At the start of that (2016, and indeed before as the streak didn't begin with me signing up), the gamification wasn't actively getting in the way. At some point in or around late 2019 or early 2020, it became faster to quit the app and restart it than to wait for the end of lesson congratulations screen to finish, I felt insulted by the childish animations (and that the only way to switch them off on iOS was a system-wide accessibility feature which merely reduced them!), and when the transition from tree to path happened I had to motivate myself with the goal of the round number streak length just to get past what had become for me an actively demotivating experience.

I moved to Berlin in late 2018 with the intention of it being permanent, so German skills aren't optional for me.