Geek Syndicate
Achievement Unlocked...
Getting praise is nice. If
you’ve just done something
that was really tricky, complicated or long-winded,
it can be a great feeling to
have someone recognise
this and give you a pat on
the shoulder. What happens though, when you get
praised for every little thing
you do? Or for things that
don’t really mean anything?
You might end up walking
around thinking that you
are the bee’s knees, or that
you deserve kudos for doing things that just needed
doing, like taking out the
rubbish or renewing your
car insurance. Achievements
in games can land in either
category, sometimes boosting your gaming enjoyment,
sometimes causing the merest shrug.
Achievements (or other “reward” systems) have been a
feature of video games since
2007 when Microsoft introduced its Gamerscore system
and added achievements to
Halo 2.
Complete the first level
in Halo 2 for 30 Gamer
Points: Possibly the first
achievement ever earned
This system became an integral part of user-profiles in
the Xbox 360. It didn’t take very
long for other platforms and
games to adopt the concept.
Valve soon added achievements to its Steam platform
and Sony re-wrapped the concept in the guise of PSN Trophies. From there they have
continued to spread. I can still
remember logging in to World
Of Warcraft one day and seeing
that achievements had infiltrated the realm of the MMO.
I remember thinking “That’s
it! They will be on watches
next!” I may have been wrong
on that front (as far as I am
aware), but they have migrated to non-gaming systems
such as phone or tablet app
controlled diet and exercise
programmes.
So what are achievements?
Whatever game or app you
are using, an achievement
(I’ll use this term to cover all
of these systems) is something that unlocks when you
have accomplished a set task.
Perhaps, in a Zombie Survival
game you may have managed
to kill one-hundred zombies,
or you may have progressed
to a pivotal point of the game.
A small message will probably pop-up saying what the
achievement you unlocked
was and what, if any amount,
it adds to your Gamerscore/
tally. You might even have a
sound-effect accompany it,
anything from a little “pop”
to something more grandiose
like a fanfare. From that moment on, anyone who browses your gaming profile on that
particular service will be able
to see that on such-and-such
day, at such-and-such time,
you achieved the masterful
feat of completing the tutorial
level!
If your sarcasm detector just
went critical, you will guess
that I don’t find that particularly impressive. Not all
achievements are created
equal. Some, such as a progress related achievement,
are just saying “Hey, go you!
You did what you had to do!”
Some games do have harder
achievements, such as beating a level in a blistering time,
or completing a stealth game
without being detected. This
second type of achievement
doesn’t strike me as being too
bad.
Achievements should be hard
in my opinion, in life as well
as games. If not, why is the
fanfare warranted? Achievements that are just awarded
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