Achievement Haters Anonymous
Hi, I’m Steve, and I used to hate achievement systems.
The first time I ever came across such a system was in Team Fortress 2. It was a new idea to me because I don’t own an Xbox 360 and had not experienced a system that keeps tally of what you do in game and gives you stickers as if you are a 4 year old who just did something nice in class. It was an interesting concept though. As I torched mofos with a Pyro I could see little windows light up in the bottom right corner of my screen letting me know I had not only burned some fools like an overcooked pop-tart, I had achieved some specific number of blazed dudes in a certain situation. That’s cool I guess, but something felt odd about being handed a tally sheet like this. It was like the parents left me home alone and gave me a list of chores I had to get done before they came back; it sort of took the fun out of my day. I was already enjoying the game as it was, I really didn’t see how this added to it. Was there really a need for player retention so badly that you needed to put something in place to keep people busy with other than what already made the game great?
In time, you could spot the achievement whores. They were the ones doing outlandish things that they never would have done otherwise in order to get their stickers. I guess on the bright side, they made easy targets. My real issue was how they incentivized it. It got to the point where people were creating servers with maps built just to get the achievements needed to unlock the new class weapons that were introduced. Lame.
The next big one for me was Warhammer Online’s Tome of Knowledge. Okay, now I’m a bit more on board. It acted as a compendium of what you have done with each of your characters. It was nifty to occasionally flip through and see what info you have come across in your journeys and see your progress on certain tasks, public quests, and death counts. What I didn’t like about the ToK was that I eventually felt like it was hurting the game more than helping it. There were so many checks going on with that system that I have a hard time believing that it didn’t hinder the games server performance at least a bit. And in WAR, any amount of performance increase they could have gained would have been a huge benefit to the game. I ended up using the ToK so little (only on special events), that I wondered if it would have been better never to have existed.
Lord of the Rings Online’s achievement system, otherwise known as Deeds, I’ve insofar found to be a fantastic system. It’s first and foremost great in the way that it incentivizes you to perform certain tasks. One example is that it tracks the number of quests you do in an area. So along with your reputation in that area increasing, you can also yield yourself some special titles and traits. It makes me feel like a Girl Scout collecting merit badges, but I don’t have to squeeze into that outfit (again)! Where I have a hard time with it is when, like other systems, it sways you to perform certain things that you normally wouldn’t. For instance, I had a deed which would grant me a trait that gave a bonus to my defense once I used my Shield Bash ability 250 times. Not to say I wouldn’t have already done this, but if someone wants this trait in a hurry, what do you think they’ll do? That’s right; throw a shield in the face of every guy they meet until they hit the 250 mark. Is it really a problem? No, probably not, besides the fact that I think LotRO, compared to many other MMO’s on the market, takes itself a bit more seriously, and doing stuff like this seems a bit unnatural for this game. While some members of the community scoff at the numerous things that were added to make it more “game” than “Middle Earth Simulator”, it still keeps itself pretty true to its heritage (at least from what I’ve seen thus far).
It seems that the Deeds are behind the scenes enough that you really don’t have to partake it in them actively, but then again, I’m only level 17 and I’m not really sure if any of these traits I can gain from Deeds become “vital”. If so, I may be turned off of the system a bit. I really enjoy just doing quests, mining for ore while I explore the world, and crafting when I get to a forge. I don’t really want to feel forced to repeat some task to fill up a bar. Wait….Isn’t that what I’ve been doing all these years? Crap…
Excuse me while I go hit people with this shield.
November 25, 2009 - 5:30 pm
I like deeds and achievements and such to an extent, but I don’t obsess over them. Never understood spending a ton of time to get a meaningless achievement. I liked the badge system in CoH. It was like a scavenger hunt and a certain combination would give you stats or powers. But it was something I did when I was bored more than as a priority.
November 25, 2009 - 6:28 pm
Man, I’ve done some stupid crap on my 360 in order to get achievements, all for the sake of seeing that little number get higher than my friends! I’ve found for some people it’s being completionist (sometimes to the point of lunacy), and for others it’s the metagame – the game within the game – that they find fun. Regardless, it’s there if you want it and provides another way for the consumer to play their game. This, I support!
Completing deeds for traits in LotRO can be a necessary evil for end game stuff. People can be snobby about how you’re “traited” for certain things (like dps vs heals or cc or whatever). I believe it becomes vital for raids…but I’m not there yet (and may never be). From what I’ve seen, if you’re not traited properly or have the wrong virtues slotted or too low, then you will be told that’s the case and may be requested to retrait. Otherwise, for general gameplay, they’re there as a “carrot” and to make the game easier, but aren’t vital. Then the normal completionist/metagame rules apply
November 26, 2009 - 8:19 am
LOTRO is the only game where achievements have been important to me. When WoW introduced them it really changed the game for me. Suddenly the group of people I played with were obsessed with them, to the point where they would run tired old instances or perform insanely repetitive tasks just to get a few more points. For the most part those achievements added nothing to the game other than titles and bragging rights, and that stuff just doesn’t interest me.
In LOTRO however the traits/achievement system feels more natural. The tasks fit in with my normal questing and the rewards feel worth the effort.
November 26, 2009 - 10:46 am
I really only like achievements when they actually mean something. For instance, in was you got an achievement just for encountering something. This is not necessary. I just got an achievement in LotRO for making it to level 5 without dieing. Not needed. Really have not yet ran into anything that can kill me. I want achievements for things that show accomplishing something.
November 26, 2009 - 1:28 pm
There was a period of time when I was an achievement whore for the 360. I would buy used games from Gamestop and then exchange them for other used games just to get some easy achievements. I have since slowed down on trying to get achievements.
But the deed/trait system in LOTRO is great. It gives me a secondary goal while questing or it gives me something to do if I just want to goof off for a bit.
November 26, 2009 - 8:59 pm
Sadly, the traits do become more important later on, and they become way more redundant as well. Killing 500 wargs to ge +13 agility gets silly. However, I don’t mind it so much in lotro because of everything else it brings.
November 30, 2009 - 9:31 am
Hi, I’m Lono and I’m an addict. I used to love achievements. Now I hate them because they ruined many a good game experience. The other night I fell for it again tough and played 2 hours to get some achievments for completing perfectly some missions.
I fell for them again and I wish that with prayer and your help I will get better. Thank you.
November 30, 2009 - 9:32 am
I really love achievements that are either hard or challenging. It is just idiotic that some achievements are damn near impossible, but they at least keep people interested in a game. Mass Effect for me is a perfect example. Just playing though once wasn’t enough, but going through multiple times, using different skills and party members. Also using achievements for different ‘Modes’ in MMORPGS like WoW helped add a new depth and challenge to the game. If it wasn’t for the extreme repetitiveness of the game itself I would still be enjoying it.
The only thing I really do not like is if you get an achievement that is hard to do, then lose it. It really kind of irks me. Good example of this is Left4Dead2 for the gnome achievement (seriously screw that gnome). I still don’t know if Valve got their achievement system under control or not and I do not really care, especially since it reset your stats as well (which some used a gage for letting you into PuG games).
I thoroughly enjoyed Aion’s Title system. But after a while you just saw the same titles over and over again because they were so good.