The reaction to VS achievements is kind of interesting, people seem to be taking it seriously, at least as some sort of symbol. Who knows, maybe it is the thin edge of the knife that will lead to the "gamification" of programming. At any rate,anyone who uses VS and C# with any frequency probably understands it to be tongue in cheek. I don't think I will change my coding practices to get achievements... Well maybe I will, I've just got to get those last two!
Isn't software development already kind of gamified? It's full of little bursts of dopamines and adrenaline -- from that first little "Hello World" to finally tracking down a bug, to seeing your code in production. Its addictive and it already comes with distinct achievements.
I think in a sense it is. Not strictly quantified yet. I was thinking about the adulation or sense of defeat you can get from code reviews. Code is a spectator sport with arbitrary rules that keep changing. Just like Calvinball!
I tossed together git-achievements one weekend for fun ( https://github.com/icefox/git-achievements ) and it has taken off as the most popular project I have ever made with hundreds of forks and watchers. There is something about Achievements that people _really_ enjoy.
I'm not surprised. Achievements are another form of positive feedback and in the case of programming, can provide an additional incentive for continuing to code.
Your comment made me see a parallel between VS achievements and sites like StackOverflow which offer a system of rewards which incentivize increasing one's programming knowledge.
