Achievements / Trophies

vashyron

vashyron

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I didn't see a post like this already so I thought I'd try one to get everyone's opinions. This gen of systems we saw achievements/trophies emerge in your opinion do you feel this was a good thing or a bad thing?

My personal viewpoint is that they hurt games to a degree. Some people are such a/t whores and junkies that they can make playing online with a horrible experience because they are trying so hard for that next pop. Also in games like Mass Effect or Dishonored which have great art in my view it can be looked past in the search for the full gamerscore. I remember once I finally completed my 1K on ME 3 and played it again for fun all the little things that I missed how amazing some of the background were. This is just an example does anyone experience this or am I just weird?
 
I enjoy them, but I agree with your point that trophies and achievements can detract from the pure joy of playing. However, even before trophies/achievements game design had already become and will continue to be about completing and collecting.

In my opinion having trophies helps prolong the life of games and many people probably play games longer than they want to just to get all the achievements. It can still work as a fun model without having to spend 50 hours finding every feather/pigeon/package/etc. I'm sick of this same shit in every campaign. I'm not a trophy whore but am proud of my current trophy collection and that one platinum I earned for MW2.

I just hope my current trophies will carry over to next gen, if not, I kinda wish they would stop and start giving us coupons to buy their games!
 
I agree that achievements / trophies have prolonged some games. And like you am proud of my list getting 100 % on all three mass effect games, and some of the devil may cry ones always rank high in my book. I just dont understand achievements like in GOW where you have to play 1000 matches for god knows how many hours.
 
[quote name='vashyron']I agree that achievements / trophies have prolonged some games. And like you am proud of my list getting 100 % on all three mass effect games, and some of the devil may cry ones always rank high in my book. I just dont understand achievements like in GOW where you have to play 1000 matches for god knows how many hours.[/QUOTE]

There are good achievements and bad achievements. Bad achievements involve grinding or require you to play for achievements rather than play for fun. Good achievements encourage experimentation within the game, so you try things you otherwise wouldn't. Part of being a modern gamer is learning how to tell the difference and ignoring the bad ones.
 
Yeah every game seems to have mixes of good and bad it seems. I tend to stay away from the super online grinds I can handle grinding since I play JRPGs but dont ask me to play 1000 matches of halo or something like that.
 
I like them. Not because I'm a completionist, but because when I find a game I really like, they prompt me to try playing it again it different ways (i.e. all stealth in Deus Ex or using melee weapons in Fallout).
 
As always, good or bad is subjective. To some people, playing video game is a waste of time let along hunting for achievements/trophies. As a gamer, achievements/trophies are value added. If you don't like them, you don't have to anything, they don't affect game plays at all (just maybe the slight inconvenience of popping sound and temporary subtitle-ish blockage on the screen).

In general, achievements/trophies are logs of accomplishments, i.e. how far or how much a gamer played a particular game under his/her usual ID (not every gamer care about IDs either). The accomplishments can also be compared with other gamers (this is value added as well).

It used to be that higher gamer scores or trophy levels mean dedicated gamers at play. Well, that notion has been decaying ever since with the rise of achievement/trophy addicts. I guess that's one of the primary reason that achievements/trophies are turn offs for most gamers. It's not about what one's accomplishments anymore, it's about justifying the meaningless hours of grinding for lesser purpose.

People don't see playing video games as arts (making games is art, that one is pretty easy to agree on). However, in my opinion, gamers with swift fingers and super fast mental reflexes are equivalent to playing orchestra musical instruments. There's beauty of making through a difficult level without dying or power ups. At one point (and I hope still continue to be), achievements/trophies are meant to bring out the talents, they test the gamers' endurance and perseverance. They are the rewards of accomplishing difficult and memorable tasks, like certificates to acknowledge your dedication and appreciation, a subtle way of saying "thank you." Well, that notion also has eroded over time. The "kill 100 enemies this way or that way" or playing "1000 online match and win all of them" achievements/trophies blatant self promotions by the game makers.

So at the end, it all comes down to us, the gamers. Personally, I enjoy trophies more than achievement because of the levels (it's like playing RPG when you're on PSN). It would be super cool if MS or Sony (sorry Nintendo) implements the system a bit further by allowing gamers to "trade" the achievements/trophies for "character class upgrades." In the case of PSN, you can choose to be a level 10 Mage or level 20 Monk or something like that.
 
I don't care about them one way or the other. I ignore them 99% of the time as I'm just wanting to beat a game and move onto a new one so I'm not much interested prolonging games.

I do agree that it can cause issues online sometimes with getting in a room of people trying to whore an achievement rather than just playing (or having friends wanting to do that rather than just play). But easy enough to find another lobby. Mostly moot for me as i don't really play online much these days with the exception of co-op stuff like Borderlands 2.
 
[quote name='Serpentor']As always, good or bad is subjective. To some people, playing video game is a waste of time let along hunting for achievements/trophies. As a gamer, achievements/trophies are value added. If you don't like them, you don't have to anything, they don't affect game plays at all (just maybe the slight inconvenience of popping sound and temporary subtitle-ish blockage on the screen).

In general, achievements/trophies are logs of accomplishments, i.e. how far or how much a gamer played a particular game under his/her usual ID (not every gamer care about IDs either). The accomplishments can also be compared with other gamers (this is value added as well).

It used to be that higher gamer scores or trophy levels mean dedicated gamers at play. Well, that notion has been decaying ever since with the rise of achievement/trophy addicts. I guess that's one of the primary reason that achievements/trophies are turn offs for most gamers. It's not about what one's accomplishments anymore, it's about justifying the meaningless hours of grinding for lesser purpose.

People don't see playing video games as arts (making games is art, that one is pretty easy to agree on). However, in my opinion, gamers with swift fingers and super fast mental reflexes are equivalent to playing orchestra musical instruments. There's beauty of making through a difficult level without dying or power ups. At one point (and I hope still continue to be), achievements/trophies are meant to bring out the talents, they test the gamers' endurance and perseverance. They are the rewards of accomplishing difficult and memorable tasks, like certificates to acknowledge your dedication and appreciation, a subtle way of saying "thank you." Well, that notion also has eroded over time. The "kill 100 enemies this way or that way" or playing "1000 online match and win all of them" achievements/trophies blatant self promotions by the game makers.

So at the end, it all comes down to us, the gamers. Personally, I enjoy trophies more than achievement because of the levels (it's like playing RPG when you're on PSN). It would be super cool if MS or Sony (sorry Nintendo) implements the system a bit further by allowing gamers to "trade" the achievements/trophies for "character class upgrades." In the case of PSN, you can choose to be a level 10 Mage or level 20 Monk or something like that.[/QUOTE]

I can totally relate to this I use to care about getting 1K in all my games, but then so much was lost to me. I remember getting back into Mass Effect 3 and was able to actually enjoy it to take in all the scenery not worrying about a certain thing I was suppose to do. As far as the orchestra in certain games you made me think of Devil May Cry you need fancy fingers for those games I think. Granted I do enjoy them.
 
I really like achievements and I have a backlog of games that I don't consider complete because I haven't knocked out all the achievements.

I've commented in the past that I check achievement lists before purchasing a game. I really hate multiplayer achievements that are a grind for a game that doesn't really have a big multiplayer community.
 
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