Are you one of the multitudes that seek out achievements?
In the large and open World of Warcraft players have a choice on what they spend their time doing.  There are seemingly millions of things to do in the game that should keep everyone happy.  One item that has been wildly successful since its implementation is the Achievement system.  In this editorial I take a look at what the system is, what rewards it has to offer, some good and bad points, and my overall view of its value in the game.

Achievements

Let’s start by looking at what exactly achievements are.  In their simplest form the achievement system is a task list of items that can be accomplished in the game.  They range from simple things like reaching key levels all the way to doing insanely difficult things like beating Heroic TotGC without a single person dying.

The list of achievements that you can complete is gigantic with almost 1,000 in the game currently. The list covers pretty much every part of the custom usb game, with achievements for PvE, PvP, crafting, raiding, exploring, and much more.  It even has achievements for relatively silly things like hugging the wild life or jumping off a cliff without dying. Yet for some reason, no matter how silly an achievement seems to be, there are people out there looking to make sure they get it.

The Good and Bad

There are several good things that the achievement system provides.  Firstly it provides Blizzard with a solid way to keep goal oriented players busy until new content is released once they have reached the end game.  This can apply to players that either raid and have defeated the current end game content or casual players that just want something to do at max level.  This allows current content to last longer for those players that choose to pursue achievements.

A very good thing about achievements for heroic instance and raid players is the fact that many achievements are included that&nbsp,led lights;varied or more difficult ways to defeat the heroic and raid bosses.  These achievements can only be earned by purposely doing things counter to normal strategy and thereby making the fight intentionally more difficult, just to prove it can be done.  The achievements make players think outside the box and try to accomplish something that is not the normal way to handle a fight.

Something that can be viewed as a positive or a negative is the competition that the achievements allow.  If you are a competitive player it can provide yet another form of competition.  This can be viewed as positive,nike shoes, since if it is your thing, it is entertaining.  It can also be viewed as a negative since it takes time and effort but does not really advance your character.

A poor thing about achievements is that, in general, they really do not offer much compensation for the effort.&nbsp,jordan shoes; You can go about completing a lot of achievements and all you end up with is achievement points.  They can not be spent golf equipment on anything other than bragging with other players that seek achievements.  It sure would be nice to put the points towards something.

The Messiah’s Take on Achievements

Let me start by giving everyone a clear idea why I play games.  My reasons are probably the same as most players, I seek entertainment, challenge, and social interaction.  The last one is what draws me to online games since it is hard to play a solo computer or console game and have social interaction.  Entertainment and challenge are pretty common reasons to play any game though; they are also tied together fairly tightly.  Think back to your favorite games, were they easy or hard?  Which games did you stick with longer, the ones you beat easily or the ones that challenged you?  I bet if you are a normal person, you stuck with the difficult ones.  It is human nature to seek a challenge.

Bragging has also arisen in the game over the number of achievement points a player has. I have issues with this since I am not sure  that even the perceived value or bragging rights associated with achievement points are valid at all. Getting a lot of achievement points doesn’t mean a thing.  A strong case in point is the fact that you can get points by doing extremely simple things, like exploring all the areas in the game. Does having walked all around the continent make you a better player or person?  It’s kind of like saying that person A is better than person B because they have walked down all the streets in their neighborhood.  Huh?  What does that have to do with anything?  Personally I could care less what the street three blocks over is even named, never mind walking down it.  It does nothing for me.  If a friend lived there, maybe I care, otherwise, why would I?

You gotta get them all, in Pokemon, not in WoW.Sure you can get some rewards, but the rewards are not gear that can help advance your character at all.  Therefore, their value is very low to most players.  For example the “value” in getting a new flying mount that has the same speed as existing flying mounts to me ugg boots is essentially zero.  Sure the new mount looks different, but if it doesn’t behave different, I am not sure what the point it.