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133 Comments
- Azimuth1, on 10/23/2007, -5/+69Yeah, I've got to admit, playing games that don't have achievements just isn't the same any more. For me it's also another reason to buy a game I'm on the fence about.
That probably sounds pathetic, but I don't know, I just like having some sort of recordable accomplishment from a game. Come on, we've all forced ourselves through a game we haven't particularly enjoyed for the points (Kameo anyone?)
Someone should tell the guy in the article that they're called Achievements. - Joeshie, on 10/19/2007, -12/+72Remember that time when you used to play games for fun rather than increasing your e-penis?
- jimmymcduck, on 10/18/2007, -1/+27theyre good because they make you fell like youve actually achieved something and done something useful
- Azariel, on 10/19/2007, -2/+27The thing about achievements is that, since we're gonna spend a crap-load of our time playing something anyway, we'd at least like to get some credit for it. I know I feel good when I see someone's beaten some game only on easy and I know I've beaten it on the hardest difficulty (Halo 3 anyone?) and have the Gamerpoints to prove it.
- Phasmorphage, on 10/18/2007, -0/+24Yeah....
...maybe rent it though - DiggerRich, on 10/18/2007, -2/+23I think achievements in games is a great bonus, but if you're playing games just for achievements then there is no point. For example, beating Gears of War on insane is something I'm proud of, and now everyone can see I did it. But I'm not gonna buy a game like FIFA just so I can score 5 goals on expert and get 15,000 achievement points (EA is notorious for easy achievements).
- jrbrewin, on 10/18/2007, -0/+18it works the other way though. Good games are made even better by thoughtful, and interesting acheivements. Crackdown is a prime example where the developer wants the player to get the most of the game, and comes up with acheivements that drive the player to see and do things they wouldn't normally do.
- staticblake, on 10/18/2007, -0/+16Sorry...I have to bury any douche who says "cheevs" instead of achievements.
- nnnr, on 10/18/2007, -1/+16Orange box for PC has achievements you know...
- wageslaven, on 10/18/2007, -6/+20The authors of this need to look up Causality. Coralation != Causation.
Back to "Electronic Entertainment Design and Research" 101 for that group.
MS controls the "Total Number of Achievement Points" for each game, Perhaps they give more points to games it knows are of higher quality? Im sure they are better able to guess which games are going to get better reviews than others once they reach Gold.
Silly Silly. - djphatjive, on 10/18/2007, -2/+15Wii Games are pretty boring without achievements!
- NSMike, on 10/18/2007, -0/+12Damn, I need achievements at work. If there was some way for a little "Achievement Unlocked" thing to pop up on my screen every now and then...
- SiNN4R, on 10/18/2007, -1/+13HIV pwned both of them.
- Karyyk, on 10/18/2007, -1/+13Let's just put it this way, if a game is multiplatform, I'm buying it on the 360...
- dagamer34, on 10/18/2007, -7/+18Achievement points = e-penis of 21st century.
- novask, on 10/18/2007, -2/+12"Come on, we've all forced ourselves through a game we haven't particularly enjoyed for the points (Kameo anyone?)"
I was thinking, World of Warcraft. - DMDekoth, on 10/17/2007, -0/+9As long as achievements remain away from Multiplayer other than normal playing, I love them. But I hate it when someone in a multiplayer game isn't doing his duty because he needs his achievements.
- Phasmorphage, on 10/18/2007, -4/+13High Scores mb?
AAA has a bigger penis than ASS! - nights0223, on 10/18/2007, -2/+10Viva Piñata is an awesome game. Give it some more time.
- RichG13, on 10/18/2007, -0/+8It harkens back to the days of first generation video gamers like myself. I would spend countless hours and quarters on games like Shinobi, Ghouls and Ghosts, Double Dragon, Pac-man and Zaxxon just to get "RAG" to the number 1 spot. Now instead of walking down to the 7-11 or biking to the mall arcade to see "CUM" take the top spot from me, I just go online to see if my friends have topped me. It's a videogame thing, you probably wouldn't understand
- Zipp425, on 10/18/2007, -1/+9Was there an e-penis in the 20th century?
- UGM2099, on 10/18/2007, -0/+8Cool... I'm a non gamer that just bought a 360 yesterday and was confused by achievements... now everything is making sense.
Portal is the best game evar. - NSMike, on 10/18/2007, -0/+7Crackdown's Achievements are a little different, though. Unlike most games, unlocking an achievement in Crackdown gives your character a nice boost. Most achievements are just badges of honor (i.e. Halo 3 on Legendary. Sure, you get some new armor in multiplayer, but you don't even get to see it that much). Crackdown did it right when they figured out that rewarding the player for accomplishing something would extend the playability of their game. And they were right. I got more achievements in Crackdown than any other game I've played to date.
- SSCrow, on 10/18/2007, -1/+8Remember that time when people would talk ***** about completing games or getting certain high scores, but had no proof? And you just had to either assume they were lying or telling the truth.
- MiDri, on 10/18/2007, -0/+7Wo. WO WO... Did you just say orange box sucks? Get out, get the ***** out! You're not welcome on Digg anymore. Don't let the portal hit you where the god split you.
- Kurisuku, on 10/18/2007, -0/+6FUK is a great destroyer.
- zetec, on 10/18/2007, -0/+6I have to admit, Achievements are XBL's secret weapon. I know I've played some total ***** games just for the achievements, and it's addicting as hell. Whoever masterminded the little scheme deserves a giant ***** raise.
- Sirlolalot, on 10/18/2007, -0/+6"Congratulations, you have unlocked your next hours pay"
- emorphien, on 10/18/2007, -3/+9You need to look up a coralation in a dictionary.
- anotherjeff, on 10/18/2007, -1/+6King Kong and Fuzion Frenzy.
- jimmymcduck, on 10/18/2007, -0/+5.
- Firehed, on 10/18/2007, -0/+5They add a lot of replay value, so it's not surprising that sales are higher. Go through the first time like you would any other game, then do your second through ninetieth runs trying to get those last damn five points.
Worked on Hexic, anyways. So well, in fact, that it's been dominating my Xbox usage instead of games that I actually paid for. - NoodleGuy, on 10/18/2007, -0/+5MS only controls the maximum. The game designers control every other aspect of the achievement system:
How many achievements there are (you could have a game with one achievement worth all 1000 points, or you could have one with 1000 1 point achievements)
What the achievments are (you could have a single achievement for beating a game on any difficulty, or multiple achievements based on if you beat the game on Normal, hard, or insane)
What the achievements are worth (most games have around 50 achievements, but not every achievement is worth 20 points, some are worth more some less)
If the achievements are secret (do you want to list plot points in your achievements)
There are more aspects of achievements that are all set by the developers. MS just says 1000 points for a retail game, 200 points for an XBLA game, and thanks to the Oblivion clause 250 additional points for downloadable content. - Pthalio, on 10/18/2007, -0/+4I am a complete achievement whore. That being said.. my gamerscore isn't all that high and I'm not gonna buy crap games just for achievements but I have found that because of achievements I'm getting a better gameplay experience. I used to just finish games, now I'm exploring more, trying things I may not have before to get those achievements. Two achievements I really enjoyed were in Crackdown. You climb to the top of the highest tower in the game and dive off into the water. I found it really hard to do and I never would have attempted it without the pull of two achievements (one for the getting to the top, one for hitting the water not the ground). So in short they are fun :)
- Hermitwise, on 10/17/2007, -0/+4When I finally got my full grown Dragonachi I was speechless with rapture...I'll leave now.
- Sairynn, on 10/18/2007, -0/+4Correlation does not equal causation. Getting achievements is fun and I think it's a great addition to the games, but I wouldn't buy a game because of them.
- Cerebral, on 10/18/2007, -0/+4All of you are somewhat wrong save for static...
All retail games used to ship with 1000 AP. XBLA games have 200 AP. Once Shivering Isles (DLC for Oblivion) came out Microsoft allowed another 250 AP to be added to retail titles. I also believe they did increase the AP for XBLA games to 300 for ones with DLC as well. A good site for reference of AP is: http://xbox360achievements.org.
As far as WHAT achievements are in games, Microsoft does have some say over that. For instance Microsoft used to have it so that you were required to make your achievements in Ranked matches so that people could not cheat the system etc. Other than that I think it is pretty much wide open as to WHAT your achievements will be. I have not read anything otherwise. Just to be clear I am referring to HOW MANY ACHIEVEMENTS there are in a game and not how many POINTS there are in a game. - rcomegys, on 10/18/2007, -0/+4This is absolutely true. I think the "better" games have better achievements as a result of a development team who knows their *****. But they are right in that an established achievement system -- one that brings all games into one single point -- is really darned effective. I would have given up on the advanced Portal levels because I was having problems with them. But I wanted the achievements, so I kept going.
I also really wanted to get Rock Band for the 360 because of the achievements (as well as Live). But I'm getting it for the PS3, and even if the multiplayer were exactly the same, I know it's going to be different -- even IF the achievements look the same on both, I want them in a unified format. - Kurisuku, on 10/18/2007, -1/+5Well I used to do the bare minimum to complete games, cheat even, just to get them out of the way ASAP. Games seem like a burden to me, yet I can't stop purchasing them. It's a chore.
Now with achievements I actually have to complete games rather than just skim through them. *****' Microsoft. :( - staticneuron, on 10/18/2007, -0/+4I thought all games( with the exception of XBLA) shipped with 1000 points to achieve? And the games with more than that are because of downloadable add-ons afterwards... such as crackdown.
- gojcaj, on 10/18/2007, -0/+4but a lot of other people would.
- RST1123, on 10/18/2007, -0/+3I like achievements, they aren't a deal breaker for me; but it's nice to get achievements at key moments in the game. Sometimes developers can add a touch of humor to the game. It's nice.
- melonhedd, on 10/19/2007, -4/+7Wii Games are pretty boring.
- bobbles, on 10/17/2007, -0/+3I had a real problem with the achievements in HL2: Episode 2.
In portal the achievement pop ups were great, I was solving seperate puzzles and it was just an interesting bit of info on how I was doing.
In episode 2 however, its entirely built around being drawn into the story, I know I'm Gordon in those games now, its been that way for years. The Half Life games are a great way to get absorbed into the game.
Maybe its just me but when I was walking through the caverns and suddenly the "Achievement Progress" pop up hits the screen and totally pulls me out of the moment. Its an awesome feature for replayability, and I plan on playing through again trying to get the achievements sometime, but as far as I know putting Steam into offline mode is the only way to stop the pop ups from occurring (please let me know if I'm wrong here!)
Did anyone else feel that way playing through EP2? - Sairgem, on 10/17/2007, -0/+3Halo 3 is a good example of that *****. Three or four of the achievements you have to get in Lone Wolves, so you always have some ass asking the party if they wanna do achievements.
- supaklaw, on 10/17/2007, -0/+3Bottom line is achievements are for silly 12 year olds to feel superior to other silly 12 year olds. If someone says they make a game better, the game clearly sucks. I love how every retard on Halo 3 thinks they are badass for getting the Hayabusa armor, and most of them are noobs... just like the noobs that weasle they're way to higher ranks by lagging games and then can't even snipe. Achievements and rankings only bring out the worst in people when it should be about good conversation and gameplay. But I'm taking crazy pills I guess.
- wageslaven, on 10/18/2007, -2/+5s/coralation/correlation
- staticneuron, on 10/18/2007, -0/+3Achievments for live but some games have been incorperating feedback for certain tasks accomplished like the darkness. Supposedly this will tie in to the trophy system on PSN.
Achievments are a good gauge of how many games you have played and at which point you need to step outside. And my gamerscore doen't reflect how much time I spend on gaming because I have many systems. - Nobi-Wan, on 10/18/2007, -0/+3I had no idea idiots were calling them "cheevs." That's probably one of the most retarded things I've heard in a long time.
- Cerebral, on 10/17/2007, -0/+3Achievements are a double-edged sword.
One one hand they can expand gameplay to levels that we've never seen before and give games that don't have really any replayability, a reason to play the game over and over again. For a quick example on both sides of the fence I will use Gears of War. In Gears there would really be no reason for someone to play the game over again on "Insane" other than to try their hand at the game on a harder level. In the same respects there would be no reason to replay the game on "Hardcore" for the second or third time save for getting those last couple of COG tags you were missing.
The downside to achievements are when the game effects the base gameplay of the game. This is usually the case in multiplayer gameplay where you can have a team-based game such as Gears where you will get one guy on a team (and in a ranked match because the majority of achievements in Gears require ranked matches... actually all achievements prior to the new "hidden fronts" maps were released free) would run around with grenades trying to "tag" someone for the achievement or one guy who sucks with the sniper rifle who always goes and picks it up because he is "working on his sniper achievement." In those instances achievements are a bad thing because it can ruin the gameplay for everyone on the team where it counts (ranked or just in overall stats).
All in all the majority of achievements are good because they DO extend the life of a game and/or make a simple game more interesting (think pacifism in Geometry Wars) and I do think that the good achievements outweigh some of the worst achievements in gaming history (think the NBA Live 07 one where you had to play online when there were over 1,000 people online at the same time). Take achievements for what they are: an e-penis, a marketing ploy to get you to play the game online, a marketing ploy to get more people to get XBL Gold memberships or just a fun addition to expand your hard earned $$$ because no matter which way you put it, we all love hearing that sound and getting that little pop-up on screen telling us we've (in essence) "won" something.
http://xbox360achievements.org - Great site for everything Xbox360 achievement related with guides on how to get some of the achievements etc. -
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