In direct opposition to Alfie Kohn ((Punished by Rewards #citation)), Hyper Light Drifter (Hyper Light Drifter incentivizes reckless play) and Bloodborne (Aggressive Play Rewarded in Bloodborne Game) very successfully reward the player with their game mechanics.

The players are rewarded externally (as all given rewards are) with things that make the combat temporarily easier. Because the combat itself is the catalyst for the reward, the player is implicitly invited to do the hard thing for the external reward that eases the pain.

The combat is too difficult without the reward, and is boring when the reward is given all of the time.

That vacillation between the difficult and the easy (Safety Dance swimming story) is the principle at play here. Because the two of them together is what makes the combat system fun to play. The reward leads to mastery of the difficult aspects, but only in tandem with the reward. The reward is taken into account when deciding how to approach the difficult aspects of the combat.

Hyper Light Drifter (Bloodborne #citation)

#toolong