whatever happened to PC Achievements?

Azureth

Azureth

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 29, 2008
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last i heard was that the PC is getting an XBL achievements system which is interconnected with the 360 XBL, but lately i haven't played a single PC game that was XBL enabled....as a matter of fact Gears of War PC is the only game i know of that has the achievements and actually shows up as last played game on the 360 XBL with the same unlock able achievements.

Did MS pull the plug on PC achievements?
 
I wish they would get rid of achievements all together, there is no point to them.

They should make games that people can focus on the story, not a dumb achievement
 
k1pp3r said:
I wish they would get rid of achievements all together, there is no point to them.
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L4D has some cool achievments. My favorite is the OUTBREAK achievment-- Valve started an infection, and it spreads through the game from player to player as the boomer. Valve threw up on someone, that person threw up on someone and so on. Pretty ingenious if you ask me.
 
k1pp3r said:
I wish they would get rid of achievements all together, there is no point to them.

They should make games that people can focus on the story, not a dumb achievement
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Absolutely! That L4D storyline is what draws me to the game.

(Yes, this is dripping with sarcasm)
 
People choose achievements/live over quality and it sickens me. I feel bad for people who have gone through a half dozen 360's just to keep going back to their gamer score. It's pretty sad.
 
Dawn of War II and Fallout 3 are two games that spring to mind. They both use Games for Windows Live and have achievements that contribute to your total gamerscore. I know GTA IV on PC uses Live for matchmaking but I'm not sure if it has achievements or not.
 
beanman101283 said:
Dawn of War II and Fallout 3 are two games that spring to mind. They both use Games for Windows Live and have achievements that contribute to your total gamerscore. I know GTA IV on PC uses Live for matchmaking but I'm not sure if it has achievements or not.
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All GfWL games have achievements. Its a requirement.
 
I dont see any problem with Live for windows, its a nice way to maximize max gaming hours for a game, so it pretty much adds more to do.

I have not had a problem with live in the games that have it enabled, All it is a log in and thats it, only person i know that has a problem with it is one of my friends who downloads games, yet he still says its playable.

Really makes me think of the people saying its bad, if their just plain dumb or just dont see the value in it.

I still like Xfire more though :cool:
 
Achievement points are important for completionists. I hope more games will add them because I can't get my friend to play L4D with me because the steam achievements apparently aren't enough. He wants the Xbox360 version so he can get collect gamerpoints. It's not about how many gamerpoints there are, it's about them being there to collect. If he wanted points he could just get gamefly and collect thousands of worthless points given out for finishing game tutorials. and 1st levels.
 
Good job, marketers of the video game world... you've come up with another hook to get folks to play your games. That's awesome and should bring you some revenue from new, untapped streams.

Now can you PLEASE use that money to hire some writers to create decent storylines?!??!

Fallout 3 - was there a story in there somewhere that I missed? Oh right, mom dies during childbirth, dad has a mysterious past I have to figure out *yawn*

L4D - my brain (and index finger) was so numb afterward I can't even remember the game play, much less a story.

Shadowrun - Let's rip the heart out of a decent PnP game and put together a superficial online shooter that no one will love! We don't need no stinkin' story!
 
Achievements are retarded. A way for developers to claim more gameplay and replay than actually is. Another poor aspect of consolitis plaguing the industry
 
hahahha jctazzy, thats exactly what i thought about fallout 3, i didnt really see how that was a story..
 
jctazzy said:
Good job, marketers of the video game world... you've come up with another hook to get folks to play your games. That's awesome and should bring you some revenue from new, untapped streams.

Now can you PLEASE use that money to hire some writers to create decent storylines?!??!

Fallout 3 - was there a story in there somewhere that I missed? Oh right, mom dies during childbirth, dad has a mysterious past I have to figure out *yawn*

L4D - my brain (and index finger) was so numb afterward I can't even remember the game play, much less a story.

Shadowrun - Let's rip the heart out of a decent PnP game and put together a superficial online shooter that no one will love! We don't need no stinkin' story!
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L4D doesn't have a story, its not supposed to have one. Its a multiplayer game, thats all. Not every game needs a story.
 
jctazzy said:
L4D - my brain (and index finger) was so numb afterward I can't even remember the game play, much less a story.
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Seriously, story? Its pure multiplayer coop action.. why would you expect a story? Hell, I don't even think they mention how the outbreak started, just that there are zombies and an infection spreading. :rolleyes:
 
I hate achievements and "extras". I have a friend who says he has to find every hidden token or whatever in a game. To me, if it's in my path, I'll get it, but I'm not going out of my way or searching every little corner to find something that has nothing to do with me completing the level or the game. My son drives me nuts in TF2 trying to get "achievements". I just want to kill people on the other team...not that I got a kill while standing on one hand while balancing a soda can on my foot while the enemy was doing cart wheels while carrying the intelligence.
 
I'd say the average person "obsessed" about their game achievements probably isn't the same kind of gamer as I might have been back when I was playing Rise of the Triad ;) To the more seasoned gamers, *beating the game* was an accomplishment, experiencing what the devs had to offer us. Getting into the secret rooms, showing our friends, seeing messages like "You're not supposed to be here!" when you use a game glitch to get to a place you're not supposed to be. Those were achievements.

It's not like I have a problem with the actual achievement systems they have now, though. It's just that in some cases it does feel as though the game itself lacks appropriate rewards and instead uses the achievements to reward the player. That's lazy, IMO, and it doesn't really keep me wanting to play.
 
Achievements are stupid. Just another ploy by crappy game developers to make you play there crappy game longer. Keep chasing that purple dragon , you will eventually catch him;)
 
Krenum said:
Achievements are stupid. Just another ploy by crappy game developers to make you play there crappy game longer. Keep chasing that purple dragon , you will eventually catch him;)
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Sadly this is true. If you've noticed a lot of games lately lack "real" gameplay hours and they make up for it with these achievements. Somewhat of a bandaid, honestly.
 
Chalk me up as another achievement hater. Whats worse, is when you HAVE to get achievements to unlock stuff. (ala TF2)

HAI I just double jumped 2000 times like a good little OCD moron hooked on sugar and caffeine, I can haz buffs nao?
 
Achievements = artificial game play time extension. GFWL now with *80% more gameplay...


*%79.8 inane achievements and pointless item collection. %.2 actual gameplay. Your experience may vary. GFWL is not responsible for keeping you in your mom's basement or stunting your employment options.
 
What's worse about the achievements in TF2 is that I would bet 99% of people that unlock stuff doesn't do it during actual gameplay against real people. They go into these "Achievement Rooms" and play against bots or they cooperate with others there, "Hey, you stand over there and try to destroy the sentry and then I'll shoot you." What kind of shit is that? You might as well just give 'em the damn "unlockable" in the first place.
 
achievements are just a different way to play the game. True there are games that the achievements are just simply dumb and boring and not even worth the effort. But a lot of games do very cleaver achievements enhancing the game play. They help encourage playing a game in a way you probably never would have done on a replay.

I like the GFWL approach to achievements because it also keeps a history of the games you played and when you played them. It's kind of fun going back and seeing the games i played, what I did in them to get an achievement.

Of course people can cheat for achievements. But ok. That's just the gamer "cheating" him/herself. I don't care and nor should any of you. Nor should you care if others like them.
 
k1pp3r said:
I wish they would get rid of achievements all together, there is no point to them.

They should make games that people can focus on the story, not a dumb achievement
Click to expand...

Achievements are fun. the Portal and Half-Life 2 achievements make the game entertaining for a bit longer, giving you more gameplay for your money. The Portal ones especially are good, as they challenge you to solve the puzzles in new ways.

What I don't like is when game elements are tied to achievements, like in Team Fortress 2. It's annoying having weapons used against me that I don't have access to because I didn't spend hours of my life in achievement maps.

Way to go with that, Valve. You've introduced grinding to the FPS world.
 
Krenum said:
Achievements are stupid. Just another ploy by crappy game developers to make you play there crappy game longer. Keep chasing that purple dragon , you will eventually catch him;)
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/shrug

Something that offers and acknowledges a challenge is hardly something I would describe as stupid. It's no different than getting a high score or even beating a game.
 
FloppieTheBanjoClown said:
Achievements are fun. the Portal and Half-Life 2 achievements make the game entertaining for a bit longer, giving you more gameplay for your money. The Portal ones especially are good, as they challenge you to solve the puzzles in new ways.

What I don't like is when game elements are tied to achievements, like in Team Fortress 2. It's annoying having weapons used against me that I don't have access to because I didn't spend hours of my life in achievement maps.

Way to go with that, Valve. You've introduced grinding to the FPS world.
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Yeah the TF2 ones annoy me, but honestly of all the classes to get updates, only the medic ones I find worth while. Of the pyro ones i just use the newer axe, heavy i just use the boxing gloves, and the drink with the scouts and scout is one of my favorite classes. But really I could do without any of those.

In any other game i just ignore them completely and just play the game. If i get them i get them, if i don't i don't. I'm not going to replay a game just for achievements and I'm not going to go out of my way to get them when i am playing.
 
wow, a lot of hate in this thread. I think I'm one of the few that actually likes them.

Granted sometimes they don't really serve a purpose especially since half the time they're more of an afterthought (aka, you unlock them by beating the level associated to it... those are pointless), but IMO, it adds to the game in the same way high scores used to in the golden age. It kept you playing trying to "one-up" your previous best and in some cases, adds a lot to the experience. A perfect example was pacman (or worms) for XBLA... while I liked the game, what really kept me playing it was trying to unlock all of the achievements (some of which were pretty hard to get).

Same with TF2... Unlocking achievements keeps you upgrading in-game, while giving you goals to set. If you don't like them, then just ignore them, but I don't see why it's a bad thing at all. It adds another layer to the experience
 
dr.stevil said:
Same with TF2... Unlocking achievements keeps you upgrading in-game, while giving you goals to set. If you don't like them, then just ignore them, but I don't see why it's a bad thing at all. It adds another layer to the experience
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its bad when you play competitively against other people and now they have better stuff than you do because they were stupid enough to grind for hours doing retarded things.

Sounds like WoW to me. Achievements are fine for single player. Achievements are fine for mmorpgs. Achievements have no place in FPS's in my opinion.

Let me rephrase that, achievements that give you advantages over other players have no play in FPS. If someone is OCD and wants to get all the achievements they can because they have nothing better to do, more power to them. Dont make everyone else grind them though. Lame.
 
^ I agree... especially since the scout update, it gets old real quick. You just have to play on decent servers where people actually work together and 9 times out of 10, it's a non-issue.

ironically enough, I played the shit out of TF2 when it was first released and stopped playing for about a year or so. I'm now just getting back into it and it's giving me a reason to. COD4 (and 5) were the same way... playing/upgrading keeps the game fresh
 
Achievements are a nice concept but I'm afraid they are increasingly becoming the lazy way out of game development, as has been noted. Why make three hours worth of content when you can offer an achievement that requires you to do some inane task for nine hours? Three times the gameplay at 1/100th the cost! Sweet!

Achievements that alter the gameplay experience are fine. Achievements that make you collect random items that seem entirely pointless are not. Achievements that make you do "stupid stuff" for hours really piss me off, especially if there is some kind of meaningful unlock associated with it.

A really good example of this is WoW (although this is not necessarily the only problem with it at the moment). To me it seems they are offloading actual development of content to development of achievements. While some of these achievements do present some challenges, a lot of them are not exactly the most intriguing in the world. The "Shocking" achievement, for example, is no replacement for actual content and from the patch data it appears that there may be multiple Shocking-like achievements in Ulduar disguising themselves as real content.

In one week it will be the one year anniversary of the release of Sunwell. Since then, despite a new expansion being released, there has not been a single new raid instance released (I don't count running snoozefest Naxx for the second time around as new raid content) outside of quick single boss raid instances. And from what I've seen thus far in Ulduar, it completely lacks the epic feel of TBC. While this lack of content can be attributed to other things, I can't help but wonder if the game would have more substance if achievements didn't exist.
 
Monkey God said:
Let me rephrase that, achievements that give you advantages over other players have no play in FPS. If someone is OCD and wants to get all the achievements they can because they have nothing better to do, more power to them. Dont make everyone else grind them though. Lame.
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It's not really a new concept in FPS though. CS, Stalker, and COD4 for example all expect some level of skill from you before you are able to buy/use better weapons after time. (although with COD4 I just stuck with the M16 all the time) Basically a mentality of: Learn the basics, now your going to get better weapons.
 
I'm not going to post a reason, but... Achievements are stupid. I just play to play, when I'm bored. I could care less about getting any achievements.
 
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