作者：Jamie Madigan

假设Kim和Carlos都注意到自己的车子脏了，并同时决定到同一个洗车处清洗汽车。他们都获得了一张小卡片，即让他们在未来集到足够的洗车次数便能够获得一次免费的洗车机会。Kim的卡片要求他必须为此洗10次车，但是柜台的女生事先给她盖了2个章。而Carlos所获得的卡片则未盖任何章，但是他只需要再洗8次车便能够获得1次免费机会。如此看来，Kim和Carlos在洗车积分上是基于同样的机会。

你认为谁更有可能积极地前来洗车并努力填满卡片上的空缺？Kim还是Carlos？

最终结果便是Kim，即需要盖满10个章，但是却事先收到2个免费的盖章。这要多亏于所谓的“赠予的进程效应。”从根本上来看，促成该结果的理念是，当你给予人们朝着遥远的目标前进的感觉，他们有可能更努力且更长久地朝着该目标前进（游戏邦注：这甚至远胜于那些面对较轻松的目标但却缺少足够前进动力的人）。

研究人员Joseph nunes和Xavier Dreze在关于上述洗车实验的论文中做出了总结。他们发现比起一开始便被要求集满8个章并最终获得免费洗车机会的顾客（19%）来说，事先拥有2个免费的章并洗满8次车的顾客人数更多（34%）。尽管他们都只需要盖满8个章便可以获得免费洗车机会。Nunes和Xavier还发现，这些获得2个免费盖章的顾客总是能够更快地达到目标。

为什么？研究人员认为，通过给予免费的盖章，店主便算是启动了顾客的任务。有大量研究表示，如果人们觉得自己已经开始了某一任务，他们便会自然地受到驱使而努力去完成这一任务，并更加愿意保持着最初的目的。还有其它研究显示，当人们更加接近任务，他们便会乐意付出更多努力去填补最后的缺口。显然，在穿孔卡片上穿几个洞便足以推动这些效果的实现。

soap_box_card（from psychologyofgames）

这也适用于游戏设计中。假设我正在玩《辐射：新维加斯》并接受了一个任务，即从附近的营地中拯救10个奴隶。游戏向我传达该任务的方式是，碰到一个NPC，她会说“嘿，这里有10个奴隶，你需要去解放他们。”然后我便开始行动了，而任务将从“10个奴隶中的0个被拯救，10个努力中的1个被拯救……”这样发展着。如果游戏设计师想要调动赠予的进程效应，那么我在最初收到任务时将能够先拯救郊区的两个奴隶。其中一个奴隶会说“总共有12个奴隶！你需要去拯救其他人！”而我的进程将从“12个奴隶中的2个被拯救”开始。根据之前所说的，如果游戏是以这种方式呈现任务，我将会备受激励而更努力去完成任务。

如果在《魔兽世界》中，一些NPC想要12个Goretusk肝脏馅饼，那么游戏先给我2个并将要求提升至14个会是怎样的情况？如果在游戏中学习一个新的锻造技能要求我将5个小部件整合到1个超级部件中，那么游戏一开始先给我1个部件并要求整合6个部件的话会怎样？如果《光晕：致远星》要求我在多人游戏环节中找到10个敌人，但是在一开始便宣称“玩家找到了”2个敌人，情况又会怎样？如果探索需要花费较长时间的话我是否愿意继续等待？你应该知道答案了吧。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Endowed Progress Effect and Game Quests

by Jamie Madigan

Imagine that two people, Kim and Carlos, notice that their cars are filthy and both go to the same car wash to make things right. With their wash they each receive a special card that lets them earn a free car wash if they get the card stamped enough times during future visits. Kim’s card says it requires 10 purchases for a free wash, but the perky girl at the counter gave her a head start with two free stamps. The card Carlos got doesn’t have any free starter stamps, but it only requires 8 future purchases instead of 10. So both Kim and Carlos are looking at the same number of purchases to score their complimentary car cleaning.

Who do you think is more likely to come back enough times to fill up his or her card? Kim or Carlos?

It turns out that it’s Kim, who got saddled with a card that required 10 total stamps, but who received enough free stamps to get her 20% of the way towards her goal. This is thanks to a phenomenon called “the endowed progress effect.” Basically, the idea is that when you give people just a feeling of advancement towards a distant goal, they’re more likely to try harder and try longer to reach that goal, even relative to people who have an equally easy goal but who got no sense of momentum off the bat.

Researchers Joseph Nunes and Xavier Dreze coined the term in a paper  where they did the car wash experiment described above. They found that 34% of people who got a 10-stamp card with 2 freebies ended up coming back enough to redeem the cards, compared to 19% of customers who started with an unstamped card requiring only 8 stamps. This despite the fact that both sets of customers only needed 8 stamps for a free wash. Nunes and Xavier also found that those endowed with the two free stamps tried to reach their goal faster by waiting less time between washes.

Why? The researchers argue that the reason for the results is that by giving out free stamps, the merchant was framing the task (i.e., buying enough car washes to get a freebie) as one that has already been undertaken. There’s a substantial body of research that shows people are naturally motivated to complete tasks that they feel they’ve started and will want to remain consistent with previous intentions.  Other research has shown that the closer someone gets to completing a goal the more likely they are to increase their efforts towards closing that last little gap.  Apparently, giving people a couple of free holes on a punch card is enough to trigger both of these effects.

This has a few interesting possibilities for game design. Imagine, for example, that I’m playing through Fallout: New Vegas 5 and I get a quest to save 10 slaves from a nearby encampment. One way to deliver that quest to me would be to meet a NPC and have her say “Hey, there’s 10 slaves. Go free all 10.” And so I’d go off, and the quest would tick up “0 out of 10 slaves rescued, 1 out of 10 slaves rescued,” et cetera. Alternatively, if the game designer wanted to invoke the endowed progress effect, I could first receive the request upon opening the cell door for a pair of slaves on the outskirts of the encampment. One of the slaves could say “There were 12 of us altogether! Free the others!” and my progress would start off as “2 out of 12 slaves rescued” as the first two sprint off over the horizon. According to everything discussed above, I’d be much more motivated to complete this quest if it were presented this way.

Other examples aren’t hard to imagine. What if some NPC wanting 12 Goretusk livers in World of Warcraft gave me two to start with and raised the request to 14? What if, upon learning a new crafting skill that requires combining 5 widgets into one superwidget, the game gets me started with 1 widget and makes the recipe call for 6? What if, when I’m waiting impatiently in a multiplayer matchmaking lobby for Halo: Reach to find me 10 opponents, the game populates the first two slots with “Player Found!” after a couple of seconds even though it’s still looking? Would I be more likely to wait for the rest even if the search takes a long time? Well, you get the idea. If you’ve got other examples, let’s hear them in the comment section.(source:psychologyofgames)