I’m not talking about being able to steal cars, and carry around big guns here. But we are the Nintendo generation who grew up being told we were special. So what better way to make our way through daily tasks than with achievement rewards like you see in Role Playing Games (RPGs). Would you load the dishwasher more if it made you a Level 42 Clean Freak Master? Would you do more push-ups if you could add +4 to your strength? A lot of what makes video games addictive is the stat-building aspect. That is the secret to World of Warcraft. What if we could make everyday life addictive? (I know, I went there.)
QuestTracker and ChoreWars are trying to do just that. There is even this guy who is creating his own custom achievement badges for his own life. He just recently acquired BadAss Rank by upgrading to an artist-made wallet.
We have already seen this model take off in the commercial setting with the Foursquare app. Every time you visit a location, you check in, saying “I was here.” If you check in a lot you start earning reward badges like the Adventurer badge for checking in at 10 different locations, or the Crunk badge for checking in 4 times in one night. Retail chains like Starbucks have even created their own badges.
What if we could make an app for personal achievements? It could be a cross-breed of a public to-do list and a wish list. Instead of updating your Facebook friends that you ran a half marathon you could share your Why I Have Wobbly Legs badge with them. I would be very interested in seeing such an app. The critics would say that based on an honor system people would cheat to get achievements, but I would say that it already happens in video games and does not affect your own gratification for completing a task or gaining a badge the honorable way.
There are also a few threads on Reddit.com discussing the possibility of such an app.
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