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 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.

Rewards

Overall there are very few achievements that provide players with a reward.  Even when they do provide a reward they are not anything that will improve or benefit your character in any way in the progression of the game.  Some of the rewards that are in the game already that are given by completing achievements are titles, tabards, non-combat pets, vanity items, and mounts.

One of the few rewards you can earn through achievements

In addition the rewards are only there for some of the more difficult achievements and generally require large groups of achievements to be completed.

One thing that is apparently a reward to many players is the achievements and achievement points themselves. Having accomplished some of the more difficult achievements seems to provide a sort of bragging right for doing something others have not done.

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 suggest varied or more difficult suggested 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, 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.  You can go about completing a lot of achievements and all you end up with is achievement points.  They can not be spent 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.

Ok, so it’s clear what I am looking for, now how do I find those things in an MMO like the World of Warcraft?  That’s pretty simple, to me and many others; the pinnacle of an MMO is beating the most difficult raids in the game and therefore seeing the whole storyline of the game.  To accomplish this you need to get the best possible gear to allow progression to more difficult content, and you also need to push yourself to become a better player as you progress through harder and harder content.

How do achievements fit into this picture of a game, entertainment, and goals? 

Well, to start with entertainment is different for everyone and that’s one of only two valid justifications that I see for achievements at all. Obviously some people find them fun, or they would not exist.  The second justification is involved with tracking the instances, raids, and hard modes of fights that players have completed.  Achievements do a nice job of tracking all this to make it easy to see what you have and have not done in regards to raids so far.

Other than the above two justifications I find that Achievements do nothing for the game.  In general they are a time sink that does not advance your character, the story, or the game in any way.  They are an excellent way to distract many players from the fact that new content is not active yet though.  It even does this for raid players by suggesting alternate hard mode ways to defeat bosses making current content last longer as raid groups vie to get bragging rights by completing a hard mode achievement first.

There is some justification to this, as certain fights are much harder when fought in the method required to complete an achievement.  Completing the achievement does demonstrate some amount of skill that completing the fight in the normal method does not and therefore may earn some valid bragging rights.

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 is essentially zero.  Sure the new mount looks different, but if it doesn’t behave different, I am not sure what the point it.  The value of a title is even less.

Players that actively go out of their way to get Achievement points fall in the same categorization as those that collect mounts or vanity pets and think that they are important for some reason.  In short, I think that if you are bored enough with the game that you are chasing down achievements that do not grant you anything other than achievement points, it is time to find a new game or take a break.  If you also collect pets and think that’s cool maybe I should suggest a Pokemon game, they are probably right up your alley.