Weekly Poll 12/17/06

[shaggy]

How do you like the Xbox 360's achievement system?

[phoenix1967]

It's a really cool thing to have. When you beat a game, it gives you some motivation to play it again. And there are a lot of achievements for multiplayer as well.

So I think it's a great idea!

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

The bottom one.

[phoenix1967]

The bottom one.

Gee...what a surprise. 

[Cobra]

And "What are these achievements you speak of?" is in the lead.

[James]

I think they're great but they need to get rid of online achievements. People ruin online games by only going for achievements, instead of focussing on the game. That could be trying to kill as many people as possible in a capture the flag on Call of Duty, when that's not the point.

[chrisbid]

there is a new system?

or are we talking about the system that has already been in place for the past year?

[Tynstar]

They are fine but I don't go after them at all.

[shaggy]

I don't have a 360 but I do know of the system.  For those of you with a 360 can you explain the achievement system for us without one.  Is this explained in the 360 system manual?  The only reason I know of the achievement system is because I get OXM. 

[James]

There are 1000 points in a normal game or 200 points in an arcade game, no points in a demo. The points are split up by the game developers into achievements, with a certain number of points per achievement. Dead Rising is split into 50 achievements all at 20 points each, despite some being harder than others. Most games have different values for each achievement.

Dead Rising achievements include killing 1,000 10,000 and 53,*** (some specific number) zombies, rescuing a certain number of survivors, or doing silly things like putting 10 novelty hats on zombies.

Project Gotham Racing 3 had achievements for each level of completion, steel, bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. Achievements for style, completion, number of wins, etc.

Online achievements are generally the same as offline but can only be achieved online, obviously.

[phoenix1967]

If I'm not mistaken, the 1000 achievement points is the standard number that Microsoft has put in place.

I don't think it's a requirement, though. But if you choose to use achievement points, I think that they want you to use that number as a developer, divided up however they see fit. Some games are easy to get all the achievement points, others more difficult.

It does add to the replayability of a game. Which I think is a good thing; and is especially good for any single player game. But as previously mentioned, it can frequently be a detractor to the enjoyment of online multiplayer if you get players that are too absorbed with getting their achievement points.

[James]

It does add to the replayability of a game.

Certainly. I got bored with PGR3 after a while but decided I wanted to get more achievements for it, so I played it nonstop for a couple of weeks and got all but 3 (?) achievements.

[Tynstar]

http://www.achieve360points.com/

Has a list of achievements for different games.

[shaggy]

Basically these are for braggin rights?  You can't use these points to "buy" anything?  Can other people what achievements you have achieved or how many points you have?

[phoenix1967]

Yes. You can see your friends' achievements and they can see yours. It's not a bad idea to find out if they've gotten past some part of a game which you may be having trouble to maybe open some communication in that regard.

Originally, I thought the same that it seemed useless that the achievement points are basically "bragging rights", but after awhile I've come to the opinion that it adds to the life of the game somewhat and is an easy way to share info with friends.