World of Warcraft Achievement System Rumored 86
Kotaku has the merest hint of a rumor about a possible achievement system coming with Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King expansion. "You know what World of Warcraft players really need? Another reason not to get up out of their chair, and Blizzard might be giving that to them in the form of in-game achievements in the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. According to DeathKnight.info, players in the Wrath of the Lich King alpha can type /achievement to bring up a screen like the one above, which shows various achievements that can be performed for points, which will more than likely then go towards buying gear and such."
I'm so over Wow. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's just a giant life force sucking treadmill.
Re:I'm so over Wow. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I'm so over Wow. (Score:4, Insightful)
but I think the GP is referring more generally to the feeling of disillusionment/ennui? many people seem to feel after falling head over heels into WoW. I played soon after the game came out, and was very addicted. I then stopped and it was like
I've heard similar reactions from others.
Re: (Score:1)
That's why I have enjoyed games of the hack-and-slash style a lot more, ALA Diablo series and most recently Titan Quest (I love TQ). You get to pick a play style from caster, melee, or hybrid, because that's as specific as you can get while still being able to tal
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I'm so over Wow. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think someone mentioned in a post regarding WOW on a different Slashdot thread that raiding as part of an established group taught them how to manage time, coordinate with other people, and build leadership skills.
Pretty much, you get out of a hobby what you put into it. If it's just a way of killing time, then all you're going to get out of it is a lot of dead time. If your reason to play is the social dynamics (I knew people who played because their friends had moved away, and it was the regular "meetup"), then I think the test would be if these social networks survive beyond the game.
With that said, I detest games that require you to stay on the treadmill to "keep up". At least when I do work I hate during normal working hours, I get paid...
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I feel like I developed some better team play skills (especially with regards to a fixed role) that have helped me a lot to be a better player in Team Fortress 2. They may not be particularly useful life skills but they helped me to do better in another activity so there is some value there. I sold the account which if I remember right came
So don't (Score:5, Insightful)
The bleeding obvious answer is: so don't stay on the treadmill. Go do whatever keeps you entertained, when it keeps you entertained.
I'm somewhat surprised how many people seem to, well, think they have some kind of _duty_ to achieve some level, get some item, etc. Or in some pathological cases think they somehow prove their penis size by how many level 70's they have and with what gear. So they grind and work and miss the whole point of having fun and/or making friends.
The game between levels 1 and 69 is _the_ meat of the game. That's the zones you're supposed to explore, enemies you're supposed to test yourself against, the quests and bits of story you're supposed to discover, etc. That's the actual game. It's some hundreds of hours worth of content.
And it sorta amuses me to see some people try to skip the actual game, or even use some bot to skip it for them, just so they too can then willy-wave about having a level 70. And then get stuck in an endgame grind which is no more than a repetitive chore for people who've finished the actual game and don't know when to quit.
It's akin to trying to skip most of the LOTR trilogy, just to end up watching the last 5 minutes in a loop, for months.
So basically, then just don't stay on a treadmill. Realize that levels and gear are there just
A) to give you some sense of making progress,
B) so you can practice your new abilities and tactics one at a time, instead of dumping 60 icons upon you from the start, and putting you in front of Kil'jaeden before you even know what they all do, and
C) to gently guide you about in which order you're supposed to go through the story and quests. Among other thing _because_ that's the actual game, some hundreds of hours and thousands of quests, which you're supposed to play and experience. Not just click an "I win!!!" button and be over with it.
But there is no obligation to keep up with anyone or anything. There is no par time that you have to beat. And it's not some shameful failure to take things at your own pace, do the things you feel like doing, and generally just enjoy the game.
In other words, the game is about and consists of the road, not just the destination.
And if you think that that road, in fact the game itself, is just a treadmill, well, you can just quit it now. Because it doesn't get any better. Once you're done with that "treadmill", there is no grand reward waiting for you, and no "meat of the game" that begins at level 70. What happens when that "treadmill" finally ends, is that it spits you right into the tarpit of a repetitive and pointless grind that's there just do give you something to do while you wait for the next segment (i.e., expansion pack) of the actual game.
Re: (Score:2)
In addition there has to be a better way to tell a story then "grab 30 boar pelts" off an animal that has a 20% drop rate. Why make me grind like that in hundreds of quests? It's not entertaining for me.
I personally think there is a fundamental flaw in the game play of these games.
not quite (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:not quite (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
We do a lot of stupid things to pass the time and enjoy ourselves. Judging someone on how they spend their free time is pretty sad. And I am tired of coming on Slashdot and reading people telling people how to live their lives and then spouting off some
Re: (Score:2)
And you are posting on Slashdot. What do you have to show for it...only memories and the ability to see your messages of the past. If we go with this stupid model airplane thing, you should have been making a model airplane instead of posting on Slashdot.
dont post again, if you are gonna make such shallow analogies, for you wont get an response for the second time.
with your logic its no point chatting with your spouse or your parents either.
We do a lot of stupid things to pass the time and enjoy ourselves. Judging someone on how they spend their free time is pretty sad. And I am tired of coming on Slashdot and reading people telling people how to live their lives and then spouting off some libertarian philosophy on how no one should interfere with their lives. Isn't that just a tad hypocritical?
ill tell you what is hypocritical. what is hypocritical is delegating your hobby to pass the time to the hands of a company which is bent on just making you pay continually and doing that by regularly introducing stuff that will make whatever you did obsolete, a thing of the past, zero, nada, zilch, leaving only mem
Re: (Score:2)
ill tell you what is hypocritical. what is hypocritical is delegating your hobby to pass the time to the hands of a company which is bent on just making you pay continually and doing that by regularly introducing stuff that will make whatever you did obsolete, a thing of the past, zero, nada, zilch, leaving only memories.
You've failed to mention why that's hypocritical. Care to explain? Also saying WoW only leaves you with only memories is not really true. Especially in a game that involves social interaction. If you're not a total jackass to people over the internet, you can actually make friends. I know
Re: (Score:2)
in wow you have only your memories. everything else, and what memory you are gonna have next is at the whim of a lead developer in a software company. and that company does not have a good track record of caring for the players lately.
in everything else that has been given as example, you are the decision maker when it comes to your hobby.
Re: (Score:2)
with your logic its no point chatting with your spouse or your parents either.
No, that was YOUR logic. You see how stupid it is to tell people what they should do with their free time yet? Sad thing is that by that comment you just proved that you agreed with me but are too stupid to underst
Re: (Score:2)
As
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The point is simply that if one enjoys doing something, then they enjoy it. Coming back with an endless supply "BUT WITH PB&J, YOU GET TO EAT IT!!!" proves not
Re: (Score:2)
leaving one's enjoyment and the way its conducted to the whims of a company's lead developer is not wise. if blizzard was like google, if it cared for its players' enjoyment like google fought u.s. govt for its users' privacy, it would be acceptable to do it. but it isnt.
blizzard is just an underling of quarterly profit greedy conglomerate vivendi now. and its entire development approach has be
Re: (Score:2)
electric slide you learn next year wont risk being obsolete within 1.5 months of its appearance with a patch.
Actually, the electric slide has been obsolete for quite a while now ;).
You're still not getting it. You're latching onto one thing that you don't like about a product or service, but that MANY people don't care about, or actively LIKE, and then claiming that it's a waste of time. As said, you obviously don't like Blizzard or it's games. Please understand that many do, and they're not being fooled or deceived in any way.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My ability to lead a raid translates to the next expansion, or the next game. The club I used to dance at no longer plays music I like. I guess my dancing skills have gone obsolete, as there is
Re: (Score:2)
Disco isn't dead?
no
You have nightly waltzes playing in all the hottest clubs near you?
there are a lot of clubs for any kind of dance enthusiast. and 'hottest' is very relative.
The dance clubs play all their music for free and you don't need to pay every time you go? They aren't trying to make money off your entertainment?
making money is one thing, MILKING customers is another. if a nightclub have disabled the water taps in their club in order to sell the customers bottled water in exorbitant prices, that would be similar to what blizzard is doing.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If by "point" you mean there's some large, enduring justification for doing something, then yes, nothing has a point because we, the planet, and the universe will die. But if you mean ANY justification, things can most certainly have points. I don't need any better reason than pleasure and love to have sex, even though pleasure is fleeting, love is fragile, and eventually I'll die. Likewise, I play video games to have fun, pointless as it may be. And I stopped playing WoW because it stopped being fun.
If
Re: (Score:1)
So why continue living? (Score:1)
If life has to reason to explain why you do something... what governs your decision making ?
p.s. let me guess... you are a relativists or nihilist or both?
Re: (Score:2)
I think the point is that grinding is not the hobby but rather what you have to do to get things to enjoy the hobby.
It would like not be able to build your models until you've actually held down a full time job to pay for the models, paint, and glue BUT e
Re: (Score:1)
But World of Warcraft is now just introducing badges, which games like City of Heroes have since day 1, 4+ years ago.
Some of my better and favorite badges, though I can't remember their names:
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
'Grats Blizzard, another great addon to the game! Cheers
Re:I'm so over Wow. (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, this may be a shot in the dark, but maybe, just maybe, people find the various grinds in the game to be...fun? Far too many people get caught up in the constant gear and leveling treadmill to really focus on what should be the goal of the game - enjoying yourself.
On a related note, this system is more or less a direct copy of LotRO's deed system. There's a running commentary on it right over over at the LotRO forums [lotro.com].
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's okay, Turbine has cribbed a few features from WoW too. e.g., in their first MMO, Asheron's Call, they recently introduced a quest that's virtually indistinguishable from the various WoW deck quests (deck of warlords, deck of portals, etc. etc.). Hell, the whole LOTR UI looks a lot more like WoW than it does Turbine's previous games...
There's an awful lot of 'borrowing' in the MMO industry.
Re: (Score:2)
And more to the point I'd think Warhammer Online's upcoming version of this is the one they're really after. LotRO's version is just shorta shabby.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
It kinda sucked and is indirectly responsible for sorry state it's PvE is in nowadays.
Re:I'm so over Wow. (Score:4, Insightful)
I have never played WOW, but my housemate is a huge WOW addict who will regularly spend his entire weekend playing it. And I mean the entire weekend. Toilet and food breaks, but nothing else.
But the interesting thing is that he seems to derive almost no enjoyment from playing it. All he ever seems to do is complain constantly. "Oh for fucks sake, I've got to kill $x of $y!". "I've been doing this for an hour!". "Now I've got to go there!". Non-stop whining. The only positive things he ever says about his WOW playing are things like "I have X gold", or "I went up X levels this weekend".
Now as I said, I'm not a WOW player, or an MMORPG player at all, so I expect a lot of them are going to reply and tell me how wrong I am, but here's my theory. I think that some WOW players, like my house mate, do not actually enjoy playing the game. They enjoy the sense of achievement they get from having 70 levels and a shitload of virtual gold. The hours of grind required to get there are simply the price they have to pay to get that. That's why you hear so many players complaining about the "timesink". They aren't having fun. They just have to slog through it to pick up the next level.
Before you all start screaming at me, I'm not saying all MMO players are like this, just that I've noticed some are.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I used to think exactly as you did. Then, I realized that the problem was my inability to moderate my play (because I had so much fun playing WoW). If you feel like you're wasting time on some entertainment outlet, you're probably doing it too much at the expense of your real life and real obligations.
BTW, I've stopped playing precisely for that reason. But, I had a hell of a lot of fun playing and I can't blame Blizzard for creating such a phenomenal product.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, the 8/9 hours a day I, and many others, spend at work aren't nearly as emotionally rewarding as enjoying a good game or other distraction. You must have got some kind of enjoyment out of it during that time?
-- Free Playstation 3, Wii and XBox 360 [free-toys.co.uk]Re: (Score:2)
Going out on a limb here...but fun?
For the non-hardcore it just replace time sitting in front of the TV.
Re: (Score:2)
The sequel looks better (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/warcraft_sequel_lets_gamers_play [theonion.com]
Congratulations! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Congratulations! (Score:5, Funny)
Lovecraft might disaggree ;) (Score:1)
So....? (Score:4, Insightful)
From the attention list though, it looks like they're focusing on casual players... "Super Quest Dude", various quest chains, etc. That's a welcome addition for those of us that don't have endless hours to play every day.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
*snort* (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Why not Slashdot? (Score:5, Funny)
I play an Orc, you insensitive clod!
For the obsessive compulsive... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
There are enjoyable aspects to WoW, but in my experience, the farther along you get, the more boring it gets. I've been playing for about 2 years now, and haven't even got one char to 70. In fact, my account is currently inactive, and I've not decided if I'll pay it up again. I'm halfway through lvl 65 and just that half of a level has taken me over 4 months. There are things I'm looki
hey a rumor about a minor addition to a game (Score:1)
Some Possible Achievements (Score:5, Funny)
- Went outside
- Eyes adjusted to natural light
- Talked about something not WoW-related
These achievements are also rumoured to be coming to the D&D 4th Edition.
Good idea (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Too bad you just lost a huge amount of reputation points in all factions.
Its basically the system in Lotro (Score:2)
That exists in Guild Wars for ages (Score:1)
- Cartographer titles (exploring more than X% of the territory)
- Survivor title (reaching level 20 without dying)
- Lucky/Unlucky (related to random events like lottery or keeping/losing lockpick kits)
- Protector (having done all the "cooperative missions" (like the instances) with their bonus
- Drunk title (for being drunk more than x minutes)
and so on...
There are also meta-titles (like for having all protector titles), PvP titles,
When you're
New achievement: "The poop sock award" (Score:1)
Congratulations.
p.s. please look for our new game called "world of world of warcraft" ( http://www.theonion.com/content/video/warcraft_sequel_lets_gamers_play [theonion.com] ) we know you don't have any life... i mean... we know you will like it.
Witty Comment... (Score:1)
My son loves WSG and Battlegrounds (Score:1)
It's like those useless combat awards I got in the Army - half are for things that anyone can do
Achievement met!!! You earn..... (Score:1)
um.... the give that guy a cookie achievement?
Rumor and not a big deal (Score:3, Insightful)
Even if it does get implemented, I don't see this as a system for "grinding." I also play LotRO on those rare occasions when I don't feel like playing WoW. Yes, this appears to be exactly like the Deeds system. In LotRO those are not achievements you intentionally pursue; they're objectives that you just happen to complete while you're playing, or you might complete most of them and discover "If I visit that one last farm, I'll get X." I'd see this having the same effect in WoW. I doubt the rewards for such easily achievable tasks would be great either, just like in LotRO. They're beneficial, but they're not game altering or anything that you cannot play without.
Regardless, we'll keep playing with or without any rewards because playing the game and having a good time is the reward.
World of Warcraft cheats World of Warcraft hacks a (Score:1)