Gamification strikes again: Microsoft Visual Studio now has a plugin that allows you to earn achievements while you code. The full list of achievements ranges from ones that reward repeated use of Visual Studio features to ones that reward poor coding techniques. No word on when they'll be incorporated into Xcode and Eclipse, but be patient.
posted by barnacles on Jan 19, 2012 - 78 comments

Greg Mclanahan of Gamasutra talks how to design achievements right.
posted by flatluigi on Mar 20, 2011 - 78 comments

People make maps in Team Fortress 2 specifically for grinding achievements. Bleak, joyless rooms of endlessly spawning bots and resupply crates, where people don’t play the game, they game it. But in one of these, achievement_all_v4, the author’s added a surprise. A violent, horrific, hilarious surprise of biblical proportions.
posted by Artw on Jun 24, 2010 - 79 comments

Pablo Pineda holds a teacher diploma and a BA in educational psychology. He also recently won a Best Actor Award in the San Sebastián International Film Festival for his role in the semi-autobiographical film "Yo También" ("Me Too"). He has Down's Syndrome.
posted by Skeptic on Oct 20, 2009 - 12 comments

Upgrade Complete is an engrossing Flash game that marries classic shoot-em-up gameplay to unprecedented flexibility in ship design and an innovative UI re-skinning system. Drawing from the same well as previously discussed game Achievement Unlocked, this arcade shooter maximizes familiar game design tropes to keep the player occupied for literally minutes. Do you have what it takes to get through 100% progress and unlock the (spoiler alert!) secret best ending? [more inside]
posted by Nelson on Jul 2, 2009 - 47 comments

Achievement Unlocked: Posted a Flash Game on Friday.
posted by graventy on Dec 19, 2008 - 48 comments

Yahoo's new BravoNation brings Xbox Live type achievements to the world outside of gaming. You can send or receive homemade awards from any user. They are banking on third party sites using their API to hand out bravo awards to people for doing various things. Our own waxpancake has the exclusive first look.
posted by riffola on Dec 21, 2007 - 22 comments

Government's 50 Greatest Endeavors from The Brookings Institution. Rebuilding Europe After World War II and Expanding the Right to Vote are number 1 and 2 respectively. Do we give our Government enough credit or should this be compared to a list of Government's 50 greatest boondoggles?
posted by quirked on Feb 5, 2001 - 19 comments