Video Game Rewards

An index of tropes relating to reward and punishment in video games. Also covers bonuses of various kinds.

Beating a challenge results in a new piece of clothing for your character. Beating a challenge results in modifying and/or decorating a structure. A part of the game which will give you an unusual advantage or benefit, breaking the normal rules of the game or genre. Measures put in by game developers to prevent Level Grinding and emphasize strategy. The game rewards you for taking a break or punishes you for playing too long at once. You get a reward for doing something cool. Congratulations on beating that boss! You can keep his head as a memento. Games that don't let you pause or save for a very long time, or punish you if you take a break. It's a great reward, but in order to get it you have to be so powerful that it's useless now. This is meant to be a reward? The game gives you a reward for viewing every part of a map. If I collect a hundred purple squirrel hides, I'll get this neato fridge magnet! Just how hard the game makes keeping track of which purple squirrel hides you already have. Where you get to see What Could Have Been. Where continuing or losing a life results in an even harder challenge. A reward that serves no purpose other than telling you that you won an award. You died! Your punishment is the loss of half a second of playtime! Muwahaha! A location, menu or mode with options the programmers use for testing the game. A room in a game filled with in-jokes and notes from the developers. Shops sells their items at a discount to you. A bonus is unlocked, but you can't access it until you unlock something else. Some game objectives require you to be not perfect, but somewhere between "mediocre" and "good" to win them. You get no rewards unless you jump all these hoops! Within ten seconds! Five hundred times! You nancy wimp! A secret in a level that makes that level easier. A bonus wherein the original version of a game is included somewhere in a later installment or Updated Rerelease. You get a reward every X number of points (or coins or whatever) you collect. If you can do good or evil missions, the evil missions will have better rewards. A bonus story or challenge that begins after you beat the Final Boss. Lets you skip ahead in time to the good parts instead of aimlessly trying to kill time. When you beat a match in a Fighting Game without getting damaged. The return of Scoring Points! Anyone can finish the level, but can you finish it with an A-grade? The traditional grading system for Go and martial arts; it has since spread to many other games. The path with the most content or the best endings. The game tries to deter or punish the player for a particular course of action by making them feel guilty. Reaching a checkpoint or save point replenishes your health and/or supplies. A bonus (different sprite, special event) that only shows up on particular dates. Way of extending potentially short gameplay by setting completed tasks as a percentage, sometimes given explicitly. In games where you can be good or evil, doing every single good-oriented side quest will result in being hailed as a hero or saint. Good! Great! Awesome! Outstanding! Amazing! Boxes of goodies that can appear pretty much anywhere and can contain pretty much anything that no one seems to mind the player collecting. An easy way of gaining an infinite amount of lives, which makes the game far easier than it should be. Standard video game rewards: Coins, 1UPs, power stars, and yummy cake. Kill a certain amount of enemies in a row without dying in order to acquire stuff. When your hero searches through people's drawers, he finds underwear. C'mon, I've got 99% completion... dangit, where is that Last Lousy Point?! All Platform Games will have at least one type of common item that will give you an extra life if you collect one hundred of them. Games that have lives, but it's so easy to gain them or so simple to continue that they are meaningless. You get rewarded for not killing the bad guys. It looks like there's an item or secret that can be found (e.g. blank spot in the menu), but it doesn't actually exist. A list of all enemies you encounter throughout the game with detailed information. If you go in the opposite direction from "normal" at the start, you get an item. Where a save for a different game on your memory card unlocks a bonus in your own game. You'll earn more for playing a few minutes tomorrow than a few more hours right now. A character who was an NPC or boss in one installment of a series becomes a potential player-controlled character in a later installment. An expensive, unique, and/or rare item or card which is totally useless. A bonus given to a game when it gets released in other regions. When A rank isn't high enough, go for A+ or S or SSSSSS! A reward given for not tackling the challenge in front of you. Blow up people's houses - there's money inside! Also, you get the real estate value of the house! A bonus level that is not required to finish the game. Benefits that are magically available when the player has a complete set of items. How broadly the objectives of a video game are defined. An aspect of the game where you can get additional content or powerups by interacting with other people who own the game. A menu which allows you to listen to all (or most) of the in-game music. Collecting all the letters of a word may win players something extra. Extra content that is not immediately available but becomes so after specific requirements are fulfilled. The extra content is only available after watching the credits at least once. When a game rewards a player who performs well with bonuses and advantages - meaning the better you do, the easier it becomes, whereas if you do badly, it gets harder. A game that allows a player to be cruel, but will make sure that he gets his comeuppance for doing so. Where the game allows you (or outright forces you) to do something that would be really stupid in the real world. Any computer program that lets you change clothes a character is wearing. Being awarded with achievements unlocks gameplay features. The process or act of focusing all effort or resources into only one or a few aspects of a game's mechanics with the intent of drawing massive profit or advantages from it. A game that punishes you for neglecting your relationships with other characters.
 * And Your Reward Is Clothes
 * And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating
 * Anti Frustration Features
 * Anti Grinding
 * Anti Poop Socking
 * Awesomeness Meter
 * Battle Trophy
 * Bladder of Steel
 * Bragging Rights Reward
 * Bonus Feature Failure
 * Cartography Sidequest
 * Collection Sidequest
 * Sliding Scale of Collectible Tracking
 * Concept Art Gallery
 * Continuing Is Painful
 * Cosmetic Award
 * Death Is a Slap On The Wrist
 * Debug Room
 * Developers Room
 * Discount Card
 * Double Unlock
 * Do Well, But Not Perfect
 * Earn Your Fun
 * Easy Level Trick
 * Embedded Precursor
 * Every 10,000 Points
 * Evil Pays Better
 * Extended Gameplay
 * Fast Forward Mechanic
 * Flawless Victory
 * Gameplay Grading
 * Kyu and Dan Ranks
 * Golden Path
 * Guilt Based Gaming
 * Healing Checkpoint
 * Holiday Mode
 * Hundred Percent Completion
 * Hundred Percent Heroism Rating
 * Idiosyncratic Combo Levels
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests
 * Infinite One Ups
 * I Was Told There Would Be Cake
 * Kill Streak
 * Kleptomaniac Hero Found Underwear
 * Last Lousy Point
 * Law of One Hundred
 * Meaningless Lives
 * Mercy Rewarded
 * Missing Secret
 * Monster Compendium
 * Offscreen Start Bonus
 * Old Save Bonus
 * Play Every Day
 * Promoted to Playable
 * Promotional Powerless Piece of Garbage
 * Regional Bonus
 * Rank Inflation
 * Rewarding Inactivity
 * Rewarding Vandalism
 * You Break It You Profit
 * Secret Level
 * Set Bonus
 * Sliding Scale of Video Game Objectives
 * Socialization Bonus
 * Sound Test
 * Spelling Bonus
 * Unlockable Content
 * Post End Game Content
 * Unstable Equilibrium
 * Video Game Cruelty Punishment
 * Violation of Common Sense
 * Virtual Paper Doll
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Cosmetic
 * Whoring
 * You Lose At Zero Trust