Ways to make the 360s Achievements more useful

[Eagle Est1986]

I really don't like the way Mass Effect does it.

Really? I thought Mass Effect did it the best, it's only really aimed at players who are going to be playing through several times anyway, so what should the average gamer care? Why not get an actual reward instead of the usual lame number?

 

[the monopoly guy]

gamerscore=microsoft points* might be good since most acheivements don't give you much.



*that's what my younger sibling thought at first.

 

[J'aen]

I really don't like the way Mass Effect does it.

Really? I thought Mass Effect did it the best, it's only really aimed at players who are going to be playing through several times anyway, so what should the average gamer care? Why not get an actual reward instead of the usual lame number?

I like the way Mass Effect does it. It notices a pattern in your playing style and makes playing in that pattern easier. It's just like an in-game power up.

 

[Proto Cloud]

gamerscore=microsoft points* might be good since most acheivements don't give you much.



*that's what my younger sibling thought at first.

Yeah, like that's going to happen! Microsoft=money lovers. I'd really doubt they would throw their own community a bone.

 

[JDLY]

Consequently, if all your trophies come from perceived 'easy' games, everyone will know, whereas there will be much greater respect for 'completing' games considered hard.

I'm not really seeing how it'd be any different. A lazy developer that makes achieving 1000 points in a game in 5 minutes possible will probably make a platinum trophy just as easily attainable too. Either way you'd have to check just how the player had gotten those points to get a picture on how "cool" the player is.

There is only one platinum trohpy per game. And it is only achieved by getting every other trophy first.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

on the PS3 the trophies accumilate into a Leveling score like an RPG. i'm hoping that as you go higher in the levels, you unlock larger virtual genitals that you can use in Home.

....

 

[Jumplion]

on the PS3 the trophies accumilate into a Leveling score like an RPG. i'm hoping that as you go higher in the levels, you unlock larger virtual genitals that you can use in Home.

....

yeah, some trophys do give you larger genitalia than other ones.

I'm not sure what to say about this, one half of me wants to go apeshit and tell you all that just now you want to be like the Trophy system when you've had years to do it, the other half wants me be polite and go for the achievments with ingame affect.

blech, i hate ungrateful people.

 

[Cloned Commando]

Achievements were already a great idea hell there what drive u to do things your would haven never even thought of w/o them really whos gonna try and RUN (on foot) away from a 4 star wanted lvl w/o seeing that beautiful "Achievement unlocked" icon when you do it.

But should u be able o turn in Achievement point for rewards i think thats a great idea it would just be a pain in the ass to do so no game Dev will ever do it!

 

[Cloned Commando]

gamerscore=microsoft points* might be good since most acheivements don't give you much.



*that's what my younger sibling thought at first.

Yeah, like that's going to happen! Microsoft=money lovers. I'd really doubt they would throw their own community a bone.

LOL MS maybe money lovers but nowhere near the shit sony pulls "the PS3 will be marketed at 599 us dollars!"

 

[Woe Is You]

Consequently, if all your trophies come from perceived 'easy' games, everyone will know, whereas there will be much greater respect for 'completing' games considered hard.

I'm not really seeing how it'd be any different. A lazy developer that makes achieving 1000 points in a game in 5 minutes possible will probably make a platinum trophy just as easily attainable too. Either way you'd have to check just how the player had gotten those points to get a picture on how "cool" the player is.

There is only one platinum trohpy per game. And it is only achieved by getting every other trophy first.

And getting 1000 points from a game is achieved by getting all the achievements within a game. The point I'm making, though, that it's just as easy to make it pathetically easy to get all the trophies as it is making all the achievement points available within the first 5 minutes. It just depends on the developers. You can expect people buying EA Sports Game 2012 just because you can get its trophies in one sitting like the same folks are doing it right now on the 360.

 

[JaguarWong]

Achievements were already a great idea hell there what drive u to do things your would haven never even thought of w/o them really whos gonna try and RUN (on foot) away from a 4 star wanted lvl w/o seeing that beautiful "Achievement unlocked" icon when you do it.

You know, 'You' and 'Without' really aren't very long words.

 

[the monopoly guy]

gamerscore=microsoft points* might be good since most acheivements don't give you much.



*that's what my younger sibling thought at first.

Yeah, like that's going to happen! Microsoft=money lovers. I'd really doubt they would throw their own community a bone.

shit, really? I never noticed that! A man can dream can't he! A man can dream! Plus, doing this would get rid of those dumb acheivements that you have no choice but to get (acid reflex anyone?)

but really, my little sister thought that gamerscore=ms points

 

[Somethingironic]

Microsoft should make achievements redeemable for XBLA items. Like 10 000 points gets you 1000 MS points. That would be a great idea. If you made the gamerscore to MS point conversion with enough balance, it would fuel people to buy more games for achievements, just so they can get the MS points. Making MS more money. The only problem with that is that some shitty games would make really easy to get achievements...

 

[Alex_P]

I like the way Mass Effect does it. It notices a pattern in your playing style and makes playing in that pattern easier. It's just like an in-game power up.

I feel like they lock you into a certain playstyle, and there's no analogous "reward" for bouncing around and trying everything. Like the "have this character in your party for 75% of the game" achievement, for example. It's the same reason I'm often annoyed with single-player games that have very rigid classes.

Oh, well. At least Mass Effect's core system -- the levels and talents and whatnot -- isn't super-constricting. And having the Windows version means I can go in there and turn on any features I really desperately need (like the extra skill for a new character) any time I want to.

-- Alex

 

[Doggabone]

Good in theory but then again it'd be too hard to impliment. In addition if you require say... 1000 points for something then a person who has fully unlocked one game would be deemed the same as someone who has half-assed 10 games.

From a retail perspective, the second is a better target for rewards and the first person is a less attractive customer. They've bought ten games opposed to one (or $600 instead of $60), and they're getting back one micro-transaction or video out of it (1000 points won't get much!). But I think attaching the points to an in-game reward works. A rare pinata, a weapon upgrade, or an xp bonus, extra resources, whatever - depending on the game. Or game related but out of game as mentioned - themes, profile pic.

gamerscore=microsoft points* might be good since most acheivements don't give you much.



*that's what my younger sibling thought at first.

Yeah, like that's going to happen! Microsoft=money lovers. I'd really doubt they would throw their own community a bone.

shit, really? I never noticed that! A man can dream can't he! A man can dream! Plus, doing this would get rid of those dumb acheivements that you have no choice but to get (acid reflex anyone?)

but really, my little sister thought that gamerscore=ms points

Because Microsoft loves money, this could be a good idea. It could drives sales of the games, and if the game disc was registered to its first player it would help drive sales of new copies. But because Microsoft loves DRM, it wouldn't happen if I could buy a used game (or borrow one), rack up points with it, and trade those for transactions. If it were to happen would expect it on a reductive ratio, like Air Miles (500 achievement points for 50 DLC points). I wondered if they had some "real" value, too - there was so much hype about them.

Microsoft will certainly throw you a bone - if you're willing to pay for the meat on it.

 

[ChurchV50]

I've gotta say, having achievements has made me a better gamer in a few respects. Those "asshat" points encourage me to break out of my habits and safe-zones. Running on zombie heads is sweet enough to be worth trying on its own, but there are plenty of things in other games that I had to practice doing to get the achievement. Beyond that, many games reward you for not dying/losing through a given section of the game. This means that while there is no real penalty for failure in Timeshift, they do give you bragging rights when you make it through a level on each difficulty without dying.

That said, it would be totally sweet if the badges did more than look pretty. I've seen a lot of good ideas up there already.

 

[Jumplion]

shit, really? I never noticed that! A man can dream can't he! A man can dream! Plus, doing this would get rid of those dumb acheivements that you have no choice but to get (acid reflex anyone?)

but really, my little sister thought that gamerscore=ms points

That's exactly what i used to think until i saw a thread about MS points a few weeks ago. Hmm, there goes my reason to be another acheivment whore >_> i'll stick to being a trophy whore, sounds more elegant.