From Midway Games to Mobile — A Closer Look at In-Game Rewards
Most of us are familiar with the history behind video games or, at least, informed about some facet of it. By a string of lucky accidents during the 1950s, when the most primitive forms of video games were born as a result of early computer engineering, to the ET-induced market crash of 1983, the world has seen eight generations of consoles, plenty of hit and miss innovation, and the rise and fall of countless industry icons. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine popular culture without the likes of Mario, Link, Lara Croft, or the enigmatic figure of Solid Snake.
History Still in the Making
From Jill’s sandwich to the poor town guard who took an arrow to the knee, we all have had our fair share of laughs and tears, confusion and irritation, teary-eyed triumphs and controller-smashing downfalls. With constantly advancing technology, discoveries in mobile gaming, and the industry’s gradual shift toward VR, video game history is still in the making. Regardless, whether it’s a triple-A title or a product of indie DIY ingenuity, some form of reward system is becoming a staple video game mechanic.
Despite the relatively fresh application, the concept of a reward system is as old as the concept of the competition itself. Although we won’t elaborate on how a successful chariot race guaranteed a shiny wreath of laurel leaves during the golden age of the Roman Empire, let’s review the development of in-game reward systems from their humble carnival beginnings to the super intuitive present-day incarnation.
Skee-Ball — The Redemption-based Reward Darling
The roots of rewards-based gaming can be traced back to traveling carnivals and midway games — yes, the same romantic scene of couples sharing sugar wools, string light-lit Ferris wheels, and dapper boys standing in line to have their lucky shot with the air gun. Naïve as it may seem, the simple “win prize for throwing rings on milk bottles” mechanic can be considered the first reward-based game engine.
The reward mechanism then evolved into redemption-based games, with Skee-Ball machines playing the most prominent role. A precursor of standard arcade machines, Skee-Ball involved a simple mechanism which saw the player inserting a certain amount of coins (or vouchers and club cards, depending on the location and specifics of the game) to receive a set of nine balls.
The mission was to make these balls fall into different holes with different point values assigned to them. The smaller and harder-to-reach the hole, the more points the player would be awarded for making the ball fall into it. In turn for the player’s patience or skill, the Skee-Ball machine dispensed a coupon whenever a certain amount of points was reached or whenever all of the balls had found their respective holes.
The player could trade the coupons for physical prizes. If somebody managed to break a previously set high score, the Skee-Ball machine could become exceptionally generous with the number of coupons dispensed. Meanwhile, the player could choose to either instantly redeem them for smaller prizes or save up the coupons for the most valuable items on the shelf. From today’s perspective, it’s the forerunner of the modern retention mechanism.
While the technique, in many different incarnations, was also employed in the arcade machines that dominated the 1980s America, the principle behind it has had a much more long-lasting influence on contemporary reward-based games.
Entering the 21st Century
With the dawn of the 20th century, both casinos and arcade machines started to use magnetic tape cards that could store a certain point value and could be exchanged for physical or monetary rewards at game terminals. With the introduction of tape cards, we also saw a new element that proved to be crucial in the context of the contemporary video game industry — data aggregation.
The ability to aggregate player data opened new doors for personalization. The players’ behavioral patterns and demographic information could now be traced, offering game developers and marketers the ability to identify and target their customers with an unprecedented accuracy.
More sophisticated modern video games offer a digitalized version of the same technique. In fact, the same concept is fully utilized and vastly optimized with the Monetizr game reward engine.
Back to the Future — The Monetizr Engine
To quickly, and frankly — accurately, illustrate where the evolution of reward-based gaming has led us in 2017, let’s have a look at Monetizr.
First, there are physical rewards. Players can unlock physical rewards that can be purchased within the game itself.
The game credits also serve as a way to collect and track data as part of the player’s universal profile. This profile gives gamers a way to track and report their progress across multiple games, and it gives developers and marketers a way to precisely target customers with personalized campaigns or levels. The game credits provide an elegant way to deliver sophisticated functionality that keeps players engaged, retention rates high, and opportunities to drive revenue growing. And, because it’s a game platform, there are no questions around transparency, data safety, or time-consuming transaction errors. All in all, it’s a safer, faster, and more precise version of the tape card mechanic — in other words, a much better place.
In many ways, we owe the success of modern rewards engines to the dusty Skee-Ball machine at the local arcade. After all, the reward system buzz is about the fan experience — and making it more interesting, exciting, and fun. Whether it’s the somewhat controversial loot box system or a super rare weapon skin, it’s the same midway game excitement of knocking down a plush toy only to win its XXL-sized sibling. And who doesn’t like that reward?
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