In todayās episode of the daily Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter BiggunSid talks about the trophies and achievements that heād like to see game developers do away with.
I think most of us will agree that achievements/trophies are a pretty cool addition to the current generation of gaming. Some of us love it-a buddy of mind called it āgamer crackā-and some of us simply think itās neat. For those of us who like to platinum a game or have a good game in our complete games list, gamer score and trophies can extend the life of a game well beyond the last scene in a campaign.
But here are two types of achievements/trophies that I feel should not exist.
1.) Multiplayer achievements/trophies
Yeah, sure itās okay with games like Reach or Killzone 2 or the Left 4 Deads. They have a healthy community. But what about other games, like Assault on Dark Athena? I really liked that game and would love to have it in my complete games list, but itās never gonna happen because they put in a pile of multiplayer achievements/trophies. The multiplayer on Dark Athena will never have a community, because itās just not that good. And thatās why so many games like Assault put the achievements in their multiplayer, under the misguided notion that somehow those trophies will make people play it, and thereby develop a community. Itās akin to putting nudity in a crappy movie; dudes will watch anything for a bit of nudity. But the thing is, itās NOT like that. All the trophies/points in the world wonāt make a gamer suffer through a crappy multiplayer experience. If a developer wants a gamer to play its multiplayer mode, then hereās a tip: make the multiplayer worth playing for its own sake. A prime example of this is CoD 4. There were no multiplayer achievements in that game, and that was fine, because the multiplayer was rewarding in a TON of other ways (like it or not, and I donāt, it was deep and rewarding because of its unlockables and whatnot). You could get all the achievements in the single player campaign, and that was fine. Except for one of those achievements, which is the collection of the intel, which brings me to my second point.
2.) The āHey! Find and collect a bunch of stuff thatās been left around for some reason!ā achievement/trophy.
Todayās games offer an immersion factor the likes of which hasnāt been seen before in gaming. Nothing ruins that like having to collect a bunch of flags which some bored Templar has littered the rooftops with (Assassinās Creed) or having to collect THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY BLAST SHARDS in inFamous. I mean, thatās a sucker punch right there. Having to print maps off of the internet and spend hours running to every nook and cranny is not really doing anything to make me like the game. I donāt feel that I AM Cole when I spend three hours trying to collect the last three blast shards. And itās not the difficulty of attaining these trophies that bothers me. I mean, doing all the stunts on the list in inFamous is tough, but fair. The same with skydiving to safety on veteran in CoD 4. That has to be one of the most ball-busting achievements out there, and I may never get it, but if I did, OH wouldnāt that be sweet. But collecting all the intel isnāt. Having to collect a bunch of crap I donāt care about and which is irrelevant to the actual game is unrealistic and painful.
Anyway, thereās my two cents. Anyone with me?
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