Anatomy of an Achievement

Whether they annoy you or fulfill your nerdy collection habit, achievements have spread across the gaming landscape and are here to stay. The Xbox Engineering blog recently posted a glimpse into the creation of the Xbox 360 achievement system, discussing how achievements work at a software level, and even showing a brief snippet of code. They also mention some of the decisions they struggled with while creating them: "We are proud of the consistency you find across all games. You have one friends list, every game supports voice chat, etc. But we also like to give game designers room to come up with new and interesting ways to entertain. That trade-off was at the heart of the original decision we made to not give any indication that a new achievement had been awarded. Some people argued that gamers wouldn't want toast popping up in the heat of battle and that game designers would want to use their own visual style to present achievements. Others argued for consistency and for reducing the work required of game developers. In the end we added the notification popup and its happy beep, which turned out to be the right decision, but for a long time it was anything but obvious."

Re:News

[icannotthinkofaname]

Do you think you have a piece that's more "news for nerds" than this? Go submit it! Right now!

Re:News

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you think you have a piece that's more "news for nerds" than this? Go submit it! Right now!

that way the submission can stay "black" color-coded and after days and days end up getting rejected, only to have it immediately start out as "green" color-code and posted within 24 hours when submitted by a Slashdot editor three weeks later with a less descriptive summary that probably hasn't even been spellchecked. thanks but no thanks.

No, they need to die

[GrumblyStuff]

Anyone else tired of every god damn company picking up on this lil' pat on the back "hey good job buddy" crap?

I don't need that when I complete a level. Finishing the level IS the reward (and maybe a save point if there's no save anywhere system).

What's wrong with the arcade-ish points system? Oh, you need to reward the most mundane and completely contrary actions in the game? http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=1206 [wowhead.com]

All achievements say to me is that the developers weren't able to properly reward players and, without the achievements, doesn't have an enticing enough carrot on a stick to motivate them.

Re:No, they need to die

[Onomang]

Why do people collect stamps? Or coins? Why do people collect anything? Usually because it's simply something they enjoy. Many people enjoy playing video games, but find that the main story in itself ran its course. Just recently I have been binge playing Mass Effect, and after a couple plays though even the brilliant story can lose its luster. I enjoy collecting achievements, and the achievements give me other things to focus on while still being able to enjoy the game play I've come to love.

Achievements are a small time-investment on behalf of the developers to ensure gamers that love their gameplay have more to do when the game is really over.

Re:Achievements really have come a long way

[Onomang]

Achievements are little more than a public way to show how far you got in a game.

That depends on the game. Many times achievements reward different play styles. Did you use a single weapon the whole game through, or did you choose variety? Did you beat it on the hardest difficulty? Did you go find every last hidden treasure? Did you do the optional content? They might not be the most exciting thing, but perfectionists and friends (as well as show-offs) often enjoy the ability to back up their claims of truly completing a game.

Re:News

[JohnFluxx]

Yeah, I think you're right.

The heat is getting to me and making me grouchy, sorry.

Re:News

[somersault]

You could also disable every section but the Science section if that's all you want to read about. Complaining about games related articles in the Games section is a bit silly.

Re:News

[Anonymous Coward]

the beginnings of the most recent universal adoption to the entire industry, across all platforms

"Achievements" have existed for as long as video games have. Originally we started with just one single achievement, which was called a "High Score List". In addition to the formal "high score", there have always been informal achievements shared between friends. For example, initially we would compete for the high score. Then we'd compete for who could do it fastest. Or beat the game using the fewest lives, or collect all the powerups, or find all the secret areas, etc.
"Achievements" are simply a formal, explicit way for gamers to show off their E-Penises, especially since many games have moved away from the model of "Play it, beat it, then you're done".

So ya, no shit they're here to stay, just like they've always been. Even if game companies stop implementing them formally, they will exist amongst the player base regardless. And if you doubt me, try doing a search for "Speed Run Videos", and you'll see a good example of informal "achievements".

Re:Here's how

[Anonymous Coward]

If there ever was an appropriate time for the term 'nerd rage' ... this would be it. Never have I seen someone so irritated by something so insignificant.

Let's review your accomplishments in the previous message:

• You stated that achievements can cause you to get fired, based on anecdotal evidence of a single moronic supervisor. The fact is, a moronic superior can fire you for all kinds of stupid things. Hey, the sky is blue today -- you're fired.

• People can use achievements to tell what other players have 'achieved', so that if you're clearly a mouth-breathing donkey incapable of telling the right mouse button from the floor, you'll still be able to join that Heroic Lich King raid.

• Achievements promote anti-social behaviour. Here you also throw in big 3-syllable words like 'infamous' to give you some weight, and then sarcastically challenge the reader to ask themselves "what's next?" Clearly, achievements can only lead to murder.

• In a brilliant "it's-a me, Mario" moment, you 1-up yourself and then state that achievements go beyond promoting anti-social behavior, and the achievement itself is anti-social -- giving the example of killing additional turkeys in WoW which are needed for a separate quest in addition to the achievement. I have a question for you: what's the difference between a one-off, throwaway, completely non-story-related quest, and an achievement?

And to top it all off... in your conclusion... the crowning glory of your post...you compared Achievements to Communism.

Let's let that sink in a little bit. In fact, I just need to copy/paste what you wrote, because it is that good:

Basically it seems to me like communism

I have a question for you: are you fucking serious? Achievements seem like communism to you? The complete redistribution of wealth and the elimination of individual incentives -- not to mention all of the other extremely negative connotations associated with communism -- seems similar to video game achievements?

While I know it's Slashdot and ill-informed ragegasms are karma fodder, but still... relax.

Achievements

[CaseM]

Achievements really were the "killer app" of the Xbox 360. It's the one innovative thing Microsoft brought to the table that absolutely everyone is now copying (except for Nintendo, I guess), just like Nintendo brought motion controls to the forefront.

I personally think achievements will have a greater long-term impact on gaming than motion controls.

Re:Here's how

[ildon]

Most of your complaints are designers creating bad achievements rather than a problem with the system itself. Designers can fuck up and create bad weapons, levels, bosses, etc, too. It doesn't mean all first person shooters are bad; it just means THAT first person shooter is bad.

Joygasm

[igadget78]

The first time I remember actually caring about the XBOX Achievement system was when a friend of mine started claiming he owned me at Halo 3 because he was 80% completed with his achievements for the game. I had never really paid much attention to it but I started looking into it and saw a whole other game. I successfully got 100% of the achievements ( until they added more) and moved on to CODMW, CODMW2, and many others, but it added a sense of continuation for the game once the campaign was over which prolonged the enjoyment of the game. Now I check the achievements out before starting the game to see the game within the game. Totally worth it in my book.