How long before Sony and Nintendo follow suit?

[Buyatari]

With achievements thats is.

[PSXferrari]

Achievements are undeniably addictive. Sony already plans to follow suit with their "trophies" for your space on their upcoming Home online program. As for Nintendo, they'll probably follow suit about 3 or 4 console generations down the road. Their non-existent online gaming and ridiculous "friend codes" are enough indication that Nintendo just doesn't get it when it comes to doing anything besides making good games.

[badinsults]

Let's face it. Achievements only appeal to hardcore gamers, and the Xbox 360 is the console of choice for hardcore games. As an adult with many things on my plate aside from gaming, I just do not have the time or patience for beating a game and completing every small side quest. Back when I was a kid, I would certainly have been totally into achievements. As a console that appeals to the casual gamer, the Wii doesn't really need to have achievements to sell their games. Sony? Well, I certainly imagine they will try to come up with a similar system but at this point I doubt it will help them.

[walrusmonger]

The Darkness on PS3 has "accomplishments" which aren't as exciting as achievments in the 360 games, but not bad!

[Hep038]

I never consider myself a hardcore gamer. Because I only complete 25% of my games and I like sports games. And according to DP members that makes you a casual gamer that is helping destroy the video game market. But I have found myself looking up achievement points in games I play and trying to accomplish as many as I can. Now I have a friend that has 20,000, I on the other hand have 1700. No way am I going to catch him, but we do from time to time help each other out with the newer games.

[Poofta!]

i couldnt care less. i have about 400 or so.

[Darren870]

Im a casual gamer...playing when I get some free time. However I am always going for achievements. It keeps me playing the game honestly

[p_b]

Let's face it. Achievements only appeal to hardcore gamers, and the Xbox 360 is the console of choice for hardcore games. As an adult with many things on my plate aside from gaming, I just do not have the time or patience for beating a game and completing every small side quest. Back when I was a kid, I would certainly have been totally into achievements. As a console that appeals to the casual gamer, the Wii doesn't really need to have achievements to sell their games. Sony? Well, I certainly imagine they will try to come up with a similar system but at this point I doubt it will help them.

A friend of mine recently saw my Gamerscore, which is about 2000 at the moment, so nothing special really. He asked me how I got that many points (he´s currently at about 90 points). He´s the prototype of a casual gamer, playing games for fun and only a very few of them. So I have to say that I agree with your post

[Neo Rasa]

A friend of mine recently saw my Gamerscore, which is about 2000 at the moment, so nothing special really. He asked me how I got that many points (he´s currently at about 90 points). He´s the prototype of a casual gamer, playing games for fun and only a very few of them. So I have to say that I agree with your post

I play a lot of 360 games but I think I only have something like 1200 achievements. Sometimes I'll try to get them all if it's a Live Arcade game or something like Condemned where you can get every achievement through the natural couse of the game. I don't even bother with multiplayer achievements or anything like that.

One of my co-workers and one of our regular customers are obsessed with the stuff. Whenever the two are in the same room a discussion occurs about who's got the high score in Pac-Man and such.

[diskoboy]

I love the damn things.


That's not sarcasm. Those points are seriously addictive.

[Nesmaster]

I love the damn things.


That's not sarcasm. Those points are seriously addictive.

QFT. Achievements have brought gaming to a whole new level for me. Might sound sad to some people but I don't know how I played games without them at this point

[Buyatari]

QFT. Achievements have brought gaming to a whole new level for me. Might sound sad to some people but I don't know how I played games without them at this point

I think its the greatest change I've seen to gaming in years. I've only got a 4 digit score but hell I'll pop in ANY game to get one or two. Now I have a gamestore so the games are free but before this I'd never play a hockey or a kids game. Now I'm willing to try them all out.

[BHvrd]

Funny I remember back in the day everyone talking about "hey, you remember that part in the game" to now "hey, did you get that achievement".

I think the problem is they just aren't making games challenging/content rich enough and instead are adding filler such as "achievements". Achievements are taking away from the actual games themselves and I see that as a bad trend.

I'm more for challenging games than achievements, and I would much rather talk about things that happen in the game rather than hey I killed 1 million monkeys online and got my achievement.


Make a choice:

"Hey, I found a hidden room in Adventure" turn to page 101

"Hey, I killed 1 million monkeys online" turn to page 201


I'm sure there are people that are getting the basic of what i'm saying here.

[Darren870]

egh I dont know about that. A lot of achievments in games are "gain access to that hidden room"

Achievments make me play the games longer, and honestly I get annoyed playing wii games and not gaining any points for it.

[hbkprm]

i know that nintendo is back in its glory (and sometimes dominant) days (yeah i read the ultimate history of videogames) i'll predict that nintendo will be the first in the next gen (years from now) to release a console

[Buyatari]

Hey if you are going to comare one generation to the next don't pick one of the best from one generation to symbolize the whole generation and a made up generic bad one for the next.

In truth Adventure for 2600 was a breakthru and a classic for all time but there were so many other duds back then it killed the whole industry. Don't forget about that whole game crash thing. Achievements are a tool and nothing else. Its not gunna save a bad game but if used correctly they add to the experience.

I love logging in to see who on my friendlist has what when compared to me. To be generic "soandso beat the level 4 boss on Hard" if its a new achievement and I haven't done so I'll send him a thumbs up message or ask for tips. If he has been playing Guitar Hero II all week and still can't beat Buckhead Jordan on expert I'll make sure to rub it in a bit.

Prior to this not all games had an ending. Some games just go on forever if you let them. Achievements bring the closure we call "beating a game" to those games than normally just had no end.

Make a choice:

"Hey, I found a hidden room in Adventure" turn to page 101

"Hey, I killed 1 million monkeys online" turn to page 201


I'm sure there are people that are getting the basic of what i'm saying here.

[Lord_Magus]

Funny I remember back in the day everyone talking about "hey, you remember that part in the game" to now "hey, did you get that achievement".

I think the problem is they just aren't making games challenging/content rich enough and instead are adding filler such as "achievements". Achievements are taking away from the actual games themselves and I see that as a bad trend.

I'm more for challenging games than achievements, and I would much rather talk about things that happen in the game rather than hey I killed 1 million monkeys online and got my achievement.


Make a choice:

"Hey, I found a hidden room in Adventure" turn to page 101

"Hey, I killed 1 million monkeys online" turn to page 201


I'm sure there are people that are getting the basic of what i'm saying here.

I completely agree.

Achievement points seem like a very cheap and gimmicky way of developers to add longevity and replayability to a game, and are a very poor substitute for proper game design. I believe that if a game is well thought-out, immersive and is actually fun to play, the player feels a natural urge to explore (and enjoy!) every last part of it.

What this trend shows is that developers are becoming lazy, and are incapable of finding ways to genuinely reward the player for their efforts. If you can't make a player feel genuinely satisfied by achieving something in your game without adding generic "achievement unlocked" messages, then you should take it back to the design document stage and find ways to do so.

I mean, its like me telling you that if you play my game and manage to do X, I'll come over and give you a friendly pat on the back; it might be more than welcome to some, but others will definitely find it intrusive. Either way, this wouldn't change the fact that my friendly gesture has absolutely nothing to do with the the game itself.

Another way to look at it is that achievement points are more a byproduct of online\multiplayer gaming and hence, a sort of bragging rights "currency" if you like. Once again though, the game itself should be responsible for keeping track of your accomplishments in a unique and hopefully interesting way, rather than relying on generic "points" to do so. Sure, its an easy way to prove to someone what you've accomplished in a game, but if that person couldn't just take your word for it then you probably shouldn't care about telling them in the first place

[kaedesdisciple]

They do keep me playing the game I must admit. They keep me competitive, too. I couldn't care less about the online play achievements, but I try to finish many of the single player achievements. For instance, I never would have gone in crackdown for the master agent achievement if I weren't so close and it weren't worth 40 points.

For a person like me who is starting to have less and less time to devote to figuring out all the possible goals, it plots out goals for me and I can figure out how to get them.

[Skelix]

I really enjoy the points, and hope other systems follow suit. I find that it's finally pulling me away from WoW and getting me back into the console scene. I'm playing games I normally would not have played (or had time to play) and am really enjoying the Xbox 360 system.