Achivements

The Acheivment discussion has popped up on Joystiq. I think I'll ring in.

My most recent and relevant experience with achivements has been with Guitar Hero. I've had much exerience with the PS2 version (that I own) and the 360 version, which I've played away from home. I've played my copy to what I would consider a solid video game death. I am currently one song away from finishing the expert level. Considering that I've told myself that I would stop playing halfway through medium and hard levels, multiple times because of difficulty, I really kept with the game a lot longer than most of it's type.

When the 360 version came out, it got me reinterested in not only the game itself, but my copy as well. Why? The achievement system. Normally that wouldn't make any sense. I didn't go out and buy the 360 version. I would consider it more of a testament to the awesomness of the game. Even more so to the achievement system itself. Quite an accomplishment for a version of the game that doesn't even have achievements.

And I think that's where my feelings reside in the world of Microsoft Achievements. Initially I buy games because I like them. My old school gaming enthusiasm is still in tune with the quality of games and the value of the experience within. What the 360 inserted into that was this new, internet based culture of i'll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours. It's clearly constructed on those iron beams of egotism. It's a second way to play every game in your library, should you choose. It also has, for the time being, been completely seperate from the offline, in-home, guts of the game.

Right now, I'd call the achievement system a non-discussion specifically for that reason. It's taste is not relevant to the sight. They are a car's paint color to the car's horsepower. They don't talk to each other, they don't touch each other, and the probably have no idea the other even exists. Should there come a day when the two become self-aware, Terminator style, then, and only then, could there be a war. A war in which humans will be the only casualties.