[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Rewards

[John Buehler]

Sean Howard writes:

> "John Buehler" <johnbue at msn.com> wrote:
> > I knew we'd get around to semantics.
>
> When have we ever not?
>
> > 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.
>
> I find my relationship with my wife and daughter extremely rewarding - in
> fact, the most rewarding thing in my life from start to now. Surely, you
> aren't suggesting that they are rewards?
>
> No, no. A reward is something that is given in exchange for something. Do
> this, get that. It is not simply a positive note. If we go around
> measuring life by the positive and negative impact everything makes on us,
> we start approaching ourselves as little more than products of our
> environment. Our environment didn't produce philosophy, art, religion, or
> government.

As with all participants in Word Wars here, we have distinct contexts in
which we operate, and the way that various words are wired into our brains
differ.  As a result, Word Wars invariably just go round and round in
circles.  There's just no way to distill concepts to anything more than
references to other concepts - which are themselves dissimilar.  Because of
that, I pass on trying to debate what the word "reward" should mean.

JB