by Bonzo, HSM guest contributor 

As children in the holiday spectrum we are normally stuck on the receiving end of gift giving. That’s not a bad thing — just ask any child if they like getting presents — but as you get older, you learn that the act of gift giving itself is rewarding. When I was a kid, I wanted to participate in the act of gift exchanging, and not just wait to rip into those carefully wrapped presents and see what new toy or seldom-worn hideous sweater I could add to the deepest recesses of my closet.

The problem as a kid was a lack of income, and very limited resources for purchasing gifts. Schools often compensate for this and try to include children in the process by engaging in arts and crafts. I made a great deal of hand-print turkeys, and macaroni “bedazzled” construction paper cards, but they always felt inadequate — and, to be honest, they were awful. But it’s the thought that counts, right? As adults, sometimes a friend’s, family member’s or colleague’s birthday rolls around, and often we feel that social obligation to acknowledge that person’s birthday, even if it’s with a simple card. The sentiment is the same: it’s the thought that counts. The affirmation of affection for someone else, however intense the affection may be. But when it comes to someone you actually care about or even love, a gift is never an obligation; we are glad to do it because it makes us feel good to be the givers, and seeing the expression light up on the faces of our loved ones becomes our reward. Gifting is more rewarding without the expectation of quid pro quo.

Gifting in Home started in a limited capacity with Lockwood’s gift machine, and Lockwood has expanded it exponentially from that seldom updated gift shop into the behemoth it is today. For a long time, Lockwood held the monopoly on gift giving in Home, and other developers are catching up. Juggernaut offered an option to gift and purchase for yourself with their gold coins, through the Minibot training facility and the Palace of the Seven Winds. VEEMEE came through with their own gifting apparatus in the 3D printer. Each developer has tried to innovate the process, and there is a viable market in gifting. The major grievance with Lockwood’s gift machine was the inability to self-gift, and other developers have paid attention.

However, until now, no developer has generated a reward system for gifting.

Will this prove effective as an incentive for purchasing or gifting more, or will the content itself be the motivator for purchases and gifts? Rewards are often the motivator for purchasing estates and some active items; rewards tend to be motivators for most Home activities. Just gauge user traffic during Home challenges as evidence.

Hellfire Games implementing a karma system into the Giftinator 9000 introduces a consumer reward system combined with the ability to gift others and yourself. That turns this active item into a triple threat contender in the gift machine battle. It does not, however, mean that other developers can throw in the towel. The content of the gift machine will still be the deciding factor of whether we consider the purchase of Giftinator Bucks worth it or not. All the devices and their respective content are contingent on the developer’s own currency system, which you can only purchase in bundles. This then ties you to deciding how much you want to load the machine itself with currency, since you can’t just add enough to purchase the content you want. Though having an option to gift friends and yourself eases that decision. Adding a karma points system which levels you up to earn rewards is an added incentive. Now it is up to Hellfire to produce awesome content to fill this mini gift shop.

Not much of a challenge, though, for a developer that’s brought us Novus Prime, and Home Tycoon. The content in the Giftinator contains some re-skins of existing locomotion, Novus Prime and Home Tycoon content, and a few new unique items. No estates as of yet, but it remains to be seen how often the Giftinator is updated. The leaderboard is a unique feature of this item and from the looks of it the Giftinator is turning out to be a hit so far. Creating exclusive content for rewards may just turn out to be even more of a motivator for the consumers to level up. The two other gift machines available rewarded you with a small amount of tokens to get you started, and Hellfire has upped the ante with a single free item in the modified locomotion shark with mounted laser gun to gift yourself or others.

With the innovations introduced by Lockwood, VEEMEE, and now Hellfire, there is very little to innovate further from there. But there is one thing which no developer has done yet, and that is to include the entire inventory of their brand as an option for gifting. Will Granzella be the developer to do just that? Or, like with the rest of the developers to innovate a gifting option, will their gifting be contingent on their own particular brand loyalty and strength of the content made available for gifting?

In the spectrum of Home, the option to see a live reaction of a friend or loved one to a gift is not available. That doesn’t mean that gifting isn’t still a rewarding gesture, or that gratitude can’t still be expressed in the available format of the virtual landscape. The act of gifting itself is still its own reward, but it doesn’t hurt that thanks to Hellfire you can earn a little karma — and, with it, level up to a little extra reward.

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