Hey Game Afternooners, today I want to talk about how we as game designers can convince players to make decisions through incentives. Incentives are what lead us as players to choose between one good and one bad option or, even better, between two “equally” good options. Afterall tough decisions are what truly make a fun game for me.
INTRO:
An incentive can be anything that is designed to motivate or encourage somebody to behave a certain way. They can be both positive and negative. Incentives are used in just about every part of our lives even. We work for money, we go to school to learn, you can often think of it as an if I do this I get this situation. So before we get into the meat I want to tell you about why incentives are the best way to get players to perform actions. To explain we need to look at the alternative option which is often what we as game designers default to: force. “I don’t want my player to be able to X so let's just make it against the rules.” This is not the right approach for a couple of reasons: first, if a player is led to believe that they can do the X action just let them do it, otherwise they’ll get bogged down with niche rules and circumstances. Second, it removes the choice from the player. With enough of these “rules” our players might as well be playing a choose your own adventure game with a single path and zero branches. Let's just agree not to put gates up on our games and instead give players carrots on a stick they can chase after.
THE MEAT:
How can we use incentives? Remember that scenario we mentioned above? I don’t want my player to do X so let’s make it against the rules? The first half of that scenario is actually totally valid. I have many games that I've worked on and thought to myself how can I convince the player to not play a card this way or to not take this path? The answer lies not in how I can convince my player to not do the wrong thing but instead in how I can convince my player to do the RIGHT thing. Check out these examples:
Mega-man X: remember a few weeks ago when we talked about the amazing tutorialization of this game? Remember how at the end of the first level you meet the character in red who has a mega blast cannon and long hair and cooler armor? That wasn’t just a cool character that was a showcase of all the things you can get by the end of the game in Mega-man X. you know what that also is??? INCENTIVE. It gives the player a driving goal to complete the game! SO THAT YOU CAN BE LIKE THE RED GUY!
Kingdoms: This is a card game we developed here at Game Afternoon and one of the main issues we found with the game was that people hoarded defensive cards and didn’t attack other players thus moving the game forward. SO we made an incentive, if a player kills a territory in the game that player gains a point towards their overall score that is used at the end of the game to determine who wins. The last player standing would be given three points. So this solved the problem of moving the game forward by saying even if you're the last player standing you might not win because if you didn’t do anything but eliminate the second to last player, another player who played significantly more offensive might have more points then you thus making them the victor.
Minecraft: Steve, this game doesn’t really have a goal!?!? That's true, it's a choose your own adventure sort of game where you can make it anything you want, but in the end sometimes the best incentives are the incentives that we make for ourselves. I want to build a house is an idea that comes naturally from placing building blocks in our real lives so it quickly comes to a game that translates so fluidly. And you know what Minecraft did so well? They didn’t get in the way of that great incentive. Sure stories are fun, and mini bosses are spooky, but Minecraft's real golden coating is in that it doesn’t distract from the real goal of the game which is to build something fun.
OUTRO:
In game design, incentives are key tools that motivate players to make meaningful choices without restrictive rules. By presenting rewards and goals—like achieving power in Mega-Man X, earning points for offense in Kingdoms, or freely creating to your heart's content in Minecraft—incentives guide players naturally, making the experience more engaging. Ultimately, well-crafted incentives encourage players to explore, compete, and create, becoming the lifeblood of an interactive and enjoyable game. DON'T YOU DARE PUT ANOTHER ONE-OFF RULE IN YOUR GAME OR I WILL SCREAM.
Thank you for coming to my TED Paragraph and until next week It's Ya Boi Steve Michie.
