Watching this video about difficulty level in Mario games got me thinking about principle of meritocracy. It is alright if you make variable difficulty in video games to make it engaging for different players. However, there is a fine line to cross into absurdity. One thing is when better players get to experience more of the game as well as get extra bonuses as a reward for their ability to beat harder parts. The other is if you start rewarding poor players with bonuses, while keep making game increasingly difficult for good players. The former will indeed work, however the latter will remove all motivation to do any hard things at all.
People are fundamentally selfish and greedy.
If being loser gives rewards and excelling at things only increases the challenges one has to face, then why excel at anything in the first place, in game or in real life. One reason communism fail is because it's failed to incentivize people with material rewards for excelling at things.
As much as some might think that superyachts and all-inclusive 5-star resorts are wasteful, and people do not need them. Reality is that it is these things that encourage people to do better at things and excel. People will not work hard for community or any such abstract things, people will only work hard for something they want for themselves. If you fail to incentivize them with selfish material gains, they will not work.
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