Reinventing Gaming Addiction with 360 Achievements 78
jayintune writes "An article from 2old2play looks at how the XBox 360 achievement system is bringing out the addictive qualities of console games by adding a whole new level of competition to 'single-player' games. At the same time, the achievements extend the life and replayability of the games. Do you actually get more for your money from a single player Xbox 360 Game then from another console? You be the judge."
Re:uhm...yes? (Score:1)
Re:uhm...yes? (Score:1)
Re:uhm...yes? (Score:2)
Is what the Xbox 360/Xbox Live do(es) anything new? No. Do gamer cards and scores that are publicly displayed give greater incentive to obsession? Of course.
If I'm not mistaken, you don't even need to subscribe to be put up on the leader boards. Hell, that's about as close to a national/international arcade as I can imagine. I was saddened to see the decline of arcades in America, thinking that t
Re:uhm...yes? (Score:1)
Snap a shot of your screen with an actual camera, send it into a magazine, are in the top X and it gets published.
Or arcades. There's no real achievement here. It's more like Ikaruga's web-codes than anything else.
Re:uhm...yes? (Score:2)
It's true that arcades or good old Polaroids are better, but it's better than what consoles allowed two years ago... right, that was nothing.
Re:uhm...yes? (Score:1)
Re:uhm...yes? (Score:1)
Xbox Live leaderboards take care of all of it for you. If you're connected, your best scores will be up there no matter what. And how do you compare yourself to all your friends with the photo method? It's possible, but more annoying.
I don't see why you think a higher-effort lower-exposur
Re:uhm...yes? (Score:1)
All of that really helps make Xbox Live feel even better with the 360. Of course, there are still
Re:uhm...yes? (Score:1)
Re:uhm...yes? (Score:2)
Damn! (Score:5, Insightful)
And we wonder why nobody RTFA? Please don't bother; that was the fluffiest nonsense I've read all week!
Summary: You think you've finished that game, eh? Well, try to do it with a melee weapon only! Then you can try it again without using any powerups! Only XBox 360 games have these innovative features!!
Re:Damn! (Score:2)
This reminds me of a scene from Tin Cup.
Costner's character tells Don Johnson's character, after having played the back 9 with just a 7 iron, "Well have you ever finished the back 9 with just a 7 iron?"
and Johnson's character says, "Hell, Roy. It never even occurred to me to try."
Re:Damn! (Score:2)
Re:Damn! (Score:2)
Re:Damn! (Score:2)
If you like Zelda-style games (by which mean N64 and later Zelda-style), then Kameo is a fantastic game. If it turns into a franchise (which it probably will, since everything's a franchise these days), it's the sort of game that will make me buy a system to play it.
If you're into arcade street racing, NFS: Most Wanted is a pretty good implementation of it, though it's not worth getting for the 360 if you already have it for another platform - it looks and
Re:Damn! (Score:2)
Kameo I may like, although I just am not digging the $60 price tag. Maybe when it comes down to something more reasonable. I have more than enough PC g
Re:Damn! (Score:1)
Com
Re:Damn! (Score:2)
Re:Damn! (Score:1)
Completing Postal 2 without killing (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:Damn! (Score:1)
Re:Damn! (Score:2)
Of course, some people might be em
Re:Damn! (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:Damn! (Score:1)
absolutely (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:absolutely (Score:1)
Indeed, achievements are the only reason I even bothered to finish King Kong, to get those +1000 points to my gamer card
Achievements are quite addictive and are an added incentive to actually finish a game. It also gives you some insight on the kind of gamer you're up against when playing under Live (eg if you have unlocked the All Platinum Medals achievement in PGR3, I do not want to race you). I think it's brillian
Re:absolutely (Score:2)
YES, I am addicted to achievements and gamerscore. And YES, I go onto my computer to check out how many points an achievement has given me right after I get one. Sometimes if there is a 5 minute lag in adding the score, I get a little anxious. YES, ac
Re:absolutely (Score:2)
Reinventing addiction? (Score:1)
While it's all well and nice that the 360 has added 'another dimension' to gaming by adding leaderboards, I still think we need to wait for the 360 port of NetHack before players of this particular console know the true meaning of the word "addiction" :)
Joking aside, I think it is small touches like leaderboards that can keep a certain element coming back for more, and if titles for the 360 implement this, more power to them. Competition in gaming is nice and healthy, for the most part, so as long as it d
Re:Reinventing addiction? (Score:1)
I'm pretty sure microsoft requires games to include achievements before clearing them for release on xbox 360.
Re:Reinventing addiction? (Score:2)
And a balance really needs to be struck among games, I've heard Madden is one of the easiest ways to get a high score.
More Scared than Interested (Score:3, Insightful)
The flip side to this reward system is that companies will be able to tell when you most often play games, what games you play and how long you play in one sitting.
Re:More Scared than Interested (Score:1)
What do I care if someone knows that it took me tweleve tries to beat level 9?
Why would anyone monitor that useless information?
3 words for you:
tin. foil. hat.
-d
Re:More Scared than Interested (Score:2)
Uhh... that's actually pretty exciting to me. If they can see that there's a certain part of the game that I wouldn't touch for weeks but kept at it in other parts and are able to infer that I just didn't like a former parts, then odds are those parts won't be in the next game and I'll like it more. How is this bad?
Re:More Scared than Interested (Score:2)
Re:More Scared than Interested (Score:2)
And to this I ask you, how many times have you activated Windows XP?
Yeah...
Re:More Scared than Interested (Score:2)
the slippery slope isn't an argument, it's a fallacy.
Re:More Scared than Interested (Score:2)
Re:More Scared than Interested (Score:2)
Yes it is paranoia right now, but who knows for how long. Also think of the future marketing based on these demographics. Think of selling it to people with the info you give to Microsoft (not sure of their EULA or privacy agreement there).
And to premempt someone who posted further down earlier. This isn't slippery slope as in FALLACY. This is SS in the fact that things
Re:More Scared than Interested (Score:2)
You know, that may not be so bad. If game companies find that original, unique, innovative, well-crafted games get more attention from gamers, rather than the crappy sequels they try to pawn on us, then I wouldn't mind sharing that information with them. It's like the Nielsen ratings. I'd LOVE for the networks to know what shows I like, so that t
I already do this... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I Was Starting To Get Worried... (Score:2)
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Re:I Was Starting To Get Worried... (Score:2)
Re:How much? (Score:1)
Not sure if this is addiction (Score:2)
If a big title isn't selling well enough, MS can bribe gamers into buying it with the promise of huge point rewards.
Re:Not sure if this is addiction (Score:2)
King Kong.
You see any retail game has a budget of 1000 gamerpoints(XBLA games have 200) that must be used for at least 5 acheivments. Unfortunately, There is no standard of difficulty handed down for the acheivments, so some games have a bunch of easy ones, others are damn near impossible to get all 1000.Re:Not sure if this is addiction (Score:2)
If anything, it's the non-MS games (EA sports games especially) that have done a lame job with the ach
Re:Not sure if this is addiction (Score:1)
Most games I've played have been pretty good about making a good portion of the achievements a little hard to get but the sports games seem to lack any imagination.
Great idea! (Score:1)
Fun factor is all that matters (Score:1)
At the end, the only thing that really counts is the quality of the game. If you barely enjoy playing a game, would you really bother replaying and trying to defeat a boss with no power-ups or collecting all 50 amulets? Would you really care doing it just for bragging rights? If you're a fanatic of a given game, chances are you're already playing it over and over again, and the Achievement Points concept would be one more reason to keep doing so.
AP works only if the
Achievements are genius (Score:4, Interesting)
Fluffy article or no, they're right. The achievements system is pure genius, because it adds public bragging rights [mygamercard.net] to the concept of 100%'ing a game, and suddenly I'm interested. They've tacked a level grind onto every game out there, and it worked.
I'm totally addicted to 100%'ing the achievements in my games. I've spent hours scouring maps for hidden items so I could claim the elusive "game complete" achievement in Kameo. I routinely start every game on the hardest difficulty level so I can show off to others that I've done it. I spent 3 days with a checklist from GameFAQs finding hidden gaps in Tony Hawk. I played Gun 3 extra times so I could have credit for beating it on every difficulty level.
The system isn't perfect. Some games, like King Kong or give away achievement points like they're candy. I'm more proud of my 25-point "Big Cheese of the South Seas" achievement in Hexic HD than I am of the entire 1000 points credit I have for King Kong. Other games like Quake 4 have achievements that almost nobody will win (be #1 on the worldwide leaderboards). Some games give you a full set of achievements just for beating them. We'll see how things settle out.
Re:Achievements are genius (Score:1)
Re:Achievements are genius (Score:2)
Re:Achievements are genius (Score:2)
Re:Achievements are genius (Score:1)
No more having people talk crap when they can't back it up, cause you can just check it out and see who the idiots are and who's got the stuff t
Re:Achievements are genius (Score:2)
Achievements or whatever they call them is pretty cool. I've been doing that sort of stuff for a while with shooters and platformer games. Nothing like the people who try to go through RPGs without using a particular button or without certain charecters (check out gamefaqs for F
Nothing special. (Score:2)
These game companies keep reinventing the wheel and try to make it sound like something new and innovative.
Re:Nothing special. (Score:2)
-Eric
Hmmmm... (Score:3, Insightful)
Say I'm game company X. I make a mediocre game that people won't really enjoy. To compensate, I add a ton of points in the game to make people want to finish it. MS probably has to clear points but odds are they will allow reasonable requests.
Solid gameplay needs no reward such as points. Look at the people still playing Starcraft. Besides the Bnet ranking, they have no other real perks to playing. I would rather see MS reward developers of games that people that continue to play . I would certainly rather have better games as a reward than points.
I don't think this does anything to reinvent addiction. It's just like people playing MMOs to get enough gold to buy the next item they need. Play until you get what you want and then go do something else. It isn't addiction if you're just grinding it out.
Re:Hmmmm... (Score:2)
Points are no worse or better at creating addiction than any oth
Since when is addiction a good thing? (Score:2)
Re:Since when is addiction a good thing? (Score:1)
Even in a game I made myself, I added awards and a point total that you have to get up high enough to reach some extra levels. I feel it adds replay value to the game. Some other games really do try to stretch their limited content with repetitive crap (Every MMORPG ever comes to mind)
Re:Since when is addiction a good thing? (Score:2)
What's the big deal here? (Score:1)
The 'Ratchet & Clank' games for the PS2, for instance, had the Skill Point system. A skill point would be some extra challenging task you could complete, such as winning the a minigame race in under a certain time limit, or acquiring all the weapons, or defeat a certain level/boss with just your wrench, etc. You even got a skill point if you managed to get all the other skill points! Skill Points cou