Remember a while back we were talking about the new Turok game's list of Xbox 360 achievements? Remember that one of them, "Grab Bag," essentially rewarded you for griefing? If you can't recall, or are too lazy to click on links, the "Grab Bag" achievement rewards you ten points if you kill an enemy, a team-mate and yourself in a public online multiplayer match. Yes ... it's a chaotic disaster waiting to happen, really.
The developers have finally wised up to the reality that gamerscore whores and achievement completists would have no qualms about detonating themselves in front of a team-mate's face for those ten glorious points and have promised to patch the offending feature if it becomes an issue upon release. The achievement was called "the worst ever" online as gamers lashed back at what they saw as an encouragement of douchebag behavior. Developer Propaganda VP Josh Holmes, however, claims that the genesis of the achievement was quite innocent:
"What we found was that players playing their first match in Turok - almost every player - was (accidentally) killing himself, a team mate and an enemy with a grenade or a Stick Bomb gun and so we thought 'hey, we should give them an achievement for that', as kind of a joke."
There is a philosophical lesson to be had here, people. These harmless developers, in their cherub-like way, innocently sought to provide a fun and amusing achievement for us all to unlock, but it was our own cynicism and mistrust in man's intentions that truly was unlocked in the end. In truth, Propaganda encouraged no such griefing, but that was the first thing we ourselves thought of because we hold such darkness in our hearts. For shame, gentle gamers. For shame.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
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Contest:
10:41 PM on 12.12.2007
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*sniff* I miss him so much.
Maybe it should be one of those *secret* Achievements.
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Now personally, I lack sufficient amounts of couth to be upset about anyone getting achievement points for tossing their own teammates. I mean, admit it, sometimes they deserve it. I am "purist" enough to be annoyed by the easy-mode 1000 achievement point dipshittedness that Avatar tossed out there to move their product.
All my blathering aside though, I think I'll accept that shame for my cynicism anyway.
Yeah, I realize that they're just games, but it's nice when people aren't douches and are considerate. I only ever screw around with either proven assholes or my (presumably understanding) friends.
While I don't think this achievement would bring the online community to its knees (in a bad sense), it would certainly give a slight nod of approval to douchebaggery, intended or not.
The easy Avatar points were, according to the people behind the game, put in there with younger kids in mind. In other words, they were made easy enough for a young kid to get. Or, actually, I guess those were mostly the same words. Nevermind.
Well at least I do now. If it was a secret like mentioned above, all would be well. but now that it's pretty much out in the open, everyone's going to be getting this on their first online play.
seriously, what's so bad about this? I see it funny if done like it's supposed to be..an accident.
wow
(I admit, the example of Pokemon in SSB was lame, but it was all I could come up with.)
Genius.
We must, however, consider that some of us may have actually known the developers' motives were pure, but merely worried that this feature would be misused?
Genius.
We must, however, consider that some of us may have actually known the developers' motives were pure, but merely worried that this feature would be misused?
I actually think it's a pretty funny achievement, and I like when developers add failure items to the list... like losing 10 times, or falling 20 feet.
you know pulling the pin on a nade and holding on to it till you and the oblivious fool next to you blow up :D
epic...
2) If they patch this, but the achievement is still visible (IE : you see it, but you can't get it) then you'll have achievement whores doing this over and over till they figure it out.
And for all you Xbox live and Halo haters; I played my first Halo 3 online last night at a friend's and we had a great time; no douchebags or homophobia was to be found.
That's fucking genius, geniuses.
As someone who has probably played more Xbox Live, and certainly more Halo 3 online, than you, let me just say that XBL and, in particular, Halo 3 on XBL are FULL of shitholes. Seriously. Just because you had a good experience, that doesn't change the fact that it is a cesspool. Of course it's not going to happen everytime, but it does happen fairly often. Ask anyone with proper experience.