Back in the day the only consistent achievements in video games were getting the highest scores, beating the game on the hardest difficulty, and maybe a speed-run here and there. Now it’s totally different. With the advent of online gaming, words like gamerscore, trophies, and achievements are as synonymous with gaming as Koopa and Chocobo.
They’re a positive innovation; a reason to explore a game, not just to complete it. Rather than a single carrot waiting for you at the end, developers can put carrots in every virtual closet and on every virtual gun. It also provides another medium for the competitive to be who there are. Does having a higher gamerscore or more trophies make me a better person than you? You’re god damn right it does. So what if Avatar is in my games played? It’s in yours too.
Still, if the intention of achievements and trophies is to increase the fun factor in a game will someone please tell me then why the following so often make the developers cut?:
It’s Like a Scavenger Hunt: Only Shitty!
Collectible trophies annoy on many levels but primarily because they rarely have anything to do with the actual story or game-play. I can forgive a game like Tomb Raider for wanting me to find ‘hidden’ artifacts because finding artifacts is Lara’s actual job. And I don’t actually mind when the hidden items are something that enhance the story, like the audio logs in Bioshock that shed extra light on the game, or the manuscript pages from Alan Wake. But those are few an far between, and unfortunately most of them are “shoot all 52,411 pigeons in GTA4,” or “find all 150 coffee mugs” in Alan Wake. Seriously, why am I wasting time wandering around in Gears of War looking for cog tags, or in a thriller like Alan Wake wandering around trying to find some coffee mugs.
- “Hey man…did you see my hat I left here on the last level?”
Beat the game on hard…but not until you beat it three times first
I can play COD or Halo on the hardest difficulty setting right off the bat. But why is it that some games don’t offer the hardest difficulty setting until after you’ve already beat the game? Listen developers, if I like your game, I’ll probably play it more than once. Just don’t try to sucker me in to playing it again by locking off a tougher difficulty level and attaching an achievement to it.
Screw the campaign…GO ONLINE!
I don’t mind up to 5 or 10 of them if the achievements are geared towards getting me to try your game. In Bioshock 2 and Medal of Honor for example, most of their multi-player achievements can be gotten in 1-2 hours of trying different game-types. It got you online and trying the different modes the game has. That’s understandable. But when 50% or 60% of your achievements must be gotten online, that’s dumb. Are you really that ashamed of your single player or campaign (or do you think that highly of your multi-player modes), that you can’t come up with some trophies that involve playing the game solo? And when many of them require you to play a game for dozens of hours or even days, that’s even worse. Sports games lately are becoming even worse with these kinds of achievements. Again, if I like your game, I’ll keep playing it.
"6,271...6,272...6,273...almost there..."
The “Why Even Bother?” Achievements
Okay, these don’t really annoy me, but it’s just silly to have them in the game. Something like Fight Night Round 4, “hold the online title belt for X-Y-Z weight class.” Only one person in the whole world can hold the title belt ….. w.t.f? Or Guitar Hero 3: 5 star all songs on expert, or the million point song achievement. I know there’s tons of videos out there of people being diesel at Guitar games, but having it be an achievement is ridiculous. And while they’re not ‘impossible’ the endless set list achievements for Rock Band 1 and 2 are pretty lame as well
I think what I’m really asking for here is a little balance people. The above need to be considered just as I shouldn’t have been able to get 1000 gamerscore in Avatar: The Last Airbender, 3 minutes after putting it in. Gamerscore and Trophies are an extension of the video game and should be balanced and considered in the same way as any other game play element.
Those are my most hated. Leave a comment below and mention the most frustrating achievement you ever invested time in getting.
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No one forces anyone to bid for achievements. Beyond that complaining that an achievement is only achievable by a few people somehow diminishes the value is ludicrous. How many human beings alive can even remotely hope to win an olympic medal? Guess that set of events have terrible metrics too?
Comparing an athletic event in which people train for years and years to compete in and be recognized as the or one of the best in their respect sport is completely different than achievements for a video that you purchased and play for entertainment. The two aren’t even comparable.
They’re comparable. In that they’re competitive. No one was comparing anything beyond that. I’ll point out that Starcraft skill has relatively high status in some parts of the world, but if its sacrilege to compare physical achievements to video games, then feel free to substitute chess, poker, or I don’t know – hot dog eating.
“No one forces anyone to bid for achievements.” is the key point. Why the complaining? I think the Fight Night achievement the author mentions is pretty cool. If you’re the absolute best in a game, where’s the harm in having a little digital artifact of your achievement?
and while I’m at it…
“Screw the campaign…ONLINE!”
???
How about Shadowrun? It doesn’t really even have a single player mode. Hundreds of other games focus on multiplayer. It only makes sense that the achievements do too. I rarely play campaigns myself.
Author needs to realize that there are many types of games and gamers and stop complaining that game companies don’t make things the way he expects them.
Bob. *nods* Bob.
Hmm…I don’t think threaded comments are working for us.
Wow itself. Biggest timesink of all time.