Chat: What Have Been Your Favorite 2014 Badges?

My favourite badges have been the Cryptid Cryptography ones - they combine my love of codes with my other favourite area of study, mythological creatures. They're a lot of fun to puzzle out, and the bonuses add an extra layer of excitement.

I'm also fond of the Constellation Consternation badges, and the Unearthed Unearthlies badges.

Park Explorer badges are my absolute favorites! Excited to try the UMMA one too. I like the idea of getting out and about and exploring things I might not otherwise do.

Another vote for the Park Explorer badges - I have driven by the entrance to Mary Beth Doyle park for *years* and never even realized it was back there!

Though the "Muskrat View" code for the Pittsfield branch was also a huge favorite - we not only saw muskrats from the library window, we saw a giant (and rather scary looking) snapping turtle swimming right there.

The Park Explorer badges are my family's favorite. After that, I always enjoy browsing oldnews.aadl.org, so I enjoyed "You Can Learn a Lot from Lydia".

Badges like Pokemon and Plant vs Zom-badges were difficult because I'm not familiar with the manga or video games, so it definitely was a great way to introduce me to both.

I love earning badges because it's a chance to learn something I didn't know. I generally love trivia, even if it's not incredibly clever. Cleverness most of the time provides a nice laugh or wink, There have been some times it's been a bit of an eye roll -- though isn't that always the case with cleverness?

Outside of the Park Explorer series, my family doesn't have a favorite badge set. My 3.5 year old helps type search words into the catalog, or asks Siri for wikipedia-like clues. I try to preview badges before completing badges with with preschooler so we don't run into too many inappropriate/uncomfortable conversations since we are heavily into the WHY? WHY? WHY? stage.

As always, thank you for working so hard on the summer game!

I've liked pretty much all of the badges! Although I've only done 2 so far, I hope to do more of the Park Explorer badges. I like the fact that the Polkemania badges are a little longer and tougher than most the others. It was also fun to learn about terrariums through the Terrific Terrariums badge, then go to the workshop on Sunday!

The Constellation Consternation series is probably my favorite. I like reading about their mythologies and back stories in in the wiki pages.

I would also like to give a special shout-out to the photoshopper of the Polkemania badges - it looks like Charizard is rocking/wailing it out with that accordion.

I would have to say the park explorer badges would be my favorite and my kids like them also. We went on a picnic to Barton nature area and we used our picnic blanket from last years summer game along with the cooler from last year. It was like an AADL sponsored picnic. I also like the badges for rating items and for reviews. Granted some people just type tiny one or two word reviews but others write very useful ones. I also like the star rating because it helps me decide things to request.

Wow it would be hard to saw which ones are my favorite ones. I think this years have all been a whole lot of fun! Like everyone else the Park Explorer ones are amazing. I would be great to get the whole town out and about exploring all 154 parks or green areas in Ann Arbor. I also really enjoy the old news hunts. It was fun to learn about all the ghosts we have!
I'd love to make one of the player pick badges but don't know how???

I enjoy the Cryptography and the Constellation series. The Constellations because that's a topic I'm interested in and the Cryptography because I'm learning about different ciphers. I also LOVE the park explorer badges. I haven't had a chance to do most of them, but I'm hoping to get around to it before my time runs out.

I really liked the Park Badges this year and last year. This year I am liking the Cryptic Cryptography badges. They really make me think!

If you ask my 5 and 6 year old kids, the Angry Birds badge wins hands down. We went to the event expecting to lob some balls at stuffed animals so we couldn't believe all the craft opportunities and how we ran into friends from all areas of our past -- preschool, church, baby classes, etc.
If you ask me, I would say the park explorer ones are our family favorites. They encourage us to take a free, active outing to places we haven't been before. Writing down the codes has been great for my boys to practice their writing. I applaud the library for all its creativity, coordination, and sense of fun with this ambitious community game. It has helped create some fun memories for us this summer. Thank you!

Angry Bird Badge and Mer-Mayday are absolute favorites with my children. I really liked the Park Explorer badges. It gave our family an opportunity to visit parks that we had not thought of visiting before. We really enjoyed the outings. Although some park trails were "spooky" according to my children, they liked going to a new park and looking at plants and animals. I never realized AA had so many trails for walkers. Oh! I also enjoyed the Pop Music through the decades badges and Surfs Up. I knew some of the answers but if it weren't for the badges I probably wouldn't have looked for most of these music/musicians. Thank you, AADL for this opportunity!

To the people who are interested in writing a badge, do it! It's fun. I've written a couple, and the library vets them before posting them. It might be nice to have an off-season badge-writing workshop. There are a lot more parks out there to explore!

Does the library post photos somewhere? I've noticed photographers at some of the events, but rarely see the photos.

I enjoy so many of them that it's hard to choose!

I really enjoy the park explorer badges as it gets me out of my comfort zone and into parks I don't know much about. I usually split my time between Parker Mill (my favorite), Lillie Park & Gallup, so to have badges for things like Dolph Nature Area or Barton Nature Area which I wouldn't necessarily go to on my own, has been good at expanding my horizons.

I also really enjoyed the Pattern Familiars badge where you had to look through the JUMP brochure to find the various everyday items in the pictures. I like it when pictures have little hidden things in them that if you don't look closely at them, you might miss the object.

I was thrilled with the Waterloo badge. I had really hoped it would include a reference to one of my favorite movies and it didn't disappoint. A lot of my co-workers were all stumped on that one, but I knew what it was right away because it's a movie I've seen oh... more times than I can count.

The Angry Birds badge was a lot of fun. I was at the event as a staff helper and it was great to see the kids and even some of the grown-ups having fun launching the "birds" at the piggies and cheering on other players.

Finally, I have to say the Wild Kingdom ones are also a lot of fun for me as I love the natural world and learning about various animals not to mention many of the ones that have been chosen are animals I really like.

My favorite badges have been the ones that take me to Old News! I love exploring that site and seeing all of the old pictures of our town.

I've only done 3 badges. It's fun to figure out the clues. It's nice to read the other recommendations. I'll focus on the recommended badges next.

Park Explorer badges are my absolute favorites. I also like the branch explorer badges. All of them are fun, but it's great to do the ones that make you discover all different parts of the city and that the whole family can do together.

From the 7 yr old:
Angry birds
Ice cream
Ciphers
Fermenting
Park explorer

From Mom:
Museum (though missing last one!)
Ciphers
Old News
Park explorer, though I would wish more were available by bus

I've enjoyed the Bunny Hop and Unearthed Unearthlies

generally, anything video game related. so polkamanias, the neverending chase, etc.

I have really enjoyed the park badges and Angry Birds, because both were activities that my family could do together. I will say that I have found it fairly hard to follow the directions given in the park badges. We couldn't even find the correct entrance to one, and several others have included vague directions that we misinterpreted, resulting in some frustration and wandering the wrong way. I think it would be helpful in the future to include clearer directions than terms like "main path," or "take the path into the woods," or other things that are subject to interpretation. Some parks have markings (numbered posts, for example) that could have been referenced.

There have been a few badges that my kids could work on with minimal help, such as the berry badge and the zombadge, but otherwise the clues often referenced things they were unfamiliar with or adult themed things. I think they found the old news ones workable as well. I have been pushed to complete the contributor badges by my kids.

I have enjoyed more the activities than searching the catalog after several years of doing this. Some of the clues are very hard to find because the clues are misleading or unclear (e.g. using the [incorrect] term "brussel sprouts" or not hinting at the actual thing being sought). It's easy for it to become tedious and good for someone who likes to click through and churn things out (all the one sentence or one word reviews, for example), and I think the activities help avoid that. I also have encountered other game players at the library and at parks, but wish there was a more communal spirit to this. I almost feel stalkerish if I talk to another person clutching their badge clues, or as if we're not supposed to talk. Why not a kick-off party, and then meetings throughout the summer? There could be activities, promotion of library events, and chitchat between players. We could share our favorite books, movies, CDs, talk about park passes and online databases. Why not a way for us to interact? It would make it less like a series of parallel solitaire games. After all, the point of playing games is often for the players to have fun together.

I think if AADL is reframing the concept of the library, then there should be a decrease in the hierarchical structure. Many library activities feel like something someone is giving us to do by ourselves all at the same time, from toddler storytime to kids' crafts and so on, instead of somethg that is building connections in the community in a really effective way.

The foodie badges! So fun! Any badge that has me searching for kombucha and kraut... :)

My personal favorites were the POLKemania badges. They were some fun, interesting connections with pokemon names and music.

I liked the Revolutionary Shores Badge that dropped on July 4th. I spent a long time reading about the famous inaccuracies in Leutze's painting. Thank you!

Park Explorer badges are my family's favorites. We've explored parks that we've never even visited in our many years in Ann Arbor.

Great stuff that we look forward to each week.

I've enjoyed the Dynamic Duos series. I think in general I most like badges where I'm familiar enough with something that it gets me started and makes me feel knowledgeable, and then I dig deeper and start learning something new. I still like to search through the catalog occasionally because I wind up discovering things I've never heard of but then want to read,or rediscover things I've forgotten about and want to see or read again, or introduce to my children. I mean, I never would have thought to look for and read a book about the former Jacobson's department stores if I hadn't stumbled upon it searching for who knows which code.

On another note, does anyone know if we will be told where to find Terranuims around town, or if we just need to discover them?

Love the park explorer badges! We want more of those!!!

What a great thread. I have really enjoyed seeing so many new players sharing their experience.

I think @willow has offered some great suggestions. It would be nice to have more in person interaction with the other players. It's not always easy to spot another player at events, and does feel kind of weird to walk up to a random person. Maybe aadl can offer name tags (design matching the summer game theme, or even the standard, hello my name is...) at events. I wouldn't feel so weird walking up to a fellow gamer who was wearing a name tag with their handle. I am looking forward to the wrap party so I can hopefully connect faces to handles.

I love that the summer game continues to evolve. It would be wonderful if we had an occasional meetup...kind of like the opportunity we got to speak at the board meeting, except less official and more of a dialogue. I am sure all of these ideas take a lot of time to organize, so hopefully they are possibilities to consider for next summer, and the players interested in helping can volunteer some time for the game we love!

I enjoy the video game themed ones. The mario themed badge actually led me to check out King of Kong. I find that a lot of the things I am finding are interesting to me, and I will check them out at the library.

This is my first time on summer game I'm so happy. It's amazing and help me too much improving my english. Thanks aadl!

My favorite badge is the dr Seuss one I love dr Seuss and I never new the story of how he wrote the cat and the hat until now

I love the ones where we can go out and do things, instead of sitting at the computer all day. I used to do the catalog search badges, but then I realized that they were causing me to stay inside too long!
The park explorer ones are the best. Has there been scavenger hunts we could do Downtown? That would be great.

I'm loving all of the puzzle ones and the park explorers. For the new talking ones posted today, could those be expanded to include posting a picture to the AADL facebook page? I don't use twitter or instagram, and don't really want to make an account for this.

Death Worm By The Numbers was a fun one! Especially the haiku!

I really enjoyed the Chomped The Shark Badges and the Bizarre Botany Badges! I learned so much more about plants and the making of how some of the tastiest foods are made!!

A vote from our house for games within The Game, along the lines of the Treasure Quest and Secret Shop tokens. It causes daily pangs of sorrow for years past that these subgames are no longer active.

Also, what exactly is the point of points-o-matic, and could it be arranged that "extra" players could participate? And what does one do with points that cannot be spent? We await your response, as it has been the subject of exhaustive (if not exhausting) discussion.

My absolute favorite badges are the ones that get me out of the house and exploring places that I might not otherwise have gone: Park Explorer, Branch Explorer, Terrarium Hysterium, etc. This summer I am also really enjoying the Constellation Consternation and You Can Learn a Lot from Lydia badge series. Keep up the great work AADL Summer Game Team!

We love so many of this year's different badges, but our favorites are the Park Explorer and Cryptography! Thank you for providing such a wonderful resource.

Thanks for getting me back to County Farm Park. I haven't been there in years, even though it's just up the road from me. Last time I was there it was pretty much just trails. So many improvements have been done with a GREAT playground. After getting all the codes we spent an hour at the playground. The best part was as the end my almost three year old said "Mom, can I go okay now?" I said "yes" he said "THANK YOU!" and took of running. It was great! We'll be back more often now.

I love the Branch Explorer badges! It has been so fun to go from branch to branch playing the game - I've seen parts of the city where I don't usually go, and noticed new things at each branch. For instance, I hadn't known that there was an underground parking garage at Traverwood.

I love the music badges!! And the cryptography ones too!

Thanks for replying! We will email the pictures.

Hard to pick but Bizarre Botany and I Learned a Lot from Lydia are probably my favorite series. Nice to learn new stuff. As are most, I am also a big fan of the explorer badge series. But individually, the Death Worm badge was great.

I love all the badges. Some I love because they are challenging, some are fun because it let's me look at books, music, and movies I may not have known about. Others I love because it gets me and my family out of the house. I do find that the ones that use other websites or the JUMP are fun, too. I just love trying to figure them out! I thought the terrarium badges were fun and cute. So many fun badges! Taking selfies, going to parks, using the catalog... there truly is something for everyone!

The Cryptid Cryptography ones are my favorites-- even though it takes a little more work to make the cipher cheat sheets.

Also any game codes with thought-out puns-- it's nice when you can see someone put time into thinking of something clever to put there!

The music badges have been fun, but the park explorer badges are the best. My young adult daughters and I have really enjoyed exploring the parks and we're looking forward to going to the grad library.

The Lydia badges are my favorite, and not just because they began with a Kate Beaton reference. The Constellation ones are a close second.

I like the idea of the Park and other exploration badges, but I'm mostly housebound so I really appreciate that there's a variety in each badge drop. :)

I have been loving the Polkemania badges- they are fiendishly difficult and a lot of fun. I knew absolutely nothing about Pokemon OR polka at the beginning of the summer and now I know a little (tiny bit) about both. Shout-out to the cryptid cryptography and park explorer badges as well. For a relative newcomer to Ann Arbor, the park badges are great- I didn't realize we had so much green space!

My favorite badges have been the animal kingdom ones.

I really like the twig terraiums badges!

Some of those outdoor badges are tough! Especially the Dolph one. Got lost a few times only to realize we skipped ahead somehow. I've got one left, and I plan on getting that on Friday. The branch badges have all been very fun. It's always fun to see families wandering around getting the codes, although I feel a bit silly as I'm not playing the game with kids .

My roommate and I LOVE the park explorer badges! We just came back from the UMMA, and we plan on going to the Matthei Botanical Gardens soon!

So far the "Bashful Biblical Beasts" badge is a favorite, along with all the other Cryptid Cryptography series of badges. Learning cryptography is a fun way to engage with the catalog searches.

The Barton Nature Area badge was fun as well. I've driven past that park countless times and never stopped to explore. The whole family had a great time.

The park explorer ones have been my favorite!

Animal badges and once I get there the park badges!

More Hufflepuff!

Spending time with the family and learning about books, movies and cds we didn't even know existed!

Ok, I'm adding the ice cream badge. I discovered a new local ice cream shop that I now LOVE. Salted Caramel, yum!

The new May the Force Be With You badge is great! At first I was pretty confused on how it worked, but after figuring that part out, it was lots of fun. Also I agree about the Bird Hills badge. You can pretty much get them all by looking at the guide, with the exception of the first two. I'm not sure if I will be going out there to find them, as the weather has been gross and school is starting soon for me.

Greatly enjoyed the Name that Library badge. Good clues.

My favorite have been the Park Explorers!

The food ones have been pretty fun too ;)

My favorite badge images are the botany and terrarium badges.

The payoff of the Lydia badge was fantastic. That was a brilliant idea for a badge series. Jolly well done, badge writers!

There really isn't a good category to put this in, but it's nothing new to observe that the reviews written by people who have hundreds or thousands of them are almost always very, very short; furthermore, some people are checking out items (50 pts) and rating them within minutes after checkout (50 more points). Obviously one can be familiar with an item, but it does seem a bit much when this happens in enormous numbers. I don't have a proposal to fix this, but it is a bit irritating. I have only rated items I have read/watched/listened to and can still remember, and only written reviews when I have something to say about the item.

Some of the cipher badges were fun! Others were torture :)

The wild kingdom badges were pretty cool!! We liked learning about the animals!

I have also liked the unearthed unearthlies ones too ;)