PASTE Framework: Access Rewards and Their Impact on Motivation
Heather Arbiter 🔙 GDC
Product Manager | Gamification and Game Designer | Engagement, Retention & Behavior Design Specialist | MSc, CSPO | Check out my #FeatureFriday Newsletter | DMs open!
A few months ago, I introduced the PASTE rewards framework and the powerful competence-based Pride rewards. Today I continue to share the framework by diving deep into Access rewards and how different experiences make use of them to reward users.
PASTE stands for Pride, Access, Social, Things, Experiencial. Everything* rewarding can be described by one or a combination of these. Using this lens can help you understand rewards and find opportunities to add them to games and gamified experiences you're building.
This is the first full article dedicated entirely to PASTE and two of its components. First, Access, the headliner, is a powerful type of reward especially common in gamification, traditional gaming, and loyalty systems. Then, I include a definition and explanation of PASTE's secret Primal rewards which should not be used for gamification for moral reasons but are nonetheless rewards.
What is an Access Reward?
An access reward allows someone to experience or use something they didn't have "access" to before. Access rewards are often ability-based and are especially common in tiered or ranked-based reward systems as participants achieve access to new abilities and perks as they progress through higher tiers. The reward is given in response to achieving that new level.
Two common examples of ranked or tiered systems that have access rewards:
Access and Loyalty Tiers
Essentially, to thank customers for spending, shoppers earn loyalty points proportional to the dollars spent. Each time the shopper crosses a spending threshold, they are awarded the ability to improve the proportion so that more points are earned per dollar.
Access rewards are useful in loyalty programs because they demonstrate gratitude for and recognition of your most loyal customers. You are rewarding your top spenders to thank them for spending. Not just in access but also with status.
In addition to the functional access perks, customers also receive a status boost. Each tier is named for a higher-value metal. "Status" is an access reward with Social and Pride components. In this case, besides being able to talk about their tier, the tier shows up in the Macy's POS (point of sale aka the cash register) and CRM (customer relationship management) systems where it is seen by salespeople operating those systems. This allows a salesperson to directly acknowledge the shopper's status.
This tiering and access rewards system is ideal for when you want to nudge users into higher levels of engagement particularly over time. The proximity to the next tier changes the behavior equation by increasing motivation. Just spend a few more dollars to unlock access to more rewards. Even on a small, non-tiered scale, offering free or same-day shipping when shoppers' carts are large enough can nudge them to spend a bit more for access to the perk.
Messaging around the threshold proximity is also a good way to drive re-engagement and retention. For example, one way we can incentivize shoppers at Macy's to return to the store is to alert them that they are close to the threshold to reach the next tier—we can see this information in our CRM.
Access, Aversion, and Autonomy
Access rewards are notably—and usefully—subject to loss aversion. Loyalty programs take advantage of this by having users drop in tier losing access to a tier's status and rewards if the user doesn't spend enough in a time period. This alone can increase spending.
In games, access rewards associated with leveling are rarely lost. This is because there isn't a need to punish users for not engaging and the act of doing so can turn players off. Games instead tend to focus on providing continued access rewards as players become more powerful in a path to mastery which is one of the ways games retain. Systems that value retention over spending will likely do better following this technique of not removing access as a penalty.
This path to mastery is enhanced by increases in autonomy and competence. From the Self-determination Theory, competence is the sensation of skill (usually connected to PASTE Pride but not exclusively). Autonomy meanwhile is the sense of freedom and control. The more power or ability you have, the more you can express control over the world around you. The more places you can go. The stronger the monsters you can fight.
A fun example of this can be observed in Fallout: New Vegas. At the beginning of the game, the NPCs in the starting area of Goodsprings advise the player character to take a roundabout route to reach New Vegas. Bold players who attempt to take the shorter, more direct route, will find themselves facing off against monstrous Deathclaws which are too high-level to pass. This removes the autonomy to travel off the recommended path until the player has access to new weapons, armor, and abilities allowing them to fight or outrun the Deathclaws.
Access Rewards in the Physical World
A reward experience doesn't need to be tiered or even gamified to display access rewards. One of the real-world experiences I used for reference throughout developing PASTE was hiking and everything that comes from getting to the top of the mountain. First, there's the Pride in the accomplishment. But as I looked around I could see there was also an Access reward: the view.
Access rewards like this are common in experiences of travel because that's a big part of why we travel. I was in Costa Rica on my honeymoon because we wanted to see Costa Rica. And the Access to the beautiful terrain and culture there was our reward for the cost and effort in the journey. Spending two days at the magical Pacaure Lodge deep in the jungle was made all the more wonderful by having had to go on a white-water rafting journey on the Pacaure River to get there. This was experienced exclusively by folks who made the trek.
This demonstrates a common feature of access rewards: they often come from effort taken over time (or in volume). In other words, access rewards are part of a journey. They are rarely immediate. You don't get them the moment you start playing. You don't get them right next door. You don't get them with your first dollar spent. Instead, you have to work to earn them.
Access, PASTE, and SAPS
In constructing the PASTE framework, I started with leading gamification expert Gabe Zichermann's SAPS (status, access, power, stuff) framework for discussing rewards. I wanted to build a more comprehensive rewards framework that would encompass all aspects of what could be used to reward, incentivize, and motivate human behavior. Access rewards in PASTE are based on a merger of access and power rewards in SAPS. The concept of "status" above is the same status represented in SAPS.
*Primal Rewards
Unspoken in the acronym but included in PASTE is the concept of "primal" rewards. These are not generally used in gamification hence the absence from the acronym. Primal rewards are biological: food, sleep, warmth, etc. Schultz called them, “primary homeostatic and reproductive rewards.” These rewards are physiologically tied to the survival of a species.
Things that aren't generally rewarding unless they have been denied or are at a deficit and manipulating people to keep them at a deficit to make them rewarding is generally considered amoral. Note that food is referring the survival need for calories to avoid starving. Not the Thing/Experiential rewards of treats. (More on Thing and Experiential rewards in a future article).
I include this to demonstrate the completeness of the PASTE framework. Completeness is one of the main goals of the framework and as this is the first full article dedicated to PASTE, I chose to include it here.
Conclusion
Access rewards are a vital tool in the PASTE framework, offering users the ability to experience or use something they didn’t have access to before. From unlocking new abilities in games to achieving higher tiers in loyalty programs, Access rewards drive engagement by combining progression, status, and recognition. By understanding the power of Access rewards and applying them thoughtfully, you can create experiences that motivate, reward, and retain your users. As we continue exploring PASTE, these insights will empower you to design systems that are engaging and ethical, ensuring that your users feel valued every step of the way.
Select Sources
A variety of sources were consulted in the formulation of PASTE including:
Heather Arbiter is a Gamification Designer and Product Manager. PASTE was largely formed in 2018 while working at Dopamine, an agency founded by Gabe Zichermann. Since developing it, Heather has not encountered a rewarding experience that isn't described by one or more aspects of the PASTE framework. She also works part-time in Macy's where she regularly encounters the Star Rewards program and how it interacts with the Macy's sales systems. Heather is available for full-time, part-time, or consulting work as a Product Manager or Gamification Expert.
#FeatureFriday is a bi-weekly newsletter about the intersection of product, gamification, and behavior. This is the 34th edition of the series.
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