Reward

As a girl, i don't have a huge interest in games as i believe the majority of them on the market are aimed at boys. However, one aspect of digital games that i can relate to are the rewards that you gain. We as the players of the games are constantly looking for rewards; however it has been noted that the actual reward that the gamer receives is irrelevant, it is in fact the feeling that the gamer gets that keeps them playing.

Hallford and Hallford (2002) have established four types of rewards that someone might achieve from playing a video game:

1. Rewards of Glory
2. Rewards of Sustenance - armour and weapons
3. Rewards of Access - new locations and resources
4. Rewards of Facility - new abilities

I strongly feel that the game Mario Kart reflects the theory of rewards. This is because although there were not any actual real life rewards, just the sense of winning a race was enough for me to continue playing. This surprised me as i never thought i would be interested in playing digital games but the sense of reward and the fact that the game is not predominately aimed at males helped me to enjoy myself playing it. Applying Hallford and Hallford's theory to the game i played showed that the reward that i gained was the reward of glory.

Whilst testing the reward theory i also played Fifa 2007. I thought i would gain a lot of reward from this, as the aim is to win a game and make your way up leagues. Saying this though i was surprised as thought i would be really pleased with winning, but in fact i wasn't. I felt personally that the biggest reward that i gained from playing Fifa was learning the skills and enhancing my abilities. This is the reward of facility. I was surprised how quickly i was able to pick it up but, i did lose interest quicker in this game than i did in the other.

I think the concept of playing digital games for reward is one that the majority of people can relate to. This is likely to be the main reason as to why large numbers of people spend a lot of their spare time playing video games.