Good Idea:

There are a variety of good reasons for the inclusion of Achievements both from Microsoft's position and the position of gamers. The following list is but a sample.

1. Bragging Rights: This is the most obvious benefit of the Achievement system established for the 360. In a society where success is highly valued, what better way to feel better about yourself than to have a higher number next to your name than the guy next door. There is nothing that ignites the gamer soul more effectively than the discovery that one completed arbitrary tasks that their friends weren't man enough to handle.

2. A heightened sense of purpose: All videogames have goals to reach, but up until now there was nothing that truly tied together your accomplishments. The Achievement system can be seen as a sort of meta-game wherein a higher calling can be heard. You feel justified in playing a ridiculous amount of games as your Gamerscore climbs higher. You are achieving, and nothing can take that away from you.

3. Simpler purchase decisions: The Achievement system provides added incentive to encourage gamers to purchase the 360 version of multi-platform titles. This is obviously more of a boon for Microsoft than for your average gamer. However, it can be nice to have a simpler choice so that you don't have to endlessly watch GameVideos comparison clips.

4 It wasn't a complete waste: How many times have you played a videogame only to find that it completely sucks? It happens to us all. We are dazzled by the pretty boxart and the hype in the media coverage, but when we finally sit down to play a game, we are often disappointed. However, with an Achievement system, you will likely earn a few points before ejecting a terrible game from your system. This is helpful in justifying the time wasted playing a game that really isn't worth playing.

5. Get more bang for your buck: If you're like me, you often play your videogames through a single time before relegating them to the "collection" where they will remain until the end of time. However, with the advent of Achievements, one can find a reason to give a game a second or even third play-through. As long as there are goals to be achieved, the obsessive compulsive gamer can play forever and enjoy the game in ways they never imagined.

6. Developers can guide gamers to experience new things: The developers know they have us by the balls when it comes to Achievements. For example, I watched the credits to Guitar Hero II today, because I knew I would get an achievement for doing so. I would not have done this otherwise. I also tried the game out left-handed to obtain yet another achievement. It was an interesting experience I would have missed otherwise. The Achievement system allows developers the opportunity to make gamers do what they want with their game.


Bad Idea:

The Achievement system is inherently flawed, and I will now try to outline some evidence for this viewpoint.

1. Naturally increase the size of your Gamerscore!: I think we've all seen and been disgusted by the self-degrading misdirected attempts some individuals make to increase their Gamerscore. These atrocities range from paying cold hard cash to renting (or, heaven forbid, purchasing) Avatar: The Last Airbender. Not only is this the equivalent to spitting in the face of those who earned "real" Achievements, but it also throws suspicion on anyone with a high Gamerscore.

2. Wait a second, that's going to cost money: Not all achievements can be obtained by simply owning a 360 and a game. Some games have achievements that require an Xbox Live Gold Subscription, an Xbox Live Vision Camera, or even a particular gamer picture. That's right, I was playing PGR4 today and I came across the following achievement:

Buy an Achievement: Buy the K1,000000 gamer picture to earn this Achievement.

What? No thanks.

3. My narrative, it's broken: There's nothing more immersive than getting heavily involved in the story of a game only to be interrupted by a ticker informing you that your character has bested his 300th baddie. Sometimes it can be disruptive to be taken out of the game to learn that you have accomplished something completely irrelevant to the game's narrative. The best analogy I can think of is to tell you to picture yourself playing Shadow of the Colossus and then being confronted with an on-screen graphic that says:

Massive Damage: You've stabbed your 30th weak point!

4. Arbitrary goals aren't always interesting: I'm sure a lot of us have attempted to get achievements that just didn't seem like they were really worth it. A lot of achievements require endless repetition to perform a certain task a certain amount of times. These achievements are usually boring and reveal a lack of imagination on the part of the developer.

5. Achievement Unlocked: You're a griefing jackass With the inclusion of online-only achievements, a new set of problems appears. Individuals will stop playing the game like it is meant to be played and will instead spend their time trying to get specific achievements. A recent example of this is the team kill achievement that was to be included in the new Turok. This would obviously cause many problems. Thankfully, some developers understand the potential for this kind of problem. Infinity Ward decided to keep achievements focused solely on the single player portion of Call of Duty 4 to prevent gamers from breaking the multi-player by unceasingly trying to harvest those precious points.


5. Our game sucks, lets put in easy achievements: I don't have direct evidence for this, but I get the feeling that some poor games are getting more playtime than they should as a result of easily achievable achievements. I think some developers use achievements as a crutch to get people to play their useless crapfests, and I'm afraid it might be working.


I could probably find more to say on both sides of the issue, but I think these lists will suffice for the present. Anyone else have an opinion on the matter?

Also, I hear it in my sleep.