Why rewards always devalue the game experience

by Cold, Monday, April 22, 2013, 12:04 (4232 days ago) @ kapowaz

and in fact I'd go so far as to say the majority of videogames operate on the principle of rewarding the player to keep them engaged.

This.

I believe that the majority of games do operate on this principle. And this in itself is fine, the problem comes when you consider the rewards are given based on one of two factors: investment of time or skill level.

If a game rewards based on the investment of time, then your skill level is all but irrelevant for obtaining rewards. This upsets all of the "good" players. On the other hand, if a game rewards based on skill, then the "bad" players will never be able to obtain the same rewards as the "good" players. The problems are evident: each scenario upsets a different group of players. The bottom line is that there are more "bad" players than "good" and the more players you can keep engaged the more $$ you make. Games have become very socialist-minded in this aspect.


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