It applies so little to the kinds of games I play. Puzzle, racing, fighting, rhythm, arcade shooters... there is no motivation in chasing after an idealized goal - the gameplay itself is the reward; not because I'm striving to win a prize, but because it's fun to simply partake of the activity itself. In fact in many of these, and even most old-style arcade games, it's pretty much certain you WON'T make it to the end - or like Pac-Man, there isn't even an end.

Some may choose to romanticize the concept and read many extra layers of meaning into it... personally I think "carrot and stick" is universal to more games, but still fails to describe a great number of them.

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