Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Changelog 3

New Achievements
- "Fear Factor" - Seek out and confront a significant fear. 30 Points (Moderate)
- "Series of YouTubes" Get 500 views on a youtube video you made. 10 Points (Easy)
- "Web Star" Get 1,000 views on a YouTube video you made. 25 Points (Moderate)
- "Revenge of Rebecca Black" Get 10,000 views on a YouTube video you made. 45 Points (Moderate)
- "When in Rome" Spend an entire day speaking nothing but a foreign language. 30 Points (Moderate)
- "When Life Gives You French People..." Spend and entire week speaking a foreign language. 60 Points (Hard)
- "I've Been Everywhere (PH)" Make out with 5 people from 5 countries. 60 Points (Hard)
- "Narcissis in Progress" Take a picture of yourself everyday for a year. 40 Points (Moderate)
- "Complete a 5k (PH)" Complete a 5k marathon. 25 Points (Moderate)
- "Complete a 10k (PH) Complete a 10k marathon. 40 Points (Moderate)
- "Tri-Athelete" Complete a triathalon. 60 Points (Hard)
- "Worth a Shot!" Ask a famous person out on a date (in person). 60 Points (Hard)
- "Philanthropist" Donate $1,000 to a charity. 50 Points (Moderate)
- "Kiss a Monument (PH)" Take a picture of yourself kissing a national monument (on the lips if it has any). 40 Points (Moderate)
- "Pen Pal" Keep regular correspondence with a pen pal for a year. 30 Points (Moderate)
- "Peno de Palo" Keep regular correspondence with a pen pal of a different language for a year. 45 Points (Moderate)
- "Slut!" Go to a Rochy Horror Picture Show screening in costume. 30 Points (Moderate)
- "Oh Baby Oh Baby" Get married for less than 55 hours. 75 Points (Hard)

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Update #2 - Changes

New Achievements
-- Geocache - Find a geocache. 5 Points (Very Easy)
-- Geographer - Find 5 geocaches. 10 Points (Easy)
-- Geotastic - Find 15 geocaches. 20 Points (Moderate)
-- Geomagical - Find 25 geocaches. 40 Points (Moderate)
-- Panic Attack - Pull a fire alarm when there are no nearby fires. 60 Points (Hard)
-- The Inferno - Taste one drop of Ghost Pepper chili sauce. 60 Points (Hard)
-- iTuner - Have a music library of 500 songs or more. 5 Points (Very Easy)
-- iPod Classic - Have a music library of 1,000 songs or more. 10 Points (Easy)
-- Walking Napster Ad - Have a music library of 5,000 Songs or more. 15 Points (Easy)
-- iLibrary of Alexandria - Have a music library of 10,000 songs or more. 25 Points (Moderate)
-- G-Man - Have a music library of 50,000 songs or more. 40 Points (Moderate)
-- The List - Have a music library of 100,000 songs or more. 60 Points (Hard)
-- Inked - Get a tattoo. 25 Points (Moderate)


Achievement Changes
-- "Great Balls of Fire" - redesigned; now requires you to take a picture of yourself, while on fire. Achievement difficulty increased to hard. Point count increased to 60.

Retroactivity - Why I Don't Allow It

I've had some people ask me why I don't allow retroactive achievement completion in the LifePoints system, and the answer is very simple.

Quite simply, the goal of the LifePoints system is to get you to go out and to things. Whether its risque, dignified or illegal, these actions typically require excess effort beyond what you normally perform in everyday life. They're meant to have you DO things that you wouldn't noramally do, or in a way you wouldn't normally do it; to live life, essentially.

Allowing retroactive achievements, while certainly helping in the nostalgia factor, doesn't do much to help with this. While it is nice to look back on something you've done before with a sense of accomplishment, and it can certainly seem daunting to be asked to complete a "Hard" or higher difficulty achievement a second time, My argument is that it maintains the integrity of the system's original purpose, and that's to get out there and live. Have you had sex with a bride within one week of her wedding day? Impressive, but this is your chance to get out there and do it again, only this time, on purpose.

Does that make you a worse person? I don't think so.

Changelog - Update 1

Added Achievements

-- Added the Achievement "Saving for a Rainy Day" (Very Easy)
-- Added the Achievement "Shakespeare in Love" (Very Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Starbucks Aficionado" (Very Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Bacon Daredevil" (Very Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Activist" (Very Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "I Cast Magic Missile at the Darkness!" (Very Easy)
-- Added the Achievement "Saving for a Hurricane" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "My Name In Paint" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "A Busy Bard" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "The Rebel" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "The Franken-Frap" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Taking One For the Team" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Stand Up, Stand Out" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Bleeding Heart" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Good Samaritan" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Zen Plan Master" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Hot Streak" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Karaoke Master" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Cultivator" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Melting Away" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Snake Eyes" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Full of Hot Air" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Lucky Me" (Easy)

-- Added the Achievement "Golden Desecration" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Champagne Chortage" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Eggselent" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "A Prime Specimen" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Working Day and Night" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Bun Buster" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Thigh Master" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Bard's Biggest Fan" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Road Warrior" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "I'm On a Bike" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "500 Miles" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Worth Every Penny" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Hot, Hot, Hot Streak!" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Big Spender" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Wasted in Margaritaville" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "I'm Your Number One Fan!" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Tagger" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Remember the Name" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Nest Egg" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Red Medicine" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Diamond in the Rough" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Aged to Perfection" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "What Are You Looking At?" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Survivorman" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Making History (Sort of)" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Got My Mind on My Money" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (Moderate)

-- Added the Achievement "Scrooge McDuck" (Hard)

-- Added the Achievement "All City" (Hard)

-- Added the Achievement "Didn't Need to See That..." (Hard)

Achievement Changes
-- "Got MILF?" Changed to now require sleeping with either a mother or a father.

-- "Do I Still Need to Bring a Gift?" now requires the either the bride or the groom.

-- "Do I Still Need to Bring a Gift?" now requires the bride/groom be marrying someone else.

Getting Started and Design Goals

Hey there everybody.

I came up with the idea of LifePoints achievements sometime in 8th grade, and as things are wont to do in that time, I promptly forgot. Picking up on the idea again as a freshman, I started iterating some goals for the system, as well as a few achievements but again, promptly dropped it and forgot about it. Finally, I picked it up a third time in my senior year and hammered out most of what you see today. Most of this was idle musings, but definitely more refined an idea than I'd ever had before. Do to time constraints I had to push it to the wayside, but I recently stumbled on my old notebooks, and thought I'd give it another go, only this time, with feeling.

The goal of the LifePoints achievement system is very simple; play. Just like achievements in video games, they offer little beyond positive reinforcement, but yet, they force you to see and interact with your world in new and interesting ways. Hopefully, in the act of completing some of these, you'll have an opportunity to see the world in a different light, and have some fun doing it. Life is exactly the adventure we make it, and I like to think LifePoints make it that much more interesting.

Now everything posted on this blog is pretty much just copy/pasted from my alpha files with little to no editing. Its going to take some time to get everything organized, but in the mean time I still very much appreciate suggestions, comments and feedback. LifePoints, I hope, will be a collaborative effort that nobody can claim true ownership of, and everyone can benefit from. Thank you for your help, and may the best score win.

Very Hard Achievements ALPHA

VERY HARD

Though not impossible, completing a very hard achievement will be incredibly difficult. These activities are either dangerous or illegal, and almost always require expensive or damaging setup. The points are considerable, but so are the risks! Complete with caution!

I Want My Phone Call

Spend a night in jail.

100 Points

Written in Stone

Personally discover a fossil.

100 Points

Appeasing the Fire Gods

Hurl something worth $20 USD into the lava of a volcano.

105 Points

Davy Crockett

Scare off a wild animal larger than yourself (whilst unarmed).

110 Points

Do You Smell Smoke?

Get baked in a police station.

115 Points

Not So Siamese

Have sex with twins.

125 Points

It’s Lonely at the Top

Reach the top of the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Piza, and the London Tower Bridge.

130 Points

Hard Achievements ALPHA

HARD

Hard achievements are just what they sound like; hard. They’ll require difficult materials, or embarrassing, even potentially illegal actions. They will definitely make you step outside your comfort zone, but hopefully you’ll have a lot of fun anyway.

Sometimes, It’s Not About the Difficulty

Steal candy from a baby.

60 points

Break a Leg!

Break a bone.

60 Points

Do I Still Stop…?

Steal a stop sign.

60 Points

It Gets Easier When It’s Hard

Run naked for a mile.

60 Points

Screw You Guys, I’m Outta Here

Leave your country of origin.

60 Points

Need For Speed

Drive a vehicle in excess of 100 miles per hour.

60 Points

Under the Table

Receive sexual favors while on the clock at your job.

65 Points

A Hobo’s Treasure Hunt

Obtain the following items by any means necessary; a street sign with a bullet hole in it, a frayed top-hat, a shopping cart, and a deflated basketball.

65 Points

Is He Breathing?

Touch a dead body.

65 Points

Oh God Yes!

Have sex in a holy building (church, mosque, synagogue, etc.).

65 Points

Was It a Nude Beach?

Have sex on a beach

65 Points

Hot For Teacher

Have sex with a member of your current school’s faculty.

65 Points

Here’s To You, Mrs. Robinson

Have sex with a friend’s mother/father.

65 Points

Do I Still Need to Bring a Gift?

Have sex with a bride within one week of her wedding day.

65 Points

Smells Like… Necrophilia?

Have sex with someone while at a funeral.

70 Points

I, Uh, Fell…

Go to a hospital with a sexually induced injury that you did NOT receive with a partner.

75 Points

Bookworm

Read 100 books.

75 Points

…Is it Broken?

Go to a hospital with a sexually induced injury that you received with a partner.

75 Points

A Regular Bard

Learn to play three musical instruments.

75 Points

Not So Long an Arm After All

Run from a police officer (and get away).

75 Points

Blue Boy Buzzkill

Run from a police officer (and get caught).

75 Points

The “Wobbly H”

Participate in a threesome with one member of the opposite sex, and another member of the same sex.

75 Points

Star of the Show

Participate in a threesome with two members of the opposite sex.

85 Points

Woodwind Hero

Learn to play 5 woodwind instruments.

85 Points

Brass Effect

Learn to play 5 brass instruments.

85 Points

String Theory

Learn to play 5 string instruments.

85 Points