In today's episode of the daily Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter BiggunSid talks about the trophies and achievements that he'd like to see game developers do away with.
I think most of us will agree that achievements/trophies are a pretty cool addition to the current generation of gaming. Some of us love it-a buddy of mind called it "gamer crack"-and some of us simply think it's neat. For those of us who like to platinum a game or have a good game in our complete games list, gamer score and trophies can extend the life of a game well beyond the last scene in a campaign.
But here are two types of achievements/trophies that I feel should not exist.
1.) Multiplayer achievements/trophies
Yeah, sure it's okay with games like Reach or Killzone 2 or the Left 4 Deads. They have a healthy community. But what about other games, like Assault on Dark Athena? I really liked that game and would love to have it in my complete games list, but it's never gonna happen because they put in a pile of multiplayer achievements/trophies. The multiplayer on Dark Athena will never have a community, because it's just not that good. And that's why so many games like Assault put the achievements in their multiplayer, under the misguided notion that somehow those trophies will make people play it, and thereby develop a community. It's akin to putting nudity in a crappy movie; dudes will watch anything for a bit of nudity. But the thing is, it's NOT like that. All the trophies/points in the world won't make a gamer suffer through a crappy multiplayer experience. If a developer wants a gamer to play its multiplayer mode, then here's a tip: make the multiplayer worth playing for its own sake. A prime example of this is CoD 4. There were no multiplayer achievements in that game, and that was fine, because the multiplayer was rewarding in a TON of other ways (like it or not, and I don't, it was deep and rewarding because of its unlockables and whatnot). You could get all the achievements in the single player campaign, and that was fine. Except for one of those achievements, which is the collection of the intel, which brings me to my second point.
2.) The "Hey! Find and collect a bunch of stuff that's been left around for some reason!" achievement/trophy.
Today's games offer an immersion factor the likes of which hasn't been seen before in gaming. Nothing ruins that like having to collect a bunch of flags which some bored Templar has littered the rooftops with (Assassin's Creed) or having to collect THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY BLAST SHARDS in inFamous. I mean, that's a sucker punch right there. Having to print maps off of the internet and spend hours running to every nook and cranny is not really doing anything to make me like the game. I don't feel that I AM Cole when I spend three hours trying to collect the last three blast shards. And it's not the difficulty of attaining these trophies that bothers me. I mean, doing all the stunts on the list in inFamous is tough, but fair. The same with skydiving to safety on veteran in CoD 4. That has to be one of the most ball-busting achievements out there, and I may never get it, but if I did, OH wouldn't that be sweet. But collecting all the intel isn't. Having to collect a bunch of crap I don't care about and which is irrelevant to the actual game is unrealistic and painful.
Anyway, there's my two cents. Anyone with me?
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