[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Rewards

[John Buehler]

Sean Howard writes:

> "Raph Koster" <rkoster at san.rr.com> wrote:
>
> > ANY reward distorts the playing field in that way, and dropping all
> > rewards isn't a viable strategy either.
>
> > A lack of rewards is a very good way to make your game inaccessible and
> > unfun to most people.
>
> Interesting. I disagree (of course), but I can think of dozens, if not
> hundreds, of games with no reward structure at all (or at least a minimal
> one), and they didn't seem to suffer. What, for example, rewards were
> given in a game of capture the flag in Unreal Tournament that made it so
> popular? Where are the rewards in a game of Magic: The Gathering? The
> Secret of Monkey Island? Tic Tac Toe? Chess? Tetris? Basketball? These are
> not reward based games.
>
> But before people chime in with the semantics, not all positive outcomes
> are rewards. Victory is not a reward, the effect of one's strategy is not
> a reward, and measures (like a score) are not rewards. Sure, you can
> reward somebody with a higher score, but having a score is not a reward in
> itself.

I knew we'd get around to semantics.

I use "reward" to cover the same area that "rewarding" does.  "Reward" is
pretty much a synonym for "entertainment".  I don't limit myself to using it
in the sense of a pellet dispenser returning a material reward.

The phrase I used for pellet-dispensing is "recognizeable personal
achievement".  Perhaps just "recognizeable achievement" would be better.
Current games promote this recognition of achievement by assigning points to
everything and then running an accumulator on them.  So if someone is prone
to seeking recognizeable achievement, the idea of moving that accumulator
jumps out at them.

JB