Achievements

Not needed. Useless and annoying. I don't really need to know how many monsters I killed or how many fireballs I shot.

Additionally, I hate features of "counting up" every little thing I do, like in World of Warcraft. How many times I hit someone, how many spells I've cast, how many carrots I ate yesterday...why in God's name do I need that kind of information? Keep it simple, disciplined and neat.

The way it was done in Fallout and Fallout2 was pretty cool, with perks like Married, or Expert excrement expeditor. The method of Planescape:Torment was truly imaginative and fantastic, where you could buy new tattoos after visiting places or certain dialogue options. The consol method is boring and simply an annoyance for instance Mass Effect's achievments are simply dull.

Please no, not in any way shape or form, I feel the implement of achievements takes away form the sense of achievement, i remember doing things in games cause I wanted to not to get 15 or 20 points for it.

Achievments: Dont want them, dont need them.

 

I dont understand why achievements this common...

 

kind regards,

 

Jira

Edited September 19, 2012 by Jiraboas

I certainly am in the ranks of those who think that this is rather a poor artifice to give an incentive to people who can't use their own will and imagination to explore the possibilites of a game, in theory, while being mostly stupid and pointless in fact, and that developers shouldn't spend any effort or money on it unless they have nothing interesting to do with the extra budget.

 

But since the game will be on Steam, and this stuff has been confirmed to be in, I would of course recommend to make them inventive and encouraging us to do unusual things, and thus really make us uncover new things; something interesting and worthy in sum. In this case, I could have a casual interest in those. But I don't want to play on Steam nevertheless, so if there is a possiblity to implement them as an option in any copy of the game, that would be nice.

Edited September 30, 2012 by ButchinMelancholy

If you are going to include them, PLEASE, put them in the DRM-free version too, not only in the Steam one.

I have no idea what the point of achievements is.

 

Spyware.

 

It's main use is that devs can determine what the majority of the players of their game do. Then use that information going forward.

Achievements? Sometimes. Maybe. Depending on how they're done. And never, ever, ever, if they flash billboard style in neon lights across your screen whenever you achieve one. Ugh.

 

I have absolutely zero interest in ranking up a useless gamerscore or getting in achievemongering competitions with other people, but occasionally I'm interested in seeing what I personally have done. I don't need achievements for that, but some kind of personal tracker is nice. Do NOT give me a score for an achievement, if you add achievements. Titles are fine, in-depth stat screens are great, but please nothing like 'You exploded fifty rabid weasels into chunky bits! Achievement gained: POP GOES THE WEASEL!' flashing on my screen in bright gold. And if achievements are added, give us a way to toggle off the notification so we don't see them unless we look for them in our journal. Please.

Alpha Protocol did something interesting by giving you in-game perks for doing certain things, and also gave you bonuses to gameplay so you felt like you actually won something, instead of feeling like a dog being thrown a bone. Plus it was character specific, so it felt like character development. I'd like to see something like this implemented in PE.

 

Also, I'd also like the dossier and Sis to be in the game.

The only thing I like achievements for is the meta-knowledge they bring to the table after I've already otherwise completed the game to my satisfaction and am ready to move on to something else. Just take a peek at the list of achievements and see what I've missed; if there's nothing more than a series of "kill X enemies with a CHAINSAW!!"- or "deal 10000- points of fire damage" -type awards, I know I've missed nothing. If there's something that says "recruit the Assassin", and I haven't even MET an assassin in the game, then I'm going to get very, very curious. I could get the same information from a message board or a detailed walkthrough for the game, but the achievement list is a handy, concise version of what should be most of the major points of interest in the game.

 

As far as sharing my achievements online goes, though, or the game telling me that I've earned one... that could have gone away yesterday and it wouldn't have been soon enough. There's no benefit to me for any of that.

Achievements are something fun for the player. It does nothing to harm the RPG environment. I mean look at how XBox has achievements for pretty much every game. Who cares. If it doesn't hurt development, why not. Also, achievements could be used for roleplay activities. I think the Fallout series did a great job with this, along with some really funny ones you could pick up for your behavior.

A console annoyance, achievements add nothing to the game, it just takes resources away from genuine content creation.

Achievements per se is nothing I feel strongly about either way.

 

That said, if the game mechanics support it, an achievement system where completing certain challenges will unlock new options or bonuses for future playthroughs can be pretty cool.

 

The challenge goals should never be about grinding, though. They could be about, say, locating all four [legendary set of items] spread out in the far corners of the world, or killing specific boss monsters, or completing quests in obscure ways... and the achievements and their descriptions shouldn't ever contain spoilers.

 

EDIT: Also, no stupid and annoying ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED pop-ups that ruin the immersion. If the game has a log where system feedback (like combat damage and skill check results) is shown, a line about the achievement could just appear there.

 

EDIT: An achievement could also just be an unlisted quest, ending with an experience point reward.

Edited September 30, 2012 by JediMB

Achievements are something fun for the player. It does nothing to harm the RPG environment. I mean look at how XBox has achievements for pretty much every game. Who cares. If it doesn't hurt development, why not. Also, achievements could be used for roleplay activities. I think the Fallout series did a great job with this, along with some really funny ones you could pick up for your behavior.

 

So many things wrong with this, LOL...

 

Xbox = Mentioning a console for PE to emulate, which Avellone derided as "dumbing down," is quick poison for your entire stance.

 

Why not = Way too many things can fall under "if it doesn't hurt dev/if you won't use it, why not," which is the lamest argument for content inclusion in SLDC. But that's entirely up to Obs.

 

RP = Really? You think metagaming is actually role-playing? LOL. Even if Obs were to implement this, which I think is a waste of resources as explained by others in this thread, having metagame UI element pop up during play is actually immersion-breaking. A toggle off would be absolutely required, otherwise by their very metagame nature, the achievements do harm the RPG environment.

 

Can't say anything about FO.

Absolutely not. If the game content alone isn't imaginative enough to inspire me to replay it, then no amount of 'achievements' will either. It's an utter waste of time IMO.

Achievements are something fun for the player. It does nothing to harm the RPG environment.

It does much more than nothing. There's an immersion-breaking pop-up whenever you get an achievement. There's a reason why I play games with as minimalistic HUD as possible - I want to see with my character's eyes, without GPS and text appearing out of nowhere (like "you discovered location X" or "achievement unlocked").

 

I see no reason to include achievements. The way they are in most games, they're artificial and encourage grinding. People often mention the motivating aspect of achievements, but I'd rather be encouraged by the game itself, not by something out-of-the game. I don't care about flashy badges to show to my friends either.

 

The only way it could work is if achievements are contained withing the game. An unlisted quest, a title you're given. But a lot of it is already covered by a reputation system, so...

Edited September 30, 2012 by Rosveen

Cannot stress enough how much I do NOT want achievements.

Under no circumstances; good grief.

Achievements can be good, but it's very rare. Any decent RPG will find a way to reward players for finding different solutions to problems in-game without breaking immersion.

Achievements are something fun for the player. It does nothing to harm the RPG environment. I mean look at how XBox has achievements for pretty much every game. Who cares. If it doesn't hurt development, why not. Also, achievements could be used for roleplay activities. I think the Fallout series did a great job with this, along with some really funny ones you could pick up for your behavior.

 

imo there's a difference between achievements and special feats. the former is disconnected from the game and serves only personal ego stroking whereas the latter is merged with the system, serves roleplaying purposes and ideally gives different bonuses and/or penalties. feats should be in definitely!

Edited September 30, 2012 by Semper

I want Obsidian to mail me personalized iron-on badges for every achievement I make in the game. Maybe an officially published thumbs-up for the harder ones, so that I can brag to all my friends.

 

Er... I mean I vote no.

I love achievements, but in the sense that I like playing the game and all of a sudden an achievement pops up, and I'm like "Oh, well, I didn't know you could get an achievement for that." I don't like to look at them beforehand and say "Ooh, I'm going to get the one that requires you to go through the game naked!" I just like to play and find them.

Achievements? What is this thing?

Edited September 30, 2012 by Flying Magician

Given Obsidian's proposals to add options for us to turn off ease of use features and add hardcore modes to the game, I'm more relaxed on this worry. I don't think they'll harrass us with achievement pop-ups. Or at the very least, we'll be able to turn off that. Like I said before, an optional page or two in the journal - like Fallout - listing kills and statistics and stuff would be fine by me.