Memoirs of an Achievement Whore

The mission is to stay alive. Who the hell cares what the objectives are in this campaign as long as I stay alive the entire time. I’m by myself right now and there are tanks roaming around trying to make me their bitch. What do I do? Is that a helicopter? Holy crap, hiding behind this building has become useless as the chopper rains bullets into my face. I crawl inside the building where three guys open fire on me.  I die. The “f” word makes it way out of my mouth in rapid succession causing my wife to shake her head, obviously vexed by my tirade. Maybe if she was a deranged, achievement obsessed junkie, like me, she would understand how important this fifteen point achievement is. If I want those fifteen points deposited into my gamer score I have to complete a mission without dying once. So I back out of the game and restart the mission from scratch. Twenty minutes later I find myself in the same exact situation. Two tanks roam around a small village in search for me while ground troops search the buildings. I don’t have heavy duty weapons that are powerful enough to quickly dispatch two heavily armored tanks that are surrounded by cannon fodder. Then, as I realized I forgot, a helicopter comes into view.  I have a precious few moments to dive inside a building before its chain gun peppers my characters body with lead. Inside the building, the same building as last time, I get attacked by three dudes. I was better prepared for them this time though and managed to swiftly take all of them down with controlled bursts from my weapon. From there I creep out the other side of the building where a tank welcomes me with a giant shell to my face. I instantly die. More “f” bombs, more eye rolling from the wife. I rinse and repeat this method many more times and each time I get a little farther just before meeting my demise. I quit playing the game, put it back into the Gamefly case, and send it on its way.

You might be reading this thinking that I hated the game, Battlefield Bad Company. But the truth is, I actually loved it.  The quirky dialogue and action packed gun fights were really fun. I blamed the achievements for why I never finished the game and why thinking about playing it again makes me cringe. But as the years have passed, I realized that it was my stupid obsession with achievements that ruined this game for me. It was because of this game and the way I reacted to it that I ended my subscription to Gamefly, which in turn ended my endless quest for the largest gamer score on the planet. I’m not too sure why I wanted that. Perhaps I was over compensating for a small penis by making my proverbial cock much larger than everyone’s, but my penis is very large so that wasn’t it. No matter what my reasons were, I am glad I’ve had the opportunity to experience a breaking point in my quest for achievements. This whole experience made me realize that I have allowed achievements to ruin gaming for me.  It made me think of Halo 3 and how I wanted to get every achievement out of the way so I could FINALLY enjoy the game.  I didn’t think about it at the time, but it was a horrible way to perceive the games I was playing. Achievements were controlling the way I played and the way I felt about games.  Fortunately, I’ve changed my view on the situation and came to the conclusion that I could still be an achievement hunter as well as a video game enthusiast. I play video games so I can experience fantastic stories and fun game play sequences. Achievements arrived on the scene much, much later and overall I think they’ve helped fuel the gaming economy. On that same note, I feel that they have harmed the gaming community despite its harmless intentions.

First you have to ask yourself why achievements are important or helpful to video games (other consoles have their own versions, such as PlayStation’s trophies). The answer is opinion based. In my opinion, achievements have given completionists something more to work towards.  Have you ever found yourself playing a game like Grand Theft Auto and even though you’ve completed the campaign, you were only 60% finished with the game? Some people may have played their asses off to finish that last 40 percent and others just moved on. With the addition of achievements, developers can offer a reward for completing 100% of their game, like Rockstar did with Grand Theft Auto IV. I was one of those people who wouldn’t have completed the entire game, but with incentive to add points to my overall gamer score, hell yes I’m in! I’ve explored parts of that game that I never would have if it weren’t for that one achievement. I met all of the random characters in the game which were just ghosts to me on my first play through. I drove vehicles off of ramps that I never knew existed and I climbed rooftops that I didn’t know where climbable. I explored everything that Rockstar poured their hearts and souls into and it gave me a much larger appreciation for their hard work and dedication. I’ve found that a lot of games use achievements to get gamers to explore their fantasy worlds deeper than just the campaign and to me that is a very useful tool.

I also think achievements are important because they provide a status bar, or a completion bar for people to keep track of their history.  Some people don’t consider the game to be finished until they’ve completed all of the achievements (I’m guilty of this). It’s a tool they can use to compare to their friends for bragging rights.  For me, I like to boast about my accomplishments with video game achievements. I’m currently nearing one hundred thousand as an overall score and to date, I’ve gotten every single Assassin’s Creed achievement and over 90% of all Halo achievements. Not many people can say that, so booyah. But being able to look back on your accomplishments provides a better feeling than just saying, “Yeah, I’ve played that game.” Now, you can show people, or they can look for themselves.

As achievements in video games have grown over the years, so have the negatives impacts they have on gaming. Take downloadable content for example. Back in the day (can a 27 year old man say that phrase yet?) I remember DLC being a little bit of love served from the developer to the gamer to keep the fun rolling. They were like smaller versions of expansion packs that PC gamers would see with their games. Halo 2 is a huge game that was continually supported by Bungie and they didn’t have the plague of achievements to assist in their sales. If the game did very well and a lot of people were playing it, then it was easier for a company to add on more content. I only saw this practice in great games (although I’m sure other companies dipped their feet into the water a little bit), but once achievements were added into the mix, the rise of DLC amongst any game has risen! Especially since Microsoft forces companies to charge for DLC if they want to add achievements into it. Hence you see free DLC such as the survival add on from the original Left 4 Dead come out with zero achievements, but you see crappy DLC released from Bulletstorm selling for ten dollars only because they have achievements. Die hard achievement hunters like myself have been purchasing this stuff for the wrong reasons. In order to keep a game 100%, you have to purchase new achievements, no matter how crappy the content may be, and that is exactly what it has become. A lot of gamers will purchase DLC if it has achievements and only for that reason. Fortunately, companies that are making good games are also making good content later. Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto come to mind when I think about downloadable content that was worth my money and that I purchased (not Skyrim, yet) so I could play it for fun, not for achievements.

So what is this whole rant about? Well it's a story to share with you how I overcame bad gaming habits. I no longer play games just for achievements. I don’t use Gamefly anymore because it was aiding my addiction. Now, I play games because I want to get a great story and great game play while revealing that story. I still hunt down those achievements that I want, but I have boundaries now. I will play new games all the way through without worrying about the achievements. This strategy has worked out very well for me because I am able to appreciate the game for what it is and what it is meant to be. Achievements have become an afterthought rather than a forethought.  I no longer purchase full priced DLC unless I really want to play it for story purposes or because I really like the multiplayer (Gears of War and Halo). I wait for all other DLC to go on sale because I am most likely only buying them for achievements (Bulletstorm and Assassin’s Creed). Finally, I’ve learned that hunting for achievements is a good hobby to have, as long as I don’t forget about why I play games in the first place. Appreciate the art first, then go screw around. I am really hoping that one day I can find the courage to play Bad Company again, heck I’d enjoy not cringing every time I think about playing it.  Stay tuned for my next chat on achievements because I’ll be talking about good achievements that are fun to hunt, and bad achievements that spawn suicidal thoughts while hunting them.

My Heart Is Heavy

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Yesterday and today have been very hard on me emotionally.  I know they’ve been hard on people all across this country including those who were directly affected by the terrible tragedy in Newtown Connecticut.  I keep asking myself why any person would consciously walk into an elementary school with the intent on killing helpless, innocent children.  I never have an answer.  I see evil in this world and cannot help myself from thinking that this sick individual got some sort of sick joy out of seeing the terror in those little faces.  As a parent I cannot help but to put my little babies in this situation.  We think about what we would have done or how we would react if it were us, but most of us will never truly understand. Thankfully it wasn’t us, but twenty-seven families are feeling insurmountable pain right now as I type this and it is very heavy on my heart.

The fact that the majority of the victims in this tragedy were ages six and seven is what truly tears me up.  Adults have established lives and are more capable of protecting themselves, but children are weaker and smaller and rely on us adults to keep them safe.  Thoughts of these kids thinking about where their moms and dads were and wondering if they were going to keep them safe invades my head and it brings me to tears.  These lives were so young and innocent and it just isn’t fair that their journeys were cut so short.  I would gladly give my life if it meant that these kids could return home to the safety of their homes where their parents will boldly protect them.

This morning I woke up and wondered how awful it must have been to wake up and prep your kids for school, make their lunch, give them a kiss, and send them off on their way.  Never once knowing that it would be the last time you would see them alive.  Then I wondered what the fear felt like to have received a phone call with a notification that a shooting has occurred and that it was at your child’s school.  Rushing over to the school to see if they’re okay, being ushered to the fire station to pick your child up.  Waiting and waiting as other parents come and collect their kids and watching them leave together.  Wondering.  Worrying.  Then finally receiving the bad news that no more children were available to collect, and although they have yet to identify the deceased, the fact that you have not yet been reunited is proof enough.  That feeling of shock probably takes over and maybe as a parent you blame yourself for not being there.  But it wasn’t your fault; there was nothing you could do.  A school is a safe place where young minds are molded into artists and thinkers, and future educators.  Why shouldn’t they be safe there?

There isn’t much about this that I have been able to find comfort in, but one thing really seeps into my brain is the fact that these people are walking in heaven and looking down on us.  They are not in pain, they are not in fear, and they are in peace.  They are not suffering, but we are.  We are stuck here, and as a nation we must endure.  It’s not fair that this happened and I will never pretend to understand how the families are feeling and all I can hope is that they find peace.  They may never be able to get over this, but I pray to God that they can get through it.  Hug your kids, hug your spouse, hug the people you care about, because we live in a very ugly world and it never hurts to show the people you love, how much you love them.  I know I will.

Sequel This

I was just sitting around today thinking about the recent video games I have been playing and which ones I have sitting on the shelf waiting to be played and I couldn’t help but realize that almost everything is a sequel.  I recently played Borderlands 2, Assassin’s Creed III, and Halo 4.  Some of the games that I have waiting are Forza Horizon, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and Fallout 3.  Dishonored is the only game sitting on my shelf that is the first of its kind.  What happened to all of the brand new IP’s?  They are so rare now a day.  Why is it that we are continually playing the same titles over and over while fresh new ideas aren’t even put into the market?  I mean look at the upcoming releases that are making news.  Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Tomb Raider, Gears of War: Judgment, Sim City, and Bioshock: Infinite.  All these games are sequels or are being remade.  These were some of the titles that had the biggest headlines at this year’s E3.  Sure we did get to see some new stuff with games like Watchdogs and ZombieU, but it’s nothing compared to what it use t be.  I remember how excited I was to play Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, and Bioshock when their first installments were announced.  They all released around the same time too!  A few nights ago a buddy of mine and I were talking about this and I think I may have the answer as to why we see the same games being made over and over.

It all starts with the price of video games. Sixty dollars is actually a whole lot to ask consumers to pay for a brand new game and with an economy in bad shape like ours, many people don’t have the money to pay for them.  It took me about a year to save up enough money to buy Halo 4, Assassin’s Creed III, and Borderlands 2 on their release days, but not everyone has that luxury.  With that in mind it’s easy to see how developers of very popular franchises, such as Call of Duty, continually put out games with the same title because they know that fans will buy them.  Likewise, fans of the series will already know what they’re getting into.  Wouldn’t that make things a little scary for unestablished developers, who don’t have popular franchises, to put a fresh new idea into the market?  They probably shy away at the idea of making AAA titles because of how much money they could potentially lose. And if they do try to release a fresh new IP, they have to compete in a market dominated by titles that have already established great names.  This has to be the answer because I refuse to believe that people have run out of good ideas for games. 

Take a look at 38 Studios as a prime example of what I just said.  As a brand new company founded by baseball great, Curt Schilling, they only released one game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.  The game didn’t really fare too well, getting very mixed reviews and not selling as well as it should have.  They did see moderate success, but not the kind a well-known AAA title would have.  In the end, the company was shut down due to the inability to pay on its 75 million dollar loan from the state of Rhode Island while also not being to pay its employees.  Some people may think that the company was in over their head, but the truth is that they were trying to put a huge RPG on the map while dozens of well-known RPG’s controlled the market.  I think that if 38 Studios started small and made a name for themselves, they would have survived a lot longer in the industry, but the fact of the matter is that they shouldn’t have to.  A lot of pretty good developers and designers worked on the company’s only game while being comfortably funded. Yet Kingdoms of Amalur still failed.

So what do we get now?  Will all new IP’s just wither away and die over the course of the next few years?  No, but that’s because the fresh new ideas are being developed for Arcade releases. Why?  It’s because they cost much less than a full packaged game and they can easily be downloaded onto consoles and computers.  The only problem is that they lack the length and depth of a AAA game.  That’s not to say that arcade games are weak, many of them just lack the ingredient that can formulate a great story with extremely fun game play.  They are catching up though.  I’ve seen more creative ideas spawn in this realm in the past few years and it’s even better in the indie game realm where passionate new developers can create super low budget games without the fear of going bankrupt.  I feel that if the developers have less worry about having a job and more concern for their work, we will see a rise in new companies and new ideas. But as long as brand new games are being sold for sixty dollars, it will be extremely rare to find great new IP’s.  As gamers we look at these new ideas that have never been played by the public before and we are cautious. We don’t necessarily want to spend our hard earned money on a game that may or may not be good.  We take the risk of purchasing something that could potentially be a total flop and if it is, we cannot get our money back.  Heck all we can really do is hope some idiot on eBay will pay full price for it, otherwise you’ll get half back what you paid for the game with in store credit at your local Gamestop.  So what do we do instead?  We wait until the game is stupid cheap and we buy it.  Or we rent it from the Redbox or Gamefly.  If we rent the game and like it enough we will potentially fork over the cash for it, but if we don’t like it, we’ll forget about forever.  By the time we come around to buying it, the developer has already lost money.

So what do we need to do?  Well first off, we need to get rid of the fear on both fronts. Gamers should not be worried about purchasing a game with fear that it might suck, which leaves them feeling that their money could have been better used as toilet paper to wipe their asses with.  Developers should not have to be fearful of creating a new idea and going bankrupt because it didn’t work out. Failing is a part of succeeding.  Plain and simple, games need to be cheaper.  If not, we may never see another rise in new ideas and that is shameful.  It’s not like it’s an impossible endeavor to lower the price of games.  With new technology we are seeing improved game engines, such as the Unreal Engine 4, that will make it so games can be produced faster.  Games can go to strictly download only.   I love owning a copy of my game on disc because I love the cover art and stuff, but if games went to download only, I would be okay with it if it meant having a less expensive hobby.  I’m already accustom to purchasing my books on an ereader rather than buying a hardcopy at the store so I am sure I can adapt.  The developers could maybe spend less money on marketing their games?  I know that sounds crazy, but companies spend boat loads of money marketing their games and that sixty bucks that millions of people fork over are helping pay for it. 

I’m not recommending that games drop down to the price of DVD’s, but helping make it so people aren’t afraid to create and aren’t afraid to purchase would be nice.  Hell, if it doesn’t happen, I don’t mind using all my video game spending to be on arcade and indie titles, at least with that option I’ll have new ideas to explore while still having the option to participate in Halo 47.