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.
Contents
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.
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 Modulate
Massively Single-Player Online Games, Private Game Spaces, Visits
Can Be Instantiated By
Extra-Game Consequences, Non-Player Help
Can Be Modulated By
Possible Closure Effects
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Potentially Conflicting With
Shared Penalties, Shared Rewards
History
New pattern created in this wiki.
References
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Acknowledgements
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