EA fires back at Activision
11 hours 18 mins ago
Achievements are one of Microsoft's better ideas. They have a serious following and have developers and publisher tagging along for the ride. But is this feature killing gaming as we know it? It would appear so. It seems some players are more concerned with getting achievements than actually enjoying the games they play.
...rather than encourage players to buy the Gears of Wars and Forza Motorsports of the world to fight for hard-to-earn Achievements such as the “I ended 1999 lives and I’m going to party like it’s 1999” Achievement, it has players scouring bargain bins for games with “easy points” like Barbie’s Horse Racing Adventure or something equally… uncharacteristic. I’d personally be a tad embarrassed if one of my friends saw me online playing Barbie’s Horse Game Thingy, but that’s just me being what I perceive to be a 24 year old male. Different strokes for different folks.
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Most recently commented on by on Aug 30, 2009
Most recently commented on by on Aug 30, 2009



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I mean, I've seen some crazy GS like over 100,000, but if that's what they wish to do, if that's what they consider fun or as a hobby, then let 'em. We get the games, but we all play differently as well, such as the different gaming genres and the various types of gamers (from casual to hardcore).
Ok, I read through and noticed something weird about this blog...it's a little mean. For one there's a curse involved, and then there's this quote in particular, which relates to more than just the GamerScore. Why not apply it to careers, social life, all of our possessions, why don't you? It's very broad. Let's face it, it's not like our fame follows us beyond the grave and into that possible unknown afterlife, either.
So onto the achievement hunters...well the radical ones will surely remember their GS off-hand, and rent just about every game on the 360 getting quick achievements, but it's just an addiction...you know? Like WoW-players or a constant smoker. But how about I argue about something else, something I see more than people talking about GS, and that's the majority of pedestrians traveling who have something attached to their ears...that's right, music.
Why do I bring that up? Because it's just about as relevant as an addicted 360 achievement hunter. Most if not all of us are addicted (or maybe that's too strong a word, we all do at least do something for fun) to something, be it music, sports, games, or whatever else, if we are interested in something, chances are we'll pursue it to keep that interest going. Sure achievements are a different kind of interest, but I don't see too many people with a 150,000 GS. Hell, the console's been out for around five years anyway. And honestly, even though their goal is to get as many achievements as possible, they are playing the game, they did buy/rent the game, so I doubt it's killing gaming.
Achievements isn't killing gaming, it's helping it. Some people just like to play normally. Other people like having a score saying how much stuff you did. And others like me, loved to be challanged. I'm always up for one, and this is just perfect.
Achievements are not mandatory so there doing no harm to the gaming community other than the occasional egotistical moron here and there.
hahahahahah some people have fun just geting them
It's one thing to debate the issue, but the author is clearly trying to hard to be edgy with his ranting. Lighten up, dude. Gaming is a hobby, and Achievements / trophies are nice perks to have. I don't understand why it's such a big deal to him -- perhaps he is insecure about his Gamerscore.
however when i first start playing, i often look at the achievement list to see which ones i should be able to get on the first playthrough, and what the requirements are and try for them. no reason not to at least give them a reasonable shot while im going through the game IMO. then after beating it i will mop them up as well as the rest of them that i have a desire to go for. some games have such ridiculous or time consuming achievements that i dont bother. like ones where you have to collect xx amount of a certain object. ive been working off and on on the "collect 1001 orbs" thing in Prince of Persia, but i may just say screw it.
I know it can be addicting to some people. I know my one friend is all about getting Achievements and I know he doesn't enjoy some games he plays.
I was going to compare achievement points to leveling up a character in an RPG but he already did that. People enjoy seeing their achievement points grow just as they do seeing their characters in an RPG level up because it is enjoyable. It's fun to see something come out of your playing games whether it is achievement points or your characters stats going up as they levels up (which is not just seen in MMORPG'S it's been ported into plenty of action games now, Wolverine is an example of a game I've been playing this week where you can level up).
I quite enjoy puttin my gamerscore up. It's just nice to see that 1000G next to a game that you've been trying for weeks to 100%. I personally think that achievements are the best thing that has happened to games this gaming generation. It's not just about the number next to your tag it's also about the completion of each individual game. When I play games on the xbox I feel that the achievements are part of the game and I don't feel like I have finished a game until I have all of the achievements on it. Some games I know I will never have all of the achievements on and I'm fine with that but I'll do my best to get as many of them as possible.
Achievements are definatly a good thing and the fact that there are no rewards for it is a perfect example of that. There's nothing saying that you have to get achievements, if you just want to play the games and not try to 100% then there is nothing stopping you. I probably wouldn't have played half of my games even nearly as much if it weren't for achievements. I had to complete dead space almost 3 times to get all of the achievements. I've also played a lot of games that I probably wouldn't have played, like Transformers and the Bourne game. I had fun playing these games and am glad that I did but if there weren't achievements in them I probably wouldn't have bothered.
So achievements have helped me to play a lot more games and play through my games a lot more meaning I'm getting my money's worth but it hasn't ruined playing games for me. I still play wii and my friends ps3 sometimes and play hours and hours of Street Fighter online even though I have all of the online achievements already.
There is litrally nothing bad about achievements people like him just complain because they don't have achievements on the ps3.
I get sick of being asked to allow myself to be ran over by a mongoose or any of that crap.
And yeah, if you don't have a high gamerscore you get the piss taken out of you =/
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