Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
harder to predict. Without looking at
Figure 6.22
, can you guess what happens to
the points of both teams and the difference in scores?
FIGURe 6.22
negative feedback
basketball
The chart in
Figure 6.22
surprised us when we first produced it. Where you might
expect the negative feedback to cause the poorer team to get ahead of the better
team, it never does. What happens is that the negative feedback stabilizes the differ-
ence between the two teams. At some point, the poorer team is so far behind that
their lack of skill is compensated for by their team size, and beyond this point, the
difference doesn't change much.
Another interesting effect of feedback occurs when you have two teams of similar
skill play positive feedback basketball. In that case, both teams will score at a more
or less equal rate. However, once one of the teams by chance takes a lead, the posi-
tive feedback kicks in, and they can field more and more players. The result might
look something like
Figure 6.23
.
FIGURe 6.23
Positive feedback bas-
ketball between two
equal teams. notice
the distinctive slope
in the line that depicts
the difference between
the scores after
roughly 30 steps.
