Author Topic: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.  (Read 5560 times)

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Offline Turnsky

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Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
Okay, as many of you know, most (if not all) 360 games have an achievements system, you do a certain thing, or get to a certain stage, you unlock an achievement.

Now, am i the only one that doesn't see the point of it other than its "kudos" value popping up on your xbox live gamertag?
whatever happened to achievements that were actually worth getting?.. like the paintball mode from goldeneye for example.

Seriously, remember a time when unlocking something actually meant you'd unlock a secret feature or cheat?

for the sake of arguement:
http://live.xbox.com/member/Turnsky
« Last Edit: November 26, 2006, 06:23:51 am by Turnsky »
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Offline Fineus

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
Those of us without an XBox live account have to register to see your details mate :)

That said I do kinda know what you mean. I've been having similar feelings about the unlock system for BF2142.

Rather than make the unlocks something worth having (granted they sort of are... but for the wrong reasons) they've decided to make more or less everything an unlock. You know how you normally get grenades as standard in most FPSs? Not BF2142. You have to unlock them. That's right - the lowly private is sent into the field with no grenades of any sort.

Instead of having unlocks or achievements as something that really distinguishes you from the rest - they're now a necessity and a way to sort of drip-feed you the game content rather than furnishing you with everything right out of the box. It's a brilliant and unashamed way of making people play for longer just so they can access what they'd normally have in most other games.

 

Offline Turnsky

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
Those of us without an XBox live account have to register to see your details mate :)
well that sucks

Quote
That said I do kinda know what you mean. I've been having similar feelings about the unlock system for BF2142.

Rather than make the unlocks something worth having (granted they sort of are... but for the wrong reasons) they've decided to make more or less everything an unlock. You know how you normally get grenades as standard in most FPSs? Not BF2142. You have to unlock them. That's right - the lowly private is sent into the field with no grenades of any sort.

Instead of having unlocks or achievements as something that really distinguishes you from the rest - they're now a necessity and a way to sort of drip-feed you the game content rather than furnishing you with everything right out of the box. It's a brilliant and unashamed way of making people play for longer just so they can access what they'd normally have in most other games.

that's indeed my point, and there's no real fulfillment when you play a game, and "unlock" something actually worthwhile.
   //Warning\\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
do not torment the sleep deprived artist, he may be vicious when cornered,
in case of emergency, administer caffeine to the artist,
he will become docile after that,
and less likely to stab you in the eye with a mechanical pencil
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Offline Ferret

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
Although I understand what you mean, I personally think the achievements system is a pretty good idea, and it's a nice incentive for actually playing the single player portion of games.

Unlocking extra things for doing specific achievements would be even nicer though, but it's still a good idea. Lots of possibility to be expanded on at least.

 

Offline Turnsky

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
Although I understand what you mean, I personally think the achievements system is a pretty good idea, and it's a nice incentive for actually playing the single player portion of games.

Unlocking extra things for doing specific achievements would be even nicer though, but it's still a good idea. Lots of possibility to be expanded on at least.

other than the "i did this" value, i see no real point in it, that's all.
   //Warning\\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
do not torment the sleep deprived artist, he may be vicious when cornered,
in case of emergency, administer caffeine to the artist,
he will become docile after that,
and less likely to stab you in the eye with a mechanical pencil
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Offline Flipside

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
I always thought the term 'Easter Egg' referred to being shiny, fun and ultimately non-vital?

 

Offline Mefustae

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
It's not as if you have to pay for it or anything, so why exactly are you complaining? Sure, there's no real point to it other than stroking your ego, but nobody's ever made it out to be something it's not. I don't see why it's worth complaining about something so inconsequential.

 

Offline aldo_14

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
Okay, as many of you know, most (if not all) 360 games have an achievements system, you do a certain thing, or get to a certain stage, you unlock an achievement.

Now, am i the only one that doesn't see the point of it other than its "kudos" value popping up on your xbox live gamertag?
whatever happened to achievements that were actually worth getting?.. like the paintball mode from goldeneye for example.

Seriously, remember a time when unlocking something actually meant you'd unlock a secret feature or cheat?

for the sake of arguement:
http://live.xbox.com/member/Turnsky

They're only called 'achievements' because 'gaze in wonder at the playtime that has led to the icons indicating the vast lengthiness of my shiny throbbing veiny digital penis' was too long to fit onscreen....

 

Offline Fineus

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
It's not as if you have to pay for it or anything, so why exactly are you complaining? Sure, there's no real point to it other than stroking your ego, but nobody's ever made it out to be something it's not. I don't see why it's worth complaining about something so inconsequential.
I'll take this one re:Battlefield 2142 but it could also apply elsewhere.

It annoys me because instead of putting the time into more maps, more features or better bug testing (which the game needed)... they put it into a fairly simple system that ultimately gives you nothing. It's like having silver and gold stars in school - you felt good for having them, your friends envied you - but at the end of the day they count for nothing.

 

Offline Inquisitor

Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
You don't need an Xbox account. All you need is an MSN account.

And there is no point to them, other than to show your porgress in the game to other people. Pure epenis.

There is some (minor) value in knowing whether or not someone said "I beat Gears on Insane" is a lie or not ;)

Or someone being critical of a game they haven't actually played...

But yeah, epenis.

mines this big:
http://live.xbox.com/member/RolandT

Generated with this:
http://www.glop.org/gamercard/
« Last Edit: November 26, 2006, 10:13:15 am by Inquisitor »
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Offline Deepblue

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
I like achievements because when Halo 3 comes out, people will finally be able to know that I did indeed beat the entire game in Legendary. Unlike Halo and Halo 2 where my achievement was confined to that box.

 

Offline Turnsky

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
I like achievements because when Halo 3 comes out, people will finally be able to know that I did indeed beat the entire game in Legendary. Unlike Halo and Halo 2 where my achievement was confined to that box.

...

"hey look folks, i've beaten this game on every difficulty setting!... and yet, i have no life... *cries* "

all i'm seeing in the achievements system is what basically inquisitor said, pure bragging rights, that's all! little colored icons to stroke that ego of yours.
they're technically aren't achievements at all. Real achievements are unlocking extra features, levels weapons and cheats to do with the game.



i am the very definition of casual gamer.
   //Warning\\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
do not torment the sleep deprived artist, he may be vicious when cornered,
in case of emergency, administer caffeine to the artist,
he will become docile after that,
and less likely to stab you in the eye with a mechanical pencil
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Offline aldo_14

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
I like achievements because when Halo 3 comes out, people will finally be able to know that I did indeed beat the entire game in Legendary. Unlike Halo and Halo 2 where my achievement was confined to that box.

But will people actually care?

 

Offline Nuke

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
i tend to frown on games with unlocks. it annoyed me in bf2 how much i had to play to get a new weapons, and getting that weapon to find out it sucks. i find i got bored with the game after only a couple unlocks and havent touched it sence. stuff like doom3 and quake 4 at least i know there will be an end to the game and theres always something new to play with all the way through. maybe it cause i play games more for the graphics than the gameplay. its just stupid to have to play for hours or days to get a little tiny stupid little feature which usually adds nothing to the game.
I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

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Offline Prophet

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
I'm in the same page as Nuke. Only that I'm on a completely different page. I play games for entertainment, not for the challenge. I wan't it to be fun. Not easy or too difficult. So playing trought only to start again with a higher difficulty goes beyond my understandment. "Look, I ran troguht it on ultra suicide diffuculty with only this peashooter blaster I used for breaking boxes! And I was rewarded a BMFG 90000 with a nitro boost tires so that I can do it again!" IMO, WTF?

Sure I like sweating and biting my nails when I'm being depth charged, shot at, beamed at, eaten etc because its fun! But playing a game day after day after day to get some friggin special gimmic seems too much like work to me.
I'm not saying anything. I did not say anything then and I'm not saying anything now. -Dukath
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Offline Fineus

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
i tend to frown on games with unlocks. it annoyed me in bf2...
Thing is they realised they had a certain number of guns and that some were better than others. What they really should've done is balanced all of the guns against eachother and then given them certain benefits and handicaps (for instance that a certain gun is more accurate but the trade off is that it does less damage per shot).

  

Offline Nuke

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
balence isnt everythoing. too much and it will make all the weapons seem more or less identical. you got to have those 1 or 2 superweapons, you may get to fire them 10 times throughout the game, but theyre there when you need em. quake 4's weapons were disapointingly over balenced, the dark matter gun was too weak, and the machine gun was too powerfull. the only time balence should matter is in multi. and frankly to give better weapons to experts seems dumb. enforcing handicaps on experienced players would make it acceptable, newbs dont get assraped as much and the 1337 can still be challenged.

i seem to like the weapons that people seem to hate, that is grenade launchers, gatling guns, merc missiles in d2 (dont know why they kick ass), fish/fire/emp, you know, things people call spam weapons. they may not be the most accurate but they always have that little tactical advantage.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2006, 11:37:30 am by Nuke »
I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Nuke's Scripting SVN

 

Offline Fineus

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
Something like the artilliary in BF2.

The one thing everyone hated was that any infantry unit was instantly at a disadvantage against an enemy team with a commander (which most enemy teams have if they're any good). The reason being that a commander who's paying attention can instantly negate any infantry threate using the arty strike command.

People rapidly got tired of sneaking half way across a map to make a game winning move on an enemy outpost, only to be hit by an arty barrage.

 

Offline Inquisitor

Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
I use peoples achievements (my friends) to judge what game we end up playing over live ;)

"Oh, you haven't beaten Gears on Hardcore? Lets do that." Its coversation fodder as well "Oh yeah, that Beserker was a *****"

The profiles in general are handy, makes it easier to buy Xmas presents for folks ;)

Don't try and read tooo much into them ;)
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Offline Nuke

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Re: Tiny Rant: Xbox 360 Achievements system.
Something like the artilliary in BF2.

The one thing everyone hated was that any infantry unit was instantly at a disadvantage against an enemy team with a commander (which most enemy teams have if they're any good). The reason being that a commander who's paying attention can instantly negate any infantry threate using the arty strike command.

People rapidly got tired of sneaking half way across a map to make a game winning move on an enemy outpost, only to be hit by an arty barrage.

i played commander a few times, its how i got a majority of my kills. however being commander sucks if noone calls out targets. you cant always rely on your uav or sattelitte coverage, so good spotters are always a plus. also you want at least 1 engineer to fix stuff as it gets busted. problems occure when you have too many or not enough engineers. 1 or 2 engineers is enough. id rather have the guys in the fight than trying to score points fighting over whos gonna fix the uav trailor. just as bad as waiting in line or killing for an aircraft. theres no point being a commander unless the team wants to be commanded. its amazing how many people disobey orders. bf2 is just full of morons, more concerned with points than actual wins.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2006, 07:12:57 pm by Nuke »
I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

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