Achievement unlocked : the effects of meta-rewards on gamers‚ÄövÑv¥ experience

Meta-rewards are unlike other in-game rewards; they offer no powerups, in-game currency, cosmetic items, or alterations to gameplay. Rather, they appear briefly in the form of a notification then exist only in a digital trophy case. This raises the question ‚ÄövÑv¨ how can meta-rewards impact player behaviour if they have no objective value? Better understanding the mechanisms by which these rewards are likely to promote engagement may allow a better understanding of how gaming can become problematic for some individuals. Drawing on principles of operant conditioning, and the role of competence in promoting intrinsic motivation, we expected that meta-rewards delivered on a variable-ratio schedule would promote greater playtime, persistence (restarts following failure) and competence when compared to a fixed-ratio and no reward condition. This was tested with a bespoke video game ‚ÄövÑv¿The Knight‚ÄövÑv¥s Tour‚ÄövÑvp played by 56 participants, each playing the game in one of the three aforementioned reward conditions. Using Bayesian t-tests, we found primarily anecdotal evidence for the null ‚ÄövÑv¨ or weak evidence for there being no differences in playtime, persistence, or competence between reward conditions. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed as well as emerging trends in the data.