Multitude of Difficulty Levels

by thebruce , Ontario, Canada, Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 07:30 (4230 days ago) @ Cold

How can you reward 'better' players, and also reward 'worse' players, without putting both classes of player on different planes? If players are playing for rewards, what motivation do the better players have for pushing for their rewards if the worse players just get the same rewards? The system inherently rewards higher skill with better rewards.
The other type of reward is simply non skill-based rewards; like campaign completion - you can choose any difficulty, and if you finish the game, you earn the reward. There's no real 'bragging' right, and it's not necessarily as endearing to higher skills; because hey, what value is getting the game-completion reward on the hardest difficulty if I could have done the same thing in a fraction of the time on easy?
Reward systems are inherently designed to reward better for higher investment, whether time or skill. I don't think there is any way to reward 'worse' players equally to 'better' players, without having a reportedly 'broken' reward system.

It's a dilemma, to be sure. Build in rewards to your game, and you're seeking competitive players. You must in some way be sure to reward more time and skill with better trophies, whether gameplay altering or esthetic. Just keep in mind if it's gameplay-altering that you don't want to piss off other players who aren't playing for rewards.

Or you could just build a game without tangible rewards, and hope to gain the loyalty of players who don't play for reward, but remain playing because you have such a great game that the reward is in the experience, in the social, in the story, in anything BUT competition with promise of reward.