Checking In and Badges Brainstorming
Added 2025-02-28 02:23:21 +0000 UTCHeya Backloggers!
Things have been a bit hectic lately so I figured I was due to give you all a little update.
Linux
I'm in the middle of transitioning from Windows 11 to Linux Mint because... I sure don't like the direction Windows seems to be going. And I've found I actually like Linux quite a bit. What's that have to do with the Backloggery? Well, moving my web dev workflow to Linux is a great excuse to finally learn Docker. I'll spare you the tech details, but it'll make for a stable, reproducible setup for my dev environment that should make software upgrades and long-term improvements much easier to juggle. At least, it will after I iron the kinks out of the initial setup.
Twitch Archive
But it turns out this wasn't a great time for a Docker side quest, as Twitch recently decided to greatly limit the amount of storage space for channels. This has marked 17 years worth of Backloggery Live stream archives for deletion by April. That's a lot of streams! Thankfully, Try4ce and I put our heads together and we think we have a good system setup to get everything downloaded before the deadline. Eventually, the archives will make their way over to the Backloggery YouTube channel. We'll be uploading future streams there as well going forward.
Likes
I was initially planning to put a bit of a twist on the usual 'Likes' thing. 1ups, coins, points... something more video game-y. But after some discussion on the Discord channel, I've ultimately decided to err towards clarity over cute. Maybe a bit of a bummer, but probably for the best. I'm still open to doing something more playful with the icon itself, but hearts are also very video game-y.... we'll see! Feel free to offer suggestions.
Badges
If you weren't around for the original site, badges were originally conceived of as recurring achievements for the site. Beat three games in a row without buying a new one and you're on fire! Buy three games without finishing one and you're poisoned. Remove all games from your Now Playing and you've gained the Sleep badge. But they are temporary, once you buy a new game, your fire goes out and it's waiting to be earned again.
A lot of badges were inspired by classic RPG status effects, either positive or negative. For the most part, people really loved them! But occasionally I did hear complaints, usually about the badges with negative connotations. "I'm not 'confused' just because I have a lot of games in my now playing!" That kind of thing.
So my question for you is: what do you want from the return of the badges system? Got an idea for a new one? Or want to put a new spin on an old one? Let me know!
Here's a refresher on the old badges:
Legendary Weapon - 5 or fewer unfinished games
Minion of Bak'laag - 100+ unfinished games
Herald of Bak'laag - 500+ unfinished games
Right Hand of Bak'laag - 1000+ unfinished games
Consider Yourself a Hero - Majority of games are beaten
Master of Unlocking - Majority of games are completed
Treasure Hunter - Own 1000+ games
Poisoned - Add 3+ new games in a row
On Fire - Beat/complete 3+ games in a row
Invincible - Beat/complete 10+ games in a row
Cursed - Add 10+ new games in a row
Sleep - Not playing anything
Focus - Only playing one game
Confused - Playing 10+ games at once
Comments
I would really appreciate a toggle so that I can have "More Options" on all the time. Literally every time I edit I have to click on More Options, and I never have a time where I don't want to see all the options
IronicPinball
2025-03-11 13:24:06 +0000 UTCI always liked the original set of badges / never had any complaints with them. I do like the idea of having more, especially as there's so much data being captured that can surface interesting things... the original badges are all very focused on a small set of data (e.g. now playing); even just the base badges could be extended to use some of the shades of statuses (e.g. the Bak'laag badges could differentiate between unfinished and unplayed). One interesting thought regarding the streak badges - the old site history was a log that we had limited control over (entering updates in a certain order / using stealth saves / deleting history data). Now we have full control over our play history logs (which is great to be clear - I can make sure my history is accurate even if I didn't get around to updating right away) - but what does this then mean for streaks? Feels like an interesting question in terms of how those would be calculated (we're also logging dates but not times as well). Like if I log 5 new games and log beating 1 for the same day, is that a 5 new game streak? Back to ideas - badges for review milestones (raw count or percentage of total), score milestones (average score above/below something... 'harsh critic' versus 'I love everything'), list maker badge for making lists, badges around having large numbers of import games (versus user's default region), badges for outliers around digital versus physical ownership, badges around Priorities (lots of paused games, lots of shelved games, lots of replays, etc.) [Tangent: how do folks use Priority for completed games? Like, it's kind of shelved, but it should be counted in totals] I'll also echo/second ideas around some indication if you're active at the moment or not - e.g. 'away' if no updates in 1 week or 1 month; asleep if no updates in 6 months or 1 year. Or even just based on last site visit. Something for being a Patreon donor would also be real nice as well, although I know that adds complexity since then you're dealing with data not currently handy in the database. Possibly a bit unwieldy as an idea, but there could be badges around specific systems? E.g. if you've completed 100% of your SNES games (with some minimum threshold of like 10+ games in a system)? Similarly with the ideas around badges for annual totals (e.g. for having a +10 or more, or a -10 or more for a given year), those could be for specific years - there's one for 2024, for 2023, etc. Something where you accumulate these and where longtime users see their history reflected a bit in their badge list.
Corey Hart
2025-03-06 18:21:55 +0000 UTC
