Comments on: Editorial: Achievements and trophies that change the way you play games

By: VipSphinx

VipSphinx — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:07:50 +0000

I’m just enhancing what somebody already said, the ach/Troph prolongs a game’s life quite a bit. I’m obsesse with the ach myself, the only conflicting subject that it has been banishing little by little is that on first generation games some achievements required to be on top of the leaderboards online which I can see is very difficult to manage if you have a job and family which you need to spent time with. But, like I said, I don’t see those kind of achievements anymore, not that I know.

By: jimmy two times write this

jimmy two times write this — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:27:17 +0000

good idea, decent article, but you need to stop repeating yourself. i swear to god i felt like i reread sentences at least 3 times.
“Everyone once in a while though, an achievement comes along which totally changes the way a person must play a game.”
“Every once in a while though an achievement comes along that requires you to completely change the way you play a game;”

By: name

name — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:41:19 +0000

but there should definetly be some rules put into place.
like some of them are extremly unfair.
like the come in the top 1% trophy from killzone 2.
to do that you have to have no life for a whole week, some of us work and go to tafe and are lucky to get 1 hour per day.
or the 10000 kills in competetive mode from R2 same thing.
trophies should be on how hard they are not how long they take.
you should be rewarded for skill not for having no life.

By: name

name — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:38:04 +0000

i dont see how they can be a bad thing.
if you dont want to play the game the way the achievement wants you to its simple.
DONT!
if games dident have achievements and trophys there would be no reason to play a game more than twice.
to me the only bad thing about them is they make me want to play the game more, eating up time i could be using playing another.
or i play the game just so i can get that ach/tro and that causes me to go over the 7 day return policy.
so instead of taking the game back and getting a full refund i am forced to trade it in and get half of what i could of.

By: 13-year old boy.

13-year old boy. — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 05:47:42 +0000

I’ve got an idea:

Middle School: Pass middle school. Use proper grammar and correct spellings; ie, then/than, subject/verb agreement, making complete sentences.

By: Brandon Jackson

Brandon Jackson — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 05:09:14 +0000

Like others have said, Achievements and Trophies have made the game last a little longer for me. Dead Space, again as was mentioned before, is a game I would have beaten and then never touched again if not for the trophies I got to get my 100% Platinum.

They are also great though when you have an open world game with some random elements involved. For example, Fallout 3. They give you Achievements to play both good and bad (and neutral) but they also give you awards for building all the weapons, locating item X, doing side-missions and such. They offer somewhat of a guide to get the full experience and most out of your game.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:24:12 +0000

Sorry, my bad. I assumed these achievements unlocked something, I see now that they are just for bragging rights.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:15:53 +0000

Nice write up. Now I will makes some detailed notes and go to work researching what each of these achievements actually is on the internet, in order to give this excellent and informative article some context and thereby some meaning for me.

By: Austin Sutton-Jennings

Austin Sutton-Jennings — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:36:43 +0000

Fallout’s achievments/trophies were good because there was very little repetition. Unlike some which require you to beat a game once to unlock hard mode, and then beat hard mode to unlock insane, if the game happens to be linear, it just gets boring.

By: walkyourpath

walkyourpath — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:22:42 +0000

Well done article!!

I will often read through a list of achievements before I play a game so that if there is something game-changing like the ones you listed, I can aim for it the first playthrough. I won’t play a game a second time just for achievements.

Completing Dead Space using only the Plasma Cutter was a good example of this — I only achievement farm if I reallly love the game and would replay it any way (Fallout 3), or if there’s a really well thought out one like the ones you mentioned.

By: TheGameLlama

TheGameLlama — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:14:57 +0000

I was halfway through HL: Episode 2 before I read online that you find the gnome in the first hut… uck.

At least the whole game’s only a few hours long!

By: Matty W

Matty W — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:46:52 +0000

Good write-up Shawn! I’m a self confessed Achievement whore. I can only agree with you on the Test of Faith achievement is one of those achievements that I think actually improves the game it’s attached to. The guns in Mirror’s Edge were out of place anyway, so offering a reward for finishing without them was a smart move. I’d suggest anyone attempting this don’t go for the double-whammy with the hard difficulty achievement like I did however. I wanted to cave my TV in with my face several times.

And crazy ass achievements like the Gnome one from HL2? They’re for the super-elite achievement players. Something to brag on and on about when they finally get them