Positive Feedback Loops

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

This pattern is a still a stub.

Examples

Anti-Examples

optional

Using the pattern

updating the names of the Arithmetic and Geometric patterns, and Rules of Play; farms in CityVille and Empires & Allies

A general approach to creating Positive Feedback Loops is to make use of Geometric Progression for Rewards or effects of player actions where the Rewards and effects also make the actions easier to do in the future. Quite naturally, this makes Resource Caps work against the pattern if applied to Resources affecting the relevant player actions (by definition Negative Feedback Loops related to the same parts of the game state also work against the pattern).

Can Instantiate

Critical Gameplay Design, Gameplay Engines,

with Geometric Progression

Combos, Higher-Level Closures as Gameplay Progresses, Value of Effort

with Geometric Progression and Investments

Tension, Timing

Can Modulate

Resources, Units

Can Be Modulated By

Construction/Scoring Phase Shift

Consequences

Positive Feedback Loops can create a Runaway Leader and thereby also Predictable Winner. For this reason, Positive Feedback Loops work against Player Balance and Team Balance (while Negative Feedback Loops can work for them). However, such situations also promote Predictable Gameplay Time since one of the players may be likely to be able to exploit the Positive Feedback Loop before certain amount of gameplay time has occurred.

When the Positive Feedback Loops are focused upon the challenges players met (rather than players' Abilities, Gameplay Engines, Scores, etc. that lead to a Runaway Leader), the pattern can create Ever Increasing Difficulty in a game.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Critical Gameplay Design, Ever Increasing Difficulty, Gameplay Engines, Predictable Gameplay Time, Predictable Winner, Runaway Leader

with Geometric Progression

Combos, Higher-Level Closures as Gameplay Progresses, Value of Effort

with Geometric Progression and Investments

Tension, Timing

Can Modulate

Resources, Units

Can Be Instantiated By

Geometric Progression

Can Be Modulated By

Construction/Scoring Phase Shift

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Negative Feedback Loops, Player Balance, Resource Caps, Team Balance

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

References

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Acknowledgements

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