5 ms·

Seems like a janky way to do things, to be honest. Achievements for productivity software? Seriously.

sp332 14y ago
Achievements for productivity software? Seriously. Achievements can be used as motivation, increasing productivity. Makes sense to me.
- sharkweek 14y ago
  I can see it now -- BWOOOOSH -- ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED -- TYPED 1000 WORDS IN AN HOUR Honestly -- this could definitely work for someone like me. I'm addicted to micro-achievement alerts
  - CodeCube 14y ago
    If you use Visual Studio, you can get this ;) http://channel9.msdn.com/achievements/visualstudio http://channel9.msdn.com/achievements/visualstudio
    - Goronmon 14y ago
      I used that, then I ran into the bug that was causing building to fail, with an error that gave no indication it was the plugin that was the cause. I haven't touched it since, but it was fun for a while. I definitely wouldn't use it for anything that you do for work.
  - Alekanekelo 14y ago
    Achievements might work as motivation for some but it can also easily divert attention from work to simply 'hunting' achievements especially if you are competing with colleagues. With the example of the visual studios achievements (http://channel9.msdn.com/achievements/visualstudio http://channel9.msdn.com/achievements/visualstudio) that a few has already posted here, there are even achievements 'just for fun' that doesn't exactly encourage productive work. For example the 'Go To Hell' achievement for using a goto statement.
- endianswap 14y ago
  It's also useful for teaching new features. If you are mindful of the existence of achievements, you might check the list once in a while and see something like "Fast Copy - Use Ctrl-C to copy something instead of clicking on the button!"
  - jamesaguilar 14y ago
    The best thing about achievements are that they teach you new ways to play a game (IMO). When I play a game with well-designed achievements, I'm constantly learning: "Oh, I can approach enemies this way." Or they make me try a new weapon type: "Oh, this weapon is effective in this situation, now I will update my default play-style." I would love to have such achievements for Emacs, because I feel like I don't use it to its potential, but I also don't have a good sense of directions to explore.
    - msg 14y ago
      If you're already comfortable, the next best thing to do is start reading the Emacs manual from start to finish. You'll soon run across things you don't take advantage of (it was registers and org-mode for me).
    - endgame 14y ago
      Just play a round of `M-x keywiz` each morning.
    - drothlis 14y ago
      I would recommend: When you want to customise the behaviour of some command, don't google for the answer. Instead do `C-h f` or `C-h k` to read the built-in documentation for that function or key. From the help screen, click the link to view the function's source code -- if you don't see that link install the "emacs-el" package (using your system's package manager). See what variables that function uses. Do `C-h v` to read the documentation for each variable. If you like this approach, I've written a guide (http://david.rothlis.net/emacs/customize_c.html http://david.rothlis.net/emacs/customize_c.html) which, at 3,000 words, is half the length of the Emacs manual table of contents.
- vyrotek 14y ago
  Achievements in business apps are getting tons of traction now. My startup has an achievement engine which we've plugged into things such as Salesforce.com http://iactionable.com http://iactionable.com
_feda_ 14y ago
Just look at stack exchange. It's gamification is part of what makes it so rewarding to use.
stonemetal 14y ago
While it is odd, it is steam's built in feed back mechanism. Dev's get notified of them and can track user progress. They use them in games for post release analysis of what users found hard and such. Bringing that concept to app software will hopefully help show which are the 20% of features used by 80% of their customers, or rough spots that could be smoothed.

sp332 14y ago

Achievements for productivity software? Seriously. Achievements can be used as motivation, increasing productivity. Makes sense to me.

sharkweek 14y ago
I can see it now -- BWOOOOSH -- ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED -- TYPED 1000 WORDS IN AN HOUR Honestly -- this could definitely work for someone like me. I'm addicted to micro-achievement alerts
- CodeCube 14y ago
  If you use Visual Studio, you can get this ;) http://channel9.msdn.com/achievements/visualstudio http://channel9.msdn.com/achievements/visualstudio
  - Goronmon 14y ago
    I used that, then I ran into the bug that was causing building to fail, with an error that gave no indication it was the plugin that was the cause. I haven't touched it since, but it was fun for a while. I definitely wouldn't use it for anything that you do for work.
- Alekanekelo 14y ago
  Achievements might work as motivation for some but it can also easily divert attention from work to simply 'hunting' achievements especially if you are competing with colleagues. With the example of the visual studios achievements (http://channel9.msdn.com/achievements/visualstudio http://channel9.msdn.com/achievements/visualstudio) that a few has already posted here, there are even achievements 'just for fun' that doesn't exactly encourage productive work. For example the 'Go To Hell' achievement for using a goto statement.
endianswap 14y ago
It's also useful for teaching new features. If you are mindful of the existence of achievements, you might check the list once in a while and see something like "Fast Copy - Use Ctrl-C to copy something instead of clicking on the button!"
- jamesaguilar 14y ago
  The best thing about achievements are that they teach you new ways to play a game (IMO). When I play a game with well-designed achievements, I'm constantly learning: "Oh, I can approach enemies this way." Or they make me try a new weapon type: "Oh, this weapon is effective in this situation, now I will update my default play-style." I would love to have such achievements for Emacs, because I feel like I don't use it to its potential, but I also don't have a good sense of directions to explore.
  - msg 14y ago
    If you're already comfortable, the next best thing to do is start reading the Emacs manual from start to finish. You'll soon run across things you don't take advantage of (it was registers and org-mode for me).
  - endgame 14y ago
    Just play a round of `M-x keywiz` each morning.
  - drothlis 14y ago
    I would recommend: When you want to customise the behaviour of some command, don't google for the answer. Instead do `C-h f` or `C-h k` to read the built-in documentation for that function or key. From the help screen, click the link to view the function's source code -- if you don't see that link install the "emacs-el" package (using your system's package manager). See what variables that function uses. Do `C-h v` to read the documentation for each variable. If you like this approach, I've written a guide (http://david.rothlis.net/emacs/customize_c.html http://david.rothlis.net/emacs/customize_c.html) which, at 3,000 words, is half the length of the Emacs manual table of contents.
vyrotek 14y ago
Achievements in business apps are getting tons of traction now. My startup has an achievement engine which we've plugged into things such as Salesforce.com http://iactionable.com http://iactionable.com

_feda_ 14y ago

Just look at stack exchange. It's gamification is part of what makes it so rewarding to use.

stonemetal 14y ago

While it is odd, it is steam's built in feed back mechanism. Dev's get notified of them and can track user progress. They use them in games for post release analysis of what users found hard and such. Bringing that concept to app software will hopefully help show which are the 20% of features used by 80% of their customers, or rough spots that could be smoothed.