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Why rewards always devalue the game experience

by Xenos @, Shores of Time, Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 08:11 (4013 days ago) @ thebruce

Exactly. But as per one of my comments, the 'reward' in that case is still display-oriented; I can say "I ran and completed X marathon!" Whereas, if it were purely for the enjoyment of running (per the hunting analogy), then why wouldn't I just run the same length outside the marathon event? If I wanted I could still track my accomplishment in comparison to others if I didn't care about its 'reward'. Basically, if I'm running in a marathon, even if my placement in the end doesn't matter and I'm only doing it complete, I'm still running to earn the achievement of completing that marathon; that would be my reward, even if it's not in competition against others.

My immediate thought was a friend of mine who doesn't ever talk about running marathons and runs more than anyone I know, but then again, he is definitely the exception. Anyone else I know that runs a marathon talks about it for weeks leading up to it, so good point :)


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