The Best Achievements

Like them or not, achievements have become a staple of modern gaming, giving players goals to strive for and a measuring stick with which they can compare themselves to random strangers on the internet. Eurogamer discusses why they've become so popular, and takes a look at some of the most entertaining examples. Quoting: "... we mock Achievement points because they spell out in large numbers what is so pathetic about video games. But we also celebrate them, because, when used in funny, creative or interesting ways, they also spell out what is so compelling and wonderful about video games. Because for every Achievement in which you have to do nothing more than play through a tutorial there's another that subverts convention, rewarding you for skipping it instead. For every fetch quest that has you collecting dogtags for the millionth time, there's another that makes you fight the baddy with your arms tied behind your back. And for every Achievement you earn in jest for pressing the start button, there's another that only rewards the single best player in the world."

Comments

Speed runs, sequence breaking, etc

[Haoie]

Great fun to watch and to do. Although these usuall aren't "official achievements", as they tend to exploit the game in some way or another.

A good classic example: Super Metroid

Re:Microsoft's Ripoff Of Sony's Skill Points

[MediaStreams]

Sony really got Skill Points/Trophies/Achievements right with the PS3.

The Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum breakdown lets you look at another gamer's profile and almost immediately get a sense of just what type of gamer they are.

With Trophies you get:

* Obviously what games they play

* What games they like the most and put the most time into

* What type of gamer they are - lots of just Bronze Trophies and they like to buy games and not complete them, lots of Silver and Gold Trophies and they are a serious gamer who completes games and gets lots of the side quests and hard parts of games done, Platinums and you know you've looking at a hardcore gamer

And like Skill Points, Sony has talked about your Trophy level unlocking things inside of Home in the future.

Re:Microsoft's Ripoff Of Sony's Skill Points

[R.Morton]

sorry to double post just wanted to throw a link in here related to my above post.

http://www.atariage.com/2600/archives/activision_patches.html