In 2005, the Xbox 360 burst onto the scene with something that seemed like a throw-away concept: Gamer Scores and Achievement Points. When I first heard of these new ideas, I thought that they seemed out of place and that they were odd. When I finally got my 360 in July of 2006, I quickly learned the power of the achievement. If not for those little goals tormenting me, I doubt that I would have played Dead Rising long enough to get my reward.
You did what now?
My reward would turn out to be the picture that you get for achieving Zombie Genocider status. It means I had free time on my hands. It also means that I killed over 53,594 zombies in Dead Rising.
Why in the world would I do that? If those points that go hand in hand were not dangling out there, I seriously do not know if I would have gone for that goal. That is exactly what is out there now for the modern gamer, extra little goals to keep you playing.
I do not have a Playstation 3, so I cannot comment on their system. However I do know that on the 360, when I enjoy a game, I scope out the achievements. What I look for, are the achievements that seem within reason. The game gets played, but now with those additional goals (in some cases) in mind. What I have found is that they have created a much more entertaining game playing experience. I find this on a few levels.
If only I could get this on every game....
The first level being the most obvious–the Gamer Score. This hearkens back to days of the smoke-filled arcade with Earthshaker and The Black Knight screaming from around the corner (That’s right, we had pinball back then, too). Days when the high score gave you bragging rights. To me, Gamer Score is just there. My friends do not get into it. At a younger age, I can see this being about bragging rights. Like when I would return to the arcade to see that “WAR” had passed me on Street Fighter, and “AXE” was now #2. This aspect still survives for me in the leader boards. It’s hard to take the overall score too seriously when there are games that allow you to cheat to get 1000 points in approximately 30 seconds.
The next level of entertainment for me is of course the additional goals for the player. For some players, like me, it is a little sad to finish a game you like to play. Now we can find even more enjoyment in a game by begin given additional goals and tasks to keep playing that game that you enjoyed. Now by giving people the taste of extra achievements, download-able content is even more enticing.
The very appropriately named: "Complete Insanity Playthrough"
The final piece of the puzzle speaks to the collector type. I may be a visual person, but I like seeing all of those little icons lit up and the tiny pictures that go with them. It reminds me of something. I just cannot put my finger on what this revolutionary idea reminds me of….oh wait I now recall.
The idea of rewarding gamers in this fashion is quite successful in my opinion. The current application of this idea, via acheivements, trophy points, and the like, may be new, but the concept itself is almost as old as the gaming industry. In order to help promote play of their games on the Atari 2600, Activision came up with the concept of rewarding gamers with a patch for reaching certain performance levels as indicated in their respective instruction manuals.
I remember the stress and elation I went through to get that 20,000 points on Pitfall. The ruckus I made trying to be quiet while finding the Polaroid camera to snap the picture of the television annoyed my older sister who was trying to sleep. My mother was perplexed by how important it was to me, to be sure it get mailed off. Then it felt like I waited for 50 years for the patch to finally arrive. Such an important talisman for me, and still I have no idea what I did with it.
In the end, our industry has done what they have been doing since the beginning. They have found another way to take what we loved and make it new again. I hope I am not alone out there and would to hear of other experiences from people who remember playing for their Activision patches. Of course I would like to hear any tales of how you got that “one last achievement” you just had to get on any game. Now back to Too Human to try and find those last pieces of my Elite armor.
Congrats to last week’s winner: Jeff! Jeff, if you see this, make sure to email us at roblef [at] games are evil [dot] com with your real life address. We’ll get you your copy of SNES Clue!
the winnah!
For this week: Comment below, and be entered in the contest to get a copy of Yoshi’s Cookie for the SNES!
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