Personally, once I realized the gamification wasn’t actually helping me learn the language, engaged or not, I started resenting it more than anything. The app cared more about my streak than I did and when I decided to deliberately let mine end, it would use freezes and shit to keep it going despite missed days. And then nag me to buy more freezes which it would just give me as rewards for doing a single lesson that day.
After that, all the gamification shit was annoying because it meant I had to sit through like 5 screens of “rewards” I didn’t give a shit about after each lesson.
The thing that made me dislike the gamification was the p2w mechanics of the timed challenges. “Oh you ran out of time, but you can buy an extension!” How the fuck is buying an extension going to help learn a language?
And from there I realized that the multiple choice form of the questions meant my test taking skills were carrying me as much as or more than any language skills I was developing. There’s only so many legal sentences you can build from a limited set of words and if they usually have only one verb option, it’s not going to help learn the different verbs.
I have trouble sticking with things. Gamification is absolutely manipulative but it also worked for me. I tried to keel that streak going even when it did nothing for my goals. So I kept the gamification but changed the app so that I’m manipulating myself to further my goals and it works just as well
Personally, once I realized the gamification wasn’t actually helping me learn the language, engaged or not, I started resenting it more than anything. The app cared more about my streak than I did and when I decided to deliberately let mine end, it would use freezes and shit to keep it going despite missed days. And then nag me to buy more freezes which it would just give me as rewards for doing a single lesson that day.
After that, all the gamification shit was annoying because it meant I had to sit through like 5 screens of “rewards” I didn’t give a shit about after each lesson.
The thing that made me dislike the gamification was the p2w mechanics of the timed challenges. “Oh you ran out of time, but you can buy an extension!” How the fuck is buying an extension going to help learn a language?
And from there I realized that the multiple choice form of the questions meant my test taking skills were carrying me as much as or more than any language skills I was developing. There’s only so many legal sentences you can build from a limited set of words and if they usually have only one verb option, it’s not going to help learn the different verbs.
I have trouble sticking with things. Gamification is absolutely manipulative but it also worked for me. I tried to keel that streak going even when it did nothing for my goals. So I kept the gamification but changed the app so that I’m manipulating myself to further my goals and it works just as well