196: Bridging the Skill Gap

[Kedcom]

This was another nicely written article Mr Zacny cheers. I especially enjoy it when you slide in bits and bobs such as getting achievements because they "are there" like the proverbial mountains.

Anyway, onto the topic at hand... Achievements: I like em! In some ways anyway.

I really think they do add an element of differentiation to the gameplay and goals without destroying the experience for everyone. I am a decent enough player at most games as many Escapist readers are but god I hate it when I buy a game with huge anticipation and at considerable expense and find it to be just plain brutal to play. Probably the first example of a game like that for me was Contra on the NES. I played it for hours with my mate and I think we only ever got past the first 3 or 4 levels on a few occasions. We certainly didnt get near the finish line! Other examples could include Ecco The Dolphin or (and I must admit I do actually like the following game) Shadow of the Colossus. HARD.

I said that we played Contra over and over but the reason was really that we didnt have all that many other titles to play. If I bought that game tomorrow I would probably be pissed off with it within a couple of days and sell it or let it rot for being the bastard tough waste of time it was. There are soooo many great titles available these days and I dont have the time to waste on being killed by the same ridiculously hard end of level boss 99 brazillion times anymore.

So coming to some kind of point, achievement systems (IF implemented well and thats a big IF I know) are really useful for allowing everyone to get into a game, yet add that element of real challenge thats often missing these days. That way if I really like a game then I can still have a proper bit of gaming to do, but people who are more casual or maybe not as into a particular genre are not risking throwing away $$$ all the time because the developer decided it was more important to give the fanboys a tricky challenge.

PS On the subject of tricky games, I still remember the warm glow of completing UFO: Enemy Unknown for the first time. I even named myself after the X-com orginisatio in honour of the game and my own glorious achievement! They dont make em like that anymore! Perhaps sometimes a game should just be hard to actually finish I suppose....

 

[veloper]

TF2 works because it's a good game. Add achievements to a game with poor mechanics and it won't work.

It's still all about gameplay and achievements don't change that.

For multiplayer, dedicated servers are still the best solution.
For singleplayer the tried old difficult settings still work best.

 

[Merlark]

Achievements are stupid, plain and simple. here is a reward for picking up a gun! or shooting a guy in the head in a shooter where you are suppose to shoot a guy in the head. Then of course are the silly 'challenge' achievements which only have a slightly higher merit.

This is a tricky topic to talk about though, the skilled players versus the non-skilled players and how they play together. Mostly because you can easily sound like a pompous jerk, without even trying.

I personaly and in all probability wrongly think that these systems not only hurt games but the people who play them. Lowering the bar and trying to even and encorage people who really just need to play the game and learn at their own pace with stepping stones allows players to be extreamly lazy. TF2 is super guilty of this.

Back in the day, I was not very good at counter-strike. but I learned where the snipers would be, how the weapons handled and how to work and communicate with my team because I wanted to win. Same as people who play chess learn allot of moves or those who play basketball learn how to shoot and play the ball.

TF2 does not require any of that, you never win, even when you win and it doesn't really tell you that YOU are losing even when you lose. it hits you up with feel good stuff like, best damage run, achievements, a found item etc.

A goal of a game is to have fun, I understand that. but I feel game developers are preventing gamers from becoming 'professional' in the same way that other recognized game mediums have.

Games company's see skilled players are the enemy while in other game mediums Skilled players are hero's and role models. You might suck, but you don't need a pat on the back or an artificial trophy for 'participating' in the game. You need to shut up, you need to watch and listen...and most of all, you need to learn.

Why are Game company's insisting that people who play their games don't need to learn anything? why does our society seem to promote this?

It makes me sound like a jerk, yes. but if you REALLY want to feel good about yourself...DO SOMETHING and stop letting a game give you things that really don't matter and handi-caps that slow you from 'learning' to play.

*edit* and just for good measure, TF2 is a horrible game. it makes me feel horrible and its complete anarchy and choas on maps with more then 24 players. There is no "Team" in team fortress two. I'm happy it makes others happy, but it doesn't hold a candle to the original and its a failure in my eyes...a cheap cash in and money generator for Valve that removed the spirit of team gameplay.

 

[TinmanX]

I think that it is important to note that many of the achievements in games these days are not an accurate reflection of skill by the players who accomplish them. Sure, there are some achievements that are genuinely difficult, but many of these achievements could be unlocked by anyone with enough time, dedication or even luck. Time, dedication and luck does not equate to skill.

For example, an achievement that say requires you to headshot 10 people in 10 seconds with X gun may seem like a difficult achievement, one that probably requires a bit of skill. For Joe, a skilled FPS gamer who picked up gun X and performed/undertook the achievement one time and first time under normal game circumstances, this achievement could be described as one achieved through skill. However, if we take Bob, a novice player playing under abnormal but ideal conditions for the achievement to take place (e.g. custom/achievement map), purposefully attempting to complete the achievement multiple times and only succeeding on the 8th attempt, we could easily say the achievement was not completed through skill. It would be more related to time, dedication and luck ... and even cheating, depending on how you look at it.

Personally, I have never liked achievements. To me they are a somewhat egotistic and narcissistic attempt at making players feel good about their actions, actions that are sometimes completely lacking in any kind of skill and often detrimental to their ability to play the game. Back in the day when games were actually hard, there were no achievements for the guy who finished a game on the hardest difficulty, and no ability to compare achievements with others in vain attempts at evaluating their own self worth. To me, achievements are almost as bad as games that make players feel their game statistics are important. All this crap about having more game points, a positive kill:death ratio, % accuracy and high kill count are often major misrepresentations of someone's ability to win games. You may have excellent statistics, but you could have contributed to the defeat of your team more than the people you consider to have played worse than you. You, who hid at your sniper's vantage, killed only 4 people with 100% accuracy and died 0 times ... in the last 30 mins VS the guy who killed 10 guys, died 20 times due to being outnumbered in every engagement and slowly lost objectives due to not having adequate support.

I guess what I am trying to say is that there is this association with achievements and skill that I think is wholly untrue. There are some achievements that are difficult, that time dedication and luck can grant you access to, but making a strong distinction between that and actual player skill (e.g. consistently useful rocket jumping, high reflexes, good hand eye coordination, micro etc) I think is very important not only for the gaming community, but for developers as well. Only then will achievements actually denote skill in games.

Time + Dedication + Luck != Skill

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

People who care about achievements will spend the time getting them and are already skilled players--my mum isn't going after a high gamerscore. People who don't, won't bother ever looking at them.

Who gained anything?