Just a few months ago, Keith Lee was the Lead Producer on "Diablo 3." Before that he was Lead Programmer at Insomniac Games, in charge of the "Ratchet & Clank" series. His new company, called Booyah, is much smaller than either of those development houses, but it's allowed him to delve into a space he's always been curious about: Real-life achievements. You know that feeling you get when you unlock a particuarly difficult achievement in, say, "Halo 3"? Keith wants you to get the same feeling of accomplishment from, say, climbing a mountain or seeing an exclusive movie screening. And thus "Booyah Society" was born.
"Booyah Society" is a free app for the iPhone. Inside the app you can create an alien-like avatar (pictured above) and write about what you're up to. That's currently it. Say you're going to see the new "Transformers" movie. You'll go into "Booyah Society" and write a status update saying you're off to see the movie. You can then tag is as Entertainment (there are tags for just about every general activity) and sync that update to your Twitter or Facebook status.
The app will keep track of all your status updates, and reward you achievements for making specific update milestones. For example, three health-related updates in one day. You can also be rewarded if people on your Facebook page comment on your update, even if they don't have the app. The end result is almost a "score" for your life.
It's strange. And, as a gamer, it's not exactly something that jumps to mind as a "must-have" piece of software, but the future has some interesting potential in-store. Location tracking will allow you to legitimately win awards for, say, traveling to three different countries in a week. Your friends will see that you've got the "World Traveler" achievement, and maybe you unlocked a new costume for your avatar, which will, of course, make them jealous and hate you. And really that's what playing with friends is all about.
"Booyah Society" is definitely experimental, and I'm not really sure whether it'll take off. Thankfully it's free, so if this sounds like something you'd be interested in, give it a download. It's up in the App Store right now.