iPhone app offers achievements for life, booyah!

Haha, I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment in your first paragraph, JC. I'd feel a lot more accomplished for cleaning the apartment, making the bed, and cooking every day if I got an achievement for it.

I'm I the only one who thinks this is the most awesome thing in the world?

*CHEEVO UNLOCKED*

Read Joysitq blogs consecutively without brain asplodin'!

I'M STILL MAD I MISSED THE ALL CAPS PARTY. I FEEL LIKE A HIGH SCHOOL GIRL WHO JUST MISSED HER PROM. I'M DIEING A LITTLE MORE INSIDE WITH EVERY SECOND THAT PASSES BY.

You'll unlock an achievement for giving everyone free stuff...
Don't believe me?
try it out, it really works!

Oh, almost forgot
//End Sarcasm\\

Are we able to change it to the just-as-good Trophies? (They are more or less the same, I am insulting no console)

achievement unlocked: got achievement

I'd get it if I had an iPhone OS device.

Should I buy one?

wow me and my friends where talking about this we set achievements to do trough out college that is pretty cool.

How mint would this be if it was automated and/or location based?

For example - walking past a person who isn't on your contacts list but was also using the app would grant the 'Ships in the Night' achievement!

Just found iwound a wonderful app of fashion and art magazine on itune, but it cost 5$ can i get it cheap from some where?

After downloading and playing this game for a while, I have found that the author of this article has very clearly not done their homework or, in fact, played it at all. First off, there are only 9 categories in which you may post. There are 108 achievements to gain. And achievements aren't gained by, say, mowing the lawn. The entire system is based around people commenting on or Liking whatever post you made, making for a truly disappointing experience after this post spoke so highly, and so inaccurately, of it. For shame, Joystiq. For shame.

I refuse to breathe unless I get an achievement for it.

*holds breath*
.
.
.
*passes out*

"Achievement unlocked! Earned Darwin Award."

what i find interesting about it is that it's a sort of lifetime accomplishments list thing. from time to time you may have seen these sorts of things (aside from video games) in forms of emails or posts you'd get that start off with "check the item [from like 20 or so] you've done".

if they take the data and visualize it in an interesting way, it could be very interesting. more so in the sense of personal achievements as opposed to how you compare to others (since it seems like there is no achievement verification so anyone can say they did so-and-so).

I discovered Booyah late last night. The idea grabbed me, the iPhone application "Booyah Society" was free, and so I downloaded it straight away.

I created a character, explored the interface, and quickly discovered that the only way to earn achievements was via Facebook or Twitter. Achievements looked like this:

Food Flicker: Write 1 Food & Dining Post
Industrious Imbiber: Receive 1 Like for a Food & Dining Post within 2 Days
Gourmand of Impeccable Taste: Receive 8 Comments within 5 Days for a Food & Dining Post

...and so on.

Huh.

Now, I'm not a big fan of Facebook because of the whole "social" thing. I'm also reluctant to engage Facebook because of the shocking loss of privacy that it encourages.

But I wanted to explore Booyah, and so I created a dummy Facebook account, and then pointed Booyah Society at the account.

In short order I had ground through all the "Write 1" and "Write 3" and "Write 10" posts for each of the achievement categories (using real content, not dummy posts), and I had earned a respectable 36/108 achievements. The remaining achievements were all "Receive 1 Like" or "Receive 10 Likes" or "Receive 1 Comment" or "Receive 8 Comments".

And there I was stuck. Booyah Society is unavoidably Facebook, and unavoidably linked to having Facer friends. You simply cannot play past this point without having at least several Facers marking up your entries with Likes and Comments. No, you cannot do it yourself; I tried. The Booyah Society application correctly deduces that a Like or Comment from your own account doesn't count towards your achievement.

So much for Booyah.

What I was hoping for was something a bit more real-world, and a bit less Facebook. I'd anticipated that the Booyah achievements would be something like:

Reach an Exercise Personal Best
Make a New Recipe for a Friend
Watch a Movie at the Theater on Opening Night
Visit a New Country
Try a New Sport

...and so on. But they're not. Every single achievement is about posting to (or receiving feedback from) Facebook or Twitter, with nothing more specific than a topic. Sure, you can write a post about making a new recipe. But you could also post "I like carrots", and call that a food post achievement.

The big trouble is this: you cannot play the Booyah game unless you post on Facebook or Twitter. It's social-centric, not real world centric.

This is fine for Twits and Facers. But it's not so good for the more antisocial gamer. The "game of real world achievements" idea is great, but the Booyah implementation is flawed, at least for me. Add in achievements that aren't slaved to Facebook, and that are a bit more specific with regards to the real world, and Booyah will be a winner.

Oh, and some PvP action would be nice, too.