
Robin Hunicke: Game mechanics are religion. They are physics. They are biology. The world a game designer creates by outlining rules, and systems that respond to those rules — it’s uniquely whole and logical to itself. When you respond to prompts in a game, and act within its implementation of gravity, momentum, light and shadow, you’re experiencing a world that has been created to convey a message. Mechanics are meaning. Meaning is message. You are what you do when you play a game.
…, the investment phase isn’t about consumers opening up their wallets and moving on with their day. The investment implies an action that improves the service for the next go-around. Inviting friends, stating preferences, building virtual assets, and learning to use new features are all commitments that improve the service for the user. These investments can be leveraged to make the trigger more engaging, the action easier, and the reward more exciting with every pass through the Hook.
The point of variable rewards is to give users what they came for. Scratch the user’s itch, and leave them wanting more — but don’t reveal your hand to let them know how far between they are between rewards, like with drops of good equipment in video games.