If you're reading this then hopefully you're familiar with the initiative afoot within the user community to implement  our own set of achievements (and for the record, when I say achievements I really mean, awards, trophies, badges, trinkets, accolades...or achievements). If you are completely lost and have no idea what I'm talking about, then I would encourage you to take a look at either (or both) of these blogs that explain it a bit more than this blog will. This blog is going to specifically address the General Achievement requirements. The other two blogs can be found here and here.

So, in the last blog about achievements, I mentioned that I'd like to have 50 but would be satisfied if 25 people expressed interest in this project. The blog had 67 comments - 1 was kind of negative, 2 were kind of neutral, and the remaining 64 had positive comments or were interested in participating. That being said, what I did was took the names and added them to the roster. The first three people (bronze, silver and gold) to get their profile evaluated and the award image generated will be determined by a yet to be announced method, but the rest I'll try and do in the order of the comments. At least that's the plan for now.

And to respond to a few questions that were asked in the last blog...

Question: "I just checked the original blog, and noticed that you said there would be 55 achievements. What changed?"

Answer: A couple things changed. Perhaps the biggest is that 50 is just a more rounded number and worked better in the layout. The five that got dropped were for accomplishments that didn't seem to fit the spirit and intent of the rest. For example, two were "the oldest" and "the youngest". I don't know how I would confirm this, and really...it doesn't offer anything to the community.

Question: "Are these the only ones or will you add other achievements as time goes on?"

Answer: I'm not considering adding any others. I think what we have captures a wide gambit of activity you could expect to participate in at Game Informer. Also, based on the construction of the Excel spreadsheet and required programming to make it all work, adding more would mean I would have to rework all of that. So, probably just these. You never know though.

Question: "If say, one achievement is for getting your blog herded. Would you have to do that again or would things you've done before the achievements came in count?"

Answer: Most of the achievements include previous accomplishments. Using your example of getting a blog herded, which is one of the achievements, then any blog herded past, present or future would qualify for the award. There are some, however, that are "new" and no one will have earned yet. This was intentional so people could pursue them once it's announced.

Question: "Some of those achievement pictures look strangely TF2ish."

Answer: All of the images were provided free of charge by born4this, who to my knowledge is not a Team Fortress 2 player...so any resemblance is purely coincidental. I am huge fan of Team Fortress 2, but I had nothing to do with the images, to include suggesting possible appearances. Luck of the draw.

Question / Statement: "Allow users to have an achievement snapshot version that doesn't have them all greyed out. It's kind of a hefty jpg for a forum sig."

Response: I'm still tinkering with the profile and signature image. I've looked at plenty of profiles and signatures, and a bunch of GIO users have much larger pics. I'm more than willing to modify it as needed, but I have to get to that point first.

And now for the 15 General Achievements (and remember these are the ones not dedicated to anybody in particular). Game Informer Achievements (GIA) 01-15. If the achievement has different levels, they will be listed after the description. And it should go without saying this is still a work in progress, so you might see some minor changes before the final product.

GIA01    Blog Count Totals

This achievement is awarded to members based on the number of blogs they have submitted at Game Informer, as confirmed in their profile stats or verified by one of the Award Judges. (Blogs posted using the Advance Editor Feature are not registered in the profile stats and require independent verification).

100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 999+

 GIA02    Blog Comment Totals

This achievement is awarded to members based on the maximum number of comments received on a single blog. An Award Judge may invalidate the award or downgrade it to a lower award if an inordinate number of comments are from the author of the blog. Due to the Game Informer website design, conversations occurring with the comments do not register as official comments but can be verified in the Advanced Editor.

25, 50, 75, 100+

GIA03    Blog View Totals (Single)

This achievement is awarded to members based on the maximum number of views received on a single blog. An Award Judge may invalidate the award or downgrade it to a lower award if the author uses questionable methods of achieving an inflated view count, including but not limited to bumping, keyword exploitation or view bots.

1K, 5K, 10K

GIA04    Blog View Totals (All)

This achievement is awarded to members based on the maximum number of views received on all of their posted blogs. The member will have to collect the data from the Advanced Editor and have an Award Judge validate the view totals.

100K, 200K, 300K, 400K, 500K, 600K, 700K, 800K, 900K, 1M

GIA05    Monthly Blog Count

This achievement is awarded to members based on the total number of blogs published in a single month. An Award Judge may invalidate the award or downgrade it to a lower award if it is determined the blogs do not meet an acceptable quality and standard. The member may contest the initial ruling and have a second Award Judge review the findings.

10 (Bronze), 20 (Silver), 30 (Gold)

GIA06    Forum Post Totals

This achievement is awarded to members based on the number of forum posts they have submitted at Game Informer, as confirmed in their profile stats. Forum posts are registered when a member creates or comments on an existing Game Informer forum.

100, 200, 300, 400, 500+

GIA07    Comment Totals

This achievement is awarded to members based on the number of comments they have submitted at Game Informer, as confirmed in their profile stats. Comments are registered when a member comments on Game Informer content (blogs, news, reviews, etc.) with the exception of forum posts.

1K, 2K, 3K, 4K, 5K+

GIA08    Guide Post Totals

This achievement is awarded to members based on the number of guides they have submitted at Game Informer, as confirmed in their profile stats. Multiple levels of this award exist depending on the number of guides submitted by the user. An Award Judge may invalidate the award or downgrade it to a lower award if the guides are not of sufficient quality.

1 (Bronze), 5 (Silver), 10 (Gold)

GIA09    Review Post Totals

This achievement is awarded to members based on the number of reviews they have submitted at Game Informer, as confirmed in their profile stats. Multiple levels of this award exist depending on the number of reviews submitted by the user. An Award Judge may invalidate the award or downgrade it to a lower award if the reviews are not of sufficient quality.

1 (Bronze), 5 (Silver), 10 (Gold)

GIA10    Podcast Post Totals

This achievement is awarded to members based on the number of podcasts they have submitted at Game Informer, as confirmed by manually reviewing the blogs that summarize the podcast. Multiple levels of this award exist depending on the number of podcasts submitted by the user. Since podcasts aren't officially tracked by Game Informer, an Award Judge is required to validate the number of podcasts.

1 (Bronze), 5 (Silver), 10 (Gold)

GIA11    Moderator Comment Totals (NOTE: There will be a Bronze/Silver/Gold level)

This achievement is awarded to members based on the number of official moderator comments they have received on their blogs, reviews or guides posted at Game Informer. Official moderators are those individuals that have been promoted to the position by the Game Informer staff to monitor site activity. Due to a glitch with the website, certain individuals are improperly labeled as moderators - comments from these individuals are not valid. Approved comments will be verified by one of the Award Judges to determine the award level. Positive and negative comments count towards the overall total.

5 (Bronze), 10 (Silver), 20 (Gold)

GIA12    Staff Comment Totals (NOTE: There will be a Bronze/Silver/Gold level)

This achievement is awarded to members based on the number of official staff comments they have received on their blogs, reviews or guides posted at Game Informer. Staff Members can be identified by the blue balloon with the staff label or verified by the list of staff members on the front page. Approved comments will be verified by one of the Award Judges to determine award level. Positive and negative comments count towards the overall total.

5 (Bronze), 10 (Silver), 20 (Gold)

GIA13    Blog on Fire Totals

This achievement is awarded to members based on the number of blogs they have posted that receive sufficient views to earn the flame that indicates the posting is "hot" or "on fire" (5000 views). The award level is determined by the sum of all blogs that have earned the flame and must be verified by an award judge.

1 (Bronze), 3 (Silver), 5 (Gold)

GIA14    Comment on Fire Totals (NOTE: There will be a Bronze/Silver/Gold level)

This achievement is awarded to members based on the number of comments that have received the flame indicating the conversation is "hot" or "on fire" (10 comments). When a conversation is initiated for a blog, review or guide and then receives 10 comments, the flame will appear next to the "view conversation" link. The award level is determined by the number of occurrences that exist in any combination of blogs, reviews or guides of the specific user. The results must be verified by an Award Judge. The Award Judge can invalidate or downgrade the award if it is determined too many of the comments are from the originator of the post.

1 (Bronze), 3 (Silver), 5 (Gold)

GIA15    Rank Has Its Privileges (RHIP)

This achievement is awarded to members based on the level of rank achieved at Game Informer. Multiple levels of this award exist. Award level can be validated by viewing the individual user's Game Informer Online profile.

Level 5 (Bronze), Level 10 (Silver), Level 15 (Gold)

I don't think anyone will be overly surprised with these, as they're pretty easy to guess by looking at the titles in the last blog I posted on this. Since none of this is formally "live" yet, feel free to provide comments, concerns or feedback. It would be far easier to incorporate changes now rather than after the fact.

DISCLAIMER: All artwork (including the missing ones for GIA11, 12 and 14) courtesy of born4this.

Enjoy!