RiskyBack wrote: I like the idea but I don't want another ranking system or something, just a personal goal thing with some sort of bragging wall showing medals earned or level reached or something like that.
We have a ranking system and while it would appear I don't participate in the rankings I try to, I just suck!

I agree with Risky here.  Just a player profile tab with 20 - 24 cleverly named achievements that light up when you have them.  Mouse over the acheivement and the requirements are displayed.

Just like TF2 on steam. 

No more than 2-3 scaled steps for a specific action. 

• Finish a game
• Finish 10 games
• Finish 100 games

If you are looking for ranks similar to what Alpha suggested just tie it to the existing ranking system and put little medals on the profile:

< 1001 Points - Private

1001-1101  - Sargeant

etc.

The "ranking" system I was proposing was only for bragging rights. I see no reason to have a fixed number of achievements (they should grow as time goes on). There should be basic achievements that are easy and difficult achievements that are doable, but not by everyone. I think play 50000 games is silly as this just will not happen, but okay.

My thoughts with having a numeric to keep track of this was really just to point new folks to the achievements and for bragging rights (I've completed 26 achievements and you are still at 19). I was thinking it would be displayed like Alpha (26), where 26 would be a link the achievement page on a players profile showing which 26 of the achievements have been completed. Probably this should just be a straight count (no graduated point structure as I suggested previously).

Regardless of what we do, for bragging rights it would be nice to sort the ranking pages by number of achievements completed.

For the most part the suggestions above all seem like good ideas to me, but I am a little worried about an achievement that counts the number forum posts as this could lead to lots of garbage in the forums.

Anyway, it seems to me we all share the common belief that this would be one more way to keep people addicted and give us new goals (other than get more points than asm) that are trackable by everyone.

Lastly, I think that this type of thing should be different from limiting access to new users (amidon's system could work, but without any names to the levels, just a restriction system in the background of the site).

Alpha wrote:

but I am a little worried about an achievement that counts the number forum posts as this could lead to lots of garbage in the forums.

Wait, we don't get any credit for doing this?  I've been wasting a lot of my top notch garbage here and I could be using it on Twitter!

Alpha wrote:

Lastly, I think that this type of thing should be different from limiting access to new users (amidon's system could work, but without any names to the levels, just a restriction system in the background of the site).

Good point.  Best to keep things separate.  In that case this "limiting access to new users" should be put in place before any bragging system if we are looking to retain new users.

And I did think about too much garbage in the forums, but I was thinking of the "New people introduce yourselves" topic also.

This type of garbage.

*eidt*Yertle* aka, I want a post count of 0 :)

Restrictions seem odd to me, or I would think it would be a different system from Achievements.
Not to mention, I think some of the Risk other sites are more like SimulGear than like Turn-Based, so restricting that could actually be a deterrent (of course keeping the restriction to 10 games isn't all that much to get into that category either, which is nice)

Achievement Unlocked!

I miss the mayhem here, job keeping me too busy to have fun. =[

I have enough $$ now to buy myself a WG mug. I'm thinking of going with the 22 oz. Stein with the Dutch blue patterned handle, because damn does that look butt-ugly with the logo on it.

Oh yeah, achievements: Make them atomic goals with little tiny stars or whatnot indicating you completed some minor thing in order to stimulate the old reward centers. Make a billion of them, make them easy to get, and make some serious and some random and silly. To whit:

Personalizer: Changed and saved a Preference! *ding*
Turtle Stalker: Clicked on Yertle's forum avatar! *ding*
Palindromic Poster: Posted 1111 times! *ding*
Daddy Warbucks: Payed for 3 more months! *ding*
Nihilist: Eliminated everyone in the game except the person who beat you! *ding*
Fastest Finger: Completed entire game in under 15 minutes! *ding*

etc.

[ So I'm still lurking, cant wait to try out/break sim play when I get some breathing room! ]

Emerge, eventually. Please. Don't be this guy

http://www.wargear.net/players/info/devark.

Probably the best case I've seen for not dumping premium on new members. I mean, really, 935 boots in a month?

IRoll11s wrote:

I have enough $$ now to buy myself a WG mug. I'm thinking of going with the 22 oz. Stein with the Dutch blue patterned handle, because damn does that look butt-ugly with the logo on it.

Same.

Mongrel wrote: Emerge, eventually. Please. Don't be this guy

http://www.wargear.net/players/info/devark.

Probably the best case I've seen for not dumping premium on new members. I mean, really, 935 boots in a month?

Something's weird about that account...he's only played 24 games and the game that I clicked on in the Boot history was just a normal tournament game that played out.

Yertle wrote:

Mongrel wrote: Emerge, eventually. Please. Don't be this guy

http://www.wargear.net/players/info/devark.

Probably the best case I've seen for not dumping premium on new members. I mean, really, 935 boots in a month?

Something's weird about that account...he's only played 24 games and the game that I clicked on in the Boot history was just a normal tournament game that played out.

Another wierd one is (http://www.wargear.net/games/view/25223), it appears in the boot list, but it was a Game between Amidon and Dufury (random click).  So something must be off.

IRoll11s wrote: Achievement Unlocked!

I miss the mayhem here, job keeping me too busy to have fun. =[

I have enough $$ now to buy myself a WG mug. I'm thinking of going with the 22 oz. Stein with the Dutch blue patterned handle, because damn does that look butt-ugly with the logo on it.

Oh yeah, achievements: Make them atomic goals with little tiny stars or whatnot indicating you completed some minor thing in order to stimulate the old reward centers. Make a billion of them, make them easy to get, and make some serious and some random and silly. To whit:

Personalizer: Changed and saved a Preference! *ding*
Turtle Stalker: Clicked on Yertle's forum avatar! *ding*
Palindromic Poster: Posted 1111 times! *ding*
Daddy Warbucks: Payed for 3 more months! *ding*
Nihilist: Eliminated everyone in the game except the person who beat you! *ding*
Fastest Finger: Completed entire game in under 15 minutes! *ding*

etc.

[ So I'm still lurking, cant wait to try out/break sim play when I get some breathing room! ]

nice list. i like this better tho: 'turtle stew' - beat Yertle in a game.

could come up with a bunch of different ones like these!

weathertop wrote:

nice list. i like this better tho: 'turtle stew' - beat Yertle in a game.

could come up with a bunch of different ones like these!

Yertle's own little army of newbs constantly after him - so ingenious & so cruel.

Here is my own synthesis of previous ideas:

Boards are given an xp(experience) rating, that is required to unlock them.  This is set by the board maker, but the council can enforce (suggest?) some minimum for very complicated boards. 

For simplicity sake, every achievement is worth +1 xp.

Some achievements are pretty quick & easy to do (change a preference, make your first post, set an avatar image, etc.) that if you take the time to look you can get up to at least a few xp before you play your first game.

Some achievements will come along naturally as you play (announced by a pop-up) so that someone who doesn't know about the achievements will find out they just got an xp point for finishing a game, taking someone out, completing a continent, etc.

The rest of the achievements will be various milestones and other challenges that will take more serious dedication.

And some more ideas for achievements:

Maybe something for the CometChat thing at the bottom of the page that I've never really looked at?

Quick Draw - plays at least 60 turns in an hour.

Extended Quick Draw - play at least 600 turns in a 24 hour period.

Perfect Tournament - Win  every game in a tournament

Perfect Tournament II: Electric Boogaloo - Lose every game in a tournament

Alpha wrote:

This type of garbage.

*eidt*Yertle* aka, I want a post count of 0 :)

Thanks for the changes Yertle.

I am not sure if I already said this or only thought it.  One idea for the achievements is to have them appear as players get them (the achievement page starts blank).  Then, as players accomplish achievements they will appear and other players can find out what achievements are out there by viewing other player's profiles.  That is, have no master list of achievements, but have them appear as things happen.