I thought that was the very idea. Someone who just like collecting badges and/or ‘levelling up’ can probably get up to Level 3 by getting up to all sorts of shenanigans – creating a workout with no intention of following it, recording dummy activities a few minutes on either side of 4AM, retiring some gear item that was never seriously being tracked for usage/mileage, and so on – but no further, so Level 4 (and above – if they exists) would give someone real credibility as ‘serious’ endurance athletes.
I think the personal world record badge should be added to those that are repeatable as this surely would encourage people to break their own records re distance achieved etc
Neither does it reward someone who walks 15,000 steps daily (note: I didn't say a number of 15,000 or less is the constant step goal, so this may not even trigger the 30-Day or repeatable 60-Day Goal Getter badges), or run a mile daily, or add a new gear item to the database and retire the one from the day before daily.
It does not rewards consistency.
Should it? Should we look to or expect Garmin (Connect) to reward a user continually?
There is no point of gamification without gratification. Without grind it will become redundant after people realise that without being superhuman they will only reach level 2. Repeatable actions starts at marathon level. This will not encourage people to exercise regularly. I personally don't run marathon every week so after reaching certain level I will simply forget about existence of badges because my next marathon is in 10 months.
There is no point of gamification without gratification.
Not true. Gamification indeeds rely on the desire for recognition and reward, but achieving gratification (from being recognised and/or rewarded) does not have to be guaranteed for it to have a point. Some people continually and/or repeatedly participate in games or challenges with published leaderboards, even though they never actually win.
Without grind it will become redundant after people realise that without being superhuman they will only reach level 2.
With current settings person that runs half marathon every day would never reach level 3.
I disagree. I don't even ride or swim, and I no longer have a watch that has a built-in optical HR monitor and which tracks intensity minutes, but I reckon I can still reach Level 3 (if I can be bothered) without so much as running a half-marathon, or getting any of the repeatable badges, or buy and register another Garmin device. Right now I have 34 points, so another 26 points will take me up to Level 3. Among the remaining/‘available’ badges, assuming that they actually get awarded by the system when their objective criteria are met, I should be able to get:
Finish Strong, Strong Start, Early Riser, On Fire, Challenge Accepted, Join the Movement, Members Only, 7-Day Goal Getter, 30-Day Goal Getter, Stepping Up 30K, Commentator, First Gear, GOOOOAAAALLLL!, I've Got Connections, Like to Like, Networking, Planning Ahead, Shoot for the Stars, Thanks for Sharing, Trailblazer, Welcome to the Party and that's an additional 29 points.
Repeatable actions starts at marathon level.
Don't forget the 60-Day Goal Getter is an 8-point repeatable badge (irrespective of whether the daily step goal is set as low as, say, 5000 steps per day), and Challenge Champ is a 2-point repeatable badge.
This will not encourage people to exercise regularly.
Even if I make zero improvement and try nothing new, I should still be able to get to Level 3 by just making my daily step goal every day for the next six months (thus getting 7-Day Goal Getter, 30-Day Goal Getter, and three 60-Day Goal Getter badges, totalling 30 points).
I don't think serious athletes care about some badges.
I think that's both the irony and beauty of it. Serious athletes probably won't care about the badges, or which level of user Garmin Connect credits them as in that regard, and they are the ones who could attain the higher levels of ‘recognition’ above Level 3.
In that case I would remove all the repeatable badges. Goal getter badges grind is so slow that most of the people will forget about existence of the badges after a month (setting step goal to hard 5000 is bit cheating). But again this will only make badges insignificant feature.
Apparently some users have discovered "ways" to achieve repeatable badges. Look at this example, can this look like a cheating?ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1356907.jpg
They probably creating challenges with inactive connections. Look definitely like cheating.
UPDATE: I just created multiple one day challenges with one person. So technically with right amount of time and persistence I could earn gazzzilion points a day.
