim to have Critical Gameplay Design.

The core of making Negative Feedback Loops is to identify a part of the game state to measure and determine what is to be seen as the ideal value for that value. In games this is typically a value relative players' positions, for example their relative score positions or relative places in a Race, which is a slight complication compare to the basic model of Negative Feedback Loops. The next step, which may require extensive play testing, is to determine which parts of the game state to modify to influence the measured part of the game towards the ideal value. While in many non-game examples of Negative Feedback Loops one can influence the measured part directly (if a room is too warm, lower the temperature for example) this would remove player agency in games, one cannot for example take the player that is last in a Race and put first. Instead, part of the game state that help players improve their own positions are used. In the case of a Race the speeds of the players can for example be changed, as is done in the Mario Kart series and Super Monkey Ball series. A quite common use of Negative Feedback Loops related to players' Scores is to let the player with the lowest score be allowed to act first next turn, in effect modifying how Varying Turn Orders works. Egizia and Ursuppe does this (so does Golf but here it doesn't help balance positions so it is not a Negative Feedback Loop). A variation for creating Negative Feedback Loops is setting reward structures to use Geometric Progression with ratios somewhere between 0 and 1.

By definition Negative Feedback Loops are in opposition to Positive Feedback Loops. This means that they cannot be combined regarding the same aspect of a game state but different types of loops can exist for different parts of the game state.

Consequences

Red Queen Dilemmas may appear out of Negative Feedback Loops if players perceive a need to continue putting effort into the things measured by the loop. Negative Feedback Loops created through using Geometric Progression cause Diminishing Returns for players. This may in turn encourage them to engage in Varied Gameplay to find other venues to advance their positions during a game instance.

While Negative Feedback Loops may affect any part of a game state, they often modify players' access to Resources since Resources are a common gameplay feature which make actions possible or not depending on what access players have to them.

Relations

Races Predictable Winner Beat the Leader

Can Instantiate

Balancing Effects, Comeback Mechanisms, Critical Gameplay Design, Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, Red Queen Dilemmas

with Geometric Progression

Diminishing Returns, Varied Gameplay

Can Modulate

Internal Rivalry, Resources, Varying Turn Orders

Can Be Instantiated By

Geometric Progression

Can Be Modulated By

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Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Positive Feedback Loops, Runaway Leader

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

Acknowledgements

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