Topic: My idea for Wii U's achievement system

I already posted this under the article about Wii U achievements, but I thought it might get more discussion if I posted it here.

I like the idea of achievements to a degree, but Playstation and Xbox take the concept too far. I mean seriously, getting achievements for playing through the story mode normally lessens the value of the awards, and having to get 30,000 kills puts some out of reach for the vast majority of players. I want Nintendo to have a system in place, but I don't want what the other systems have.

Here's my idea. Badges. No more than 5 badges could be gleaned from any one game, leaving no room for superfluous extras (ie "Killed your first enemy!" "Bought your first gun!" etc.). This would also prevent sales of poor games just to boost one's score; each game would add too little to make one or two matter. Ideally these badges would consist of goals like beating the game, collecting everything, beating hard mode, and the like.

Now's where it gets interesting. Rather than a total point score, a person's total badge number would appear to the public, but not all of the badges would be viewable. The player would have to pick 20-25 favorite badges to put on display. In other words, when someone looks at your profile they would see the badges you're most proud of rather than a cluttered list consisting of dozens, and eventually even hundreds of awards. Each award would feel more significant when viewed in a small group too.

Personally I think this system would work well for Nintendo. It's unique enough that nobody could say they just jumped on the achievement bandwagon, and matches their overall themes fairly well. They've used badges or badge-like things for years, probably starting with Pokemon, but also appearing in Paper Mario, and somewhat in Super Smash Bros.

I love the idea of getting a badge when I beat New Super Mario Wii U's main game, and then getting another when I unlock and beat those inevitable secret levels. Perhaps the latter could say "honorary Super Mario Bro"... But realistically, this setup could work well with every 1st party game Nintendo would make. The only games I would wonder about would be COD-type games.

That said, I don't play very many COD-type games. Anyway, any thoughts about my thoughts? Why it wouldn't work, or how it could be better?

Bravo. Best idea I've heard yet. If I think of any improvements/issues, I'll be sure to post them.

Only 5? That's not very fun.

Like I said, keeping it to 5 keeps mediocre games for selling based on the value of the "achievements" as has happened frequently on Xbox. It also means there wouldn't be useless awards like those given for doing something for the first time, beating each individual world/level, or doing something insignificant in the grand scheme of the game. 5 badges is plenty for beating the game once, beating it on hard mode, collecting everything, and so on. REAL achievements. Things that you actually have to try to do. In my opinion it's kind of ridiculous to hand out points just for playing the game.

What would be some worthwhile badges that wouldn't fit under a 5 badge limit?

Yep. You just had to bring up Call of Duty didn't you?

^{Not totally shocked. This is a Nintendo site.}

Really good idea.
It's a shame I'm pretty sure it won't be anything like this if they exist though.
They're probably more likely just to do something similar to the other consoles.

@viewtiful_joe
I wasn't targeting Call of Duty in a bad way. I just meant I wasn't sure how well my idea would work with that type of game. In most Nintendo games, there are specific major goals like collect all the hidden coins or beat every level. They could easily fit all important achievements into my limit of 5. With games like Call of Duty (and also sandbox games like Assassin's Creed) where the goals can be less standard I wasn't sure what the 5 badges could be awarded for other than just beating the game. Like I said, I don't play those kinds of games very often, so I couldn't say if there were other major moments worthy of a badge in the games. I was hoping people who do play them might have an idea.

Why does it matter to you if a mediocre game sells or not? I think developers should be able to put in whatever type of achievements they want.
And there can be lots of worthwhile achievements for certain games that wouldn't be able to fit under a 5 badge limit.

If you were to play Call of Duty you would know what 5 achievements would fit.

Nintendo should just stay away from achievements altogether.

@turtlelink
The point about mediocre games was more referring to the article recently posted on this site about achievements. It mentioned how some people will buy terrible games because they found out they can easily pad their gamerscore with its achievements.

What achievements are so worthwhile? I honestly can't think of any.

@viewtiful_joe
I've played COD, just not all that much and not all that often. My position is that achievements shouldn't be given for events that occur while playing through the game normally. For example, in a Mario game the player shouldn't be rewarded every time he beats an ending, just when he beats the final ending. The same can be applied to COD. If badges are only awarded when the game is beaten or some sort of feat is accomplished what would qualify in COD? My understanding is that most of COD's achievements come from doing random things like "kill 3 people with one grenade" or the "colonel Sanders" award. My brother has spent literally hundreds of hours playing Modern Warfare 2, plus a fair amount of time in Modern Warfare 1, COD 2, COD 3, World at War and Black Ops. He's sitting behind me right now and can't think of more than 1 or 2 badge-worthy achievements for COD. Please share "what 5 achievements would fit."

Maybe 5 is too little. I thnk 15-25 would be good.

I can understand why people would want more achievements if there are more than 5 worthwhile achievements, but what are they? I keep asking that but people just keep saying there are plenty of great achievements and they would never fit under a 5 limit, but no one will give examples...

If you've already posted your idea to the other thread as you say, please continue to discuss it there. Thank you! :3