By Todd Russell
Our 9-year old grandson, Axel, really loves the Stern Insider Connected (IC) badges and achievements.
We’ve been following new badges and achievements as they’ve been released monthly now for the last year. Since September 2023 Stern has been releasing these badges on a monthly basis, often spotlighting one or more of their Spike 2 IC games.
But let’s go back to Axel for a minute.
He really wanted to earn the 20 billion Jaws May 2024 badge on his uncle’s premium machine and he played a lot, earning over 10 billion during the month, but then he had to go back home. He was only staying with his dad and uncle that owns the Jaws machine for a week and it wasn’t long enough for Axel to grind out the 20 billion points needed.
So, Axel asked me to help him. And I told him I would. “Don’t worry buddy, we’ll get the badge for you,” we said.
This got me thinking … what do others think of badge earning for family/friends? I lost my Godzilla badge opportunity over Christmas because I did not want to let others login as me so I could earn the badge on Christmas Day. Several offered, and it was a generous offer, but for my own account, I only want the badges I actually earned so I politely declined.
DISCLAIMER: This is no statement on others and how they choose to earn the badges for themselves or others. Just wondering aloud.
For children like our grandson and perhaps other family members this seems like something nice to do for them to help them out. Then again, it might provide a teaching lesson in life that something earned is most valuable when you earn it completely yourself. Kinda torn on this one.
Oh, and yes Axel got his 20 billion badge. He smiled.
Achievements, and or badges are a cool thing in my opinion. To me it extends the life of a game. After completing a game, or before you may see a few badges that look interesting so you spend some time focusing on it to try and get it. Or, it’s a community topic, that gets people talking about the game more. It’s optional, and it is something extra. To me it’s hard not to like something like that.
Congrats to Axel on getting the 20 million badge 🙂
My opinion, achievements earned by someone else are not yours. Might make an exception for something like your case of not being available, but can you look in the mirror and be on with that badge? It’s up to each person to determine what they are ok with. badges and achievements are cool and help bring attention to a game or maybe something to focus on during play. Current generation has been raised on achievements with Xbox so maybe they “matter” more to them.