My finding is that as soon as you show a gamer any scoring system, their eyes turn red and they start machinating under the assumption that the MostPointsWins rule is in play, it’s close to hopeless.
Point numbers are only meaningful in context. I wonder if you’re giving people points but not giving them anything to compare to, so the only option is to compare to the other players? Maybe give people some targets to shoot for, like 25 points is good, 50 points is great, 75 points is amazing (and calibrate them so it’s basically impossible to get the mid- and high- scores without cooperating).
Point numbers are only meaningful in context. I wonder if you’re giving people points but not giving them anything to compare to, so the only option is to compare to the other players? Maybe give people some targets to shoot for, like 25 points is good, 50 points is great, 75 points is amazing (and calibrate them so it’s basically impossible to get the mid- and high- scores without cooperating).
That’s a good thought but it’s already in the article.