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The Daily Grind: How important are achievements to you?

by Justin Olivetti on Sep 29th 2010 8:00AM

Achievements and I have had a rocky past, but we've kissed and made up since then. I never quite "got" the badge system in City of Heroes, and thus did not alter my playstyle one bit to get them. But when I dove into Lord of the Rings Online, I found that snagging deeds was tied to real rewards (titles, virtues), and I started working through them methodically. In 2008, the dual achievement systems of Warhammer Online and World of Warcraft piqued my interest, and I finally crossed over to the dark side to become an achievement junkie.

There's something about that virtual pat on the back that's so addicting for many. Some people love them for the bragging rights, some because of those usable in-game rewards, and some because it gives them new, game-sanctioned goals to achieve.

So how important are achievements to you? Do you avoid them on principle, or chase after them with all of the restraint of a goofy dog who sees something he really, really must check out right now?

Tags: achievement-unlocked-500th-humorous-tag-written, Achievements, city-of-heroes, coh, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, opinion, tdg, the-daily-grind, war, warhammer-online, world-of-warcraft, wow, xbox-live

Reader Comments (49)

Completely unimportant, to the point of despising their existence. Plus I usually play with 4-6 alts at a time in a given MMO, so doing ALL those achievements on ALL those characters would just drive me insane. So I only get achievements that you just walk into by doing activities, not anything I go out of my way for.

Agree, I don't dislike them at much as Tolgar, but I am in the same boat. Once you play so many alts through the same content they become very mundane. Although I wouldn't want them missing from the game. They just aren't a big deal to me.

This is kind of a dumb question, because it's been asked 100 times before. Now what I would like to see is ask people if they like Achievements, then have them post their results from a Bartle test. I'd be shocked if anyone with A for the first letter in their results wasn't someone who liked Achievements.

I haven't taken it in years, but I was an AKES, and guess what, I like cheevos.

http://www.gamerdna.com/quizzes/bartle-test-of-gamer-psychology

Completely useless unless they give you something more then a checkmark in a box.

They seem like a cheap and easy way to add content thats not really content.

There are some pretty nice achievements like discovering POIs or finishing quests but those "killing 5 mio xy mobs" are brainless.

I admit, I'm an achievement junkie. And I think Lotro's deed system is my favorite mmo achievement system so far. It's extremely hard not to kill those extra 10 mobs for 5 turbine points and then a virtue for the later mobs. Best way to keep my attention. Just pay me to grind!

I think LotRO's Deeds are mostly slayer deeds, which are all grindfest. That, or the "use this skill 2,500 times more" kind of deeds which I fail to see how you could like them.

To each his own I guess.

Utterly pointless, they only take up time that could be spent developing actual content.

Alrighty mate,

Two things that bite me a bit with that statement:

1) You assume that achievements are not "real" content, because they don't interest you. That's highly subjective.

2) You assume that setting a variable that changes from "0" to "1" when you kill "X" amount of creatures, or complete "X" amount of quests, or fall "X" amount of feet really cuts into development time.

-Birk

Birk, changing the variable from 0 to 1 is not only an oversimplification of the technical process, but you seem to assume that getting an achievement-getting ANYTHING-put into a game is as easy as saying "I have a great idea!"

There's the development meetings, agreeing on what should/shouldn't be an achievement, deciding on a name/description, any applicable art style, whether or not it has a reward, point balance if the system tracks points ala WoW, categorization, you know.....all those "little" things that take many people BEFORE getting to a programmer who likely faces a far more difficult task than assigning a mere few dozen 1s and 0s.

I got into the badges of City of Heroes - trying to get as many as I could. It finally hit me that there was no way I was going to get them all - like the insane healing badge requirements (a typo made them out of reach for all but the diehards). I still like getting as many as I can. CoH does reward achievements through accolades, btw.

In Lotro, you now get Turbine Points for all the deeds you complete. It isn't much, but it is an added bonus to titles and virtues that come along with deeds already.

I have a *lot* of free-time to play MMOs, due to my circumstances, which allows me the opportunity to become bored after a while. Achievements are a good way to distract me from that boredom and give me goals that lead me to locations and activities that I might have missed otherwise.

I dislike pointless Achievements, "You reached level 5!", "You waved to someone!", etc. But well thought out Achievements - especially if they are tied in to Lore, interesting POI, or an in-game character advancement mechanic like in LotRO - can be a lot of fun! And if I can get all, or most all of the Achievements a game has to offer? That's just fun to brag about - *especially* if they include some extremely difficult Achievements.

Give me Achievements - make them matter - and give me lots of them!

Well the only ones I've really gone out of my way for and I mean really out of my way, are the Guild Wars titles, I'm dying to know what benefits my characters will reap in GW2 for all the hard work I've put into them. Hopefully it will be well worth the time and effort spent to have such a pack Hall of Monuments.

If all achievements gave some sort of in-game reward... not just points, but points that can be spent on items, then I will go after the achievement.

If it's just for bragging rights... I'll pass.

Same here. The only ones I really even attempt are those in LOTRO. I don't mind getting titles for deeds. I'll use the titles if I get them. But I don't care for achievements that only serve to tell me I got the achievement.

Please, devs, give me stuff for doing the deeds: buffs, pots, store points, housing items, vanity clothing. Something special.

If they have tangible rewards and even some (interesting) fluff attached to them like that tome thing in Warhammer, I think achievements are pretty cool. When it's just some stupid thing that goes bloop on the bottom of my screen and/or spits palette swapped mount number 58 (lol rust colored Protodrake) in my direction, I think it's a waste of time.

Are they pointless? Sure.

Do they add a little bit of something to the game? Of course.

They are nice for "filler" material when you don't know what you want to do next or when you have some time to kill.

Totally agree, they are like extra credit. Not required, but something to do for a change of pace.

In most cases I think the achievement system is put in to just to encourage a grind and to make up for the lack of content. LOTRO deed rewards are good but so much grinding.

IMO "Look at me!!" achievements are totally useless. I agree with Noah, if an achievement gave some kind of in-game reward then it's worth the effort such as the titles in GW which boost the power level of skills, or maybe a point system where you can buy items like mini-pets or such, but bragging rights just for bragging rights???

No thanks.

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The Daily Grind: How important are achievements to you?

Reader Comments (49)

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 8:08AM Zaetal said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 5:10PM Aleforge said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 12:41PM TexRob said

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Posted: Sep 29th 2010 8:12AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 12:04PM Birk said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 4:43PM ThePenIsMightier said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 8:22AM Snorii said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 8:23AM Daelda said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 8:31AM MrsAngelD said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 8:30AM Noah K said

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Posted: Sep 29th 2010 8:40AM Arkanaloth said

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