Achievements are the Best/Worst thing to Happen to Gaming

[NeutralMunchHotel]

Firstly, I want to say that (for the most part) I love achievements and am on the side of the 'best' thing.

However some things have annoyed me about achievements, and this is the way in which they are utilised: they are either incentive to do bonus things in the game (ie complete 100%) or make certain choices in the game. Of course there are the ones that are tacked on and have blatantly had no thought put into them, but let's just ignore that. Back to my original point, it's the second one that I have a problem with. The main offender for me so far is Mass Effect. In a game that is supposed to be about the choices you make, there is always the feeling that if you just do the right thing there'll be another achievement you can get. Then, once you've completed it and gotten the achievement for being good there's the one for being bad. *Starts new game and spends another 20 hours being a badass*. Oh, this doesn't mention the partner achievements - I missed one on my first try, so that's a minimum of four play-throughs if I want to get all the achievements.

Surprisingly, the best achievement list that I've come across in my (admittedly short) time of achievement-whoring is Lego Indiana Jones. I don't know quite what it is about it, but it made me want to find all the artifacts and post all the letters. Which is why it's the only 1000/1000 I have so far. And this is because the achievements are arranged in such a way that I actually have a reason (yeah, I know) to be bothered to find everything. And I felt really good about it at the end.

(Of course I love Mass Effect, and in my 360's lifespan I will probably end up completing it four times. It just seems like a long journey that I can't be bothered to start right about now.)

So, achievements - vile playthings of Satan... or a cool number (numbers can indeed be cool)

 

[Fallen_Hitokiri]

They arent the worst thing or the best
the worst is the wii
the best is the snes
but they are pretty good
i like to have something extra to work for and it helps
encourage you to actually collect everything

 

[fenrizz]

I like them.
Just hooked up my PS3 to the net, and started collecting trophies.
It's kinda fun, especially in Wolfenstein 3D!
But the system in WoW is far better imo.

 

[scnj]

Um. Hard to say really. I like that they're offering rewards for playing more, but on the flipside, I miss when people used to just play games for enjoyment or the satisfaction of finishing.

I'm glad they gave the options to turn off notificaions, because nothing ruins immersion more than that obnoxious achievement unlocked message popping up.

Worth mentioning is the anti-Christ that is online achievements. I fucking hate when people refuse to co-operate with the rest of their team because they're only 12 sniper rifle kills away from the achievement.

And I hate people flashing their gamerscore when in reality it means nothing. Especially with games like Avatar, where 1000 points can be unlocked in a minute or so.

I think that Microsoft should do something with the gamerscore, like the ability to cash in gamerpoints for Microsoft Points to use in the marketplace.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

Well they have zero bearing on the actual game so all in all i would say they are rather Meh.

Bringing it back to Mass Effect, (oh how I love thee)gaining an achievement in a weapon class will give any new character you make a bonus in that class. I don't know if there are any more instances where achievements actually do effect the game like that, but it can happen.

 

[DueAccident]

I like them, something neat for playing the game and achieving various things; though this may be because I quite like stats and numbers in a dorky way.
I like having them, and aiming for some that might be fun, but I don't feel obligated to achieve them all, simply because I never seem to be able to, so I don't even pretend I can, anymore.

 

[Sindre1]

Worst: Mass Effect (I loved the game)
Best: Bioshock, The Orange Box and Mirrors Edge (in that order)

 

[Sindre1]

Some achievements are also important to the future development of games. You may not realise that, but those 10 or 20 gamer points you're getting from an unlocked achievement are hugely important.

Hoooow?

 

[SigmondK]

I don't see why you all hate the Mass Effect achievements. I mean it isn't doing anything that fans of RPGs wouldn't do already. A game that has a moral choice system in place (Kotor, Fable, Etc.) beg to be played more than one time anyway. The companion achievement isn't all that bad either and if you were going for the achievement whoring for ME then you would only really have to play through it a grand total of three times. I guess I just don't see the point of being upset over the RPG achievement table set. Though that just might only be me in that regard.

 

[Mad Maniac with axe-firing chainsaw]

Some achievements are also important to the future development of games. You may not realise that, but those 10 or 20 gamer points you're getting from an unlocked achievement are hugely important.

Hoooow?

I heard that sometimes companies look at the achievements to see, on average, how far people are getting with the games, and what they are doing in them. Do people tend to pick extremes, or do they go neutral (Fallout 3) Did they complete the game? (Mass effect) Did they complete the games hardest setting (mass effect) From data like this they can work out how to tweak the games to make them more gamer friendly. If every gamer plus your 6 year old baby brother has done the hardest settings twice, you know you've made the game too easy. If, on the other hand, the most hardened gamers are left swearing at the screen as they die yet again in a bloody gamer massacre on easy, you know that the person in charge of difficulty was obviously a complete asshole and needs to be shunted back into line.

EDIT: Damn, beaten to the punch!

 

[sooperman]

Some achievements are also important to the future development of games. You may not realise that, but those 10 or 20 gamer points you're getting from an unlocked achievement are hugely important.

Hoooow?

Mentor said it kind of wierd, but achievements are important. They let developers track how many people have gotten how far in a game, and how much of the game the have completed.

But that is no the question at hand; on-topic, I think that achievements are neither the best or worst thing that ever happened to gaming. The worst thing that ever happened to gaming is bothersome pretentions to realism.

 

[dontworryaboutit]

I honestly don't understand their purpose. They're cute in a 'kudos' sort of way.

That's really all I see.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

I don't see why you all hate the Mass Effect achievements. I mean it isn't doing anything that fans of RPGs wouldn't do already. A game that has a moral choice system in place (Kotor, Fable, Etc.) beg to be played more than one time anyway. The companion achievement isn't all that bad either and if you were going for the achievement whoring for ME then you would only really have to play through it a grand total of three times. I guess I just don't see the point of being upset over the RPG achievement table set. Though that just might only be me in that regard.

I don't hate them, it's just the fact that they can restrict you - you always think about getting the achievement rather than what the consequences actually might be.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

See, in the OPs example of Mass Effect, I think they did everything right. Sure it takes minimum 3 playthroughs to get them all, which is at least 60+ hours. However, Mass Effect does something that I think a lot of other games should take note of: REAL incentive to complete the achievements. In other games, you get maybe a gamerpic and some points. Woohoo, right? Completing achievements in Mass Effect gets you special bonuses in the game. 10% more experience gain, 10% more damage protection or shields, 5% more weapon damage, the ability to unlock BONUS TALENTS on all your new characters. I think that the industry could learn a lot from that, as it was nearly the perfect design.

I honestly wouldn't mind the ally achievements one bit if they didn't require you to do the 30 or so bland, lifeless side planets. ME2 will fix this by making the side planets/missions more interesting, hopefully.