Win/Loss Ratio

I recently downloaded QuizUp for my iPad. This decision was facilitated by a friend who had been playing the game on his phone, and recommended it as a fun diversion. Of course downloading the game and creating an account is only the first step to playing QuizUp. From there I selected the first quiz and clicked start.

All of this is part of the normal experience, but I was then faced with the screen “Finding an opponent.” I punched the cancel button, went back to the homescreen and hid from the iPad for the next fifteen minutes. This is a perfectly normal reaction to being suddenly thrust into a multiplayer game without warning. Of course in hindsight I should have realized that “Start Game” would have, you know, started a multiplayer game in what amounts to be a quiz game that doesn’t have a single player option.

It took another day before I could approach the game again and try my hand at playing. I chose the Computer Science topic, was matched up with a level 13 player from Europe immediately, and proceeded to lose. However I didn’t lose as badly as I was afraid of. I was afraid that I wouldn’t have recognized any of the questions, that I would get all of the questions wrong and that I would be so embarrassed by my poor performance that I would have to quit out and delete the QuizUp Application. Despite my fears I performed better than I had thought, I lost by around ten points.

This got me to wondering about why I was so afraid of playing that first game. Although thats not necessarily fair to claim that only QuizUp makes me feel fearful at the notion of multiplayer games. Almost all games that have a multiplayer element gives me that fearful feeling. When delving into why, I believe that it is a fear on losing. Of course nobody likes to lose, but I also know that the only way to play (and playing is where a good part of the fun is) is to risk losing. And there is nothing wrong with losing a game or two, or one hundred, as long as we strive to improve ourselves and do better each game everything is good.

But there is that one thing that keeps us focused on winning, and trying to minimize losing. The kill/death ratio. Okay, so there isn’t really a kill/death ratio for QuizUp, as nobody dies when they lose, at least I hope that nobody dies when they lose. Instead they track losses and wins. It is the same thing with the modern day war games where that one stat seems to be the main focus of most of the gamers.

This results in a lot of players striving to maximize their wins while minimizing their losses, sometimes even feeling pressured to cheat to get that stat. In a shooter game, this might mean hiding in a corner to minimize the chance of being killed, even if teammates are screaming over the chat for backup. Their sacrifice in the name of the kill/death ratio is appreciated.

I don’t understand why this statistic is still prominent in multiplayer games that focus on team play and strategy. In these games a strategic sacrifice of one player may allow the team to win, but of course that will only work if the players are willing to volunteer to be that sacrifice.

Back to QuizUp, I plan on playing more games, and in the process I hope to reduce my fears of losing by slowly building up my tolerance to losing. A win here or there might be nice too.