Reward

All humans strive for rewards in life, be they short or long term. This process of striving for rewards is also found in the area of games. Digital game designers use reward within their games in order to keep the player interested, and to ensure they continue playing. Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good for You (2005, p.33), suggests that the appeal of video games is not through the possible sexual or violent content, but due to the fact that the structure of video games tap into the brains reward centre.

Hallford and Hallford (2002) believe there are four types of reward, these are rewards of; Glory, Sustenance, Access and Facility. A reward of glory can be seen in a game such as the original Pacman arcade game, where the player strives to 'eat' small dots and fruit in order to gain points. However, the point aspect of the game has no impact of the levels. The reward of sustenance can be seen in the game Doom, throughout the levels, rewards of extra life and armour are given to increase the characters life. The third reward is that of access. This can be seen in the game Pacman World 3. The character of Pacman is sent to try and save the world as it is about to end, and to get through each level, the player must ensure Pacman reaches certain points in the game, that will enable him to open new levels, such as jumping on button to allow access to the next level. The forth and final reward the Halford and Halford believe exists is that of facility. This can be clearly seen in the game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007. Throughout the game the player has to earn points in order to improve Tiger's ability to play.

Overall, reward is a something all humans want and strive for, and digital games are a way that the brain can achieve this need and want for reward.


Bibliography:

Johnson, S. (2005) Everything Bad Is Good for You: London: Penguin Books Ltd.