196: Achieving Azeroth

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Achieving Azeroth

Plenty of games include achievements, but few contain the sheer number and variety that World of Warcraft does. John Funk explains why WoW's achievement system grabbed him in a way that no other platform has.

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nova18

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Although I am one of the "PS3 trophy hunters" crowd, I absolutely loved the Wow acheivement system.

I dont own Wow, because I dont have the money or the time to commit to it properly.
But I did get the free trial a week or two back, and the second I got my first fishing acheivement I was hooked (HAHAHAA GET IT?).

The acheivements are a lot more rewarding than they are on the consoles, also the recognition, like you said, is server wide if your good enough.

That was a damn good article :)
 

carpenteria

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Mar 27, 2008
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It is rather well done. Nothing like the page of "Grats!" that appear in guild chat immediately after snagging a particulary impressive achievement... Adore me!
 

The Rogue Wolf

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I'd love to say that achievements are silly, but then I'd have to explain to myself why I spent the better part of a week tracking down low-level quests for rep so that I could get the "Ambassador" title (revered with all five groups of your faction), and I don't think I'm ready to do that yet....
 

roboosh

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The achievements on WoW actually reward you with something, even if it is a virtual something. Who wouldn't like everyone to have to adress them as Rob, Champion of the Frozen Wastes?
 

CoziestPigeon

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My Name is Chris, and I'm an achievement whore.

But for whatever reason, not in WoW. I don't hate wow achievements, I just don't give a rats ass. I think mostly because of how much I played pre-BC, it is no impossible for me to get half the achievements because I already had them completed before the achievement system came out. Like how am I supposed to hit level 10 again? Or get the Track Fish ability? It's impossible.
 

mattaui

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Just an FYI to Pigeon, most easily trackable achievements (like hitting level 10, or track fish) should have been automatically credited to your toon once achievements went live. It's only the ones that didn't have an associated quest (like killing Ragnaros or clearing BWL) that might not show up unless you've got some piece of loot from a boss still in your bank, and having Vanilla WoW stuff sitting around after BC was pretty unlikely.

I think the WoW achievement system is great, because they're so varied. Some show how much of the game world you've explored and conquered, while others show that you've mastered a more narrow, specialized sliver of it. Still others show that you've made a point to participate in events or gather items just for the sake of doing so, and not just to make your toon more powerful.

A useful secondary function that all the raiding achievements serve is an easy way to look at someone and see if they've been on a Naxx 25 clear, and aren't just telling you that. It's still no guarantee of ability, but it's nice to have some verification like that, without the toon in question needing to be in full i200-213 items for you to believe them.
 

Georgie2x4

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Great article; WoW's achievement system is fantastic, actually being rewarded for trying harder tasks makes them worth doing and showing off to people who say its impossible.

Still trying for The Immortal :)
 

stormcaller

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Dirty Horde? I swear you're trying to piss me off sometimes.

I like the achievements, haven't really bothered enough to start whoring them or anyhthing. Gotta gear up for Naxx 10 first!
 

BlueInkAlchemist

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Jun 4, 2008
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This brought back some surprisingly pleasant memories from WoW. Achievements are one of the things I miss, especially the cooperative ones. I needed help hopping on the zeppelin in Icecrown for one of the Merrymaker achievements since I wasn't 80 yet. Ah... good times.
 

NeedAUserName

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The Rogue Wolf said:
I'd love to say that achievements are silly, but then I'd have to explain to myself why I spent the better part of a week tracking down low-level quests for rep so that I could get the "Ambassador" title (revered with all five groups of your faction), and I don't think I'm ready to do that yet....
I did that in a few days, Gnomerigan Exiles are just so hard to please!

Edit:
CoziestPigeon said:
My Name is Chris, and I'm an achievement whore.

But for whatever reason, not in WoW. I don't hate wow achievements, I just don't give a rats ass. I think mostly because of how much I played pre-BC, it is no impossible for me to get half the achievements because I already had them completed before the achievement system came out. Like how am I supposed to hit level 10 again? Or get the Track Fish ability? It's impossible.
You have either got a glitch, or you are just lying, as when the new achievements came out you were awarded all the ones you had done that they had proof of. I.E. Level related ones, or if you completed a quest were you needed to kill the end boss for a dungeon/raid.
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Pyronox said:
How curious that WoW announced achievements just after Warhammer Online's Tome of Knowledge was announced... HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Tome of Knowledge =/= Achievements. The only remote similarity is that you get titles from doing stuff, but there are hundreds of different WAR titles that you get from like... sneezing. Other than that, they're really completely different. The Tome is literally a record of data. It's certainly cool, but it's a completely different thing.

And work on the Achievement system was under way well before anyone knew that the Tome of Knowledge would give you titles. This was when WAR was still in very hush-hush closed beta, remember?

stormcaller said:
Dirty Horde? I swear you're trying to piss me off sometimes.

I like the achievements, haven't really bothered enough to start whoring them or anyhthing. Gotta gear up for Naxx 10 first!
Red = Dead, yo.
 

Gxas

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roboosh said:
Who wouldn't like everyone to have to adress them as Rob, Champion of the Frozen Wastes?
Rob was in my guild... He was an undead rogue... I miss him... He stopped playing...
 

John Funk

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Dec 20, 2005
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Pyronox said:
CantFaketheFunk said:
Pyronox said:
How curious that WoW announced achievements just after Warhammer Online's Tome of Knowledge was announced... HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Tome of Knowledge =/= Achievements. The only remote similarity is that you get titles from doing stuff, but there are hundreds of different WAR titles that you get from like... sneezing. Other than that, they're really completely different. The Tome is literally a record of data. It's certainly cool, but it's a completely different thing.

And work on the Achievement system was under way well before anyone knew that the Tome of Knowledge would give you titles. This was when WAR was still in very hush-hush closed beta, remember?
No, I was playing WoW when they announced the achievement system and the podcasts and official announcements and interviews about the ToK were there MONTHS before Wo's version of it.

And the Tome doesn't just give titles, you misinformed newstwat.

It's a seemless integration of Lore, Xbox-ish achievements, Tactics rewards, vanity items, useful items, art, etc. I think they said there are over 3000 unlocks PER RACE. And it really shows when you play.

Don't try me.
Announcing Achievement System =/= working on it.

And you should learn to read more thoroughly. I didn't say that the Tome only gave titles, I was saying that the titles were pretty much the only thing the two different systems had in common. Nor are titles in an MMO an invention of WAR (hey look, we have an article [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_196/5941-Bow-Before-the-Worm-Slayer] about Deeds in LotRO!) Well, also the trophies and stuff but there's no real counterpart to that in WoW anyway - though hey, taking trophies appeared well before WAR in MMOs.

WAR's Tome of Knowledge is much more than an Achievement system. As you said, it's Lore combined in Achievements combined in something that is central to the game's design. WAR was designed around the Tome, whereas WoW was not designed around the Achievement system. Obviously, one is far more comprehensive than the other.

Xbox Live Achievements were around long before the Tome of Knowledge, and they're... pretty clearly more of an influence on the WoW achievement system than the ToK was. You're barking up the wrong tree.

Also, hm, let's try to keep sexist and derogatory language out of polite discussion, shall we?
 

almaster88

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carpenteria said:
It is rather well done. Nothing like the page of "Grats!" that appear in guild chat immediately after snagging a particulary impressive achievement... Adore me!
Hahah, I lvoe that too, it does kinda get old after a while, especially when you feel obligated to say "Grats" to everyone when they earn every little acheivment that doesnt really mean much, and then you feel like everyone is waiting for you to say "grats" haha or maybe thats just me
 

CarlosYenrac

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Pyronox said:
No, I was playing WoW when they announced the achievement system and the podcasts and official announcements and interviews about the ToK were there MONTHS before Wo's version of it.
Is this the same Blizzard who were working on Starcraft 2 for 5 years before they announced the game's existence? I'm pretty sure they heard about the Tome of Knowledge and thought to themselves "You know what, I bet we could knock something together sorta like that"

*EDIT: removed kneejerk-reaction insult - really not called for
 

ReverseEngineered

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Apr 30, 2008
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Great article! I think it's interesting to see the different reasons why people go after achievements. For some, it's just a personal collection; for others, it's a challenege to overcome; many more people use them for bragging rights.

I've never been a collector, but the challenge and bragging rights greatly appeal to me. Unfortunately, most games miss that fact. I've played far too many games (mostly new ones that assume they have to have achievements to play with the big kids) where the achievements were little more than milestones along the typical gameplay. Really, who needs an achievement for beating the first level? I would think that beating the first level is its own reward and it's not really something to brag about. Finishing the game? That might be more of a feat worthy of bragging. Doing it in 20 minutes? Yeah, that's definitely an achievement.

I also agree that achievements mean different things between single-player and multiplayer. The Peggle-style celebrations are key to the single-player experience, because an achievement has to feel like more rewarding than just finishing a level. It's like the cutscene and music when you finally finish a game -- congratulations for a job well done. The more fanfare, the more it means.

But multiplayer, you can really go to town with it. It's not about the achievements being visible to yourself, but to everybody else. Nothing beats the feeling of having guildies (and random strangers) congratulating you on your latest achievement. Doubly so when it's a bizarre, difficult achievement and you get people asking, "How did you do that!?" That sort of social posturing truly is a reward, and it ought to be a central mechanic in a social game like any MMO.

As was mentioned, an example of achievements done poorly is the Xbox. Consider when you are playing Rock Band and you play your first big challenge to win the tour van. When you win it, that little "blip" plays and the icon comes up, but nobody gives a shit about that. My friends and I were all laughing at the broke-ass van that was now proudly displayed on the screen in front of us. I couldn't have cared less about the XBL achievement -- the real achievement was given to me, in the game, in the form of a graphic of a van and unlocking several new parts of the game. That's a reward worthy of an achievement.
 

Valalvax

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Dec 9, 2008
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I'm pretty sure you're supposed to kite the boss backwards so you don't have to deal with the chain lightning, at least I think that's what we did when we did it, slept since then
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Valalvax said:
I'm pretty sure you're supposed to kite the boss backwards so you don't have to deal with the chain lightning, at least I think that's what we did when we did it, slept since then
That's how you do it to avoid the normal chain lightning caused by the rifts. The only problem is, when he goes invulnerable for 45 seconds, the chain lightning suddenly gets an infinite range. So you might have been able to outrange it before as you were kiting him, but then you have 45 seconds of healing through ALL the chain lightning barrages.