Chris Taylor: More Rewards, Less Punishment

Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor argues in a Game Daily op-ed that a crucial component of bringing in more gamers is to get away from the old "punish the player" mentality and move towards a reward system:

Pinball machines gave you three balls. When you lost, it was "Game
Over." When early video arcade games came on the scene, you got three ships, three Pac-Mans, three of this, three of that. When you lost those ships, tough titty, your game was over. And then we brought games into the home, and we kept on punishing. It was like we were creating the intensity of the arcade right in the comfort of your own home! Ha!
It was like we forgot that we weren't trying to eat quarters. Doesn't matter, we kept punishing the player.

I think I should try and get Chris Taylor to write an op-ed for Game|Life, considering we already have people named Chris Kohler and Chris Baker, and had a guy named Chris Faylor for a while. Maybe we could also get Chris Hecker to write about how the Wii is a piece of shit, and we'd corner the market.
Reward Players, Don't Punish Them! [Game Daily]