As checkins become commonplace, Foursquare has changed its location-based game to reward players for actual achievements. RunKeeper was the first partner to introduce merit-based Foursquare badges, but today another partner has emerged.
Health Month, a game that inspires players to set self-betterment rules to live by for a month, will now gift successful members with up to four different Foursquare badges.
For those unfamiliar with Health Month, the site challenges users to commit to better living for a month. You set your own rules — it could be related to your health, fitness, diet or mental states — on the first of the month, and for each rule you commit to, you’ll be slotted in to one of four brackets based on difficulty.
Each day, you’ll complete your scorecard and indicate whether or not you satisfied the terms of each rule. You start the month off with 10 life points, and you’ll lose a life point every time you break a rule. Should you finish the month with more than one life point, then you will have successfully survived your bracket and will be placed on the Wall of Awesomeness.
Now, HealthMonth players who survive their brackets will be also win a Foursquare merit badge for their dedication to self-improvement, so long as they connect their Foursquare account to their Health Month account.
Foursquare asserts, “We want Foursquare to help people live better and healthier lives.” The startup’s first two merit badge partners seem to back up that sentiment. What’s more interesting, though, is that the social gaming network is cleverly experimenting outside the crowded arena of checkin-based activity. Clearly, the product is evolving to account for checkin fatigue, inching closer to those “moments of magic and delight for users” that Founder Dennis Crowley hopes to inspire.
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More About: badges, foursquare, health month, merit badges
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