** HYPOTHESIS **
Will players always expect a reward for doing work?
If I make one object drop a reward after being broken, then players will actually expect a drop. But will they expect it by default and with no indication that they will get a reward? So none of the items drop anything (break and disappear), the goal is want to see if they're ok with tree and rock not dropping because its "cheap" and then if the gold and diamond "should" drop something
** DESIGN **
Pick pickaxe and break objects: tree, rock, gold ore, diamond ore see if player expects rewards/feedback for breaking things
** PLAYTEST NOTES **
- picked up the axe once saw no questions asked
- tree easy, ores are difficult, rocks are easier, figured out pattern quickly
- definitely expected something to drop, looked around to see impact of actions, expected remenant of breaking things - but after the first one, stopped expecting rewards from individual objects, then expected something to happen after break ALL items. So there's always some sort of expectation that is moving. Tried to brak the pedestal after breaking all objects, was looking for reward, looking for sense of accomplished
- design of tool used biased expectation - pickaxe would not give tree drops but maybe rock drops
- dryness of objects disappearing + sound made understand that it's broken and gone, but the speed with which it disappear plus the lack of reward felt weird (not expected)
** FOLLOW UP NOTES **
It seems like players generally expect a reward from completing tasks. The current task indicated is to pickup the axe and break things therefore something must happen after breaking things, whether a drop, or a remnant of the object, maybe even XP drop like in Minecraft might be expected. That might be how the human brain works in general, we rarely do tasks for no reason or tasks that do not give feedback or reward in our day to day lives. That aspect of human psychology applies to games as well. Interestingly, that sense of expectation is still always there it just moves. First the expectation was on getting rewarded for taking the axe, then on breaking things, and then on breaking all the things. The expectation is always there. No one thought it normal for the work to not reward.
Also, while creating the scripts, I forgot to code the inventory check for the pickaxe, so the player can break all the objects without picking it up first. The reason why i decided to leave it like that is because I thought it would be interesting to see if players would do as they are told no questions asked or if they would try to do the opposite. 100% of players picked up the axe without questionning anything. It asys pick it up, so they pick it up. I do believe that given enough time and boredom, many players would start fidgeting and would probably figure it out, but it's interesting to see the phenomenon happen in this context either way.
** FUTURE OF THE GAME **
I have no idea how to expand on this. I enjoyed making it but I don't know where I could go. I was inspired by Minecraft where most things break and drop something, we quickly learn that things drop material. I remember being surprised the first time i tried breaking leaves and they just disappeared, glass as well. So I thought it would be curious to see if we always expect things to give something back after we worked to get them/break them or complete tasks, do patterns affect us as heavily as we think in the sense that if the first item broken drops would that affect what we think about the rest of the objects? what if it's random? And it did, context did matter a lot even though the prototype is small.
In short, I have no idea where to take this if i wanted to expand this one, although very interesting to test.