Let's Study Games - Redemption Mechanics

[VashtaNeurotic]

The School of Friendship from Survivor: Equestria was done in service to the game's overall thesis of "Friendship Is Magic". Here returning to the game meant encouraging people to vote you back in, which led to ultimately a stronger landing for Pinkie Pie. The goal in the game design wasn't "How can we return a player to the game?" but "How can we have a mechanic where friendship is important?"

I thought we did it for maximum Trixie impact?

Ftr, I do have actual thoughts I'll post about later, probably tomorrow.

[VashtaNeurotic]

Game	Game Time	Returnee Entry Time	Returnee Mechanic	Announced publicly?
Destiny Islands	Fall 2011	11/14; Unclear (I'll keep looking into this later)	The winner of a challenge between the eliminated players returned to the game; Unclear	No
Seafoam Islands	Winter 2012	Unclear	A group of eliminated players competed in a challenge against the living ones; if they won, they were allowed to vote one of their own back into the game.	No
Mass Effect	Spring 2013	Start of Merge	A special opt-in challenge occurred where the winner could choose any eliminated player to bring back (and the last-place player was eliminated).	No
Arkham Asylum	Fall 2011	Final 12 (two rounds into a fake Merge)	Living players voted for an eliminated player to bring back; the top two vote-getters returned to the game.	No
Greece	Fall 2013	F11 (one round into Merge) and F5	Standard Redemption Island.	Yes
Hogwarts	Summer 2014	Start of Merge	See Mass Effect, but the player choosing a returnee was the winner of a publicly announced item in an auction challenge.	No
Doctor Who	Fall 2014	Any time until the F4 Immunity challenge	Any player could return to a previous round of the game to alter their vote; by changing their vote to change the result of the TC, the eliminated player would return to the game.	Yes
Arkham City	Summer 2015	Final 10 (Pre-merge)	Rounds of Tribal Councils occurred among the eliminated players; the two remaining players returned to the game.	No
Civilization	Summer 2017	Start of Merge	See Arkham City. Additionally, the last non-returnee became a Juror.	No
Reverse the Curse	Summer 2018	Start of Merge	Standard Redemption Island.	Yes
Killing School Semester	Fall 2018	Final 19	The winner of a single challenge returned to the game.	No
Equestria	Spring 2019	Final 17	The six eliminated players competed in a challenge; the remaining players voted in one returnee from the top three.	No
Power vs. Courage vs. Wisdom	Spring 2020	Start of Merge and F8	Redemption Island; players that did not win the re-entry challenge at Merge were still eligible to return at F8.	No
Barely Survivor	Winter 2021	Final 12 (Hole); Final 8 (Flat)	Hole: Series of standard Survivor and Big Brother rounds (where the last eliminated player was HoH); six player remaining at F12 returned. Flat: Series of Immunity challenges where the winner got the sole vote to eliminate; the last round had one player eliminated by a living challenge winner and then they could drag another player.	No
Survivor of the Fittest	Spring 2021	Final 4	Edge of Extinction with occasional challenges and TCs; the winner of a final challenge returned to the game. Began with the player eliminated at F13.	No

Please let me know if there's anything incorrect here or if you remember how the Destiny/Seafoam Islands games' returnees worked!

Equestria had redemption island in the rules post during sign ups.

[VashtaNeurotic]

Eh, I've never been a fan of the "some people won't vote for returnees argument". Like some people won't vote for someone who didn't work for them, some people won't vote for backstabby games and some people won't vote for a game that's mostly social with few moves. Yet that does not make any of those games invalid or unwinnable, especially when returnees have lost by a single vote. Like is anyone going to make the argument that someone who loses by a single vote is just...incapable of winning a game. Also like, of course returnees are going to have problems, while it's a completely valid mechanic to have, in order to use it you have to be voted out, which typically players aren't trying to do. If someone purposely was voted out to use redemption to get to the end and had receipts to prove it, I doubt people would be like "but you are a returnee".

However I will say, the later a player returns, and the longer they've been out of the game, the harder and harder it becomes for them to have "a fighting chance" at the end since it's a lot harder to show a change from the same play that was shown to not work and you just have less impact on the main game aside from either of the other finalists, and that if it's a surprise players are less primed to expect a returnee and that might jade them against them. I also think multiple returnees is generally good because it normalizes the aspect of returning in the game and thus makes it a lot less of a big deal.

I can probably do a longer analysis, but if returnee twists are known ahead of time, short, relatively early, and make sure the players who return aren't alone/SoL it definitely feels like they can be a very fun mechanic, especially for those who manage to fight back.