Achievements...love them, hate them, you just can't deny their awesome presence in today's games. Every 360 game has around 50 or so, and the ps3 is trying to jump on the bandwagon with their whole trophy room in "home" too. How could such a simplistic idea have such runaway success? There aren't even any prizes for a high gamer score! It seems that the only draw with achievements is bragging rights, and shouldn't being better at the game be the real source of bragging rights? Apparently not.

I'll start off by saying that I didn't really see the potential in achievements when I first heard about them. But that all changed when I heard that first quirky beep...I think it was in Call of Duty 2...maybe Perfect Dark Zero. Anyways, I had become enlightened. Achievements gave me a sense of, well achievement. Never before had I felt so great about completing seemingly inconsequential tasks. This feeling awoke a previously dormant motivation and determination to further experience the game in my quest for a higher gamerscore. That's the cool thing about achievements, they made me play through games again that I usually wouldn't have. They made me play differently than I usually would have. They made me play on different settings than I usually would have. The extended and enhanced my enjoyment of the game through nothing more than a cool sound and a number. Then things changed.

As I previously stated, achievements can alter the way one might go about playing a game. This is a great thing in single player, where it's all just fun and games. But when applied to multiplayer, achievements can have adverse effects. Take for example the Halo franchise. Halo 2- Ultra competitive and balanced multiplayer that made us the best gamers we could be. Halo 3- (Besides the fact that Halo 2's multiplayer mechanics are superior) Tainted multiplayer that trades sportsmanship for gamerscore. How many of us have entered a Halo 3 lobby to hear, "You guys wanna just do achievements?" It completely ruins the original intent of the game. But it's what happens. And I won't lie, at first, I scoffed at such requests and said I wanted to play the game...but those last couple achievements started eating at me. I'm kinda OCD, I need to complete everything(Mass Effect will consume my life). I finally caved and wrongfully unlocked the Mongoose Mowdown achievement. I've still got to get the double kill with the spartan laser and the triple with the elite sword. But after trying to get these and realizing that I was doing the very thing I scolded at not too long ago, I realized the dangers that lie within the achievement machine. The same thing happened to me with Gears of War. I kept playing it long after I'd lost interest simply because I wanted more achievements, but I eventually broke its hold. I've seen how achievements can ruin even the best games.

Now I'm hoping to complete the cycle of achievments. Indifference, fascination, obsession, indifference. I've seen both edges of the blade and hope the knowledge I've gained will help me put achievements into perspective. I certainly don't want them to go away, they've really made some games more enjoyable for me and encouraged me to challenge myself. But I won't allow them to control me anymore. I want to see innovative achievements that truly enhance a game, rather than achievements for achievements' sake. Single player campaignes seem to be in a better place than multiplayer regarding achievements, but I still think developers can come up with more original and interesting achivements that both extend and enhance single player games. As for multiplayer achievements, maybe developers should just go with something simple yet rewarding, like having a certain kills to deaths ratio. I know this would be dynamic and ever changing, so I'm not sure if it could actually be done. But wouldn't it be great if achievements encouraged players to play the game correctly and be the best they can be? How awesome would it be to have an achievement for never killing a team mate...err, excluding with rockets...that'd be kinda hard to do i guess? My point is that achievements have the power for both good and evil. Developers are taking the easy path with mundane, pointless, or counter-intuitive achievements. Nothing good in life comes without hard work. Maybe if developers truly thought out their achievements, then they could elevate games as a whole. Am I just a crazy achievement wh*re?

P.S. On a completely unrelated note, game trailers with licensed music are an awesome trend that I really hope continues to grow. Anybody who's seen the the Gears of War Mad World trailer or the Assassin's Creed Lonely Souls trailer can attest to that. What sort of trailers would everybody else like to see?