Achievement Unlocked 7.18.08: Achievement Spread

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 07.18.2008

Achievements take root in a number of different places, including World of Warcraft's new expansion pack: Wrath of the Lich King. Plus let's forget what was at E3 and talk about what wasn't there.



This week we take a look at how Achievements are spreading and it's not just Sony that's hopping aboard the imitation train. Flash-based games are in on it, as is that 800-lb gorilla in the corner: World of Warcraft. Plus there was that E3 thing, we'll take a look at what was there and what, strangely, wasn't.

Achievements are popular - that's obvious from the whole idea of "Achievement Whores" and the slew of websites that have sprung up as enablers for the Achievement-challenged. Even Sony is getting in on the act, though their Trophy reward system is off to a rocky start.

I didn't expect to find them on a free Flash-based game, though - but there they are. Not even that bad a list, to be honest. Though the community there is quite a bit smaller than Xbox Live, I noticed quite a few people in the chat box talking about Achievements as they picked them up - or asking how to get them when they were having trouble.

Still, that's just a small site on a big Internet. It took the biggest MMO of them all to get me thinking about the phenomenon we'll call Achievement Spread. That's right, Wrath of the Lich King will have Achievements - 500 of them when the expansion hits. See Sony? Now that's how you launch an Achievement ripoff!

It's not really ripping off Achievements, of course. Other MMOs have had similar systems, including City of Heroes/Villains (a really fun game to level up in once, though I didn't really feel it had much for longevity), Lord of the Rings: Online (a great lesson in how a license isn't enough to make for a cool game), and Everquest II (subtitled SOE learned nothing from EQ). Those systems didn't actually call them Achievements though, something Blizzard does - even including an Achievement Unlocked notification and point value for each you unlock.

I quit playing WoW some time ago, burnt out by pushing for GM in PVP along with a great crew of dedicated (and talented) players, then seeing that the treadmill just keeps going, but this is a great addition for a game that was already pretty addicting. I really like the more frivolous ones, like falling 65 yards without dying.

There are, as seems to be the standard, a few painful ones as well. Getting five reputations to Exalted? Getting 10 to Exalted? That seems less fun...

I have no idea what the 'points' you earn are for, if there's even a point to them at all. Hell, the whole thing could be a joke - Blizzard is pretty good at putting together some really elaborate pranks on their fans...but I doubt it. As I said, other games have them already and there's no denying that Achievements are popular.

A lot of the time it feels like developers are starting to move back towards the 'high score' era, where there was a tangible point to the game besides simply beating it. You had points to gather, and leaderboards to be at the top of - if only so you could proudly enter your name as ASS for all to see.

As for trophies, Sony's learning that developers apparently don't want to put in the work if they don't have to - and they're going to be mandating Trophies in 2009 releases. They're taking it a step further though, and demanding that developers not simply copy and paste their Achievement list over, change the name to Trophies, and call it a day. It seems a little heavy handed, but it's really not a bad move - they definitely want to have some sort of differentiation between the lists.

E3: The Missing Components

While each conference focused on a slew of games, it was the games that weren't there that I think I noticed more. There was no mention of MadWorld during Nintendo's conference, for one, though it was shown in the closed-door section. When they claim to be still trying to cater to the 'hardcore' gamer...doesn't that game seem like the perfect one to show? Give it 15 seconds of time, and limit the bloodshed if you want to avoid freaking out the Oprah crowd - but have it there on stage!

Sony had a different issue, with games that were prevalent last year pulling a fade this time around - namely White Knight Story. It was all the rage last year, but completely absent from Sony's stage show this year (though it might have been given a 1-second blip in the video montage they rolled out, since they even included the 50 Cent game in that) and I haven't heard a thing about it from the floor either. I also expected Naughty Dog, but they had nothing at the show at all - except word that the Uncharted Trophy patch will likely be out in August.

For Microsoft Alan Wake was a no-show, though it might have been on the floor, and Halo Chronicles was a complete no-show. That might have been the game announcement scrapped by Microsoft, presumably because they felt Sony had a soft show they didn't need to one-up, or they didn't want to draw attention from other games that'll be out this year. Halo Wars was another that I don't remember from the stage show at all, though it could have been in a video package I suppose - but at least that one was displayed on the floor.

So what about you - what games did you tune into E3 expecting to see a lot about, but found nothing?

E3: CGI vs Gameplay, Style vs Substance

This seems like an issue every year, where Microsoft concentrates on what games they have in the next six-nine months, showing actual gameplay - even if early on. Meanwhile Sony typically shows trailers that, at best, are captured footage heavily cut and processed then set to music for the show. A little worse is when they show trailers that are completely CGI. The absolute worst is when they show those CGI trailers, then claim it's actually gameplay.

Too good to be true?

Microsoft's paid for using that approach, of course. They showed Crackdown in an early form at E3 2006 and were hammered for it. They went with gameplay videos of early 360 titles at E3 2005, and came up against the infamous "that's gameplay, that's all real gameplay" Killzone 2 footage for a PS3 that had, at the time, two HDMI slots, three Ethernet ports, and a Spring 2006 launch. Here we are three years later and not only is Killzone 2 not out yet, but, despite finally being at a point where they can show it off, it wasn't even a major feature of Sony's showing. But it doesn't really matter, does it? They 'won' that year's E3 with that trailer, getting tons of media coverage for their Spring launch.

OK, so that didn't entirely work out for them.

I'm not saying that I'm totally against CGI trailers, because I'm not. I don't mind the use of CGI to introduce a title that's a year or more out. Just make mention that it's just a CGI trailer and never - ever - pretend that it's gameplay. Once you've got something to show though, put the render monkeys to work rendering something else and show the game being played whenever possible. It's fine that it doesn't have all the polish in place at the start. Who doesn't like to see a game starting to look BETTER as it gets closer to release? That goes for using cutscenes to hype the game, then showing the actual gameplay at the last-minute - nobody likes that last-minute downgrade.

I don't claim to tell you what to think, but personally I value seeing the game I'm actually going to play a lot higher than seeing a 'what if' fairy tale some CG artist came up with. I'd rather see gameplay, even if it's a little rocky at that stage in the development cycle, instead of a trailer someone stitched together to run at 60 fps from a build that in reality is lucky to maintain 15 fps for a game that eventually hits a shaky 30 fps.

I'd also rather see games that are coming up soon - not something that's might hit in 2010. Microsoft showcased only a few games that are coming in 2009 - big ones like Star Ocean and Resident Evil 5. The rest of their conference was dedicated to the upcoming months: Last Remnant on November 20, Gears of War 2 on November 7, Geometry Wars 2 on August 6, and Fable 2 in October. Each of those games had gameplay shown. That's valuable, to my mind.

What's not is a CGI trailer of a game with no release date. Not even a month. God of War III? Expected, but great....so...when?

Come on, Sony. Don't spend the opening part of your conference telling people how they waited seven years before God of War came out on the PS2, then show a God of War III trailer that has no date on it at all. People don't want to have to wait. You spent billions buying up development team after development team so you could crank out first-party titles...so where are they?

Style versus Substance. Stop talking about how great it's going to be when the games show up, and get to work getting them out. That's where Microsoft's approach is smart - they don't have you salivating over a game for two years, waiting patiently while dust piles up on your console, only to have it become multiplatform.

That's when these freaks show up.



Picked up NCAA 2009, even though I'm not that big of a college football fan - just because friends really wanted to do an online dynasty. It's been OK so far, though as I said I'm probably not the best guy to judge the game at this point. If Madden plays this well, I'd be pretty happy - so I guess that's a positive.

Played the Too Human demo quite a bit, going back to it once I found out how to unlock all five character classes. For those that haven't seen that trick, which Dyack is calling an 'Easter Egg' (remember those in games?) here's the steps:

Disconnect your Ethernet cable and change the date on your 360 to past the Too Human retail date of August 19. It's easiest to just switch the year to 2009. That'll unlock two other classes automatically, though I can't remember which.

To get the two that remain locked, select them and channel all those old-school NES button mashing skills...hammer on the A button as fast as you can, while flicking the stick towards an unlocked class. If you're fast enough, you'll start the game as the locked class.

I said in the Too Human preview comments that it was very much fun going solo as the BioEngineer, but I need to amend that. It can be really, really fun as the BioEngineer if you read the skill trees. One skill gives you a chance to take over enemies for a short period of time, turning them into your ally. It can be a lot of fun to do that with some of the more annoying enemies - like the rocket-spewing bastards - and let them wipe everyone else out.

The demo's had a really mixed reception, though most people seem to come around on it once they give it a second play through. The controls take some getting used to, after years of being 'trained' to play games a certain way, but once it clicks...

If that sounds a lot like my description of the NHL 08 controls, that's an apt comparison. I'm not saying I'd never want to go back to playing an action game with buttons, but the sticks work very well - and there's still that level of control complexity that an action/RPG typically doesn't have.

Give it a look, the demo's on Xbox Live Marketplace. Until next week, I'm out.