thread: 2006-10-05 : Reward systems
On 2006-10-06, Frank T wrote:
I get the part about rewarding actual play and creative agenda. But what is the ???reward system??? of a game ???as written???? Does it even exist? From the point of view of a game designer, any textual rule ties into the concept of making the game rewarding, at least if it???s a good design. You want to support a dynamic at the social and the fictional level. This support is most commonly provided by awarding effectiveness to the character or authority to the player. Some games use currency and advancement a lot, others use sophisticated resolution mechanics, others use positioning, or any combination, or other stuff. The positioning method is probably the least covered by written game rules, and it fascinates me.
I don???t know of any fight about this matter, but here is what I think, sort of my hidden agenda when asking the question. I think that there is no such thing as a ???written reward system???, as opposed to ???the rest of the written system???. There is just good rules and bad rules. Good rules facilitate rewarding play, and bad rules don???t.
