Why rewards always devalue the game experience

by thebruce , Ontario, Canada, Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 07:00 (4018 days ago) @ Cody Miller

The trophy itself is not the difficulty; the act of hunting is. Bagging the biggest buck which will win the trophy is the challenge. Of course people find difficult things fun.

It's exactly the same. If the motivation is simply to get the trophy, rather than the joy of hunting, then the enjoyment of the act of hunting itself is devalued.

Interesting. I think, perhaps a little idealistic, to 'hunt for the hunt' rather than for the bragging rights. I see what you're saying, I just think the great, unwashed masses like to brag.

Ok fine, that might be true. All that means is that the unwashed masses get a worse experience hunting since they aren't doing it purely for the sake of enjoying the moment of doing it.

But... trophies are given at competitions. If a trophy is a reward, but someone wants to hunt for the sake of hunting, then why would they even enter the competition, except to 'win', to be noticed, or for the reward?

You could say they have noble intentions - perhaps to serve as an inspiration for others, to raise awareness, for the joy of testing hunting skills against others who presumably would be of comparable skills, a personal challenge to push to be better.

But do any of those require competition or trophy?

Really what you're arguing against when including 'reward' is competition itself.

If I love hunting, I could do it on my own. I can see accomplishments of people in competitions and strive to better those achievements without seeking reward or recognition. Many inspirational people don't put themselves in those positions, but are rather noticed for their achievements and attention is brought to them. I could contact competitors and find out if they want to do go out and hunt for the sake of hunting without the context of competition and reward.

It just feels like you're causing a sort of entrapment - anything with a reward system takes away from enjoyment of the process. Well, if someone is doing something knowing there is a reward at the end, it's almost guaranteed they're doing it, in some manner, for that reward. Otherwise, why bother?

I think your end result about rewards taking away the 'fun' really is a necessary conclusion, for those who more value non-reward-oriented gameplay.

For games with rewards, really your only choice is to not play it for the rewards, and just forget about the people who do. Their fun is in the race to the reward - whether competing against others, themselves, or the game, and perhaps whatever comes with that experience. Your fun is in anything about the game that is not intrinsically linked with reward-oriented gameplay.

But yes, we can only hope, and encourage, developers to not lose sight of people who do not play for rewards, and provide experiences, or mechanics that *ahem* reward that style of enjoyment indirectly; so the reward isn't the goal, but rather an arbitrary bonus experienced by the player as they simply continue playing how they like playing.