The mysterious iPhone app announced by ex-Blizzard spinoff Booyah! back in April has been unveiled – Booyah Society, a program that lets you earn Achievements in real life.
When we first reported on the story this April, all we knew about Silicon Valley startup Booyah was that it was made of former Blizzard employees, and all we know about their mysterious project was that it was a “playful life companion” for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
“Imagine that you could play life by pursuing and sharing your passions,” Keith Lee, CEO and co-founder of Booyah, and former lead producer of Diablo III, said. “Booyah motivates you and others through a mobile companion, everywhere you go. You become a part of an ever-expanding social experiment, inspiring you to challenge yourself and be better at your life.”
Well, here it is: Booyah Society, “The first social game based on your real-life Achievements.” At a first glance, it looks like a cross between a daily planner with a fusion of social networking and microblogging via Facebook and Twitter, respectively. And of course, there are the Achievements.
In Booyah Society, you create a small 3D avatar to interact with, and then… well, you start earning Achievements. Maybe it’s stuff you already do – going to the gym – or maybe it’s something that you’ll start to do for the sake of earning an Achievement, like recycling your cans every week. Either way, the program will be able to post your updates to Twitter and Facebook if you’d prefer, and will be designed to let you track the Achievements that your friends are earning, too.
It’s an interesting idea, and with 108 current Achievements in the system – and potentially infinitely more to come – I can see it being quite the draw. But… from what I see, this works just on the honor system. What’s to stop you from claiming you’ve Achieved everything, and just skipping the whole thing?
Other than the shame and scorn of your peers, of course.
(Via GamerLimit)
Published: Jul 28, 2009 04:29 pm