Actually... it kinda does sound like a game. Kinda. Just as much as XP is here or karma on slashdot. Or any other of a miriad of cutesy social-engineering metrics that encourage positive behaviour and discourage negative behaviour.

By highlighting what the originator (whether an individual, a cabal, or any other source) believes is good and bad, and giving points to the good, and subtracting points for the bad, the provide users with a challenge to maximise their points.

In your case, it sounds like it worked. ;-)

There's nothing wrong with that. Someone chooses attributes they wish to highlight. Others wish to be highlighted. Sounds reasonable to me. Those wishing to be highlighted gain a sense of accomplishment or mastery by achieving the positive points and eliminating the negative points (if any). All in all, sounds like it's taking advantage of human nature to improve perl. Where's the downside?

Update: For example, this makes me think about not only fixing my existing modules (1 at 13, 2 at 15, 1 at 17), but also trying to come up with another module so I can get into the 5+ group... isn't that what was intended by whoever wrote this thing? ;->