I share a laundry room with others in the complex in which I live. The rules say to empty the dryer lint filter after you use it... but that leads to a free rider problem, because the temptation is to not bother; after all, if everyone else follows the rules, you never have to deal with the lint filter. The system rewards lawbreakers... or perhaps I should say "laundry griefers"?
The sensible rule would be this: "clean the lint filter before you use it." Everyone is motivated to do that, because they want their clothes dry... and rather than having jerks who can avoid cleaning the lint filter and decent people cleaning it twice, everyone is guaranteed one cleaning per dryer load.
In that regard, Massively has a brief article pointing one in turn to this excellent article in Gamasutra on designing games so that not being a jerk is to one's advantage.
Marc Stiegler's excellent novel David's Sling contains many insights, and among the best is this: zero-sum games can turn men into brutes; positive-sum games turn brutes into men. Some games are inherently zero-sum--but even they can benefit from design that encourages sportsmanship, and virtual worlds far more so.
UPDATE: In Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds mentions receiving a book on a similar topic: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.
No comments:
Post a Comment