Achievements- The Milestones for gamers

One of the best things about games is playing for achievements/trophies (the name varies over platforms, though since most platforms call them achievements, I will refer to them as achievements too). These are little milestones to show you how far you have gotten or tell you if you pulled off a certain challenge. Games like "Call of Duty" and "Battlefield" typically reward you with one achievement after finishing a chapter.  There are also achievements in games that reward players for finishing the game on a harder difficulty. I have incorporated a few videos into this blog post, plenty of which involve (censored) cursing, so take this as a fair warning. Let's take a look into these type of achievements:

The story progression achievements:

These are often considered the easiest to get, as players just have to traverse a level and earn free achievements almost instantly after completion. Some games don't take it easy on players, such as Halo: Reach which was claimed by the developers to be the hardest "Halo" installment yet. This game penalizes lazy players and disable achievements for easy difficulties (one of the simpler ways of encouraging players to try something harder, which I will expand on in a later post). Most other games will give out one achievement for every chapter, and will give out an additional achievement (or two).  An example of this would be Battlefield Hardline. You get one achievement per chapter, and one based off the difficulty you finished the game on. If I completed the game on Veteran difficulty (the hard difficulty, the game just themes it as "Veteran"),  I would unlock the "Super Cop" achievement for completing the campaign on that difficulty. As a time saver, the game will unlock the achievements from the lower difficulties for you (since if you can beat it on the hard difficulty there should be no reason to fail it on easy difficulties).

Before I move on, I should explain the "difficulty" achievements. This does vary by developer, so I will provide a brief example for each. In Naughty Dog's Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, the difficulty achievement pops up after finishing the campaign. Players can just go into the final level on each difficulty setting one by one to unlock their achievement,  saving plenty of time. In Electronic Art's "Battlefield", to go for the difficulty achievements, players have to go through the entire campaign rather than just skip to the final chapter.

The joke achievements:

These achievements are jokes. In The Simpsons Game, you get one achievement worth 5 gamerscore (a poor amount, but it is worth something) just for advancing beyond the title screen. For extra bad players, there is an achievement worth 0 gamerscore for dying 10 times. In Sunset Overdrive, you can earn achievement  "Replay" while replaying a mission. All players have to do is get below par during the replay, indicating a sloppy replay. Other games act more discrete, such as in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, a player who chooses a difficulty proving to be too high may lower the difficulty and earn the "Our Little Secret" achievement. 

The grind/unfair/hard achievements:

These achievements are given out for relatively hard tasks, such as the "Bladder of Steel" achievement in Rock Band 2. This achievement is one of the most merciless. The description is for you to pass the "Endless Setlist 2" without failing, which is a continual playlist of 6 hours worth of songs. If that was not bad enough, players can not pause or the attempt is voided. This means the players need to double check their batteries, fill up their stomachs, and hope they practiced enough.

Of all the things I forget...

These type of achievements can be referred to as "grinds" in the manner that they pose a tiring task for players. Some of these can also be labelled unfair for obvious reasons. (Here is another video with several hard achievements.)  

Achievements for trivial accomplishments:
(This video is not in english, but there are captions, which you can activate by clicking on the gear). In Hitman Go players can earn an achievement called "Litterbug" for picking up a rock (used as guard bait) and throwing it somewhere that fails to attract any attention. In Mirror's Edge, the game gives you an achievement for giving guards the 2 finger salute (a foreign flip off). In a remastered Metal Gear Solid 2, players can hide renowned spy Solid Snake in a locker, and some will have posters of russian women outside. Players who switch to first person mode outside the locker will likely ogle the said poster. If the player attempts to open a communication line with Otacon (the agency's technical support), Otacon picks up and scolds Snake for having nothing better to do with his time, telling him to get back on track, unlocking the "Snake Beater" achievement. Pressing an interaction button near a poster will make Solid Snake kiss the poster and unlock the "Kissing Booth" achievement.

The tiers of achievements:

Just so you know, Playstation calls achievements trophies, and they are generally easier to explain, so to best explain the tiers of achievements (or how much worth your accomplishment means), I am briefly switching to trophies. The Xbox uses gamerscore to give achievements a value, and the more Gamerscore, the better for you. I have put down the approximate equivalences to give you a good idea of their worth.

• Bronze (= 0-25 Gamerscore): Typically awarded for trivial accomplishments or completing a chapter (/set of missions). 
• Silver (= 25-65 Gamerscore): Awarded for harder tasks such as being top dog in a multiplayer match or reaching a milestone in a game's levelling system. 
• Gold (= Anything above 65 Gamerscore): Awarded for harder tasks, such as finishing a game's campaign.
• Platinum (Nonexistent in the Gamerscore system): Awarded after gaining all other trophies in the game. (The platinum trophy is exclusive to Playstation systems)

To be fair, achievements are more or less of a nice little novelty collection. The more achievements you have, the more you get to brag about. Of course, one can argue they exist as redundant reminders of what you did in a game. No matter how you choose to view them, achievements serve as milestones/bragging rights for gamers. Remember that regardless of what they are for, achievements will be a legacy of gaming and they are your legacy of gaming.

Worth of this achievement: Priceless

-Game on

Jacob Bacci