Page 42 of Play Hard

“Don’t tell me I’m out of Irn-Bru already.”

“No, it’s—no!” Robert grabbed one of the orange fizzy drinks and bounced back into the living room. “The challenge is its own reward. That’s it!”

“What’s it? Gonnae no shake that bottle, by the way, or it’ll explode.”

Robert handed it to him. “It’s what my game’s been missing.” He began to pace, holding the ends of his blanket together to keep up his makeshift kilt. “I was so focused on creating extrinsic rewards that I forgot about intrinsic ones.”

“The what, now?”

“An intrinsic reward is when the act of playing the game is fun in itself. Players get into the zone and time stops existing.”

“Aye, like it was with Tom’s Tower.”

Robert smiled at the memory of the game he’d made for Liam, to capture and torment an avatar resembling his ex-boyfriend. “Like Tom’s Tower and all the other games I used to make. Like our challenges to each other this weekend.”

“Okay.” Liam twisted off his bottle’s cap and cursed at the orange liquid dribbling out. “And extrinsic…”

“Extrinsic rewards are things you get for your achievements. They’re an incentive to keep going. See, when you first start playing a cool game, the novelty is enough. You don’t kill bad guys just to get experience points, you do it because killing bad guys is fun.” Robert made himself stand still, hoping it would help his words catch up to his racing thoughts. “But at some point, you start to focus on the extrinsic rewards. ‘Fine, I’ll kill this bad guy, because I need XP to get to the next level.’ Now you’re actually enjoying the game less because play has become a bit like work.”

“Och, like Candy Crush. I couldn’t stop playing because Jamie was always a few levels ahead of me. Mind how he and I made a pact to uninstall it and never play again?” He let out a happy sigh. “It felt like my soul had been set free.”

Robert thought of a recent comment on his app: I keep playing but I don’t know why. “That happens when the play itself isn’t enough anymore. Which is fine when it’s just entertainment. But with Glasgow Effect, we need people to stick with it.”

“So how will you get them to do that?”

“Erm…” Robert rubbed the stubble on the curve of his chin, then remembered the list of ideas he’d constructed months ago. “Actually, I already came up with loads of cool ideas for quests and all, most of which I had to chuck because they weren’t ‘serious’ and ‘realistic.’”

“Like what?”

“Like there was a mini-game where you toss a traffic cone onto the Duke of Wellington statue’s head without getting caught by the cops. Extra points if you get one on his horse’s head to make a Glaswegian unicorn.”

Liam laughed. “There is nothing more Glasgow than that. I don’t care what the experts say—you should add it. It’s your game, mate.”

“I know.” Robert thought of all the time and effort he’d wasted by overcompromising his vision. “Somewhere along the line, I got so focused on saving the world and fixing people, I became un-fun.”

“There’s still a fun-filled lad inside you.” Liam patted the end of the couch where he’d ridden Robert to glory. “We pure found him these last few days.”

“We did.” Robert’s smile faded as he remembered his time frame. “My meeting with funders is tomorrow at noon. I cannae just march in there and say I’ve got a new approach without some sort of plan.”

“Then you’ll make a plan now, with my help.” Liam rose from the couch with a slight groan. “I shall start with pancakes.”

---