New Faith in Achievements; Skywalker or Christmas?
I had reached the point where I felt achievements were ruining gaming on the 360. People are/were playing games that they publicly admitted they hated. Who does this help? The publishers are/were getting a nice bump from these virtual points. They are were getting revenue from games that would’ve dried on the vine without the nice 1000 GS.
People are/were wasting time and money on something they hate, all for the sake of points that mean nothing. It just makes no sense to me. It angers me a bit because it shows the dark side of geekdom (one that is prevalent inside me, hence the loathing, self), that we obsess over things that don’t really matter. If you hate a game it is okay not to finish it.
I love Jack Nicholson. The only film that I have ever walked out of in a movie theater was “Man Trouble” starring Uncle Jack. It was awful. I have sat through some crap in my day, but it was too much for me. The point? It is okay to not finish things that in the end do not matter.
The other infection that I loathe with achievements is the way they affect the way people’s online gaming. I have played games where people have passed by my downed and wounded body all in the name of getting another step closer to gaining progress towards a MP achievement. I know this because they proudly declared such as they passed by my soon to be corpse on their way to pointless number glory. The lack of MP achievements is one thing that I feel IW and the Modern Warfare brand has nailed.
In the interest of full disclosure I must admit that I made a joke similar to the story above while playing GRAW 2. It drew a sharp rebuke from my brother, rightfully so. It was a lame joke involving my lack of interest in healing him as I had the “Heal 10 teammates” achievement. My delay in attempting to heal him cost him his virtual life. A sniper ended his virtual life. Even discussing MP achievements can have an adverse affect on game play.
Then something happened along the way to achievement bitterness. Cyprus Church provided me with a “Lloyd Christmas moment” or Luke Skywalker moment in introducing me to “Trueachievements.com. “Achievements, can serve a purpose, or there is still good in them, I can feel it. Both work for me on a film reference level, however they both have very different outcomes to their trust.
At face value Trueachievements.com ( a site that tracks and places a ratio weight on your achievements) would seem to embrace much of what I abhor about achievements. That is certainly true, “from a certain point of view” ( Obi Wan logic FTW). What I do like is that it puts the points in some sort of context. Beating Gears of War 2 on Insane holds more weight than getting 1000 in Avatar ( no, not the blue 3-D one).
In getting involved in that site, albeit in a minor way, I have come to look at some games that I discarded long ago. Not all the games have earned a reprieve, but it has been good for me to look at some that I did not give enough time to.
Forza Motorsports 2 and All Pro Football 2K8(APF) have been two of the games that the site provided a gateway for me to look at again with fresh eyes.
Forza was an extra game in the Marvel Ultimate Alliance/Forza 2 pack from a few holidays ago. I have never been much of a racer fan. That may be due to the fact that I like to hit the accelerator and make crazy turns. Forza does not suffer such hijinks. I was frustrated by that the first time around. The second time I found the beauty of the game. It is a decent distraction from my NHL 10 woes.
I am loving the different take on football game play that APF provides. It has its issues. Then again so does the Madden series. I never would’ve given the game a second thought had I not gone looking to work on my completion percentage. I went for some points, I came out with a solid football game that is now entrenched in my gaming rotation.
This new relationship with achievement is tenuous at best. I have seen too many people fall victim to the lures of useless points. At the moment I feel vindicated by my faith in achievements, that there is still good in them. I fear that at any point I can have the rug pulled out from me. I will be standing on the street like Lloyd Christmas trying to figure how my new found faith in old people could be so misplaced.
