Treasure Week just ended...did anyone participate?  All of the games were too hard for me :/
Also, for veteran users-- does Kongregate have other events like this?

I'm just wondering if I can find out a little more about the type of people who play XD

I've only spoken on the chat once now (after being lured out of lurkingness by Zerza)... and that managed to help spawn an odd user who is asking for my email (not... stalkerishly, he's friendly but I'm not used to that XD). Is this commonplace in Kongregate? Because I wouldn't know.

Also feel free to discuss the userbase, community and friendliness of people on Kongregate in general.

Kongregate makes a name for itself as a large scale gaming website. Okay, so what? Type in 'free online games' into google and you'll get a couple thousand results (Some of those are site squatters, but go figure.) The thing that keeps making me return to Kon in the achievement system.

First off, what's an achievement system?
This is pretty much x-box live points, skill points in the Ratchet and Clank series, or the Achievement Diaries in Runescape(Members). By doing things that most other players wouldn't bother with/that are hard to achieve/that are hard to find, you get points, which you can then show to other players. It basically amounts to 'look at my game skill. You can see it numerically, right there'. Most games try to offer some kind of reward system for skill points, unlockables and such. Kongregate unlocks badges specific to that game. As in a very nice looking freezeframe in mini.

So what's the appeal?
The achievement system works like a cross between bragging rights and a 'gotta catch them all' system. You want to get everything in the game? Well don't forget to grab all the achievements.

Can a site live on achievements alone?
I don't know. Right now Kongregate appears to be going through a lot of updating, expanding, and so forth. The Achievement system is sure to keep me busy for a few weeks at the least, but will I still want to play after that? I don't know. We'll see.

So what did you think of the achievement system? I'd like to see it in more games, really. It offers a set challenge which can be directly attempted, be done by accident, or just be done in the course of a regular game.

So what do you think?

I've played a couple of their games, and so far I like the platform racing games best. (I haven't actually joined them, though)

What is your favorite of their games?