Building on last week's riff about a needle in a haystack.

You want a haystack where finding a great needle is expensive and hard.

That makes it an effective prize: when you show it off everyone can instantly tell how much time, effort, and skill you invested.

You want a haystack where anyone can find a crappy needle within a few minutes of starting.

You get a dopamine hit, a "hey, maybe I could do this".

This gives a nice gradient of discovery and creativity. Every time you're about to give up, you find another slightly nicer needle, which helps you keep with it as you level up your ability.

Minecraft has this characteristic.

You've seen videos of people making a redstone computer in Minecraft.

But also within minutes of first playing minecraft you've punched a tree and gotten resources.