Recently, our CEO has become obsessed with the idea of “Growth Mindset” which she seems to crowbar into all her company updates, and we received a talk from an external speaker. The actual talk seemed like a lot of waffle to me, but the general idea sounds like the type of life lessons that Simon Sinek says (he calls his philosophy “The Infinite Game“). Although I normally think ideas/mentality like this are pretentious, I respect Simon and I think there’s probably something in this way of thinking, so shouldn’t be put off by the external speaker’s presentation. Many colleagues stated they were aware of the idea of Growth Mindset and cited the book “Mindset” by Dr Carol Dweck.
Join us on the latest and most exciting stage of our journey with Growth Mindset. We have been working with the NeuroLeadership Institute on embedding a growth mindset culture in order to increase employee engagement, equip our people with tools and techniques for personal and professional development and to help everyone in the organisation navigate change. We have been running Growth Mindset sessions with our leadership team since September last year and we will be making a set of incredible tools and resources available for everyone to benefit from.
Company announcement
Growth mindset is thinking that every day is a learning experience and you don’t know everything. When you change your perspective, it changes outcomes. You have to allow for failure which is a learning opportunity. Don’t strive for perfection. In Software Development, you may never release software if you always strive for perfection.
“Growth Mindset can be applied to all aspects of your life. It’s easier to think about what a growth mindset is by thinking about what it isn’t. So if you think about a fixed mindset, a fixed mindset says this is the way it’s always done and this is the way it will always be. I can only do this, I can’t do that. I don’t want to share. I don’t want to learn. I’m in my swim-lane. I’m not getting out of it, and I’m not interacting with anyone else. A Growth Mindset is the opposite of all of that. It’s like, we’ve done it this way, but there are other ways to do it. I can learn to do anything. I believe that I can learn to do anything that I put my mind to. It’s genuinely sharing in other people’s success, making it not just about you. The fact that other people have achieved something based on what you’ve kind of started or an idea that you might have had. Let yourself be happy about other people’s success.“
NeuroLeadership Institute
The application of a growth mindset is not confined to any single aspect of life. It can be equally impactful at work, in personal relationships, or in pursuing personal hobbies and interests. The concept of a growth mindset is a transformative and powerful approach to personal development. It’s the belief that one’s abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication, hard work, and perseverance. While we may have inherent talents, our abilities are not fixed. Unlike a fixed mindset, which limits potential and discourages risk-taking, a growth mindset thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a springboard for growth and for stretching existing abilities.
I believe the growth mindset is an antidote to cynicism. I hate cynicism – it doesn’t lead anywhere and worse than that it spreads. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work hard, smart and you’re kind, amazing things can happen!
Joshua (colleague)
A new scheme, which I expect to be fairly short-lived is the idea of mentorship. Several people across the business put themselves forward to be a mentor and one person could ask them to be their mentor. To put yourself forward, you had to create a profile of your skills to show what you were offering mentoring support on. One colleague came up with the following:
Key skills, experience and behaviours:
Growth Mindset
People Management
Interpersonal skills development
Commercial awareness and negotiation
Presentation creation and delivery
What sort of person puts “Growth Mindset” at the top of their list of skills? Surely number 1 should be your top skill. Seems like he is just sucking up to the CEO.
Even as an experienced software developer, it is amazing when you discover some really trivial things, or discover some interesting quirk of a programming languages.
I was looking at a Code Review the other week and I saw some code that looked really pointless. It was testing some code throws a ArgumentNullException.
A NullReferenceException is an incredibly common mistake and probably the first problem new developers encounter. If you have a reference to an object, but the object is null, you cannot call instance methods on it.
Therefore if logger is null, then you cannot call LogWarning without an error being thrown.
So on first glance, this test looks like it is testing the basic fundamentals of the C# Programming language. However, this is testing for ArgumentNullException rather than NullReferenceException.
LogWarning was actually defined as an extension method, and this actually does allow you to call methods on null references. I’ve never realised this or even thought about it. It is the case because extension methods actually pass the reference in as a parameter.
So if you have an extension method (as indicated with the this keyword):
public static bool IsNull(this object x)
{
return x == null;
}
This can be called like this:
static void Main()
{
object y = null;
Console.WriteLine(y.IsNull());
y = new object();
Console.WriteLine(y.IsNull());
}
Which would output true, then false. Which illustrates that the extension method does not crash if the reference to y is null, and the logic correctly works by returning true when y is null.
Conclusion:
Understanding NullReferenceExceptions is basically day 1 of learning to code in an Object Oriented Language like C# but I’ve never even considered there is an exception to the rule. A method call on a null reference won’t cause a NullReferenceException if the method is an Extension method!
I’ve read about, or watched videos on computer game balance and find it such an interesting topic. How you can measure and perceive the strength of each character/unit, or attempt to fix the issue to rebalance the game.
Second Wind have made a video on Teamflight Tactics.
I’ve never played this game, or even similar games, but it has the same general problems to solve in its design that many games do.
So taking the transcript, and running it through AI, I’ve made a good blog on it.
Teamfight Tactics
Teamfight Tactics (TFT) by Riot Games is a strategic auto-battler, inspired by the League of Legends universe and drawing elements from Dota Auto Chess. In this competitive online game, players are pitted against seven adversaries, each vying to construct a dominant team that outlasts the rest.
In a game like League of Legends, a single overpowered champion can only be selected by one player and would be banned in competitions once discovered. In TFT, all Champions and items are available all at once creating many possibilities for players to find exploits in.
Balancing the dynamic of Teamfight Tactics (TFT) is a compelling challenge. Comparing it to card games like Hearthstone, where adjustments are made through a limited set of variables, TFT presents a stark contrast with its myriad of factors such as health, armour, animation speed to name a few.
Initially, it might seem that having numerous variables at one’s disposal would simplify the balancing process. Even minor adjustments can significantly influence the game’s equilibrium. For instance, a mere 0.25-second reduction in a character’s animation speed can transform an underperforming champion into an overwhelmingly dominant force.
The sensitivity of each variable is due to the intricate interconnections within the game. A single element that is either too weak or too strong, regardless of potential counters, can trigger a cascade of effects that alter the entire gameplay experience.
Consider the analogy of a card game where an overpowered card exists. In such a scenario, there are usually counters or alternative strategies to mitigate its impact. However, if a card is deemed too weak, it’s simply excluded from a player’s deck without much consequence. Contrast this with a game like Teamfight Tactics, where the strength of a champion is intrinsically linked to its traits and the overall synergy within a team composition. If a champion is underpowered, it doesn’t just affect the viability of that single unit; it extends to the entire trait group, potentially diminishing the strength of related champions. This interconnectedness presents a challenging balance but manageable through data analysis. Player perceptions of balance are shaped by this data.
Vladimir The Placebo, and Vain the Unappreciated
The character Vladimir in League of Legends had become notably powerful, overshadowing others in the game’s “meta”. To address this, developers proposed minor tweaks to balance his abilities. However, when the update was released, Vladimir’s dedicated players were outraged, believing their favourite character had been weakened to the point of being nonviable. But, in an unexpected turn of events, the nerf was never actually implemented due to an oversight. The players’ reactions were solely based on the anticipated changes they read about, not on any real modification to Vladimir’s capabilities. This psychological effect influenced Vladimir users to play more cautiously, while their opponents became more bold, illustrating how perception can shape reality.
Data only reflects the current state, not the potential. Particularly in a strategy game like Team Fight Tactics, which is complex and “unsolved”, players’ understanding and use of characters can be heavily swayed by their perceptions. Perception often becomes the player’s reality.
In the fifth instalment of the game, there emerged a low-cost champion named Vain. Initially, after the game’s release, the consensus was that Vain was underperforming—deemed the least desirable among her tier. The development team had reservations; they believed she wasn’t as ineffective as portrayed. Consequently, a minor enhancement was scheduled for Vain. However, before the update could go live, feedback from players in China indicated they had discovered a potent strategy for Vain. This revelation transformed her status drastically within three days, elevating her from the least favoured to potentially one of the most overpowering champions ever introduced.
This scenario underscores the limitations of relying solely on data, whether from players or developers, as it may not reveal the full picture. Balancing in gaming is often perceived in black and white terms by the player base—they view a character as either strong or weak, which leads to calls for nerfs or buffs. However, they frequently overlook the subtle intricacies and minute adjustments that can have significant impacts on gameplay.
Different Players
In competitive games like League of Legends, different balance parameters are set for various levels of play. A character might dominate in lower ranks but may not be as effective in higher tiers of play.
When it comes to balancing games like Teamfight Tactics, developers have taken an approach by balancing the game as if computers were playing it. The game is designed to test strategic thinking rather than reflexes and mechanical skill.
In Army A versus Army B, the outcome is predetermined. However, this does not mean we should nerf an army simply because it performs well at a lower skill level. Instead, it presents a learning opportunity for players to improve their skills.
Interestingly, perceived imbalances can serve as educational tools. As players engage with the game, they gain knowledge through experimentation. For example, if a player tries a certain composition with specific items and it fails, they can reflect on whether it was a misstep or an unforeseen event. Learning that a champion doesn’t synergize well with a particular item is valuable knowledge to carry into future games.
There are build combinations that could potentially disrupt the game’s balance if the perfect mix is achieved. This aspect works well in single-player modes like Roguelikes, where the aim is to become overwhelmingly powerful. However, the challenge arises in maintaining this sense of excitement while ensuring these powerful builds don’t lead to exploitation in a multiplayer setting.
Risks & Rewards
Balancing isn’t merely about pitting one army against another to see the outcome. It’s also about the risks involved in reaching that point. For instance, if there’s a build that appears once in every 10,000 games, requiring a perfect alignment of circumstances, it’s only fair that such a build is more potent than one that’s easily attainable in every game. Therefore, in games like TFT, balancing involves weighing the relative power against the rarity of acquisition, ensuring that when a player encounters a significantly rare build, it feels justified because of the risks taken or the innovative strategies employed.
TFT thrives on the abundance of possible outcomes, with a multitude of combinations and variables at play. It’s crucial for these games to offer not just a handful of ‘high roll’ moments but a wide array, potentially hundreds, allowing for diverse gameplay experiences. TFT reaches its pinnacle when players are presented with numerous potential strategies and must adapt their approach based on the augments, items, and champions they encounter in a given game, crafting their path to victory with the resources at hand.
New Content Updates
The allure of both playing and developing this game lies in its inherent unpredictability. Each session is a unique experience, a stark contrast to many Roguelike games that, despite their initial promise of variety, tend to become predictable after extensive play. Teamfight Tactics, however, stands out with its vast array of possible combinations. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, a new set is introduced, refreshing the game entirely. This happens every four months, an impressive feat that adds a fresh roster of champions, traits, and augments.
The question arises: how is it possible to introduce such a significant amount of content regularly while maintaining balance and preventing the randomness from skewing too far towards being either underwhelming or overpowering? The answer lies in ‘Randomness Distribution Systems’. These systems are designed to control the frequency and type of experiences players encounter. As a game designer, the instinct might be to embrace randomness in its purest form, but the key is to harness it. By setting minimum and maximum thresholds for experiences, we ensure that all elements of randomness fall within these bounds, creating a balanced and engaging game environment.
In Mario Party, have you ever noticed that you never seem to roll the same number on the dice four times consecutively? This isn’t a coincidence; it’s actually by design. Nintendo has implemented a system of controlled randomness to prevent such repetition, as it could lead to a frustrating gaming experience.
This concept is akin to a crafted ‘Ludo-narrative’, where game designers aim to shape player experiences through seemingly random events, but with a controlled distribution to keep the gameplay enjoyable and engaging. The goal is to allow players to encounter extreme situations, but these are skewed towards positive outcomes rather than negative ones.
This scenario might distort the essence of randomness, but surprisingly, players may not voice their dissatisfaction. Despite the statistical improbability, with millions of players engaging in a game daily, someone is bound to encounter this experience. Even odds as low as 1 in 10,000 can impact thousands of players at scale, highlighting the importance of considering player frustration as a crucial aspect of the gaming experience.
Perfectly Balanced
When discussing game balance, it’s not just about whether a feature is frustrating; it’s about recognising that frustration indicates a flaw in the design that needs to be addressed and learned from. Game balance is a complex, ever-evolving challenge that developers continuously tweak, hoping to align with player expectations. However, there will always be criticism, no matter the adjustments made.
The perception of balance is significant, and within any gaming community, you’ll find voices claiming that perfectly balanced video games don’t exist. Some players set such lofty standards for balance that they seem nearly impossible to meet. The key is establishing a solid foundation that dictates how the game should unfold, ensuring that the core gameplay aligns with the intended player experience.
In Teamfight Tactics, the ideal duration for rounds is targeted to be between 18 and 25 seconds, which is considered the standard for a well-paced battle. By setting these benchmarks, developers can align the game’s balance with this envisioned state and is key to achieving a finely-tuned game.
Conclusion
It’s essential to have a clear, balanced vision for the game and to persistently follow through with it. Balancing a game is a complex and dynamic challenge, not merely a matter of adjusting to data but also managing player perceptions and their experiences of frustration. Navigating this ever-changing landscape is no easy feat, especially when the development team must juggle multiple roles at a rapid pace. However, it’s precisely this complexity that adds to the excitement and enjoyment of Teamfight Tactics.
Maybe it is a bit philosophical and pretentious but I thought it was interesting. In many ways, it is like the antithesis of Stranger Coding Tings. For example, my blog is about thinking about past grudges, and venting frustration at things I can’t change.
Simply posting a link probably wouldn’t be that exciting and entice you to read it, but pasting the full article is just plagiarism – so I’ve put together a summary from the opening lines in each section as a compromise:
1. Resentment
Harboring resentment or anger toward another team member can be a significant source of unhappiness.
2. Not living in the past
Don’t dwell on that job that you didn’t get or that project that went bad. If we live in the past, we are doomed to repeat it. As developers, we need short memories and one of the best ways we learn is through failure.
3. Cooperate with life
The Serenity Prayer asks us to accept the things we cannot change, change the things we can, but also have the wisdom to know the difference.
4. Stay engaged with the real world
As developers, it’s easy to withdraw into our own world. It’s often a reclusive profession, and without even trying, we can have very little interaction with others. But humans are social creatures.
5. Love yourself (and others)
Programming is hard and don’t let anyone tell you it’s not. The problem is coding is a technical skill and there are rock stars and ninjas, and there is the rest of us (I’m in this camp). We must have empathy for ourselves and others as we move around in this profession.
6. Be virtuous
As engineers, we live in a highly technical environment so we think that gives us a pass on virtues like love, compassion, and empathy.
7. Lower your expectations of yourself
Shoot for the moon, if you miss, at least you will be among the stars. We’ve all heard this a million times, but, as I said earlier, coding is hard, so I am going to propose that we cut ourselves some slack and don’t expect so much. Just by virtue of our chosen profession, we are overachievers and we make things doubly hard when we expect to progress too fast.
8. Serve something bigger than yourself
Self-centered and narcissistic people are the least happy people on the planet. The happiest people have found some balance between serving and caring for themselves and serving their family, their co-workers, and those in their community. I once heard someone describe the three pillars of human happiness as fulfilling the need for meaningful work, the need for lifelong connections, and the need to serve something bigger than yourself.
When I get a new WordPress subscriber, I do wonder if they are a legitimate subscriber, or if it is like Twitter and it’s just someone following me in hope I follow them. I usually get music artists, or girls (they might not even be real girls, it could just be a scam, with an enticing picture to lure you in. At least the bands are legitimate).
I actually got 3 new subscribers this week, which is a massive increase since I have 17 in total, and one of them is myself. I’m actually inclined to say these subscribers are legitimate, because they all gave a blog a “like” first. It’s incredibly rare to get a “like”, but it means a lot, especially since the view counts are always wrong.
If you are real… “hello! Thanks for thinking my blogs are worth your time – given the insane amount of content on the internet that you could be reading instead. It’s much appreciated“.
In the last week, with my 3 subscribers and 3 likes, how many views do you think I got? Surely at least 3, but hopefully 16 if everyone read just one of my blog posts.
The actual answer is 1 view, and it was for a post from January.
So if you did read one of my posts, it didn’t log your views. I do enjoy writing the blogs, even if people don’t read them; it’s quite therapeutic keeping a diary of sorts. However, if I do see a view/like/comment, then it does give extra validation.
I only really want a “like” if you legitimately liked it, but I probably aren’t aware if someone read it but didn’t like it, or was on-the-fence about it. Feel free to leave a comment though. You could ask questions about that particular blog post, ask questions about software development (which is basically posting ideas for new blogs), or just say that you read it.
As it goes, I have only ever received 1 comment. I was well excited. But then when I re-read it, I realised it was probably just spam, so I decided to delete it.
Plans for next month
I do have some annual leave to take, and I reckon loads of other people will too. We tend to have a “change freeze” where we don’t put out any patches, so December is a quiet month for us. Therefore, I probably won’t have much to rant about. Instead, I’ll look at my draft blogs, and maybe finish some of those.
If you are a regular reader, you may be wondering what happened to my Apprentice since I haven’t mentioned him for a while. Well, he has had loads of forms to fill in, some exams to take, and has another assessment coming up. This is just so he can pass his Apprenticeship with the Bootcamp company. It’s dumb because if he passes, then he officially works for my employer and will be working with me, but he ain’t gonna be using the languages he is being tested on. So all it has done is stifle his development for many months. It’s ridiculously dumb. He should be fully available in January, so that’s something to look forward to.
I am mentoring an Apprentice who has never done C# before and this is his first programming job. So this is a diary of some-sort of his progression and my ability to mentor.
I found an example on the Code Review section of Stack Exchange by someone who was writing their very first C# program. I thought it was a good example to give to my Apprentice to test him out.
So I showed him the code, and asked him to explain to me what it was trying to do, if he could suggest improvements or spot any bugs. Basically doing a Code Review.
I thought he explained the code fairly well and struggled in places where the code wasn’t well-written. He did point out one bug and did hint at a few areas of improvement but didn’t seem sure on how exactly to improve it.
I then took him through some changes, and explained how the code could be improved. Most of the code was jammed inside one method so it was 300 lines long. I showed him how you can easily refactor the code into smaller methods using Visual Studio, and how to rename variables (with the advice of choosing descriptive names). The end result is code that is self-describing.
You can read the popular book Clean Code by Robert C Martin which discusses more ideas along these lines.
I told him it’s an important skill to read other developer’s code, since maybe you end up spending 90% of your coding time reading existing code (not sure of the exact statistic there, but it must be high). Also you will be doing it in the code review process.
He seemed to really enjoy it, and was grateful for my tips. I told him I will probably be testing him with more of these challenges, and I also expect to see him put my advice to use in his own code.
Soon after I started using Stack Overflow to find answers to my programming questions, I noticed the same name answering the questions; Jon Skeet. His “reputation” was really high. So high, it was the highest on the site.
His reputation has become so large though, that it has outstripped his ability, or so he says in his blog on Imposter Syndrome.
I sometimes think that with other aspects of life. For example, can The Beatles be anywhere near as good as their reputation? Surely no band is that good.
It’s funny that Jon even references his Chuck Norris style facts about his ability. The internet definitely see him as a programming legend of the C# world.
I think it’s undeniable that Jon Skeet is an expert. I think the best developers aren’t necessarily the ones with ability, but they also need the right attitude to compliment it. Jon’s support to the community by answering so many questions to aspiring developers on Stack Overflow – makes him an absolute legend. He deserves his reputation.
Stranger Coding Tings 