Membership In-Game rewards

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

Are IC rewards useful, or a waste of time?

 

I was thinking of a basic advertising reward system where you can earn an in-game reward for your character, that is otherwise unobtainable: things like access to a part of the game world that is inaccessible by normal means, as maybe early access or as a random event. Other rewards could be a lottery ticket of sorts, a voucher that 'automatically' grants the winner a shiny unique weapon, spell, artefact, or a curse. A randomiser might be utilised, might not.

 

yay or nay? I'm the only staff member on this wip game, and I'd like occasional help with adverts- if there's an incentive for players, of course! I was thinking that tangible rewards would work best, as it would generate more threads, yeah? 

[Dusty 55]

I think it would all depend on the criteria and how it was assessed. 

 

The challenge I have found with awards and the like is that there are some times too many loopholes. The biggest one being an award for the number of IC posts, this is especially so with no WC games. One player might be a prolific writer and another short and brief. So the number of posts ends up being achieved by the low WC writer far more quickly. 

 

I like ones for participation in  special events. It's a one off and if you participate you get the 'prize'. 

 

The drawback of these things is that you can attract players that only participate in the things that get them the special stuff and any other time they are flaky in their activity. I guess that would come down to what your activity rules are if you have any. The other ting to watch is these incentives/awards etc don't have the potential to be seen as 'favouritism' or being 'cliquey'.  OTM's (Of the months) can be a bit that way if it's just on a nomination and voting system.

 

Things like Random acts of kindness (helping a newbie or other player), Gift of time (which might fit into your advertising help area)... things like that. 

 

I'll keep thinking!

 

[CovertSphinx 710]

50/50, depending on your member base. I've seen sites where the IC rewards work in getting the community involved a little more, and places where the particular community just wasn't interested.

 

Best thing to do is try it out - worse case scenario you scrap it later.

[Josie 198]

It depends on your community and what you are trying to build! How much emphasis is being put on IC rewards to begin with? Do you have to get better kinds of spells to be more powerful? Or does it simply increase the variety of magic you can use, without actually gauging your power? How important is it to you that people earn things ICly? How would you feel if someone only advertised and did not do much posting ICly, and got a very powerful character as a result?

 

For some people, a little pixel award is enough to get them to participate in something. You might not need to offer an actual IC reward for things if you don't like.

 

And like @CovertSphinx said, it's a bit tough to say from the get go. Some communities eat this kind of thing up, others don't.