User blog comment:Sdevine/Thoughts about HabitRPG and gamification/@comment-1873666-20140207211101/@comment-24475708-20140208001428

That's an interesting perspective. I suppose when thinking about how the motivation works (and relatedly how gamification works) I've always approached it from a rewards standpoint, as if that's the primary thing that provides the incentive because that's I guess how games usually work. But I think you're right: if anything, the moment when you check off a task is in a sense more directly rewarding because the checking off corresponds to the real feeling of completion you get after getting something done, external reward or not. The nice thing about checking too is that it's visual and requires you to actively make the check, which provides that nice sense of finality, allowing you to push the task out of your mind for good (or for a while, depending on what sort of task it is).

You've definitely expanded my thinking on this – thanks for bringing it up.