Topic: Achievements

No news about achievements in the 3DS? If not, then Nintendo is making a grave mistake.

Look, it's not an essential part of a game, but achievements do give a nice feeling of progression through a favourite game. The Wii does log hours played with some games, which is nice, but half-hearted.

And whether you're fan of achievements or not, enough people are, and they're a small thing to add into a game, that Nintendo really has no reason, other than stubborness, not to build them into the 3DS.

Discuss.

I've always felt Nintendo should jump on the achievement bandwagon. Some people complain about them, missing out on the obvious: they're optional challenges to tackle.

i don't care about achievements. just give me games.

edit: actually, i take that back -- depending on the game in question and how it's set up, online leaderboards would potentially have me playing for far longer than plain old achievements would. make it happen, Nintendo.

But that's the point. Games + Achievements > Games. As an optional add-on, it's a tiny bit more work for the developers (I would guess a day's additional development time, allowing for bug tracking and testing and so forth), and it helps create loyalty to a platform, as people see their gamerscore/ trophy count increase. And if you don't care about it, you can ignore it at no price whatsoever - you're still getting as much of the game as you'd like to see.

So as I said, Nintendo's making a mistake if it doesn't feature this in some capacity.

no, Nintendo would be making a mistake by not releasing games i want to purchase. again, i don't care about achievements -- put them in, don't put them in, noodles, don't noodles. just give me games.

I just don't like the way achievements interrupt the atmosphere of the game. It's fine in a simple platformer or something, but when you're immersed in the experience of the Half-Life 2 universe and all of a sudden you hear the Xbox's default twinkle and find your view obscured by an on-screen announcement that reads ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: YOU DID SOMETHING YOU HAD TO DO ANYWAY IN ORDER TO ADVANCE THE STORYLINE, I get a little upset. It takes you out of the experience.

I can understand why people like them, of course, but it's a bit simplistic to say that Games + Achievements > Games. If all the achievement is doing is consciously pulling me away from my enjoyment of the game, then I'd have to say Games > Games + Achievements.

CB has a good point about achievements soemtimes breaking up the pacing of a game, which is why some games purposefully delay giving you the trophy/cheevo until the end of a segment, where it seems like a break anyway(i.e. cutscene or loading screen). I like this approach, but I don't really have any problem with being distracted for a second or two to read a little square makign a pun out of what I just did. ("Hot Dog"? it's funny because I just defeated Cerebrus!!)

I wanted to purchase Final Fantasy: The Four Warriors of Light. I did so. I like the game.

But I still spent most of my gaming time on the weekend playing Costume Quest. Longer than I needed to to finish the game because of the trophies.

It's not a deal-breaker, but when you've got two games of roughly equivilent quality on two different console platforms, and one has trophies, and one doesn't, I tend to end up playing the former. Because unlocking trophies is nice.

So again, games + trophies > games > nothing. Nintendo is not likely to allow the 'nothing' to happen, but the other two? Well.

CB - I've never had that feeling personally, but then I have yet to come across a game that really has the ability to pull me out of reality into the game. Horror games, even, aren't really horrific, because I'm very conscious that they're just games.

But I agree, the option to have silent unlocks for trophies should be there for developers, or even the ability not to do trophies at all. The CONSOLE itself should support achievements, though, for the 95% of the time that it's not a distraction to unlock a trophy.

lol, if you want to play Costume Quest instead of 4HoL, that's your deal, man. :3

Unlockables that actually UNLOCK SOMETHING OR ARE WORTH DOING + games > Achievements + Games > Games >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Nothing

I win.

@kkslider: hahaha, win -- i'll take unlockable extra stuff over a plain old achievement too. more game to play is a-ok :3

Achievement Unlocked: Beat Subspace Emmissary - 4394

"Ok do I get to play with all the new characters in multiplayer now?"

...n-no-no but

the sound of 10000 Wiis being destroyed

Yeah, my only experience with them is on the Xbox, which definitely makes no secret of the achievements you get. As OB mentioned above, if you get them at a breaking point, that's fine. Or if you unlock them without the game obnoxiously slapping it in your face, okay.

But most of the time the achievements don't matter to me at all, and then I have to deal with getting torn out of Fallout 3's evocative early moment when I leave the vault and survey the Wasteland for the first time...just so the Xbox could tell me ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: LEFT THE VAULT AND HAD EMOTIONAL IMPACT SHATTERED BY THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.

I'm not saying that any console should NOT have the capacity for achievements, but my experience with them has vacillated between "don't care" and "absolutely hate," so my feeling is still Games > Games + Achievements. (Or, at best, Games = Games + Achievements.)

Maybe the 3DS will get them and maybe it won't. But one thing's for sure: this forum topic won't affect it either way.

WaltzElf's favorite, 2nd favorite and 3rd favorite game

Edit: I didn't even realize that the description makes it even funnier.

@kkslider: that's taking it a bit far, i think. no need to insult the guy.
_{also, i don't see any chocobos in that so there's no way it could possibly be a favorite game of his :3}

@Chicken
You know you can turn off the achievement notifications, right?

NO. TELL ME HOW.

(Seriously. Tell me how.)

Press the guide button, scroll 2 pages to the right and click on "notifications". There will be an option to turn them off. I believe this also blocks "friend is online" notifications, but if you're doing a single player game that shouldn't matter.

Thank you kindly.

My pleasure!