Why is Duolingo a Game ?

[dakanga]

Our [mention]John Little[/mention] brought up the issue in the discussion on
Crowns no longer adding up on Duolingo. I thank them for their comment.

I also thought others may like to share their thoughts on this issue, and I would love to read others input. Including if people can find any quotes made by Duolingo as to why their product is like a game.

Yet wish to identify we are diverse people who use Duolingo for diverse reasons. While also being here in this discussion forum for diverse reasons.

To quote John Little :

I suppose this isnt totally relevant to this thread so could be moved if you think it should.

But all I know is that I've completed my tree to legendary level. I'm only doing one language simply to enable me to talk to my son's Brazilian in-laws and, eventually, our (hopefully) bi-lingual grandson.

That was my original aim but I admit I did get sucked in to the keeping score thing. I've stopped that now and I'm just using duolingo to practice. But it amazes me how so many users are into the numbers game and have been competing against each other, in some cases, for years.

It must be more of a hobby for them. Which I'm not suggesting is a bad thing.

[John Little]

I think duo is always urging users to compete. The constant reminders that you have lost your place in the league and the many extra timed "challenges" are not designed to aid learning but do encourage people to spend more time watching adverts.

Having said that, some long time members are obviously very good at languages and, in fact, so good that they have entered a competetive phase, pitching their language skills and knowledge of the system against each other.

Which is OK once you realise who your "opponents" in the league are.

[buho]

If you see stats on entertainment industry, you'll see that gaming industry beats all other industries by a wide margin.
So much so that everyone wants a pie of it(be it movie streaming services like Netflix, which claim sleep and games as their biggest competitor, or tech companies like Microsoft and Meta).
Double digit growth in mobile sales(and mobile gaming) only add to this boom.

So obviously, there has to be something in games that stimulate our brains so much.

And that something is what such gamified apps go after.

To be fair, it's not just Duolingo. Many many services do this now, even khan academy with their energy points and streaks.

Duolingo goes above and beyond to state that their model is effective, though you'd also find opposite views on this.

I personally am of the view that duolingo is engaging, but not the most effective way for a serious learner. But it's still good for people who are just learning language casually and don't have time or fluency constraints.

PS: this is the only Duolingo blog I could find on their gamification. Though they do mention often how good their model is.

[John Little]

.........

PS: this is the only Duolingo blog I could find on their gamification. Though they do mention often how good their model is.

From "buho's" link (thank you) :

Games have always been a source of inspiration for us at Duolingo. We play them, talk about them, and challenge ourselves to make learning with Duolingo feel like a game.

[Cifi]

I'm trying to take advantage of the gaming aspect where it supports my learning, and escape from it when it stops doing so.

There's a danger of rushing through the lessons too fast, and/or doing too much easy lessons in order to gain many points within a short time.

I've definitely experienced both, but overall I never perceived it as so distracting that I wanted to get out of the leagues.

However, now with French I'm so unhappy with the listening experience that I decided to change my strategy, with more typing instead of clicking and listening to the whole sentence on the sentence discussion page afterwards. This is a lot slower, so I'll probably work in private mode without leagues from now on.

[John Little]

....
There's a danger of rushing through the lessons too fast, and/or doing too much easy lessons in order to gain many points within a short time.......

Exactly!

[dakanga]

and , yet, there is still advantage - of engagement ?

be aware, I also am often, (perhaps it is I am not ? ) a devils advocate. .... ..

Yet, another part of me sees - this is also something of things I do. To get an overview.

Yet ... again ... I am .... for so many reasons, I know I am a weird one.
With sails that often goose wing ... ....... ......... That is a story as well.

I so also love geese.

[FurbyZeKat]

I think that Duo's gamification is very effective, maybe too effective for some people like me. The league system was a powerful boost to get into the habit of using Duo every day, but after a while it became a useless and time consuming distraction. Everything is fine now since I've quit the leagues, I now focus only on daily targets.

[gmads]

Duolingo started as an actual learning site as it included quite a number of learning tools along with a chat system to actually be able to interact with other users —their slogan, "Learning is more fun and effective when you connect with others" is just a remnant of those times.

At some point they must have realized they were giving way more than what was healthy for the business and so they started to remove, bit by bit, each of those tools. Along the way they must have also become aware of how attractive ($$) the gamification concept was: Gamification market to reach $2.8 billion in 2016, which put the last nail in the coffin, as this not only motivated them to remove whichever learning tools had been left behind, but also lead to the disappearance of that which defined the heart and soul of Duolingo's strategy: repetition (as we know, Duo does not "teach" anything), and, to what has become very evident, to make the site look like it was designed for toddlers.

To me, it seems very surprising that people pay for a subscription just to get rid of ads when the content is the same and when some courses are full of bugs that have been around for years and years. Why pay for something when you are still going to be "the product?"

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https://www.studyfrenchspanish.com/duolingo-review/

[Corinnebelle]

Because of the badges.