This effectively takes the 'achieve' out of 'achievements' by offering players a path to “pay to win”. It guts any prestige with such rewards, and ignores that it is ultimately a worse experience.
Let’s walk through it together.
One player does the achievement and earns the reward and equips it to show off.
Another player purchases it from another player and equips it to show off.
Now players realize that anyone can buy the reward, and the achievement loses meaning.
If this is no longer about achievement, what’s the point?
To make money? Anyone could potentially complete the achievement or get carried to earn the reward, hence there is little value or reason to buy it.
So now the achievement system doesn’t have purpose and the rewards for it have little value to players.
This is why designers design to GOALS. Features that go against the goals don’t get made because they will have undesired consequences. We don’t just add things to add things.
I agree wholeheartedly. But what bothered me is that this explanation revolved around NFTs inviting play-to-win mechanics into a game. To me, that means that NFTs are just the latest symptom. The real problem is the temptation of pay-to-win.
I don't think there's a lot of difference between cheating and paying to win (especially if you're paying for hacks). From a game maker's perspective, it boils down to the same thing -- a challenge is offered to players so that they might reap a sense of accomplishment from trial and error, failure and persistence. The game itself will provide the player with a visible token of that accomplishment so that they can remember it, exhibit status, and serve as an example to other players to persevere. Some players decide they have no interest in investing themselves in the challenge and just print a T-shirt saying they've been there, done that. Realizing that some portion of the tokens are counterfeit, the community immediately sees less value in the tokens and thus a marginal return on the investment to earn it.
To me, that means there's a decision branch here that defines certain player groups by mentality:
1. Players that will meet the challenge to get the reward.
2. Players that will cheat or pay to get the reward without meeting the challenge.
3. Players that will neither meet the challenge nor seek the reward because they no longer see the value in the reward.
4. Players who will meet the challenge despite knowing of counterfeit rewards, either because they still see value in the reward OR they never saw value in it in the first place.
Obviously, our goal is to encourage players to adopt mindsets 1 or 4.
The common thread here is how players value rewards. We create rewards in games according to a perception that they are symbols of achievement. Some players agree with that. We speak in terms of intrinsic reward. Those who perceive no spiritual connection between the reward and the experience only view the reward as an item. They assign it a cash value and pay for it. So, the challenge is to preserve the sanctity of the achievement-reward relationship.
I think I have a potential solution to that. But first, a few personal things about me.
From my military service, I have an Air Force Academy graduate's ring, a Combat Infantryman's Badge, Air Assault Wings, and a Bronze Star. All that stuff is on my uniform and I could pin it on a blue baseball cap with gold letters like every other guy down at the VFW if I wanted. But all it would tell you is that I went to college and Iraq and one time I slid down a rope out of a helicopter.
What I don't have is a Ranger tab, a red beret worn by Air Force Special Operators, or a medal for not shooting innocent people. Instead, I have a back injury that lets me know when I'm not doing my yoga poses frequently enough, intimate knowledge of what it's like to almost die of hypothermia or drowning, and a memory of a moment when I saw my life flash before my eyes, made a conscious decision not to shoot a kid, and found moments later he was pointing a toy gun at me.
Those are some of my best memories of military service, and two of them are of failure. The memories are way cooler than the medals. You may have heard the phrase 'stolen valor' in the news. It refers to people who go out to military surplus stores, buy a bunch of uniform items, and wear it around pretending to be war heroes. They're basically hackers and NFT purchasers in real life. I don't think the term is accurate. You can steal medals. You can steal people's attention and admiration. But you can't steal valor. You can buy a Combat Infantryman's Badge on Amazon, but you can't buy my experiences.
All of which is to say that maybe we're making the wrong kind of rewards in games. I think one of the coolest aspects of Horizon: Zero Dawn is Aloy's trips back to Rost's grave. It's a touchstone for her, and her interactions with it change as she progresses throughout the game. It's especially potent to me because of its authenticity. Aloy is a warrior, and she has the experience of survivor's regret. Not all my memories of military service are good, but I still wouldn't trade them away, and Aloy's visits to Rost resonate. Those moments are a constant way to remember an important moment in the game, the completion of a challenge, and a means to deepen the player's relationship with the story and character.
What if more achievement awards were like that? Sure, loot is loot is loot. It will always have universal appeal. But what if by completing an achievement a player could earn a memory? Perhaps a unique interaction with an NPC or access to a special area where you are granted a view of the game world that few others get to see? Maybe John Marston has a little more to say or think about when visiting Arthur Morgan's grave. Maybe you get permission to listen to Zavala's collection of jazz albums. Maybe you can go fly fishing with Captain Price at his cottage in Derbyshire.
These are all things that could either serve as replacements for or supplements to an in-game item. Moreover, they can be built upon over time to give the player a sense of growth for both their character and the game world. Offering experiences as rewards could possibly restore a sense of intrinsic value and boost player interest. Whether it's an NFT or not, loot may always be just a thing that people can buy. You can pay to win or collect, but the only way to get an experience is to actually go out and experience it.
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