[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Rewards

[Michael Hartman]

Sean Howard wrote:
> "Michael Hartman" <mlist at thresholdrpg.com> wrote:
>
>>Aren't the power ups, weapons, and ammo the "ph at t l3wtz" of UT?
>
>
> Are you kidding? What is ammo a reward for? Standing in a corner? Ooh! I'm
> rewarded with a rocket launcher if go to the exact same spot over and over
> again and nobody else has taken it in the past minute! Power-ups
> (especially quad-damage placed in a precarious spot), maybe, but that's
> still stretching it.

No. I am not kidding. Often these powers ups are the reward for:

1) Knowing the map better than your competitors.

2) Knowing a better and faster route to the "best" power ups.

3) Doing a better job keeping track in your mind of when certain power
ups will respawn.

4) Remembering where to get the various power ups so you can get the
right one you need for a given situation.

You can try to trivialize them, but power ups are a type of loot in FPS
games, and they are a type of reward.

Other rewards include things like seeing this broadcast to the whole
server:

Bob has axe murdered Joe.

If that was seen at a LAN party, Bob would immediately be lavished with
cheers and applause.

The "right" to spraypaint someone's corpse with your own graphic was a
very powerful reward (and motivator) in Counterstrike. I know people who
scoured the web for humilitating graphics solely so they could exploit
that reward.

> Rewards aren't something that are basic to the fundamental gameplay.

Knowing the map and knowing the location of power ups, weapons, and ammo
are very fundamental to every FPS.


 > What kind of game would UT be without weapons or ammo?

What kind of game would an RPG be without loot, weapons, and armor? And
yet clearly those things are given out as rewards.

> Rewards are something which are used to influence behavior. If you do
> this, you get that.

You mean if you go down this corridor, you get that power up?

Thanks for making my point for me. :)