Easy Achievements Can Boost Game Sales, Says Gearbox Boss

[S29 Afterlife]

i have to admit, i'm an Achievement Whore.
but i don't BUY games for the achievements.
i just rent em.
but, not to be a hypocrite, but this is stupid.
i know it's stupid, but i LOVE just getting another 10k gamerscore.
it makes me question my social life, but i love hearing the little 'DING'.
i dunno.

 

[Altorin]

I like achievements for doing hard stuff, or something witty like in Nuts and Bolts: Put a bull into the volcano to make some roast beef.

Achievements for sucking are even better. If (or better yet WHEN) i'm a game developer I would have achievements for doing something that isn't winning.

"LEAVE ME ALONE! Got hit by the same enemy more than 5 times while running- 10g"

"Maybe I shoulda saved? Yeah you should have... -10g" (Return to the menu without saving at least 30 minutes of progress)

there was the Long Way To Go achievement in Guitar Hero 2 for failing a song on Easy.

 

[Krakyn]

People who play games just to get achievements are pathetic. They're like the people who need hundreds of friends on Myspace or Facebook just to say "Hey look, I have a lot of friends!"

Your very existence makes me depressed to be human.

 

[Poopie McGhee]

I remember playing the whole game of F.E.A.R. (the first one) and getting 75 gamerscore... and that was from multiple achievements like "kill 3 dudes w/ a single grenade" and stuff like that... all the rest many of the rest were for MP... i think there should be some middle ground not ALL of them TOO hard, but not TOO easy...

(thanks for bearing with me)

EDIT:

Meh. I think people also look at how fun the achievement is to get. Faced with a chocie between crackdown or dead rising and Avatar, I believe people would go with the first ones.

I actually thought about getting avatar (i didn't know it was a "padder"), but now i don't think i will... (i still may, as i don't care what people think...)

 

[Dannie]

Hahaha, nice. ^^

 

[SilentScope001]

Why can't achievements be useful for something other than bragging rights? Why not let Achievement Points be used to buy Xbox-Live games? Microsoft still get money for selling the games, and it actually provides a good reason to go and buy Avatar and all those other Easy Achievements Games (since you can get some free games if you 'win').

 

[DrunkWithPower]

I like easier achievements.... unlike beat all levels possible in 3 hours or less for a FF game. (Note: I know it doesn't exist but that's my way to explain)

 

[GamingAwesome1]

Surely this has been mentioned before, i mean isn't it obvious?

How many copies of Avatar would have been sold if it weren't for the achievements?

Exactly! I've sort of known that people buy games just for the achievements for months!

 

[Zac_Dai]

The desire in geek culture to collect the shit out of everything has always confused me.

 

[StigmataDiaboli]

Its true though. How many people bought Avatar The Last Airbender game for its excellent game play and story? Nope, they bought it because if you press B 150 times against a bunch of enemies you get 1000 points.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Bad achievement structure HAS sullied my enjoyment of some games. Blue Dragon for instance, you can play through the whole game and get 2 achievements out of 50.. that shouldn't happen.. Most of the achievements in Blue Dragon are "Perform this one Quicktime Minigame that you only get to do once in the whole game perfectly" and "Get to level 99".. seriously? lol

I think it's actually technically possible to complete Blue Dragon without a single achievement. Though you might have to work pretty hard to avoid the back attack/50 ambushes achievements.

Still got 1000/1000 on it, though that Moon Laser: Perfect achievement was a pain in the tits.

Ironically, Lost Odyssey has really good achievement structure, with it split almost straight down the middle between game progress and extra nonsense, and with only Treasure Trove being a pain to get (still got 1100/1100 on it).

 

[GloatingSwine]

I remember playing the whole game of F.E.A.R. (the first one) and getting 75 gamerscore... and that was from multiple achievements like "kill 3 dudes w/ a single grenade" and stuff like that... all the rest many of the rest were for MP... i think there should be some middle ground not ALL of them TOO hard, but not TOO easy...

FEAR has some ridiculous achievements, like complete the entire game without dying or loading once, complete the game firing less than 100 shots, complete the game by killing every single enemy (including some that suicide into you and some that are only visible for a few seconds and then run away into locked rooms).

 

[Wargamer]

It's true, but I don't think it's entirely true.

Let's take the single best example of how to fuck up - Impossible Achievements. You know, the whole "Be the best player in the whole fucking world" style ones. Hate 'em. Hate 'em to hell and back.

But likewise, I don't want a TOTAL cakewalk - Terminator Salvation's Trophy list is enough to make me sick - a Gold for completing each level, a Gold for doing the game on hard, and the Platinum for doing all the above. What. The. Fuck?

I don't object too loudly to easy Achievements / Trophies, since I am in the midst of a Trophy-war and an easy batch of Silvers and Golds would really, really help me in that, but there's a limit. I think games should be set up so it's easy to get 50% or so, takes a bit of work to get 70-80%, then the remainder require you to actually work for it.

Even then, "work for it" implies it can be done. It took me many, many hours to get to Zone 75, or to Beat Zico, but I'm never going to be in the top 1% of all Killzone 2 players, or to get to the top of a global scoreboard.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

If they want to spike sales, they should give an achievement for just starting up the game! Oh, and pressing, "play".

 

[shMerker]

Bad achievement structure HAS sullied my enjoyment of some games. Blue Dragon for instance, you can play through the whole game and get 2 achievements out of 50.. that shouldn't happen.. Most of the achievements in Blue Dragon are "Perform this one Quicktime Minigame that you only get to do once in the whole game perfectly" and "Get to level 99".. seriously? lol

I don't understand why it's a bad thing for the achievements to be easy to miss on your first playthrough. Wasn't the whole idea that they encourage you to play the game in non-standard ways and continue playing after the main quest is over?

*shrug* I like having at least some achievements out of the 50 or so to be relatively straight forward

Ok. Counterpoint: I don't like it when I pass a checkpoint and have it announced again. I already know that I killed the guy, made it in under time, whatever. I don't need to be told again.

 

[Poopie McGhee]

I remember playing the whole game of F.E.A.R. (the first one) and getting 75 gamerscore... and that was from multiple achievements like "kill 3 dudes w/ a single grenade" and stuff like that... all the rest many of the rest were for MP... i think there should be some middle ground not ALL of them TOO hard, but not TOO easy...

FEAR has some ridiculous achievements, like complete the entire game without dying or loading once, complete the game firing less than 100 shots, complete the game by killing every single enemy (including some that suicide into you and some that are only visible for a few seconds and then run away into locked rooms).

I had the "killing every single enemy" one... (it wasn't SO hard)... and I ALMOST got the "one without dying" one too...

 

[Ben Legend]

oh dear.... i'd rather have a mix of achievements, a few easy, a lot moderate which take time/skill, then the extreme. Sadly too many games make achievements far too easy, which makes me think game developers have cottoned on.

 

[Truly-A-Lie]

Prince of Persia gives you a trophy for watching the first cutscene but even with its barrage of trophies, they weren't enough to bring me back a second time. I'll only go for them on games I like playing. I do know a guy who rents things just to boost his trophy level, and he annoys me because it changes the system from "look how good I am, I did all these challenges" to "look how pathetic I am, I spend money on these bad games!"

 

[TimeLord]

I am enjoying Randy Pitchford's style, although I would never buy a game I didn't want just for achievements/trophies

[sup]Hides copy of Terminator Salvation game[/sup]

Only easy peasy achievement I support is the Come On. Catch Me. Achievement from South Park :LGTDP.

I sorta agree with the previous poster. I'd make my achievements based on failure so the only point out your suckage.

But then people would just suck on purpose to get the trophy/achievement

Unless they are actually that bad of course