The Feast

[Rufalus]

This is how controlling behaviour with rewards works and why I'm getting increasingly frustrated when people have no better ideas than "slap some rewards on it" for any sort of dead content.

I don't think people will do anything if they can't work towards a realistically attainable reward which is relevant to them. For example if dungeons only gave 5 tomestones per run and there were no roulette bonuses, they wouldn't be run with regularity just for enjoyment. Any kind of content is kept alive by long-term reward incentives, otherwise I guess more people would unsubscribe. If Nidhogg didn't give IL 235 weapons and mounts then it wouldn't last long. I think this genre is built on reward bribery. If people just want to do pvp for pure enjoyment, there are a lot of dedicated pvp games on the market to choose from which will have more pvp content than FF XIV.

[Zojha]

I don't think people will do anything if they can't work towards a realistically attainable reward which is relevant to them.

Agreed - and fun is such a reward. Just as the feeling of accomplishment is. Intrinsic motivation, what I keep saying.

What kept DotA alive, back when it was a WC3 custom map? Or, custom maps in general. How did League of Legends manage, back when the only 'reward' was a new champion after a long IP grind? And how did ARAM become popular to the point they made it a proper mode? How did WoW bring forth a PvP-alt scene (that later was stomped good)? Why do people go great lengths to complete an outfit or decorate their houses? Heck, why do charity workers exist? Not for rewards, I can tell you that.

Dungeons need their rewards because they are the same over and over, which is why they have a very low replay value. The first time is fun and doesn't really need rewards, but the later runs increasingly do, because the natural enjoyment is going down the drain as you keep repeating - what I said earlier, repetition drains enjoyment and thus the intrinsic motivation. That goes for single-player games akin - if the game allows for more freedom and/or choices, it will typically be played more often, as the replay value is higher. PvP innately has a very high replay value, as no game is ever the same. This is how people manage to play League of Legends or Counter Strike for thousands of games, in the prior case even on the same map. So naturally, rewards should be "less" needed than in PvE, not more.

Another little issue with your theory is: PvP is not dead on JP datacenters, even though they get the exact same rewards. How does that work? I surmise they simply enjoy it more - I have a hard time finding another explanation. Could we, perhaps, emulate the effect? I'm sure we could. But not with rewards.