It’s been a few weeks since my last post. I was on vacation for a week and the new Summer semester started so there is work to be had.
But I entered into a discussion today with Simon over at Chungking Espresso about achievements in games. He had initially tweeted about this article over at Before Game Design. The article talks about two things 1) how casual players react to a games introduction (or tutorials) and 2) how casual or inexperienced players may not understand unlockable content (or achievements for that matter). This is a strange coincidence because I planned on writing topics on both of those topics this week. Though, per my conversation with Simon today, I will stick with the topic of achievements for now.
It is not hard to find achievements in today’s games. Windows and Xbox Live, Steam and PS Network all have achievement services. Game developers create achievements for their game, hook into one of the services’ API and anytime a player fulfills the requirements for an achievement they will receive that achievement as a prize. Players keep those achievements once earned and there are various ways to display online their achievements, scores , gamertags, what have you. This has also produced a series of data-mining services to come into existence, intent on capture this information from users and using it for various marketing (GamerDNA) and/or user experience services (Giant Bomb).
