Achievements

[Opaque]

I was thinking today about how the Achievements on Live are changing the way I approach and play games. So many of my old habits and, for lack of a better word, beliefs, have been thrown out the window with this new generation and new approach to an online community. How so? Well for me there's three big changes:

1) Difficulty: It used to be that when I played a game I always played through on default difficulty settings becuase I believed that was the purest experience for the first time through and allowed for maximum enjoyment. It wouldn't be too easy and it wouldn't frustrate me with situations which resulted in too much trial and error. Then if I enjoyed the first playthrough I would perhaphs play through on a higher difficulty level; with the exception of one obvious game which I've played through on Legendary too many times to count.

But now starting with CoD2 and PGR3 I'm doing my first play throughs at the maximim difficulty so I can obtain the achievements for doing so. This wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for my second change...

2) Prefered Genres: Now obviously I have a soft spot for any FPS but WWII games have never really been my thing; I picked up CoD2 hoping it would change all that, but honestly it hasn't. So why do I continue to play it? Because I can't step down from the challenge and reward of beating it just like everyone else did and gaining the achievements that come with it.

Am I interested in King Kong or Fight Night 3? Not really, neither of them really appeal to me in terms of their genre or design, but they each have 1,000 easy Gamer Points and I could play them easily it I just started to...

3)Rent: I never rented games in previous generations. Being a collecter there was little reason to waste money on a rental of any game I was going to enjoy and want to own and absolutely no reason to rent a game which I didn't want to own. Now that's all changed; there's reason now to rent games which might only mildly spark your insterest such as King Kong and Fight Night 3 in my case; the rewards online.

Now on a large scale the GP system is superficial and pointless not to mention hypocritical. I have no respect for people who have 1,000 points over me because they spent 5 hours on Madden 2006 or played a few games of Basketball when my points so far have been hard earned, but I still want to take advantage of easy games myself to build my rank.

But is this all good or bad for the industry and players as a whole? Hard to say.

One the one hand there's something to be said about the increased revinew a system like this might create. Gamers could be more likely to purchase or rent games they would otherwise have little interest in. They also might be getting more out of their games and a better sense of accomplishment by trying to match what other players have done.

On the other hand it might slowly drain the fun out an otherwise pure system. Should the main concern when picking what game to play and how to play it be what gives you the most points? Or should it be what's the most fun? Furthermore is gaining points the most enjoyable way to play through a game?

Discuss.

[Joust Williams]

Achievements are nice, but they haven't affected my playing habits. I would have played all the sports games except Tiger Woods by now if they did (although I am toying with the idea, so who knows...) I have started to play games on the maximum difficulty though because I want to try to recapture the feeling I had as a kid where beating something was an accomplishment. I think you are incorrectly using the word 'hypocritical' though. Perhaps 'misleading' would be better, ie, it's uch easier to get 1000 points in Madden than it is to get 1000 points in Tiger Woods (well, other than the fact that it is not even possible to get 1000 points in TW)

Your last paragraph is a no-brainer though. Anyone that is making their purchasing decision solely on that is a retard.

[Razor Ramon]

I don't get it. I thought you could use achievement points to buy arcade games.

[Opaque]

I agree, they are misleading.

When I said hypocrtical I more meant that as a trait they instill in the users, especially me. I think other people are lame for having high scores from easy games, but at the same time I want to do it as well. So hypocritical of me for wanting to abuse a misleading system.

[Joust Williams]

Those are Marketplace points. Achievement points are just points you accrue through doing certain things in each game. They don't give you anything

[Glass Joe]

I think the achievement points are a great idea when implemented in a fun way. Otherwise they are just useless. I can't really explain it, but there is some kind of satisfaction when you are playing a game and that little bubble pops up telling you about an unlocked achievement.

If games take the ideas of something as simple as Geometry Wars' achievements then everything will be fine. You play the game and get AP for getting kick ass scores and lasting long lives, and then they also have fun ones like "Pacifism" where you have to fly around for the first minute of the game without dying and not shoot anything. Not only is it difficult, but it makes you try things that you might not have thought of which adds to the replay. Used like that I look forward to them. Otherwise I couldn't care less.

[Opaque]

I don't get it. I thought you could use achievement points to buy arcade games.

There are two points on Live: Gamer Points and Market Points. Gamer points are nothing more than a "rank" based on what you've accomplished in the titles you've played. The points you spend in the market to buy downloads are purchased either online with a credit card or in stores in the form of prepaid cards.

[Brand X]

Achievements are nice, but they haven't affected my playing habits.

QFT. When I earn an achievement obviously I'm happy, but I'm not going out of my way to earn them. I really could give 2 shits whether I'm missing the "find gallons of gasoline and feed them to the monkey" acheivement. If I get it along the way while playing fantastic, but otherwise it really doesn't matter to me.

[Joust Williams]

I guess I wan't totally honest. If it's easy to obtain, I'll go a little out of my way for it (Pacifism for GW being an example). Other than that, though, not yet. Maybe I'll go back on a rainy day or something.

[Rumpy]

You play the game and get AP for getting kick ass scores and lasting long lives, and then they also have fun ones like "Pacifism" where you have to fly around for the first minute of the game without dying and not shoot anything. Not only is it difficult, but it makes you try things that you might not have thought of which adds to the replay. Used like that I look forward to them.

This is exactly what Achievement Points were made for. I got that Pacifism achievement and never would have thought of it, let alone try it had I not seen it on the AP list.

It can add replay value to a game pretty easily. And having it show up on your card is like a written record of it. I like 'em.