Lately I've found that certain people ask the same question when I tell them about WatchParty; mainly kids below the age of about 25. That question is, "What's the user incentive?" 

The first time I was asked I just babbled an answer about features and interactions, but after being asked a few  more times I finally had the intelligence to ask what they meant. I must admit that when I heard the answer I felt very, very old.

Kid: WatchParty looks awesome! How do you reward people for using it?

Old Man: WatchParty makes watching TV more fun. The reward is more enjoyment from the TV experience.

Kid: No, I mean what do you give people.

Old Man: Enjoyment. Pleasure.

Kid: Sounds like a porn site. So, your site doesn't have a reward system?

Old Man: You mean, like badges?

Kid: Yeah! You gotta have badges! People have to get rewards to incentivize them, otherwise they won't use this.

Now, some type of award system has been debated hotly by the WatchParty founders, and we will very likely introduce something that issues prizes to top users in one of the early iterations (although not in the official beta). Game mechanics have very real value in online activity, and we do plan to utilize game theory in the growth of the product.

What I found completely appalling was these kids' belief that without a Foursquare-style rewards system as a fundamental part of the product my idea was doomed to failure. In essence they believe that they (and everyone else) should receive a "participation trophy" for using WatchParty, and if they didn't get one they'd simply bail.

I'm not sure if it's simply a reflection of a trend in the consumer web or a reflection of American youth culture, but the idea of getting rewarded for showing up seems to be pervasive these days. Personally, I think it's bullshit and I refuse to build WatchParty on the basis of participation trophies.

The fact is, if I can't produce a product that truly makes watching TV more fun, then I deserve to fail. If I succeed just because I give users a nicer trophy than my competitors, I haven't succeeded at anything more than making a nicer trophy, and i didn't start WatchParty to make nice trophies. I started it to make watching TV more fun. That's the incentive, and that's why we'll win.