Expand Upon the Puzzle Piece Mechanic?

etb342

So far I've liked the whole voting system and puzzle pieces.  I know there's some tweaks happening to it but, honestly, so far I can't say I've had any complaints.

I was curious if the PCH team has given any consideration to integrating the puzzle pieces more with the community experience and PCH universe?  The puzzle pieces stipend we get every day is interesting as part of the economy balance.  Personally, I would find it novel if that were an element of PCH that a user can actually improve on over time through being active and contributing.

An example to illustrate this would probably work best.  Let's say I'm just starting out in the Puzzle Club House forum (not too far from reality) and I'm contributing.  On my 10th post/comment I get a little achievement, a pat on the back fanfare, and a small amount of bonus Puzzle Pieces that I can use to vote.  Imagine my surprise when this happens (because most forums would not have such things), and my sudden excitement that being active in the community can actually enable me to have more influence on the Puzzle Clubhouse content.  Now I'm being rewarded to participate in the community, be vocal, help brainstorm, and my reward is that I get a little more power of voice when it comes time to vote.

Similarly it would be pretty great if there were little achievements contained within the webisodes and minigames that could actually award me with some fun bonus puzzle pieces for completing the game or finding an easter egg in it.  That would be a great motivator for players and community members because now the reward has some extrinsic value attached to it.

Over time, it could even become part of a permanent achievement structure.  If a suggestion gets used by the PCH team, then the member will be awarded a little badge for their brilliant idea and a few extra daily puzzle pieces to use.  Or, if the forums were to have 'levels' for the users (as a measure of posts, upvotes, etc.), then my forum persona may be able to achieve Puzzling Paragon some day and be given 40 puzzle pieces to use each day instead of the normal 25.  Integrated with the Creative Director and Member concept, perhaps a "level cap" on Members offers them a chance to grow a little with the community and makes it more attractive for them to upgrade their accounts to Directors when they hit that cap.

Who knows, this is just a thought!  I would love to hear the PCH team and other community members share their thoughts about this.

Jesse

Hi etb!

Yes, this is something we've been talking about -- before we try those kinds of experiments, though (which have their risks, as they can lead to unwelcome gaming of the system if we don't implement them right) we are trying to get an economy system in place that we all feel good about. We're all eager to see how things go with the new puzzle piece system which is designed to better encourage daily participation.... if that starts to feel solid, we'll get more serious about other ways to give out puzzle pieces.