Open the game and a calendar pops up. Seven boxes. Day 1 gives 10 coins, day 4 gives 40, day 7 gives 200 and an outfit. One rule: miss a day, and you go back to box 1.
Gaining 50 coins feels like50 how strong it feels
Losing 50 coins feels like100 how strong it feels
The rough two-to-one shape found in experiments.
Days in a row are called a streak. The prize on day 7 is not what keeps people coming. What keeps them coming is what they would lose on day 5 by not turning up. In experiments, losing a thing feels about twice as strong as gaining the same thing.
Day 5collected
↓→
Day 6missed
↓→
Next?
You are on day 5 and you miss day 6. What happens?
You go back to day 1. The next box gives 10 coins.
Right. Five days of turning up are wiped. The coins you already collected stay; the place on the calendar does not.
You stay on day 5 and carry on from there.
Not yet. The rule on the calendar is miss a day, back to one. If a miss cost nothing, nobody would open the game on a busy day.
You get the day 6 prize a day late.
Not yet. Prizes are not held for you. The calendar counts days in a row, and a day late is a day missed.
Free coins offered→You open the game today→The open is counted
The coins are free, and they cost the game nothing to give. So why give them? Because the coins are not the point. Your visit is. The game wanted you to open it today, and it paid ten coins for that. Every open is counted, as the last chapter shows.
Move the control to set which day you are on. The calendar is made up: day 1 gives 10 coins, day 2 gives 20, and so on, and day 7 gives 200.
If you come tomorrow20 coins
If you miss and start over10 coins
Day 1You collected day 1. Come back tomorrow and day 2 gives 20 coins. Miss tomorrow and you start again at day 1, so the next box gives 10. The miss costs 10 coins.
If you come tomorrow40 coins
If you miss and start over10 coins
Day 3You collected day 3. Come back tomorrow and day 4 gives 40 coins. Miss tomorrow and you start again at day 1, so the next box gives 10. The miss costs 30 coins.
If you come tomorrow60 coins
If you miss and start over10 coins
Day 5You collected day 5. Come back tomorrow and day 6 gives 60 coins. Miss tomorrow and you start again at day 1, so the next box gives 10. The miss costs 50 coins.
If you come tomorrow200 coins
If you miss and start over10 coins
Day 6You collected day 6. Come back tomorrow and day 7 gives 200 coins. Miss tomorrow and you start again at day 1, so the next box gives 10. The miss costs 190 coins.
You are on day 6. What is at stake tomorrow?
Nothing. The coins carry over whatever you do.
Not yet. The coins you already have carry over. The place on the calendar does not, and the place is what the 200 is attached to.
10 coins. That is what a day is worth.
Not yet. Ten is what a day is worth at the start. On day 6 the next box holds 200, and a miss drops the next box to 10.
190 coins: the 200 for day 7, against the 10 for starting over.
Right. The stake grows every day, and it is biggest on the day before the prize. That is the day a player opens the game on a train, in bed, on holiday.
Move the control.
Day 200yours
vsvs
Streak freezesold
A streak is worth most to the game when it is longest. A player at day 200 will open the game on holiday to keep the number. The number has become something they own. Some games sell a way out: a streak freeze, bought with money, that lets you miss a day and keep it.
Day 4, if kept40 coins
Day 1, after a miss10 coins
On this calendar, day 4 gives 40 coins. A player on day 3 misses a day, so tomorrow gives 10 instead of 40. How many coins did the miss cost them tomorrow?
coins
Right. Thirty coins, worth a few cents in the shop. Nobody would pay a few cents to open a game. Losing them is different, and the calendar is built on that difference.
Each of these is part of the streak. Who does it cost?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 5
The 10 free coins on day 1.
Opening the game at eight on a school night to keep day 6.
A streak freeze bought for 99 cents.
The outfit given on day 7.
The tug you feel on day 6 when you have not opened the game yet.
The 10 free coins on day 1. → Costs the game nothing
Not yet. Costs the game nothing. Coins are a number in a database, and adding ten to it is free.
Opening the game at eight on a school night to keep day 6. → Costs you something
Not yet. Costs you something: the evening. The visit is what the calendar was built to get, and you paid for it with time.
A streak freeze bought for 99 cents. → Costs you something
Not yet. Costs you money. The freeze is a price on missing a day, and the game sells it because the fear of losing the streak is real.
The outfit given on day 7. → Costs the game nothing
Not yet. Costs the game nothing. The outfit was drawn once; giving a copy to one more player costs no one anything.
The tug you feel on day 6 when you have not opened the game yet. → Costs you something
Not yet. Costs you something, and it is the point. The tug is the loss you would feel, felt early, and it is what brings you back.
The game givesnumbers
vsvs
You givevisits
Right. Everything the game gives is free to give. Everything you give is real: an evening, a dollar, a worry. The calendar swaps the first kind for the second, and that is a good trade for the game.
Streak212 days
vsvs
Prizenone
A language app has a streak with no coins and no prizes at all. Just a number: days in a row. Why does the number alone work?
Because the number can be sold to other players.
Not yet. Nobody can buy a streak. It has no use outside the app, and that is why it is surprising that people guard it.
Because losing 212 days feels like losing something you built, even though the number buys nothing.
Right. The number is the prize. Coins were only ever a way to make the number feel owned, and once it does, they are not needed.
Because the app pays you for each day.
Not yet. The app pays nothing. It only counts. What holds people is the count itself, and what breaking it would feel like.
Lesson complete
A streak works because losing days you built feels bigger than the small prize for keeping them.