| Korppi said: I think achievements can actually be a nice addition to a game when they're designed to encourage the player to try out alternative playstyles and enjoy the game in a way they might not have thought of. Like getting through a specific section without being detected by an enemy, fighting a certain boss using without using (or by using nothing but) a specific weapon/item/gadget, et cetera. It can be a way for the developer to tell you "Hey, man, play like you wanna play, but you can also do it like this if you want to. Just saying", which is something I much prefer to getting smacked in the face with a tutorial that shows us just how we're supposed to enjoy the game, or having my options limited by a compulsory stealth section or randomly getting my equipment snatched away. Those kinds of achievements are great. And of course, about as common as polio. Most achievements are either ineluctable, which you get merely by progressing in the game ("You started the game!" "You beat the first boss!" "You beat the second boss!"), a way to add a side objective of sorts in hopes of getting the player to play (just one with no in-game rewards at all), or just an additional "bling!" that accompanies the completion of an actual in-game side mission, presumably added because the developer could not come up with an in-game reward to make it ultimately feel worthwhile and/or because actually doing the side quest was just not fun enough. Those kinds of achievements are nothing but irritating to those of us who are not into the whole, uuuhh... metagame of comparing and showing off your achievements, don't really offer any motivation, and I feel like their presence sometimes even deprives the game I'm playing of its full value, as things that would've been integrated directly into the game in the past have been replaced by a cheap pop-up. |
Well, that's an analysis I can agree with. I also like achievements, if they push me to play the game differently. Achievements that try your skill (try to reach X points in a specific level) are already critical. It can be fun to try to get them, but it can also turn out to be frustrating and make you feel worse about the game. Achievements that come automatic on playthrough (beaten Level X) or are making you doing something useless (shooting a trashcan) are worthless.
