Achievement Unlocked 09.12.08: Great Expectations

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 09.12.2008

411mania's Rod Oracheski takes a look at a trio of gamer types, along with how many Achievements they should reasonably expect to get from the average game. Plus the PS3 gets two Trophy patches this week, and a quick look at TNA iMPACT, this week in Achievement Unlocked.



When you fire up a new game, the thought of Achievements might not enter your head. However, chances are pretty good that at some point during your time with the game, whether that's a week-long rental or weeks/months/years of owning it, you're going to check that list and see how many points you have - and how many you don't.

But how many Achievements should the average gamer expect from a title?



For starters, there's really no such thing as an 'average' gamer - at least in terms of picking out how many Achievements (and therefore Gamerscore) you should be picking up in the average game. It's impossible to say how many 'you' should expect, given the incredible variety of ways that people approach their games. To try and make it more applicable, I divided gamers into three basic categories - try to figure out where you fit.

The whole thing also sort of glosses over the way games vary in terms of handing out Achievements, with some that are incredibly generous with the Gamerscore while others dole them out at a punishingly slow rate. Just assume I'm referring to some sort of middle-of-the-road game that you're playing to completion. For sports titles, let's assume that's playing through a season. The point at which we're measuring their "total" for the game is a different number of hours played for each level, but it represents the point where the gamer is 'done' with the title.

Let's start with the low-end gamer - the Casual. Don't take offense at the 'low-end' moniker, by the way - you earned it. Casual gamers are those that don't play games all that much and didn't get into gaming until it became acceptably 'mainstream' enough.

You have the console, bought on a whim at some point after launch, and now buy a handful of 'regular' titles - football, baseball, a first-person-shooter or two, maybe a racing game when the mood strikes. You might get an action game or first-person shooter you've never heard of, but likely only if it has been highly advertised.

As the category that doesn't buy many games, people could be forgiven for thinking the casual gamer doesn't put many hours into a title - but that's perhaps a misconception. Casual gamers still put in hours of play, they're just spread out over a larger period. As they don't pick up every new game, they stick with their purchases longer. The Casual gamer is the least likely of the three types to finish a game, so my point total is an estimation of the point they move on to the next game or simply stop playing.

My guess is that the Casual gamer will 'finish' the average game with 400 Gamerscore. They'll receive the bulk of the 'Finish [x] level' Achievements, garnering 100-200 Gamerscore, along with a scattering of more random ones - killing a number of enemies or finding a number of collectibles. It's unlikely that a Casual gamer would scour the levels to find all the collectibles, however, so the top-end Achievement for that would remain locked.

If accurate, the 400 Gamerscore is the kind of thing that might get Casual gamers to go back to the game - providing they notice it. People, thanks to being indoctrinated by years of grading at school, want to be better than the 50% point. Maybe the Casual gamer, noticing that, takes a look at the Achievement list to see if anything looks easy - after all, they likely still have that game on their shelf...

While the Casual gamer can rifle through their collection, the next level up - titled simply Gamers - isn't as likely to be able to do that. Gamers, after all, buy - or at least rent - those hot new games when they come out and burn through them over the course of a week - maybe two. They play more hours per week than the Casual, but tend to split that time between multiple games.

The Gamer, who picked up the console at or shortly after launch, will also pick up their 'regular' slate of games, though their tastes are broader than that of the Casual. If it's a AAA game, unless it's in a genre they absolutely hate, the Gamer is going to try it out. A Gamer has been gaming for years, at some level.

Gamers will explore more of a game than a Casual, and are generally more driven to complete them. That's not to say that they will complete every game, however. Given the pace they buy them at, Gamers often find themselves falling behind the curve and contemplating a pile of games they meant to beat, but haven't found the time to yet. The summer drought is typically a good time for Gamers, who can tackle that pile while waiting for the winter's rush.

Though a Gamer has a clear list of favourite games and genres, they'll often buy games outside that comfort zone - especially niche titles that they've heard good word of mouth on. These titles are usually relegated to the bottom of the 'one day' stack after a play session or two over the course of a week.

I would guess the average Gamer could expect 700 Gamerscore out of a title. They'll likely finish the game and complete a great deal of the random Achievements - perhaps deliberately replaying the game with Achievements in mind.

A Gamer will alter the way they play in order to gain Achievements, using the Achievement list as a guide. A Gamer might consult Achievement guides on the 'Net, but not consistently and rarely before they give the game a fair shot on their own.

They avoid punishing grinds like collecting all of Assassin's Creed's flags, with those Achievements left locked when the game is due for retiring - whether that's trading it in, lending it out, or simply dumping it in the back of the 'one day' pile to be forgotten.

By the time a Gamer hits their wall with a game, regardless of where they sit on the Achievement list, they're done with it. It will take significant DLC to bring them back to an older title - there's simply too many new games to play, each and every month. They can also be lured back to multiplayer titles by friends who are just getting into them.

The last group is the easiest to typify - the Hardcore gamer, aka the Gamerscore Whore. This group is into burning through titles as fast as possible, often on week-long rentals or via Gamefly or other rental means.

Because they're not buying their games, the Hardcore will play everything - and I mean everything. Kid's games, licensed games - even genres they hate, just to beat the game and get the points they crave. The games they really like may see a bit more play time, but soon the need to play something else will win out and they'll move on.

For the most part, the Hardcore have been gaming 'forever' - just ask them. They've played NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, Dreamcast, etc... The Hardcore spends the least amount of 'real' time on a game - finishing many in a day, thanks to Achievement guides and non-stop gaming sessions. They rarely focus on anything but completion of the game and pushing towards the 1,000/1,000 goal.

In the average game, a Hardcore gamer will likely earn the full 1,000. If a game has a truly noxious collection quest - aka those Assassin's Creed flags - they might abandon those points in lieu of moving on, but that would be the exception, not the rule.



Pain received a Trophy patch this week, with 17 Trophies up for grabs. You can unlock 10 bronze, five silver, and two gold in total, from a list that's decent, but not great. The best is probably one of the bronze - simply for the name 'Dude Abides' - gotten for scoring 30 strikes in Bowling.

Novastrike also received a Trophy patch recently, adding in 12 bronze and four silver Trophies. The game is terrible, and the Trophies are just as bad.



Tried TNA iMPACT earlier this week and it's pretty much what I expected - a fun game that has a lot of promise, but not a lot of depth to it.

Don't get me wrong, the gameplay has a good amount of depth in the moves and reversals available...there's just not much else to the game. You get a handful of matches and wrestlers, a criminally small number of CAW slots, and that's about it. It's a great base for future games, but is this worth your $60? Tough call to recommend it strongly at that price - but if you're tired of the Smackdown vs Raw series being the same year after year, maybe it's worth it to you.

I have to say though, that the quality of the animations is just amazing. Clipping is relatively rare, as are phantom punches and kicks. Wrestlers lock together convincingly, which really helps make the animations look even better. Reversals, in particular, stand out. Almost any move can be reversed, often with an opportunity to then reverse that reversal. The result is a game that's a pretty good replica of the TNA style, rewarding high-risk moves and a high-impact style of play.

Got both NHL 09 and NHL 2K9 this week, and I'm on tap for the NHL 09 review but I will likely also put together a comparison video. If you have any requests for what you'd like to see from that, get them in now.

Next week I think I'll be talking about Achievement list revisions - taking existing sub-par lists and retooling them to be more entertaining. Here's two examples of what I mean:

• Blue Dragon Achievement - I Never Get to do Anything - Complete 10 battles with one character never getting to take their turn.


• Grand Theft Auto IV Achievement - I'm in Marketing - Bailed out of a helicopter and hit a billboard.

Feel free to comment or e-mail if you have a suggestion for one, or a game that could use it.

Until next week, I'm out.