Full FeedMy name is Brian and I’m addicted to achievement points
I can’t deny it any longer.
I have all the telltale signs.
I have Avatar: The Last Airbender on my Gamefly queue.
I’m working on mathematical equations as to how to kill 53,000 zombies on Dead Rising and 53,000 infected on Prototype.
For Mario’s sake, stop making that an achievement. You taunt us addicts and completionists. I’m not doing that one anymore, especially not for 30 gamer points.
Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that are oh-so satisfying. I don’t even know why that little “plink” noise and the words “Achievement Unlocked!” make my heart sing, I just know that they do. High scores have been around as long as gaming has but Microsoft has come up with a unique way to put them front and center.
Technically, these aren’t even all high scores. Some of them are low moments. Madden NFL 10 has one for throwing the ball away on fourth down titled “Well Played, Really.” 50 Cent: Blood on The Sand offers one for getting killed on Easy level called “Not Bulletproof.” If you need any proof of the success of Xbox Achievements, look at how quickly Sony adopted its own version with Trophies. Other companies don’t borrow concepts that don’t work right. One of the first things I do when a game I’m interested in buying comes out, even before checking reviews, is seeing what the achievements are and how easy or difficult they are to get.
The question comes up and is valid: “What have you earned here, B?”
In the grand scheme of things, nothing tangible.
I can’t spend these points to buy a shiny new pony or anything. But the same applies to when I beat any game or accomplish any in-game task. Perhaps, as a writer, what I really enjoy is the running chronicle of my game triumphs, tragedies and yes, even games I shudder to remember playing.
Achievements add replay value to the great games and give you a reason of some kind to play the horrible ones. Part of the fun among us “achievement point whores” is finding ways to trick the system. Not only are there achievements that aren’t disabled by cheats, there are games where entering a cheat code unlocks an achievement.
Naysayers complain that achievements are ruining gaming. Much of this hubbub comes from the new custom of “boosting” where gamers get together and play exclusively to get achievements that would be nearly impossible solo. I fail to see how gamers reaching out to each other and working together in admittedly unorthodox ways is a bad thing.
And I would tell anyone that the number one rule of achievement point whoring is that if it’s becoming work, just stop. The points really are supposed to be for fun. If tomorrow they told me that Bioshock 2 or Modern Warfare 2 was having all of its achievement points removed, I would still be looking forward to playing both those games. If you’re turning your nose up at a potential Game of the Year because it has online achievements you’ll never get, you are taking them way too seriously.
There’s a support group for that, too. Meet us on Xbox Live tonight but not too early, we’re boosting Gears of War.
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I forget most of the time about the achievements until i get one! I was hoping you could use them to buy cool stuff at the Xbox Live store or something, but when i realized that they are mainly for bragging rights, i stopped caring.
I guess their fun for those completionists out there that need to do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE in the game to be satisfied!
on September 17, 2009 at 05:58 PM - LINKThese achievements/trophies are simply challenges (or lack there-of) set by developers, and the entire system is provided by the big guys (Microsoft and Sony). As the online community grows, so does need to brag. In some ways—and for some people—achievements/trophies have corrupted what a game really is, but in some ways, it has added more value. As you have stated, it adds replay value, but some fail to see this.
I have a friend who has a 30,000 Gamerscore points. Once he plays a game (and strictly for the achievements), he is done with it; he never touches it again. What has happened here is that he doesn’t see the game AS a game, but as a score booster and nothing more. This is the case for most of the games he plays. I occasionally see him jump onto Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (which the achievements he has fully unlocked for, I might add), but not so often. He played Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for one day, MAYBE two. He unlocked all the achievements, and I have never seen him play it since. This is an example of corruption.
In some games, there are those achievements that are out of the way of the path you’re expected to go in any game, or some that are rather difficult to get or may even require you to play through the game again. Mass Effect provides an achievements for completing two playthroughs, and with two playthroughs may come even more achievements you did not unlock the first time around. This adds replay value. Blue Dragon requires you to find and defeat certain rare monsters or collect rare items to unlock achievements. That is some wonderful replay value.
Not all achievements necessarily add replay value, but the bulk of them do, for those who look for that in a game. In the end, however, public achievements/trophies are a minor selling point for games; they have been somewhat corrupted by the industry itself.
on September 17, 2009 at 07:54 PM - LINK