Okay, so you don't like it, but a whole lot of us do. Simple answer is they add the option to disable the notification popup. Problem solved.

No reason to omit it all together because you think it's nothing more than a cock measuring contest. My idea pleases everyone. Nintendo's doesn't.

Your downside is incredibly weak by the way. Why do you care at all how or why others play their video games?

Also, trophies and gamerscore do not have a publicly available list within the console to show who has the highest. It is mainly for personal gain only and/or to compare with friends.

So like I said...

Non-mandatory hurts plenty.

Mandatory hurts no one.

All i'm saying is that the choice will be there for some games... pretty sure most developers will want to tack on something at least, even if it's only an interactive map or inventory screen.

Graphically there will be an improvement over PS360... I don't think the kind of leaps we had in the past are possible anymore (it takes a ridiculous amount of scrutinisation to determine which of two games graphical achievemens are greater) Hell a lot of early games from the X360 didn't look much better than top tier GC/XB games (maybe even the odd PS2 game like GoWII) and in fact the same could be said for some early PS2 games compared to late N64... Graphical advancement will continue on the Wii U well past what the PS3 and X360 are capable of, even if the jump isn't as big as past gens. People will still move onto next gen consoles because they follow the games themselves, eventually games will stop being made for PS3 and 360, so they will have to move on whether the control scheme is new or not.

If everyone's so in love with them, then non-mandatory will be no big deal, as everyone who's anyone will still put them in.

I know Xenoblade's achievements would annoy me if they weren't giving my party exp for the gain.

Sorry, don't understand the Xenoblade example. You wouldn't gain achievements only by level, you would gain them somewhat like:

1.) All characters reach lvl 20.

2.) All characters reach lvl 50.

3.) Defeated "xx" (Don't want to spoil the game )

4.) Full power of Monado achieved!

5.) Completely rebuilt Colony 6.

etc...

I sure as hell would have liked an achievement after the long grueling hours of grinding and shit it took just to 100% complete Colony 6 and I sure as all hell wouldn't have found an achievement for it to be a negative, lol.

Believe it or not, it adds to the sense of achievement in many games, especially in cases where gaining that achievement/trophy requires hours and hours of work.

Also, being non-mandatory is a big deal. I know you've been on these forums long enough to know by now that certain PS3 games are not purchase because people refuse to buy/play games without them.

Does that suck? Of course, but it is the nature of the beast now and Nintendo needs to understand that.

Edit - Misunderstood you originally. You say you want the achievements to have actual in game benefits? That could easily be a new step in the advancement of trophies/achievements. One Nintendo probably could have lead the way on.

I could 100% go for that scenario!!!

Did you see the Unreal4 engine tech demo or the Square-Enix luminous engine? We aren't done yet.

Yes, people will follow the games, I agree with you completely, however, the issue here is that a lot of these developers have created their own engines to take advantage of newer hardware, so many of them may just hop to PS4/720. This makes Nintendo's need to take full advantage of the tablet controller as soon as possible even more paramount in my opinion.

That doesn't make any sense at all. Nintendo can absolutely have a unified achievement system without forcing developers to implement achievements. They can also allow developers to implement their own independent achievement system which fills all the purposes you've listed for having achievements.

Here's the thing: most third parties are going to implement achievements. Miiverse will almost definitely provide a way to view these achievements. Nintendo will most likely implement achievements in many of its games -- we've already seen that it's willing to do so in New Super Mario Bros U. So most games will have achievements. Are you honestly telling me that it makes a difference whether or not the odd Deal or No Deal video game implements unified achievements? Whether your friends can see that you once had 100 yellow flower Pikmin in the field at once? Achievements are great when they're implemented well. When they're obviously forced into the game, they're just a distraction.

One thing Nintendo has reiterated time and again about the Wii U is that they want to give third parties options. Let them decide for themselves how they want to handle online, achievements, control, Miiverse, etc. Why is it so hard to understand that letting third parties have more freedom in how they develop their own games is a good thing?

It makes perfect sense actually. Is it unified on a single front if Nintendo doesn't make it mandatory?

The answer is "No".

With 360 and/or PS3 and no doubt their sucessors, you can buy a game and it has a list of things on the back of the box. Amongst these things can be anything ranging from online play, DLC, trophies/achievements, etc...

Since 2009 (PS3) all have made it guaranteed that Trophies/Achievements are contains in each and every game you buy that is developed for those consoles.

This isn't the case for WiiU, so if one or two developers decide to not make them, then Nintendo, developers and it's system are not truly unified.

I agree, that's why I said I don't care whether or not Ninty makes it mandatory for devs... as long as I can ignore it. And given that gaming is becoming increasingly multiplatform the vast majority of 3rd party games will have copy/pasted achievements from the other consoles anyway now that Nintendo has a system devs can use outside of the games themselves, so I don't think non-mandatory will hurt plenty.

Also I didn't know gamerscores and trophies were not listed.

So yes, ultimately, as long as it can be ignored Nintendo should have joined the camp and made it mandatory... I can't detract the experience from other gamers for my own view... Even if I think it is hurting gaming (10-15 years ago we were unlocking characters/cars or even extra levels... now we unlock little strings of text and have to buy characters/cars as DLC)

Yes, it actually is. Tell me that the 360 achievement system wouldn't be "unified" if one single 360 game didn't implement achievements.

You keep saying that mandatory achievements don't hurt anyone, but they do. They force developers to spend time and resources implementing features they may not have envisioned for their game. Developers should be allowed to make the game they want to make, not be forced to follow certain arbitrary guidelines for their content.

Would all games you play for 360 be on one unified list? Yes

Would all 360 games be uniformely equipped with achievements? No.

Different ways of looking at it I guess. I just would rather it be mandatory amongst all developers for the console.

Yes, I understand that until 2009, on PS3 it wasn't mandatory, but they didn't launch with achievements, so they added it on later. I'm glad they did though.

While I am not a trophy whore, it is still nice to see my level go up. Been sitting at 11 or 12 for a while now, but I don't play games for platinums, only have (1) and it is for LittleBigPlanet. It takes a while at this point to make it go up, but oh well, shit takes time you know?

I've been a JRPG gamer forever though, so I am into this level up shit.

Anyways, now I am used to it, and everything pretty much has it across all of their games. Due to this it really disappoints me.

Total deal breaker for me? No, but I won't sit here and lie to you and say they would have lost nothing by making it mandatory.

Look at it from a consumer side for a second. Who of us does it not benefit? Certainly shouldn't turn off anyone. As long as it the notifications can be disabled (Whether it be for yours or yours+friends achievements), it should have no cons, only pros.