Reward Hunting

Description
This pattern occurs when users increase their participation rate due to a reward system integrated in the service.

Examples
There are several examples available, for instance badges on Wikia to those who are active by updating articles, adding photos etc. or badges on Kongregate that encourage the user to play more games and for a longer time. There are also rewards on different forums where titles are awarded to those with certain post counts. The post counts themselves may act as a reward when displayed publicly for everyone else to see. It could also be something as simple as a view count on a YouTube video. Things like these all help building or Maintaining A Reputation.

Pros and Cons
Increased activity is desired by all or most service owners, something which this pattern supports. However, an increased amount of content doesn’t necessarily mean that the content is qualitative.

Relations
Since the purpose of hunting rewards is mainly to display them to others, this pattern acts as a type of Showing Off. The pattern comes from functionality related to Awards (Crumlish & Malone) and Ranking (Crumlish & Malone).

Contributions
Created by Patric Westberg.