Are forum badges worth anything?

[Pretzelnutcake]

After spending some time here I noticed I've earned a bunch of badges for doing basic stuff like reading posts, commenting ect but I can't find anything that explains their purpose because when browsing all the available badges I noticed some pretty insane ones like 'log in 365 days in a row' like damn, you need some serious commitment and dedication to log into a game forum every day of the year without fail. So is there a purpose or reason to get and get these badges like a free lootbox at certain milestones maybe? nudge nudge wink wink, or is it just a pointless thing that I should forget about?

[warslag]

From what I've found out I think the badges are just for showing off.

[Pretzelnutcake]

I see, any idea what the "triple threat" badge is for? I got curious about badges after getting that but idk what I I'd to earn it since there's no description for it

[DrunkenDuck26]

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@Pretzelnutcake wrote:
I see, any idea what the "triple threat" badge is for? I got curious about badges after getting that but idk what I I'd to earn it since there's no description for it

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I wondered when I earn that badge. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any information. It would be good if someone could enlighten us.

[Zeelmaekers]

I'm not sure how and when but the default badges are award for doing basic things on AHQ.

Others are awarded to users by doing certain things.

Maybe a fun facts:

The Librocubicularist (Read 1 million posts) has only 4 owners.

And the rarest badge is Cyborg only owned by 2 people.

EA_David and Crinrict

Zeelmaekers

[halo572]

No, nothing and they are pointless and in a lot of cases simple to get.

And they are obviously most commonly known from Steam, where again outside of personal satisfaction they shouldn't really mean anything to anyone but yourself.

Not sure if anyone has academically studied this but it will play on the compulsion built into humans to achieve/advance, even when it means nothing, and could be used to direct their behaviour.

Ingame achievements work like that on me, I tailor my game playing to getting achievements and when I have got all the ones I want and finished the game I commonly lose interest.

Here it isn't anything more than validating engagement, but again Steam points the way of how it can be used for revenue generation.

Steam levels - you get 'higher' levels the more money you spend as it is based on 'experience' gained primarily through buying Steam trading cards, which have no purpose other than to generate badges that again are purely aesthetic.

On top of that the badges have levels and also foil, so you can level it up and also get a - very expensive - foil badge.  Steam gets a 2-3 cent cut on average PER card transaction, so they want millions of transaction to be being made regularly, they don't have to do anything to generate large amounts of income.

I am level 44 since they were launched with a 15 year account, I get XP for doing the community things in sales and crafting badges that I only buy the cards through selling the free to get event cards on the market.  I don't spend any real world money as it is self perpetuating, but I have in the past and someone has to to buy my cards.

I have 769 games and 74 badges.

The highest level is 4575 for a 9 year old account and the account is 'valued' at $8,512-$36,341 which is the price/on sale range that the games could have been bought at.  The player has only played 111 of their 4,719 games.

The third highest account is only registered 1.7 years ago, so it is possible to buy your way to the top as it is designed to encourage.

TLDR - the badges mean nothing here and cost nothing but there is a lot of gambling/engagement/addiction psychology that goes into these sorts of things that can encourage certain people to spend A LOT of money to achieve them in places where they are being used for that purpose.

[EA_Atic]

The badges are for fun, to show off your achievements on our forums. Some are really basic as in read a topic make a topic get accepted solution and then you have some really "grind" one 

Librarian

Earned by 19

Read 500,000 posts. You could build a library with all of those posts you’ve read.

The Triple Threat is an Easter egg, is for the community to find out what it is.  

/Atic 

[Pretzelnutcake]

Well I got a 'easter egg' badge as well so maybe I already discovered something now if I only knew what it is

[Zeelmaekers]

Tbh i really want to know now

[DrunkenDuck26]

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@EA_Atic wrote:

The badges are for fun, to show off your achievements on our forums. Some are really basic as in read a topic make a topic get accepted solution and then you have some really "grind" one 

Librarian

Earned by 19

Read 500,000 posts. You could build a library with all of those posts you’ve read.

The Triple Threat is an Easter egg, is for the community to find out what it is.  

/Atic 

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Recently I have also received the Easter Egg (Received a secret badge. You’re a master at finding our secrets. Egg-cellent.) Badge. But I have no idea what easter egg I found. I'm more curious now. :D