Thank you! Ziggy is gone!
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Thank you very much! Ziggy blocked! =D
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Yes! Yes! Many adult students are shocked and disappointed by “Ziggy”! Could you give us the right to choose previous excellent icons or current childish images of Ziggy?
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thank you, it’s a relief!
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I’ve just seen I’m now a green space creature with orange gloves - Level 14 (that has only just appeared - android app first now on the web).
Not sure of my mascot’s name?
Sadly level 15 is an even further target than I had before!!!
(Not just a doubling of points but 2.5 times the score).
Guess I will have this creature for a long time.
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Sadly I can’t use the MemRise App on my iPhone 4 and I can’t find an older version (anyone else, see Limitation for iPhones if interested)
Funny, some of us asked for intermediate (and easier) levels and others asked for higher levels.
We got the latter but definitely NOT the former.
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Streak badges motivate me to visit Memorize on a daily basis and keep up with my goals. I don’t mind Ziggy but would like to keep my badges!
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Instead of the little alien you could’ve developed some poll system to get fast feedback about your ideas from real active users. You could quickly get age/sex statistics and what part of the community longs for the childish creature. But well.
Since lots of people have already written about how demotivating was the removement of the badges and how little common has this Ziggy thing with overall design, I won’t write about it. I will instead write about how poorly the new level system designed.
Why named ranks were better than levels? Because it hided how ridiculous the leveling system was. It is fine to be ridiculous. As long as it is not obvious.
You had to increase your score from 10kk to 50kk to become Memperor and from 50kk to 100kk to become Overlord. Five times, then two times.
Exponential growth of the experience needed is probably the most common design of leveling systems. But it should be consistent. I guess someone just liked round numbers and neglected the need to design the system.
Let me show an example
My friend has 328k points and the 11th level. I have 19.7kk and level 15.
Now, level 15 and and level 11 doesn’t look that much different. Yet level 15 here represent 60 times more effort.
If you want numbers that much then redesign the system first. If you want required scores to grow fast – squash lower levels and give everyone 1-digit number. If you want people to be motivated by leveling – keep requirements low and max level high.
You have all the RPGs in the world as reference. But don’t forget that high-lvl monsters give more experience and memrise does not have the concept of difficulty. Oh, well, it’s off-topic.
And I am disappointed with all the latest changes, not only levels. Investing effort in appearance without investing any in functionality looks even worse than not doing anything at all.
P.S. Everyone make mistakes. It takes great courage to admit them and even greater to act and discard the work made.
I hope the Memrise team will have the courage needed.
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Haha, yeah. 
The last time I changed rank was almost 2 years ago I think… it looks like it’ll be at least another 2 years then, especially since these days I spend less time on Memrise.
I’m also not happy that I can’t see my overall streak anymore. Meh.
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Let’s say you wanted to have a character or something that evolved over a 100 levels. How would you do that, everyone and @lurkmoophy ?
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I think after reading a lot of the comments from users, the question might not be how do you create such an evolving character, but why ? Users seemed to prefer the non-evolving “mem-xxxxxx” ranks.
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The mem-xxxx ranking system was only something that a longtime dedicated user would get. So that was objectively a bad naming system. You will only like that naming system after it is explained to you what it means, and then still, apart from the last two of “(mem)Emperor” and “Overlord,” if I remember correctly, it still didn’t make much sense. It’s like a new business owner calling his business “Learn words with Oliver,” and “no one” new knows or takes the time to learn who Oliver is.
I’m going to argue that apart from the last several, no one really cared (or should care) much for the naming system. Useless as it was, it was still a bit better than just using “Level XX” though, but that’s grasping at straws. It’s a side issue. The main issue is the number of levels.
Edit:
To “get” the previous naming system you had to be (1) very good at English, so almost always an adult native speaker, and know that mems are a thing, so a (2) longtime user who (3) knows what mems are. That’s too many hurdles. The first thing a leveling system should try to accomplish is to get new users hooked, not make word-plays for longtime users.
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I partially agree with you, but I think based on the (immediacy and urgency) of the number of creative ways that users have come up with to block (or hide) the images of the evolving “Ziggy” creature, it seems the issue is more than just about the number of levels, or the point thresholds associated with those levels.
Yes, the number of levels are important, but in all honesty, in all my years as a Memrise user I don’t ever recall a single forum post in the past asking how to hide a “mem-xxxxx” icon on a user’s dashboard or profile page. (How many have there been about the “Ziggy” icon ~ and its removal of the underlying badges to make room for the icon ?)
But this issue really doesn’t concern me. I use Memrise to learn things and don’t really look at my dashboard or profile page very often anyway. I will let others voice their opinions. Have a good day.
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Or (4) one could just look at the first 3 letters of the name of the company that used the associated level names and figure it out. I don’t think it was rocket-science (and probably not a quantum leap in any age level intelligence).
I also notice that there are a number of courses in Memrise that teach users what the various level names are (or rather, were). I wonder how many new courses there will be that teach users about the new names (i.e. Level One, Level Two, Level Three, etc.) Seems pretty boring.
But again, I hope others will respond to your request for opinions and input. Have a good day.
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@Arete_Hime, it’s obvious to point out but: let’s take into account the rank badges look clean, fresh, and unobtrusive. “Ziggy” looks like someone obsessed with neopets campaigned day after day to redesign Memrise. The frustration is twofold.
1), They made a thread about this because they knew everyone would hate it. Everyone did hate it in the thread. They went ahead with it. Everyone still hates it.
2), People pay money for this website, and instead of implementing substantive changes they pay their designers for this crap.
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I said somewhere the main issue is the number of levels, right now worse than that is of course the deletion of the badges.
@pdao, @TheFour-GatedDanzig, I think you’re saying (people are saying) the new character looks ugly or it is displayed badly? I’m not arguing with that. Actually, if you think that, and I do to a degree, perhaps giving some thought to my question is a nice thought exercise?
I was thinking perhaps
loop
{
radical change,
gradual growth for n levels,
}Most motivational ranging systems have a reward as the carrot. A cute evolving cartoon only inspires 4-8 year old kids. Here are examples of what I think better motivational rankings based on higher levels:
- more interesting features enabled
- cheaper monthly fee
- access to unique learning content
- listing in a list of masters on the same level
- give rewards
and so on. It’s actually pretty simple to use Internet search and find more similar advice such as:
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Just for having told my opinion about the Ziggys:
They look awfull!
I would rather get rid of it at my profil symbol.
And it is not as creative as the former icons have been at all.
Is there any plan maybe, that memrise will soon be renamed into “Alien-Ziggy-Farm”?
Of course, that would be a rediculous idea - but not less rediculous as these new symbols are.
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For those of us on “Pro” we do have a daily streak which I have talked much about.
Namely I visit daily but flit between subjects and courses (as one can’t have long streaks on short courses - without some clever tricks). [For the record I hit 100 and quit that course afterwards as it was a nice number.]
Sadly the clock stops at 365 even thought I have kept this up some 3 year or more. (No chance now but I also asked for a 1 year, 2 year etc badge.)