I crunch for the pretty colors

I crunch for the scientists.

196,085th

In reality, just so long as people are crunching, that's what really counts. I'd expect that there's actually a relatively small percentage of people who actually modify their project preferences in order to achieve the highest mix of badges that they can get - all of which, will be offset by the majority of people who are "all project crunchers". So, apart from the slight slew which will probably occur at a new project launch (whilst people are scrambling to get to Gold, and beyond, first) and at the conclusion of a project (as we've seen with DDD-T(1)), I agree in that I don't think the badges will have that much effect on a project.

Conversely, what the badges do bring though, is prestige, recognition as well as competition, thereby making WCG a more interesting place, where more people stick around for longer and bring on board as much crunching power as they can lay their hands on.

BTW, to keep this post 'on track', I've moved up 13 places since Midnight UTC last Monday - Accumulated Points: 1,661,519 Current Ranking: 11,721

That was last July 25th

Now

Accumulated Points: 33,078,023
Current Ranking: 216

Keep on chunching folks , congrats to all of you