Mind Control: The Daily Reward

I just had a small realization that I feel silly for not seeing before. This isn't a major game design trope or long winded rant on some topic near and dear to me, but rather an observation. Many games have daily rewards. Some games, like World of Tanks or World of Warcraft have these rewards reset at a particular time (usually around 6 in the morning or something silly). Many people say that these rewards are tools designed to get players addicted to the game, and get them playing everyday.

While this is correct, they're not actually the ideal way to get players to do that. SolForge and League of Legends also have daily rewards. However, these rewards unlock not on a set timer, but rather 22 hours after you achieve them. This means, to get optimal rewards, players will schedule the game into their daily life. Every day at noon, I log onto SolForge to get my rewards. My daily schedule is affected by the game, I plan to play the game way in advance of actually playing it. WoT, I just hop on when I want to, with SolForge, I plan in advance to get the best reward cycle I can.

Game designers and their fancy mind control, making us play games we enjoy.