User:FinleyJP/sandbox

Rewards in Games

Within video games it has become common practice to input achievement systems in place to give players a sense of reward for playing games. Some achievements in games are designed to show the player they are progressing, whether that be with the narrative or other elements of the game. The reward is what comes from the achievement, what the player is chasing. Achievements can be an in-game reward of a cosmetic item or currency; something physical or a reward can be as simple as allowing the player to have bragging rights.

Rewards in games can push the players differently, depending on the type of player they are and what they are motivated by.

Contents

History

Rewards in video games have been a around since scoring’s been invented (E.g. Rewards for high scores in arcades). Rewards for achievements in games were first introduced in 1982 when Activision used to offer boy scout-like patches for players who achieved particularly high scores and sent a photo of said high score.

In 1990, the first in-game achievement system was implemented in E-Motion, under the preface of being ‘secret bonuses’. It’s from here that players started normalising being rewarded for doing fun things and gaining high scores in games.

The Xbox 360’s reward system of ‘gamerscore’ gave rewards a new platform to exist. Introduced in 2005 alongside the updated Xbox Live, the system encouraged players to get achievements in their games to increase their gamerscore. Gamerscore, as a reward worked as giving the player reputation, much like how in MMOs (example: World of Warcraft) your reputation indicated how good a player you were. Gamerscore made earning achievements brought the MMO model to a different platform and it worked.

In February 2007, Microsoft made it a requirement for all games to have achievements offering at least 1,000 gamerscore points in its base game.

As gaming changed, achievement systems grew in popularity and can be found on a variety of platforms. Examples are:

• Steam
• Playstation Trophies
• Badges on the flash site Kongregate
• GameCenter on Apple products

Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards

Rewards can be broken down into two main categories. Intrinsic and extrinsic. The differences between the two lie within how a player is motivated to get the reward.

Intrinsic Rewards

Intrinsic rewards are when a player is self-motivated to get some sort of personal goal. Examples of this are speedrunning and finding different ways to play a game (creating new controllers or setting different handicaps). Over the years, a genre of games has emerged that requires players to be solely intrinsically motivated- games that are best enjoyed if you can make your own fun.

Examples of games that are Intrinsically Motivative:

• Minecraft
• Flower  
• The Stanley Parable

Extrinsic Rewards

Extrinsic rewards entail having in-game rewards for playing. Games that give you something for achieving. Examples of this can be found in the hat system in accordance to Team Fortress 2. Hats for player avatars were introduced in 2009 in order to regenerate interest for the game 18 months after its release. For specific achievements in game, players would be rewarded with a hat, to show they have completed the challenge. Within this system, there is more to the reward than a hat- it’s the physicality of having the hat to show to other players. It enlists the player to have proof they are good at the game and therefore gives them non-verbal bragging rights.

Examples of games that are Extrinsically Motivative:

• Team Fortress 2
• League of Legends

Both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards benefit from giving the player extended play lifespan, bragging rights and an anchor for socialising in communities.

Easter Eggs are a rare occurrence that overlap within both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards as the player is self-fulfilled by finding something that was put in the game ‘secretively’ but acknowledges the player’s efforts in finding it. Easter eggs are often followed by getting a ‘hidden’ achievement in game.

Psychology of reward systems

The Virtual Skinner Box

Rewards in their most basic of forms are what make certain games addictive to players as their goal is to keep the player coming back for more rewards. MMOs tend to use smaller rewards in the beginning when starting anew by creating instant gratification for the player- levelling up made easier, finding the next quest is easier, finding solidarity with other players even. It eases a player in with instant reward to allow the player understand the game and then learn their way around it in hopes they find more rewards. This stream of rewards in the beginning is reminiscent of the Skinner box theory that: “the frequency of a given behaviour is directly linked to whether it is rewarded or punished. If a behaviour is rewarded, it is more likely to be repeated. If it is punished, it becomes suppressed.”

Player Types and Motivations

Different player types will be motivated through different means, which dictates what rewards systems work best on certain player groups.

Using Richard Bartle’s player types from his 1996 paper: Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who suit MUDs there are 4 primary types of players identifiable on how they interact or act on/with the game world or other users. There are Killers who act on other players, Achievers who act on the world, Explorer’s who interact with the world and Socialisers who interact with other players.

Andrzej Marczweski broke down the player types even more to apply players to intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and see the correlation of the differences between intrinsic and extrinsically motivated player types. The player types went under slightly different titles but still used the same model of Acting/Interacting and whether it was with/on the Players/World. Marczweski highlights that each of the now 8 player types have an individual motivation depending on what they regard highest.

The intrinsic player types are

• Socialisers search for relatedness with other players
• Free Spirits (the explorers) seek autonomy and self-expression
• Achievers work towards mastery
• Philanthropists (the killers) indulges in a sense of altruism and purpose

The extrinsic player types are

• Self-Seekers (the killers) who work to help the community- for personal gain/for a price
• Consumers (the achievers) who would rather do the same thing repeatedly to get one reward easily
• Networkers (the socialisers) who look for useful contacts as opposed to relatedness.
• Exploiters (the explorers) who look to find loop holes and 'break' the game.