The current state of Gaming–Part 2: Achievements or No Achievements?
I had this discussion with Chris recently, in fact the day he broke my Xbox (yes it has died a second time), and we have differing views (surprise, surprise).
If you are unsure as to what I am referring when I use the term “Achievements” then you can safely move on, otherwise I am sure you will enjoy the following post.
‘Achievements’ or ‘Trophies’ or whatever future term they are known, are now an integral part of our gaming experience. Don’t get me wrong, I get the idea of Achievements, and I have to admit they are a nice touch, but I rarely look at them and think “I must do that!”. I have friends who are ‘Achievement Hunters’ and they spend a lot of time getting all the achievements on a game, thus ‘completing’ it. In my opinion, any game that requires you to look at and complete the achievements in order to complete the game, is not a good game.
Chris is currently playing through Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and using the achievements to go through the game. Oblivion is an open world RPG (or sort of) but RPGs are about you progressing your character in response to the game, not following achievements!
I’m playing Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (updated with some nice new looks) because I never got far with it years ago. I’m playing on my PC, no achievements, just classic RPG fun, and sure it’s long, but I’m enjoying it!
I guess I’m trying to fathom if achievements add to enjoyment of gaming? or do they just provide something to brag about? or more worryingly are they are requirement to justify your “wasted” hours in front of your gaming machines/consoles? What do you think?
