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.

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!!!

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.

Sorry, got distracted midway through my response, as it is rather incoherent. What my longstanding beef with Achievements has been is that you get them and they don't really "give" you anything, but i noted that Xenoblade's achievements were giving my time a dollop of exp, so passed into the realm of acceptability. Kid Icarus gave me rewards, as did the other games where Sakurai implemented Achievements (Brawl and Kirby Air Ride), but i don't like the idea of achievements that give you nothing for anything

How that ties in to this discussion is that they should be implemented in games where such rewards can be easily doled out, and not shoehorned in where they don't belong, hence: non-mandatory good. If the game really benefits from the experience, devs will do it, if not, no.

What actually are the rules MS/Sony have for implementing "achievements"? Does anyone know? I mean if each game need to have a minimum of (for example) 50 then that's where things start getting ridiculous, especially for single player games where you end up with a bunch of meaningless sentances that basically tell you what you have just done.

@Euphoria.. To continue with the Xenoblade example... why is having an achievement for "all characters to lvl.20" (and others of that vein... such as "X number of kills") better than an actual stat table that tells you what levels your characters are on, or how many kills/points/wins etc. As for the other examples, what difference does it make if I get told I have just defeated a boss... I know what i've just done. The final two sound like more significant achievements (and I am using the proper meaning of that word rather than the achievement system we are talking about) and should be rewarded with something other than a crappy bit of text... ie a new weapon or character... or perhaps an art gallery. Something more substantial than "well done, you have just done what you just did".

Yeah, discussing it further beyond this would be nothing more than semantics. I do hope there's an option to turn off achievement pop-ups at the very least, because for me it kills the mood in certain games.

Games have all different levels of achievements. With 360 it is in gamer points, for which you get 5gp (achievements such as gaming "X" amount of level), 15gp? (for achieving something along the lines of a major boss fight) or 100gp? (Completing the game only high difficulty, one for Hard, one for Expert, etc...). My gp totals may be off, haven't owned a 360 for almost 2 years now. These usually add up to 1000gp for a retail 360 game. Around 200-250 or so for XBLA titles.

PS3 has it in Bronze, Silver and Gold trophies to differ from the 5gp. 15gp and 100gp. PS3 games however have an additional trophy, which is a Platinum, awarded for achieving all trophies in the game. This trophies grants ever more XP for your profile. I don't know the told point % for each type of trophy, but right now, for me, bronze trophies don't add shit, but I won't play a crap game for a gold. No Way! lol

These not only allow you to raise your score/level for personal enjoyment, but it also easily allows others to not just see what games you have played, but also be able to see just how far into each of those games you progressed. I guess it could also help you to know how to talk about a game without worry of spoiling it for someone who you can clearly see hasn't even hit the halfway point.

I would like the Wii to have something similar to PS3 though since I like the level up system. Maybe once you hit specific levels you recieve Special Nintendo Club bonuses.

Come on, lie to me and say you wouldn't love that!

I don't have to lie... to me it seems like a substandard method of comparing gaming with friends. It's stats for the sake of stats... kind of like looking at game review scores on metacritic/gamerankings. The base data that goes into the aggregate metascore, or the trophy are not numerically comparable with others... putting them together just makes a more garbled mess of the data.

For determining where your friends are in a game... a simple completion percentage is good enough (on story based games maybe one for the story and an overall one for collectawhores like myself)

Recieving Club bonuses is a good idea, though not everyone would be able to take advantage of it so I still prefer some kind of in game reward.

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There have been achievements in a few Wii games most of which I ignored (some like Endless Ocean 2 give in game rewards for completing a certain number of achievements, so I did check on those to find out which I should go for to get the rewards) There are achievements in Steam games, again I ignore them... I'm just not interested.