Thoughts on Super Mario Run: Remix 10 And the Nature of Rewards

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In September of 2017, Nintendo released an update to Mario Run which, amongst other things, introduced players to a new way to play, dubbed Remix 10.

Rather than ask the player to get through specific levels from start to finish with a limited number of attempts, Remix 10 allowed players to quickly jump into game-play right from the title screen, tasking them with running a gauntlet of ten back to back micro levels with death no longer leading to lost progress and only resulting in leaving coins behind by being forced into the next level. 

I find this mode fascinating from a design and player psychology perspective as I think it both reinvigorated my interest in the game and, ultimately, killed it.

I once described the mode to a friend as "The purest form of Mario Run". At the time, I was playing it obsessively and felt that, if Mario Run was meant to be a distillation of the Mario experience, then, truly, Remix 10 was the natural progression of the idea. And, you know, after getting my fill of the game's other modes, this chill out, always forward, sort of offering was perfect to get me playing again. So, then, why am I so darn divided about it? What's made this dichotomy roll around in my noggin for over a year? Well, I'll start by elaborating a bit more on the aspects I loved about the mode before detailing how many of those same aspects, paradoxically, led to me growing cold on the game before wrapping things up with some lessons we might be able to glean from all this.

The Good

If Mario Run's brand of auto-running, single-tap, one-handed gameplay aims to give players a bite sized Mario hit, then, truly, Remix 10 is the ultimate expression of this goal. Each micro-level contains three (or more) medals to find, just like a 'proper' Mario level and each run of ten micro-level ends up feeling like having beaten a lightning quick full Mario game. Fundamentally, though, what I loved most about the mode was the constant forward progression. Failure in Remix 10 doesn't result in having to replay content or reattempt challenges, only in the lost opportunity to gather more coins and medals. This means that, in the end, you're always making progress, always moving forward through sets of levels with your successes or failures only impacting the size of your payout between runs. This makes the mode perfect for a quick game at the bus stop or in the waiting room as interruptions won't cost you any real progress and even two minutes can feel rewarding as your coffers grow with every flagpole reached.

The Bad

And there lies the rub. At the end of it all, when all was said and done, I quickly felt myself falling into a compulsive rhythm of lather-rinse-repeat. With the only goal to gather more coins and medals to purchase more useless trinkets and there were always more coins and medals to gather and only so many useless trinkets to collect. The entire endeavour started to lose all meaning. The nature of the quick, throw-away, levels also meant that I couldn't really take the feeling of satisfaction of a perfect run through any one level or set of levels with me. When playing the game well stopped feeling like its own achievement, then only the treasure was left to entice me and, ultimately, I think those kinds of extrinsic rewards are always doomed to grow stale.

So, what can we take away from this? I think, first and foremost, it says something about me as a player, but if I can generalize a bit, I would say the ultimate lesson is that extrinsic rewards, those rewards that are granted for doing a task rather than the rewarding nature of the task itself, just can't keep your player's attention indefinitely. I mean, it's foolhardy to think that anything can keep a player's attention indefinitely, but this kind of trinkets based reward system is almost sure to end in losing players not while they are still on board with your game but, ultimately when they've soured on it. I believe that's fundamentally the trap we should avoid falling into. These throw-away, perpetual game experiences can really only end one way. The player grows bored of doing the same thing over and over and stops playing, no longer in love with your game. I would rather continue to craft the kinds of games players can feel an intrinsic sense of accomplishment playing. The kinds of games they stop playing because they've gotten all they could out of them. The kinds of games they actually want to recommend to their friends after completing.

images from: https://www.nintendo.com.au/