Golden Carrots: Which Incentives Drive You As A Gamer?

"If working at and arcade for several months has taught me anything, it’s that kids love prizes. The arcade itself has a pretty diverse range of both digital games and more classic machines such as pinball but the most popular games by far are the ones that spit out tickets at the end; tickets which can be exchanged for all sorts of prizes ranging from candy to water guns to toy cars."

[Tonester925]

I know with online games, unlocking weapons, powerups, costumes, etc

[guitarded77]

Trophies/Achievements are my crack... but unlocks are awesome too. I just got Mortal Kombat (a bit late... I know), and that game has an insane amount of unlocks in the Krypt. Very addictive.

[Xof]

This. Playing content to unlock new content. Well, so long as the content is good, it's the best way to play.

I really can't stand the whole "trophy" concept because you don't get anything but a short sound byte. There's no reward for your actions.

Ideally, each time you earn a trophy in a game, you should also unlock an item in the game--new costumes, weapons, skills, units, etc.

[egidem]

Anything that doesn't have DLC already on the shipping disc.

[Hicken]

I'm motivated to get to the end of an interesting story, to see the resolution of conflicts between factions and individuals. That's in any game that isn't racing, anyway.

[WildArmed]

Idk, all I want is an engaging experience.

Sometimes that's running around Pandora killing monsters to find Revolvers.
Sometimes it's doing stunt runs across Paradise City.
Sometimes it's saving the world from an evil time-controlling sorceress.
Sometimes it's sneaking by hundreds of soldiers to prevent WWIII.

These have nothing in common, but they all are experiences that I couldn't have enough of. What drives me to play these games?

I honestly don't know.

[UnitSmiley]

I feel that the experience of playing a great game itself should be the reward. Getting a bunch of "carrots" is just an after thought.

[boybato]

Easter Eggs.

[PEDROBEAR]

humor always attracts me to a game