Altruistic Actions

Game actions that are beneficial to somebody but not directly to the players who performed them.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Examples

Conspiracy for Good made players collect books for charities as part of its gameplay.

Using the pattern

Altruistic Actions can be used in games with Teams but this depends on how Rewards and Penalties are constructed. Games with Shared Rewards and Penalties make helping other team members intrinsically tied to the players' own fortunes and are therefore difficult to combine with Altruistic Actions. This can be mitigated through the use of Limited Gameplay Time and/or Drop-In/Drop-Out gameplay, e.g. Counter-Strike and the Team Fortress series.

Free Gift Inventories is an easy way to encourage Altruistic Actions. Discouraging them, or at least associating them with Risk/Reward can be done by requiring players to use some resource (making the actions a form of Investment) or by having Inherent Mistrust in the game.

One way of creating Altruistic Actions is to make actions in a game have Extra-Game Consequences that are altruistic. Taking an opposite approach, Non-Player Help allow people who are not participating in a game to perform Altruistic Actions aimed at those playing.

Given their non-offensive nature, Altruistic Actions are well suited as those available to players on Visits to other players' Private Game Spaces, including Massively Single-Player Online Games.

Visits Private Game Spaces Massively Single-Player Online Games

Consequences

Altruistic Actions are a way to invite other players into Cooperation in Uncommitted Alliances based on the assumption of Delayed Reciprocity. In this sense the actions may not be fully altruistic but at least is only indirectly done for personal gain. When doing the Altruistic Actions requires some form of Investment they are a Risk/Reward action due to the risk of not being return, something that is likely to be felt as Betrayal.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Betrayal, Cooperation, Delayed Reciprocity, Risk/Reward, Uncommitted Alliances

Can Be Instantiated By

Extra-Game Consequences, Non-Player Help

Can Be Modulated By

Inherent Mistrust, Investment

Potentially Conflicting With

Shared Penalties, Shared Rewards

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

References

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Acknowledgements

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