[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Rewards

[Paolo Piselli]

"Jean, Yannick" <yannick.jean at cgi.com> wrote:

> What im reading :
 
> 1) Social motivation are still second to achievement motivation ;

I posit that acheivement behaviours, and in fact most Bartle-type
behaviours can arise from social motivations.  The player seeks to
modify his relationship to the greater social context, and chooses a
strategy that best fits his means - For instance, explorer behaviour can
display the player's mastery over the environment, or achievement
behaviour can be a passive display of character power.  If player hopes
to gain esteem and favor (or perhaps cause pain and gain infamy) amongst
other players from their behaviour, it can be said to be socially
motivated.  Passive achiever-behaviour could be a more favorable way to
gaining social standing than the socializer-behaviour if the player
lacks the social and diplomatic skills to banter his way to the top.

In the case where a player wishes to achieve for some internal
motivation, to gain esteem with himself, is this player even playing an
MMO?  Can such an achiever not gain more internal satisfaction from
overcoming the single-player challenges of NetHack, or maybe the New
York Times Sunday crossword?  It seems to me that the compelling thing
about achievement in a virtual world seems to be the presence of
witnesses to that achievement.  I think it can be taken for granted that
behaviours in a virtual world all stem from a motivation to move the
player's relationship to other players to some subjective goal state.

-Paolo