The new badges: getting a little over the top?

[Mad Maniac with axe-firing chainsaw]

I like them. Kinda the same way a crow likes shiny things. They're of no value, but like all "something for nothing" things they have a certain appeal.

In the mean time, shinies!

This is basically why I like the badges.

 

[John Funk]

They are stupid as hell. At least badges before required some sort of effort, now it's just click play or the links on shit, and boom badge. And now I have to set them as my top 4, just when I was happy to get those User Group Badges as well.

...if you think they're stupid, why are you manually setting them as your top four?

 

[-Orgasmatron-]

There's over 9,000 new badges.

 

[dududf]

Yeah I kinda agree .. they are over the top, and I keep assuming I made a radically awsome post when 10 minutes later I have 8 new messages.

*sigh*

Oh but laser cat is worth all of the annoyance

 

[Ben Legend]

I was just dismayed to see that my inbox messages were merely badges.
I want friends. ;P

 

[GoldenRaz]

Nah, I don't mind that it much, although it is quite weird to get 7 badges during a single day for stuff I did for several months ago...

But I can't see the problem, either. I consider those badges for watching different videos and such as those Bronze Trophies on PS3: not really a reward, just as a small recognition that I've done something more than just stare at the screen.

Also, these badges are all quite good to further enlighten newcomers to different features on the site. For instance, I had never heard of WarCry before I learnt that there is a badge that requires you to go there (not that I actually post at WarCry, but still). In the same way, newcomers might be more motivated to explore the Escapist further than to just roam the forums and watch this week's ever so shiny ZP.

 

[willard3]

I thought the entire point of the new badges was to encourage people to watch stuff other than ZP? Having badges for watching ZP would be pointless as virtually everyone on the site does so anyway! The large majority of the people who initially sign up for this website (myself included) is mainly because of ZP...

Exactly. I originally only watched ZP without being in the forums, and then I decided to check them out.

HOWEVER, I'm treating the new badges as ways of finding out who the ZP-tards are and who actually uses the rest of the site. Your new badges aren't so much for YOUR benefit as they are for OTHERS'.

 

[OrenjiJusu]

i got about 10 badges in 2 days. not really badgeworthy if i watched 4 episodes of unskippable

 

[StarStruckStrumpets]

They are stupid as hell. At least badges before required some sort of effort, now it's just click play or the links on shit, and boom badge. And now I have to set them as my top 4, just when I was happy to get those User Group Badges as well.

...if you think they're stupid, why are you manually setting them as your top four?

Very much owned. Nice one Funk.
Really though, I don't mind the new badges. Well, I don't like having the Rebecca Mayes ones, simply because I do not like the content. The Unskippable ones are awesome though.

 

[Skeleon]

Meh, I don't care for them at all, but I don't mind them, either.
They're kind of confusing, I always think somebody might've quoted one of my posts of wisdom, instead I got another badge...

I sure hope there'll be Pokemon badges for the latest quiz, though. I like getting badges after actually putting in a bit of effort.

 

[Hitman 43]

I don't care about them.

 

[stonethered]

i love badges!
i feel like it shows just what people are really interested in to see what badges they got the day the badge came out, so you can see what they were interested in. harder to tell now that some people will go and watch everything for the badges now.

still, a little bit of pretty interweb coding never hurt anyone physically.
except jimmy, he never even saw it coming.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Not worth wasting my energy getting upset about. In fact I already wasted more energy then it's worth just replying to this thread.

 

[gremily]

I don't like them. Anybody can just watch a bunch of videos.

 

[GrinningManiac]

They are horrifically pointless.

I mean, I watched five episodes of Unskippable, so what? Plus, it counts the videos I've watched BEFORE the badges were introduced, so I keep getting them every day

Thankfully, I largley only watch Unskippable and ZP, may the lord save everyone who watches everything else as well

 

[FightThePower]

When I start a game I start on Normal, then move up the difficulties until I can play the hardest setting and stick to that.

 

[WhiteTiger225]

Recently, new badges were introduced into The Escapist, rewarding people who watch shows on the website (other than Zero Punctuation)

Now... since this happened the number of badges I have has well over doubled in count, within just 3-4 days. I feel that it was a bit over the top, frankly... I found myself losing the satisfaction in acquiring new badges, and I felt like I was acquiring these new badges without really putting any effort or contribution into the site.

So, what does everyone else think? Do you think its getting too easy to acquire badges? How do you feel about the new 'content' badges?

If I have to watch mayes to complete my possible for me to obtain badge collection... well call me a quitter..