Retention, Part Nine: Achievements

By Sanya Weathers

Over the course of this series, we’ve talked about leaderboards. We’ve talked about validation. We’ve talked about Skinner boxes where the rats whack the bar and get the pellet. What’s the best possible hybrid of the three?

Unlockable achievements.

I first encountered these nuggets of goodness on MSN’s Casual Games portal, long before they were de rigeuer for every console game and MMO on the planet. One of the fansites I worked with had a meme having to do with Bejeweled and the sort of person who played it. I finally got curious enough to try it.

It was okay. Simple. Like minesweeper for magpies who need to peck at shiny things. But as soon as the game was over, I discovered that I’d won three badges, and I could save them if I just registered an account name.

I knew it was a trap when I stepped into it, but I still had an awful lot of badges before I switched to Firefox (this was a number of years ago) and couldn’t ever get the portal to work right. But compatibility as a means of retention is a different post.

I wasn’t alone. The forums were stuffed with people bragging about their badges, giving advice on how to get particularly elusive ones, and suggestions for what new badges MSN Games might offer.

The concept has since been proved by millions of console and MMO players. Unlocking rare achievements is even a form of viral marketing. (If you haven’t seen the Red Dead Redemption video with the nun and the train, it’s because you do not have any sick friends or know any college boys. Warning: The link is not safe for work due to language and graphic… really graphic… animated violence. Also, the guys are more worried about the horse!)

Acquire any modern game to see how to put in achievements. Here are a few things you can do from a community standpoint to amplify the power of those achievements:

–    Make it one click simple for your customers to share the achievements with others.

–    Don’t make that sharing process take place in a walled garden that only customers can view. Make sure your players are sharing their achievements with people who are not yet customers.

–    But do import achievements to your forum community. In place of avatar photos (which are either all essentially the same thing, or else something you spend insane amounts of moderator time on policing), display miniature icons of the user’s achievements. If you think I’m describing something like a military medal “salad bar,” you’re on the right track.

–    Celebrate the names of “first” achievers on your website and blog.