I travelled all the way out to Tenebrae, over 35,000 light years, to do exobiology, specifically to see things that most people didn't see. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that doing so was a highly inefficient way of improving my exobiology rank; far more efficient is just to wander around looking for the most valuable repeats of the same old species. I'm almost completely certain that the best way to get your exobiology rank to Elite is just to follow a map leading you from valuable species to valuable species of exactly the same type, never traveling further than a few hundred light-years from Sol.
Isn't this encouraging basically the opposite of the behavior you want to encourage with an exploration gameplay loop? The whole point is getting people to see new content.
It would be really nice if you got a huge xp bonus for seeing a species you've never seen before. If I'm only going to get the same amount for discovering Electricae as I'm going to get for scanning the same species of tubus for the hundredth time, I am never going to bother looking for the rarer species.
Some players will do this with or without reward, of course, but the whole point of rewards is to encourage good gameplay. If they are to exist, they should exist in such a way as to encourage players to play the game in the most interesting way possible.
Isn't this encouraging basically the opposite of the behavior you want to encourage with an exploration gameplay loop? The whole point is getting people to see new content.
It would be really nice if you got a huge xp bonus for seeing a species you've never seen before. If I'm only going to get the same amount for discovering Electricae as I'm going to get for scanning the same species of tubus for the hundredth time, I am never going to bother looking for the rarer species.
Some players will do this with or without reward, of course, but the whole point of rewards is to encourage good gameplay. If they are to exist, they should exist in such a way as to encourage players to play the game in the most interesting way possible.