Achievements: Good or Bad?

When the Xbox360 launched back in 2005 it changed the way I play games. The console itself didn’t really change things, it was the introduction of achievement points. For anyone who has been under a rock for the last four years, achievements are points that players receive for completing game-specific challenges. These challenges range from finishing a level to winning a certain number of matches against other players on Xbox Live. Every retail Xbox360 game has 1,000 available points and every Xbox Live Arcade game has 200 possible points. When points are awarded for completing challenges they are added to a players Gamerscore. A Gamerscore is an accumulative number that represents all points that have been unlocked in every game that has been played by that person. I have to hand it to Microsoft, the way they incorporated this score was ingenious, a players Gamerscore is displayed underneath their name on their Gamercard. If you don’t know, Gamercards are name tags that represent each player on Xbox Live. Every person that someone plays with during a Xbox Live match is able to see this card. In a way, the score is like bragging about how many games someone has played or how good they are at games without having to say anything. If a player looks at another players score they are able to see what achievements that player has unlocked and it shows them every game that person has played. It sounds harmless but if you dig in a little deeper there is a dark side to achievements. That brings me back to how these meaningless digital trophies have changed the way I play games.

First off, when I am playing a game and I complete a level, get my 50^th headshot, collect 10 hidden gems, or whatever, a sound goes off and a green and gray icon displays on screen letting me know an achievement has been unlocked. When this happens its like my Xbox is patting me on the back telling me what a good job I have done. Then I keep playing, waiting patiently for the next one. It doesn’t sound like a bad thing but this payoff triggers some part of me that feeds off being rewarded for accomplishments. That is were the evil lies. If I let my guard down when I am playing I catch myself chasing the achievement dragon instead of playing games for fun. I have lost hours of sleep because when I finish playing a game for the night I look to see what achievements I unlocked during that session before I shut down my Xbox. The insane thing is that without even thinking I will scroll through the list to see which ones I haven’t unlocked. If I see one or two more I think I could pickup quickly I will jump back into the game and try to grab them before I finally call it a night. There have been days that I have had a list of things I needed to get done, but instead I get caught up playing games and next thing I know I wasted the day away. In the past I would have been upset with myself but if I pickup 50 or 60 new achievements points in that time, it makes me feel justified in putting things off until tomorrow. I mean… come on! I was working on raising my Gamerscore, right?

I like to rent a game if I am not sure whether or not I will enjoy it. (Games are too expensive to buy one and not play it.) I have brought games home from Blockbuster and even though I wasn’t having fun, I played it every night until I had to return it just to collect some extra achievement points. Before achievements I would never have played a game that I didn’t think was fun. I am doing things in games that are out of character for myself as a player because in the back of my mind I am thinking that I might get an achievement for doing it. When that little Pavlov’s Bell like sound goes off and the Xbox symbol for congrats shows up it’s all good. It’s when it doesn’t pop up that makes this a problem. It actually upsets me. I don’t throw a tantrum or blow a gasket but I have uttered words of disappoint towards the makers of the game for not having an achievement related to whatever I was doing. Achievements have tricked me into spending countless hours playing game modes I am not interested in because I was trying to unlock one that requires specific circumstances. An example that comes to mind is an achievement in Halo 3 that gives you 5 points for splattering someone with a mongoose in a ranked free for all match. I spent at least ten hours playing through countless online matches trying to get that achievement. I wasn’t trying to get this achievement just to add 5 points to my Gamerscore either. This time I was chasing them for a different reason. I had been browsing my friends list the day before and I saw a friend of mine had more points in Halo 3 than I did. Seeing this set off a competitive urge inside of me and I did not stop playing Halo 3 until I had more achievement points than my friend. There are plenty of games that I haven’t picked up every single achievement and that’s fine with me. I just don’t like it when someone else has more than I do. Especially if its a game I think I am good at.

Achievements have even affected my purchase decisions. If a game is on more than one system I will buy the 360 version every time. If I play a game that is not available for the 360 there is always a point where I will think, “I wish this was on the 360 so I could get more achievements.” My Gamerscore is not ridiculously high and I recognize the fact that in the end, it means nothing. I see how these points are affecting my habits but like I said, I keep getting sucked back into Microsoft’s trap every time I stop paying attention to it. Whatever mental fuses these make believe accomplishments were designed to ignite in players is working on me. Don t get me wrong, I don’t think achievements are all bad either. They have changed some of my gaming habits for the better. Before achievements I only played through most games one time. Once completed they were thrown on the shelf and that was that. Being a gaming enthusiast with a limited amount of time to spend playing games there is always something new I want to check out waiting in the wings. Games I finished and wanted to go back and play a second time eventually get lost in the shuffle. Achievements have changed that for me. Instead of picking up something new at the local Blockbuster to get through a cold winter weekend I will look through the games I have on my shelf and try to pickup achievements I missed the first time around. Rediscovering games and enjoying them a second or third time lets me appreciate the work developers are putting into the small details I might have missed the first time around.

Microsoft's Bill Gates

Achievements are great when I am playing games that require a larger commitment of time to complete. RPG’s, as an example, have a lot of content that is available to explore but may not be necessary to progress through the story. Its easy to miss or skip large portions of these games. Achievements give me a way to gauge my rate of discovery and help direct me down the paths I need to follow to open up side missions. Side missions are there to help add to the overall experience in a game even if they aren’t necessary. If I wasn’t unlocking achievements I might have passed over a lot of great moments in a game. In some respects I think I have become a better gamer because of achievements. I will always play a game on the highest available difficulty because nine times out of ten I will get extra points for completing a game on a harder difficulty. I have spent a lot of trial and error time trying to get achievements that are more difficult to obtain. That repetitiveness has helped refine the way I look at games and has given me a better understanding as to how they work. Being aware that achievements have had a psychological affect on me I have started to question Microsoft’s motives behind implementing these points into their console. Were achievements created to trick gamers into become loyal to the Xbox brand by feeding their addictive personalities with these fictitious feelings of accomplishment? I know that question comes off as being very conspiracy theory sounding but its something I have been thinking about for a while. I am curious as to whether others have been impacted by achievements as well. What do you think? Have achievements been good or bad for gaming in this generation?