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<blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 6291528" data-attributes="member: 27160">If you think the person does get something out of it, fine - let's discuss what they get out of it, not what we might imagine that an imaginary character might get out of it, if they were real. Yes, the player may well form an attachment with the character, but if we are to make a good judgement of whether the &quot;reward&quot; is useful for our game objectives, we should consider the value of the reward to the player, not to the character. In other words, a reward is &quot;useful&quot; or &quot;not useful&quot; based on its value to the player, not on its value to the character.Now, there's a hole with no bottom. If you want to talk &quot;unintended consequences&quot; let's talk about how the &quot;reward&quot; is justified and by whom. I honestly think that, if we are getting into someone consciously deciding upon rewards for players/characters then the nature of that reward is relatively small beer, as far as &quot;unintended consequences&quot; are concerned.The player might superficially see any sort of &quot;power up&quot; as a good thing, sure. But let's pause and consider a minute; a character power up means either:a) That challenges and opposition will get harder to compensate, in which case this was a reward how?b) That the mission/task/quest to be achieved will be easier and quicker to achieve, removing both challenge and time spent &quot;enjoying the journey&quot; - again, not a great &quot;reward&quot;.or c) That the power-up has little relevance to the particular challenges to be overcome, which also doesn't sound like much of a &quot;reward&quot;.In the end, although I can see that being &quot;awarded&quot; magic items might provide a momentary frisson for some players, I can't really see them as useful rewards in the overall structure of the game design.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Balesir, post: 6291528, member: 27160"] If you think the person does get something out of it, fine - let's discuss what they get out of it, not what we might imagine that an imaginary character might get out of it, if they were real. Yes, the player may well form an attachment with the character, but if we are to make a good judgement of whether the "reward" is useful for our game objectives, we should consider the value of the reward to the player, not to the character. In other words, a reward is "useful" or "not useful" based on its value to the player, not on its value to the character. Now, there's a hole with no bottom. If you want to talk "unintended consequences" let's talk about how the "reward" is justified and by whom. I honestly think that, if we are getting into someone [B]consciously deciding[/B] upon rewards for players/characters then the nature of that reward is relatively small beer, as far as "unintended consequences" are concerned. The player might superficially see any sort of "power up" as a good thing, sure. But let's pause and consider a minute; a character power up means either: a) That challenges and opposition will get harder to compensate, in which case this was a reward how? b) That the mission/task/quest to be achieved will be easier and quicker to achieve, removing both challenge and time spent "enjoying the journey" - again, not a great "reward". or c) That the power-up has little relevance to the particular challenges to be overcome, which also doesn't sound like much of a "reward". In the end, although I can see that being "awarded" magic items might provide a momentary frisson for some players, I can't really see them as useful rewards in the overall structure of the game design. [/QUOTE]

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