Making it more like a game has positive and negative aspects... the positive are ok, but among the negative you will find that some will feel like ...losers for not having what others have. We tend to compare ourselves to what others are doing way too much and that's a human psychological vulnerability.
Having said that, I'm more in favor of discrete badges for high reputation or people who've really established themselves with their earnings...
I would also fancy top curation badges (curation reward ratio in relation to what one's curation power is). This would allow even minnows to show that they can pick the right articles...
Could be...