Would this idea work to motivate students?

Motivate them to do what? Go shopping?

I am an advocate of personality theory/testing, which will enlighten one to the individuals personality structure, strengths, weaknesses and motivating as well as de-motivating factors.
There is no one size fits all when it comes to what will or will not work as a motivational factor. Cookie cutter academics result in many gifted kids falling through the cracks of a flawed system that clings to a herd mentality.
I was a gifted child and bored beyond words with most of my “educational” process. My teachers said for years that if I was interested in something wild horses couldn’t drag me away, if not, no amount of bribing, discipline ,punishment or reward would work.

I almost always had a report card with half A+‘s and half D’s and F’s. haha

@Coloma I had straight D’s and my highest mark is C+. I skipped school to go to the arcades and to sleep in. I also would microwave a steak for lunch. So naturally I would get food poisoning and get the week off.

@Dan_Lyons To do homework and not skip school.

Gee, what’s wrong with these kids. I used to skip school and go to the arcade and steal candy bars all the time, and I was a straight A student for like 14 years of school life.

@Dan_Lyons Well…it goes to show that brighter kids can skate, I too was a master of the last minute presentation, still am. What other people call procrastination is my version of ” Why do it now when I know I can ace it in the 11th hour anyway.” lol

@Dan_Lyons How did you do in university?

It’s the eternal question that’s been debated since before the Greeks. Can a kid be bribed into taking an interest in algebra, economics or English lit.? Or stated differently, how to make that which is “uncool” and boring relevant for those indifferent to it? The video game gimmick sounds interestsing, but obsessive gamers are exactly the kids who can already hack into the school’s computers and award themselves whatever grades or transcripts they prefer. Those guys are going to get great high paying jobs regardless of their grades, because their particular obsession reflects a talent more fungible than can be derived from mastery of the entire combined curriculum.

No, it won’t work, because grades aren’t much of an incentive for learning, and even a reward for grades isn’t an incentive to learn, it’s an incentive to get good grades. There’s little benefit to the student or to society to have someone get a good grade and not comprehend the subject.

@Coloma hit on it – motivate kids by helping them find their passion, and nothing will hold them back. @talljasperman it seems no one helped you to learn how to channel your passion for video games into something that would be a job for you now and would have lit a fire within you.

@talljasperman I did so well in University that I finally realized what they were trying to do to me.\\

They were trying to make me be like them. They were trying to fit me, a roung peg, into them, a square hole.

Once I realized what was going on I dropped out and took on life my own way. I haven’t looked back since.

Grades are often based on the student’s abilities to obey unquestioningly rather than on knowledge of the subject(s) being taught. While an idea such as this may incentivize becoming a sheep, it won’t help them learn a damn thing. So no, I don’t think it’d work, except for those people incapable of learning.

@stanleybmanly There are 2 types of obsessive gamers, actually. Those like @talljasperman will have to be bribed to even show up to school, whereas those like me often already know at least as much as the teacher. The difference is that one of us can excel at certain types of games; specifically, those that involve any sort of strategy or skill instead of being purely reflex based. For instance, if you want to know why the T49 is so dangerous in World of Tanks, especially with a fully-trained crew:

camoFactor = baseCamo * (0.00375 * camoSkill + 0.5) * camoAtShot + camoPattern + camoNet + environmentCamo

(You do remember your order of mathematical operations, right?)

However, the main thing there is that I actually had incentive to do well; incentive that didn’t involve bribery. I like doing cool things. I like knowing how to do cool things myself instead of having to watch more learned people do cool things and just watching in awe. I also like excelling at what I do, or at least doing considerably better than a mere “also ran”.
So while the D-students are sitting there merely playing Halo only half-competently, I am racking up wins in my T49, crafting uber-gear in my favorite MMORPG, saving hundreds of dollars by doing my own car repairs, and using my math/computer skills to cut huge pieces of metal to tolerances of +/-0.005” despite the tendency of metal to expand/contract due to temperature changes throughout the day…. and earning good money doing it.
In other words, I did well in school because I wanted to do well in everything I did. Success is more fun than just being lazy.

@jerv That’s what I mean. There’s no need to bribe you, because you’re interested in everything. It isn’t a question of long term goals or the need to earn a living that motivated you. Those of us to whom the school thing comes easy often fail to appreciate the achievement involved with those who struggle with schoolwork and make it.

@stanleybmanly Actually, it wasn’t quite that easy. I found learning the basics and many of the intermediate steps to what I really wanted to learn to be boring enough that it was almost as much of an effort to stay focused and keep my eyes on the prize as it is for many dyslexics to read a novel. Not the same sort of struggle that most people have, but a pretty hard struggle nonetheless. Speech therapy wasn’t exactly a picnic either.