360 Achievements More Popular Than Microsoft Imagined 117
GameDaily is hosting an article looking at the phenomenal popularity of Achivements on the Xbox 360. Even the marketing team that came up with the idea is floored by the incredible popularity of what CliffyB referred to as 'nerd cred'. From the article: "Achievement points are changing the way gamers play. While the tendency had been for people to play a game through to the end and then toss it into a closet, many gamers are now going back and playing them again, this time to unlock achievements to boost their Gamerscore. Or if they only played the single-player version, to go back and play the multiplayer or online component. Or to go out and buy games they would not ordinarily have purchased. Or to rent games."
Popular? (Score:4, Informative)
Of the four million people we have on Xbox Live, in one year they've unlocked over 200 million achievements; that's 50 per person.
Now, when you consider that Battlefield 2: Modern Combat has 46 achievements, Dead or Alive 4 has 45 achievements, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion has 50 achievements, Gears of War has 49 achievements, Ghost Recon has 43 achievements, Kameo: Elements of power has 50 achievements, and Perfect Dark: Zero has 50 achievements it demonstrates that "50 achievements per person" is really not that impressive; a person could probably get that many achievements by casually playing a couple of the most popular games on the XBox 360.
I could be wrong, but I suspect that there is a dedicated group (probably 200,000 or so) of hard-core gamers who will do nearly anything to boost their gamer score but the numbers Microsoft is avertizing do not imply that Achievements are all that popular.
Re:Achievement point inflation? (Score:5, Informative)
And the issue with "easy gamerscore" was more prevalent near launch, as the concept was still new and not all the developers put effort into creating worthy achievements. The 2K sports games, for example, had ridiculously easy achievements in the 2K6 games - NBA 2K6 and College Hoops 2K6 each had only 5 achievements, and they are easy enough that you can get all 1000 gamerscore in a single game, and a lot of people have borrowed/rented those two because they're so easy. But if you look at the 2K7 titles, there are a lot more achievements, and they're not nearly as easy.
If you check one of the websites dedicated to achievements (such as Achieve360Points.com [achieve360points.com], you'll see that games have really improved their achievements over time, as most games have a few easy ones that you get early on, a good amount that you get when you really spend time in the game, and then a few that are extremely tough - though the ridiculously tough ones such as getting #1 on the leaderboard have also disappeared lately, because they just result in people gaming the leaderboards to get there instead of actually playing.
And I think it's just as impressive to see the websites that have taken advantage of having your gamer profile visible on the web, such as MyGamerCard.net [mygamercard.net], and created leaderboards and the like based on the gamerscore.
Re:Ah, validation (Score:2, Informative)
Activision released a game comprised of all their Atari games, plus a few extras such as prototypes, freeware homebrew, and even a joke program (venetian blinds). In it, it also implemented this patch system. Score over the specified amount or beat the game in a specific manner, and you win the patch with a little fanfare (no need for taking photos!).
Given the fun I had (and work done) to earn some of those patches, the 360's achievement system was a natural fit for me. In fact, it's one of the reasons I ended up getting the system (other being that the Wii wasn't out until November... which I got). Not for the score, but for the achievements themselves. I have a grand total of two discs: Kameo, and Live Arcade Unplugged. I've rented about 3 or 4 games, borrowed Oblivion for a bit, but done most of my gaming on the Live Arcade, trying to get various achievements for the games, and being a little irked at some that are bugged (Outpost Kaloki X), insanely simple, or insanely impossible (Smash TV, I'm looking at you). However, it gives me a reason to plunk 5 or 10 dollars every few weeks into a game, versus $60 which makes me hesitate.
My only hopes are that more achievements, even if they're scoreless, are released as updates to games. It's added content and goals, and gives you a reason to replay, if you're into that sort of thing. Also, I just wish Nintendo would have a similar system, ESPECIALLY for all those classic games. Publically state MS has done something good, praise them for the system, and then you don't look so bad when you use their idea (if it isn't patented).
Re:Ah, validation (Score:3, Informative)