Achievements are the Best/Worst thing to Happen to Gaming

[The_Echo]

They're just a gimmick.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

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.

Especially if you have to do them three times...

 

[Mad Maniac with axe-firing chainsaw]

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.

There's one way of getting the ally achievements quickly. Start a new game, with the default John Shepard character, and flick the difficulty to easy, before simply picking the two character achievements you want and running through the game with just them. Don't do side quests. Don't do long dialogue. Cut it short and get it done. I'm not a huge fan of doing achievements for the hell of them but that's the attitude I'd take.

 

[Sindre1]

Snip.

Oh...Neat!

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

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.

There's one way of getting the ally achievements quickly. Start a new game, with the default John Shepard character, and flick the difficulty to easy, before simply picking the two character achievements you want and running through the game with just them. Don't do side quests. Don't do long dialogue. Cut it short and get it done. I'm not a huge fan of doing achievements for the hell of them but that's the attitude I'd take.

You say quickly, but that would take 5 hours and be incredibly dull. Sure, it would take longer to do properly but at least I wouldn't feel depressed that I had nothing better to do than rush a game of Mass Effect for an achievement...

 

[megapenguinx]

I...dislike them. Sure they extend play time, but then they also bring about the whores and such. I never go out of my way to get an achievement, that's just dumb.
I have to agree with the OP on the Lego Indiana Jones thing though. Has a pretty good list and rewards you for things you would normally do in the game (ie smashing all the lego objects, collecting the artifacts, ect).
Worst/Hardest would be Burnout Revenge. Seriously? An Achievement for having your clip be in the top 20 vids of all time? Ridiculous.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

There's one way of getting the ally achievements quickly. Start a new game, with the default John Shepard character, and flick the difficulty to easy, before simply picking the two character achievements you want and running through the game with just them. Don't do side quests. Don't do long dialogue. Cut it short and get it done. I'm not a huge fan of doing achievements for the hell of them but that's the attitude I'd take.

I think you misunderstand how to get the ally achievements. You need to do 15 missions and 45 assignments with the ally in your party. That means you have to do pretty much all of the side planet assignments.

 

[PhoenixFlame]

But the system in WoW is far better imo.

WoW's system is the result of the original concept of achievements - and just another thing that Blizzard has tried to take and use for their own. That copy of a system pales in comparison to Warhammer Online's Tome of Knowledge, which is basically an entire potpourri of achievement unlocks for doing just about anything in the game. Lots of achievement junkies love the system WAR has to offer.

Achievements in general aren't a bad thing - you don't have to get them and they are considered nice bonuses. The idea of sharing achievements with people just builds upon that idea. As long as achievements don't keep me from content I have to experience to enjoy the game, I'm more than happy to get the ones I just happen to stumble upon while playing.

 

[Mad Maniac with axe-firing chainsaw]

There's one way of getting the ally achievements quickly. Start a new game, with the default John Shepard character, and flick the difficulty to easy, before simply picking the two character achievements you want and running through the game with just them. Don't do side quests. Don't do long dialogue. Cut it short and get it done. I'm not a huge fan of doing achievements for the hell of them but that's the attitude I'd take.

I think you misunderstand how to get the ally achievements. You need to do 15 missions and 45 assignments with the ally in your party. That means you have to do pretty much all of the side planet assignments.

Whoops, my bad, didn't realise you had to do that. Sorry for the misleading post.

 

[Kinguendo]

The best, it gives you the sense that you have acheived something... even though it is nothing of any worth, it's really just a "measuring" contest.

 

[hopeneverdies]

If it unlocks actual things like say TF2, then achievements are fine, or if they are fun to do or just mark your progress they are okay with me. If it is stupid like game long scavenger hunts. Uh, Nuh uh.

Why doesn't Microsoft just use your gamerscore as MS points, but make the amount of points to buy something higher?

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

If it unlocks actual things like say TF2, then achievements are fine, or if they are fun to do or just mark your progress they are okay with me. If it is stupid like game long scavenger hunts. Uh, Nuh uh.

Why doesn't Microsoft just use your gamerscore as MS points, but make the amount of points to buy something higher?

Why not game long scavenger hunts? As I said the achievements actually give you an incentive to do them.

 

[hopeneverdies]

Why not game long scavenger hunts? As I said the achievements actually give you an incentive to do them.

Do you like the search for the flags in Assassin's Creed, the flying rats massacre and stunt ramps in GTA 4, and other points where you have to search every nook and cranny and still pass up that required thing you are unable to get because you missed it earlier?

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

Why not game long scavenger hunts? As I said the achievements actually give you an incentive to do them.

Do you like the search for the flags in Assassin's Creed, the flying rats massacre and stunt ramps in GTA 4, and other points where you have to search every nook and cranny and still pass up that required thing you are unable to get because you missed it earlier?

But what about the ones where it's actually fun to backtrack and find all these things? Lego Indiana Jones springs to mind... you just chose some of the few where it seems like a chore. I admit that Assassin's Creed is pretty shocking though.

 

[Asehujiko]

I hate them. It makes annoying people even more vocal about how "good" they are while contributing nothing to the game and in some cases directly detracting from it(anywhere where decent atmosphere is required).

 

[NotAPie]

Well to me they are just things that keep me playing a game longer, so its not really a bad thing.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

I hate them. It makes annoying people even more vocal about how "good" they are while contributing nothing to the game and in some cases directly detracting from it(anywhere where decent atmosphere is required).

Decent atmosphere? If you mean the pop-up then you can turn it off.

 

[SigmondK]

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.

Okay I'm game. Let's go down that road shall we?

* Medal of Honor - Complete 1 Mass Effect Playthrough on any setting - 100G
* Medal of Heroism - Complete Feros - 25G
* Distinguished Service Medal - Complete Eden Prime - 25G
* Council Legion of Merit - Complete Virmire - 25G
* Honorarium of Corporate Service - Complete Noveria - 25G
* Long Service Medal - Complete 2 Mass Effect Playthroughs on any setting - 25G
* Distinguished Combat Medal - Complete 1 Mass Effect playthrough on the Hardcore difficulty setting. Do not change the setting. - 25G
* Medal of Valor - Complete 1 Mass Effect playthrough on the Insanity difficulty setting. Do not change the setting. - 50G
* Pistol Expert - Register 150 Pistol Kills - 10G
* Shotgun Expert - Register 150 Shotgun Kills - 15G
* Assault Rifle Expert - Register 150 Assault Rifle Kills - 15G
* Sniper Expert - Register 150 Sniper Rifle Kills - 15G
* Lift Mastery - Use biotic Lift 75 times - 15G
* Throw Mastery - Use biotic Throw 75 times - 15G
* Warp Mastery - Use biotic Warp 75 times - 15G
* Singularity Mastery - Use biotic Singularity 75 times - 15G
* Barrier Mastery - Use biotic Barrier 75 times - 15G
* Stasis Mastery - Use biotic Stasis 75 times - 15G
* Damping Specialist - Use Damping Field 75 times - 15G
* AI Hacking Specialist - Use AI Hacking 75 times - 15G
* Overlord Specialist - Use Shield Overload 75 times - 15G
* Sabotage Specialist - Use Sabotage 75 times - 15G
* First Aid Specialist - Use medi-gel 150 times - 15G
* Neural Shock Specialist - Use Neural Shock 75 times - 15G
* Scholar - Find all primary Alien: Council Races, Extinct Races and Non-Council Races codex entries - 25G
* Completionist - Complete the majority of the game - 25G
* Tactician - Complete playthrough with shield damage greater than health damage - 25G
* Medal of Exploration - Land on an uncharted world - 50G
* Rich - Exceed 1,000,000 Credits - 25G
* Dog of War - Register 150 organic enemy kills - 25G
* Geth Hunter - Register 250 Synthetic enemy kills - 25G
* Soldier Ally - Complete the majority of the game with the Alliance soldier squad member - 20G
* Sentinal Ally - Complete the majority of the game with the Alliance sentinel squad member - 20G
* Krogan Ally - Complete the majority of the game with the Krogan squad member - 20G
* Turian Ally - Complete the majority of the game with the turian squad member - 20G
* Quarian Ally - Complete the majority of the game with the querian squad member - 20G
* Asari Ally - Complete the majority of the game with the asari squad member - 20G
* Power Gamer - Reach 50th level with one character - 20G
* Extreme Power Gamer - Reach 60th level with one character - 50G
* Renegade - Accumulate 75% of total Renegade points - 15G
* Paragon - Accumulate 75% of total Paragon points - 15G
* Paramour - Complete any romance subplot - 10G
* Spectre Inductee - Become a Spectre - 15G
* Charismatic - Use Charm or Intimidate to resolve an impossible situation - 10G
* Search and Rescue - Locate Dr. T?Soni in the Artemis Tau cluster - 10G


There is an entire list of every achievement. How does any of those limit you? Okay we can say that the ally one has it's problems, but the first time I played through I had Wrex and Ashley with me the whole game without knowing of that achievement. So help me understand how these achievements are so very narrowed that you have to worry about them other than the consequences of your actions in game?

Maybe you mean the renegade or paragon standing? Well that depends on the way you play, but for the most part I don't know anyone that would stay a neutral path in games like these.

How about the charisma achievement where you diffuse an impossible situation through charismatic checks. Such as talking Wrex down or Having Saren kill himself. Again this achievement is negligible and most people would save Wrex mainly because he is one of the better characters in the game to begin with.

So please help me to understand how any of these achievements will force a player to consider the achievement instead of the consequences of your actions in game.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

As terrible as Mass Effect's achievements might be (forcing you to play the game AT LEAST 3 times), there are few games that are more fun to play through 3+ times than ME. Heck, I have 1050 in that game (current max) and I will still go back and play it 2 weeks before ME2 comes out.