Again, I fault developers for every reason you list and those I list myself; it's their improper use of the achievement/trophy system that is the problem, not the achievement system itself. Achievements, when implemented properly and appropriatley, offer another level to a game and can be a lot of fun to pursue, often identifying challenges one might not see on their own. Take "One Free Shot" from The Orange Box; I'd have never thought to try playing Half-Life Episode 2 without guns, but it was a lot of fun doing it! The "cute little icons" are badges of accomplishments and progress that, at least in my case, offer healthy competition between friends and proof that I've actually have done something significant. And I doubt implementing achievements has truly every forced a developer to change the design of their game, c'mon. Achievements can be tied to anything in a game and used how the devs see fit. No one is FORCING them to be used a certain way; look at Avatar, the most famous 1000 GS on the 360, completely attainable in the first few minutes! If a major developer truly wanted to shirk the achievement system they could simply tie their minimum 1000 GS to story progression: "Complete the first mission, complete the second mission, etc" until they've exhausted the full minimum 1000 without ever "affecting" your gaming experience. And there are LOTS of games that do just this...Deviate said:
Hahahaha!! I'd pay for that game!Soviet Heavy said:
That EXACT same thing happened to me. So pissed.trollpwner said:
I wish Valve would make that game. I took me two or three tries to get that achievement. The first time I lost him after you run into the giant maggot thing are being chased by the chopper and have to turn and was very sad. The achievements that I think are impossible in that game are Get Some Grub(I always come out of there having killed all but two or three of those things) and Neighborhood Watch. Other achievements that are impossible to get are pretty much every non-story related achievement in Chromehounds. I will forever be disappointed in SEGA for shutting down the servers on that game.Soviet Heavy said:
I see where you're coming from, but I think you're taking a bit of an extreme perspective. The abuses by users, precautions taken and limitations imposed upon individual gaming experiences are predominantely the exceptions and not the rules within the achievement system. Would you fault cars because thousands of people die in car accidents every year, or is the benefit and convenience of billions of perfectly safe, non-pedestrian commutes worth the "risk?" Many developers have seemlessly integrated the achievement system into their games adding/quantifying a level of depth previously unmeasured. To oversimplify and call it a crude measure of "endowment" is unbefitting for, by your logic, what else are ALL games if not that? You gain nothing from playing a game without achievement save for a feeling of accomplishment and a measure of pride, correct? Before achievements and now, do you not talk to friends about the things you do in your games, boast about your 'accomplishments?' Achievements are nothing more than an objectievly quantifiable representation of the same crap we gamers have been talking since the first games came out decades ago, and yes, just as I took pride in beating the tar out of friends on NES titles back in the 80s and 90s, I take pride in having a significant achievement my friends today might not. It's healthy competition, a surmounting of a challenge; it's about fun, which is what games are supposed to be about; innocent enough until like anything can be, it's perverted by abuse and misuse. Still, I think the benefits outweigh risks; hopefully the next gen can weed out some of the issues you and others have with the system because rest assured, they're not going away any time soon!Deviate said:
Ugh, Neighborhood Watch... two attempts and I gave up on that one. Between One Free Bullet, Little Rocket Man and the one someone else mentioned about staying off the sand, I didn't have the patience to spare!Fijiman said:
Hey, they're not all bad. They can get you to push the games in different ways the developers couldn't sneak in the game "legitimately." Like trying to break all the monitors in Portal 2. Or they could get the player to think about the game differently, like the One Free Bullet achievement in HL2 (use only one bullet through the entire game), or the "Little Rocket Man" achievement in HL2 Episode 2 (take a garden gnome with you all the way through the game and put it in the rocket in the end). It can also get them to look for easter eggs, like the Vorticough achievement of HL2 (find the hidden singing Vortigaunt).Deviate said:
I'm looking forward to this one; it's REALLY different. It asks that you speak to Calendar Man on major holidays, so it shouldn't take a whole year seeing as some months have several holidays and other are really close together like Christmas and New Years. If nothing else, it'll be an interesting one to have! But if THIS one glitches... man, I'm going straight to my congressman.Tin Man said:
