Not rewarding the player, but the MC. Suppose there is some in-game institution that wants you to follow a certain path, and motivates them to do so with a points system.
Still, same thing.
The player is the MC, so in order to, well, win, the player would go for what gains them the highest score. Not necessarily but still.
We see this concept in play already in HeroesRise, with those dreadful, dreadful ‘Legend Point’ a mechanic that makes no sense, but occasionally comes into play in ways that if you want a remotely satisfying outcome, you have to max them. And if it’s not them, you have to max something else, often due to actions that go against common sense etc.
I don’t think this “railroading” is a bad thing. Because when doing min-maxing stats, the reader/player knows and committed that “I’ll choose the railroaded path.”
It’s just a form of metagaming. It’s the reason why only a few heroes from the whole roster dominates DOTA championship; it’s the reason why certain deck-build existed inside Hearthstone; it’s the reason why certain equipment is better than the other in an MMORPG.
These things existed because some people enjoy min-maxing and doing “the best thing I can do”, even though that means copying a guide.
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Yeah, but a leaderboard’s sole purpose is to show who made the most points…
I stand with the opinion that it’s not something cyoa needs in any way
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Nah, that one is something I agree with.
Leaderboard is usually used to show “who has a better skill”, but not so in the case of IF/CYOA (as I pointed earlier somewhere).
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Y’know… looking at a similar thread (the one about cheatcodes) I’m starting to wonder why some people get a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game to begin with.
Everyone their own, but it sounds weird to see people wonder why cheatcodes aren’t a thing, or why the games aren’t providing a numerical score to compare with others.
I can get this kind of thinking at Jump’n’Runs, or something… but at CYOA?
Why?
Because, in ye olde CYOA books, you can read the entire pages one-by-one without worrying about the flow of the story if you’re curious?
You know, there’s a saying at here, “Eat your dishes until the last crumbs.”
Because people play games in different ways? 
As I’ve said elsewhere, games can’t be designed to satisfy all playstyles; I’ve no interest in “scoring” XoR or adding cheat options. But I’m not going to tell people who want those things that they’re doing it wrong–just that they want a different experience than I do from the game, so I won’t be the one to provide it for them.
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@MeltingPenguins Because sometimes it’s fun to arbitrarily min/max numbers. I play Safe Haven four or five times in a row when I sit down to it. There’s a kill count. Sometimes it’s fun to see how many zombies I can kill with different builds or how tricked out I can get my defenses. It doesn’t really affect much, but it’s a challenge of sorts.
The trick is that getting the high score shouldn’t be the only win state. Just to follow one or two “paths”.
I’m not a fan of an automatic “Leaderboard” because…visible code makes that inherently unfair. But I see no problems with in-game markers and a list of stats to copy/paste into a forum thread or something for bragging right or a bit of fun.
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