Merely rewarding "effort" is never failing anyone just because they tried. Sustained effort is even worse to reward because it doesn't indicate any progress.

Merely rewarding "effort" is never failing anyone just because they tried. Sustained effort is even worse to reward because it doesn't indicate any progress. Sisyphean tasks are unfulfilling because they have no end, no matter how much effort, sustained or otherwise, you put into them. The way video games reward sustained effort is through the ability to completely retry, from almost any random point, without penalty. I wonder if there's a certain amount of reward inherent in the fact that the video game accomplishment is meaningless other than the amount of time and effort put into it. When you're done doing daily chores, the chores are done. Making that more rewarding might actually get more chores done, but you're still playing the chores game because it needs to be done, not because it's entertainment.