One thing that confused me about the game/ritual was that I had the power to inflict a bad thing, but there was no obvious upside.
All I had to do was ignore the email, which seemed too easy.
This seems to be a bad model for reality. People who control actual nuclear buttons perceive that they get some upside from using them (even if it’s only the ability to bolster your image as some kind of “strong-man” in front of your electorate).
Perhaps an alternative version could allow those who use the “nuclear” codes to get an extra (say) 30 karma points if they use the codes?
I think this correctly identifies a problem (not only is it a bad model for reality, it’s also confusing for users IMO). I don’t think extra karma points is the right fix, though, since I imagine a lot of people only care about karma insofar as it’s a proxy for other people’s opinions of their posts, which you can’t just give 30 more of :)
(also it’s weird inasmuch as karma is a proxy for social trust, whereas nuking people probably lowers your social trust)
One thing that confused me about the game/ritual was that I had the power to inflict a bad thing, but there was no obvious upside.
All I had to do was ignore the email, which seemed too easy.
This seems to be a bad model for reality. People who control actual nuclear buttons perceive that they get some upside from using them (even if it’s only the ability to bolster your image as some kind of “strong-man” in front of your electorate).
Perhaps an alternative version could allow those who use the “nuclear” codes to get an extra (say) 30 karma points if they use the codes?
I think this correctly identifies a problem (not only is it a bad model for reality, it’s also confusing for users IMO). I don’t think extra karma points is the right fix, though, since I imagine a lot of people only care about karma insofar as it’s a proxy for other people’s opinions of their posts, which you can’t just give 30 more of :)
(also it’s weird inasmuch as karma is a proxy for social trust, whereas nuking people probably lowers your social trust)