this is so boring ...
they try to reach the Tome of Knowledge's level

they won't !

waza

@Catrena:

I hope none of your clients know your Kotaku Screen Name! LOL

That would be good for business... I"'ll watch your kids in my home while I play WoW...and I might let them play too!"

Pamerica

If it works for Guild Wars, and trust me, it does, it'll work for Wow

Master Saji

if it's true, that's just another of the things Blizzard is copying from Warhammer Online to try and keep their subscribers from quitting WoW for WAR.

Abriael

I have a on again/off again relationship with WoW. It's good for a couple months at a time like most mmos.

Everything in moderation.

belo

@Kenny: That is the first thing that came into my head. This isn't Xbox Achievement ripoff but a ripoff of LOTR: Online.

iamspoo

Man I can't play games like this because number 1) I can't affort to pay 15 bucks a month and number 2) I would be hogging the computer all the time and my folks would get ultra ticked at me for doing so, lol

weeoo

That Level-up-without-dying achievement is gonna result in a new-character genocide.

Frank

Wait.... what? If this rumour is true then i'm getting sick of all these 'achievements' in games. They don't offer anything to me... i want more content in games... not mechanisms trying to trick me into thinking there's more content.

Duoae

Way to cop off LotRO, Blizzard. I guess Turbine should take this as a compliment.

OmegaVader

Uggghh, Im so happy I dont play this game anymore. The first year or so it was by far the best game I had ever played. Then more and more people startying rolling in and I came to the conclusion that I hate people on the internet and I quit for good, well mostly for good. I did start with the BC again but eventually came to my senses.

Metropolis

I've been wow free for over a year. I had forgotten games were supposed to be fun ALL the time -not just a certain moments. Grinding is too simple a term for the monotony of it.

Punkateer

The end is near...

FLYBOY611

I do an in home daycare and WoW is a lifesaver for me it gives me a distraction on quiet days, and the older ones get turns playing on some days. I tried raiding and as with any MMO it wasn't my thing. Achievements were my favorite part of CoH and I would love it if they added them to WoW.
MMO's are great in moderation, you just gotta not let yourself get to sucked in but I've made tons of friends who have lasted long past any MMO's lifespan when playing them.

Catrena

Welcome to Guild Wars, grinding "titles" (read: achievements) since 1889.

Asbestos_Underwear

@ChimDeathmonkey:

As one who generally dislikes all things WoW, It feels odd to be the first to say... this doesn't sound so bad. They did it in LotRO, and I kind of enjoyed them there. As long as they don't make them desperately necessary for the end game, a la raiding and PVP, it could be a fun little thing to have in the background. I'm playing AoC lately, and I wouldn't mind if something like this showed up there. Just as long as it's not a hugely important part of the game.

etho

I don't understand the rationale that Blizzard wants/needs people to be logged in for longer periods of time... Wouldn't it actually behoove them to have you barely ever log in? Server loadwise I mean.

Hell, all they need is for people to keep playing the monthly fee... the amount you play doesn't really factor in for them at all as far as making immediate money. Just keep the game interesting enough to keep paying the bill.

Which I do. People that get "addicted" or sucked in beyond their own control have no one to blame but themselves. The rest of us play the game and enjoy it in a responsible manner.

Dan Zuccarelli

LotRO did this from Day one, including some secret hidden achievements. They also gave you access to new character advancements. Of course, City of Heroes did it before that even, and that was pre Xbox 360. Still, it's a great way to breathe some life into a product and get people to explore some of the games areas and systems they might not normally.

TheRockingDead

You know, Guild Wars has title that act like achievements, but operate like leveling for the max level players. If these have an effect on the gameplay in any way, this could be interesting, if not, oh well, I don't play WoW anyway.

ggodo

I had the same thing. WoW was fun right till I got to 70, then it started to feel like a job. I quit pretty soon after and went back to MMOs with more focus on social and exploration aspects.

Overall this achievements system would be a good move for Blizzard, more speaks to the X-box gamer generation that seems to populate WoW.

Tesahli

I am currently 1 week wow free, i was going to renew my subscription this friday but i don't think i will. every day away from the game i realize how much time i wasted.

its a good game, but the problem for people (and good thing for blizzard) is its easy to get sucked in. When you think 'oh 1 quest will take me a few minutes' its 'man...friggin last drop took me 25 minutes alone to get!' then you are playing longer than you expected in the first place, and see that you're close to leveling or a group opened up, there goes another hour. before you konw it 10-15 turned into 2-3 hours or the whole night. you regret and want to quit...next day your back again.

@Coquiton: i feel the same way about forcing myself to logon at 70 :(. i have my blizzcon beta key, if its wotlk i'll sell for some cash or something which will be nice, but i will try out wotlk for a month when it comes out, but stop after that.

Zaos

@StopTheOncoming: I dont think people would praise it if in AoC. Again, as stated earlier, LOTRO has a deeds system which is very similar.

ChimDeathmonkey

I don't mind the system being put in. I play casually, only PVPing on occasion with some friends, so if I have a little popup come up saying "You have unlocked _____", it wouldn't bother me much. Not that I am going to go trying to get everyone.

Notice how if this was in AoC, people would be praising the hell out of it.

StopTheOncoming

Wow, as I walked in to the comments section, I was sure I'd be the only one really negative about this and everyone else would be all "YEAH! WoW! BEST MMO EVER NOW!!".

Colour me surprised.

Ichidou

I'm often something of an apologist for WoW, but if this turned out to be true I think we may have our clear-cut "Jumped the Shark" moment.

futurebiblehero

I can see my life falling away as I read this...

LETHON RULES! REPRESENT!

RagingBull

Yea, this was exactly what WoW crackheads needed. >.>

Cosmitz

Ugh, I'm so glad I finally quit.

Cipid

It is not just "wow". It's every game that has this sort of addition. Achievements will drive players into playing more. And to help keep them playing. Xbox Live, and LoTR are no exception to this rule.

w/e brings in revenue.

moe84

@tako12: I thought making players spend even more time inside playing WoW would lower gas because of less demand?

Bigfoot

Everything goes to keep the crowds addicted to your sweet, sweet nectar, eh Blizzard?

Just hurry up with Diablo III instead...

Shiryu

"Achievement Unlocked- Starved In Front of Computer- 50 GS"

ShaggE

Xbox 360 version CONFIRMED!

Spilt_Milk

@Kenny: Which is basically a rip-off of xbox achievement system?

exkon

@Kenny: So that was basically a rip off of XBL achievements?

Yeah see the fault in your logic?

StopTheOncoming

This is the reason gas has gone up in price.

tako12

Yay, I got my first achievement!

World of Warcraft 50/1000000000000

Bigfoot

I'm kinda happy I'm done with WoW.
I'm onto AoC right now, which blows WoW out of the water, imo (well, a lot of MMO's do, but AoC is what I'm paying for atm! :P)

WoW was good while it lasted, but the "endgame" was so bad... I went from loving every momment of WoW while getting to 70, to hating it, and having to force myself to log on at 70.
It scarred me so bad, that not even WotLK will bring me back.

Coquiton

HAHA I HIGHLY doubt it will be retroactive Fahey, that would make too much sense.

I am so glad I quit WoW last year. I realized I had a wife and 3 kids when I logged out for the last time. It was fun at first but at the end I was spending 35+ hours a week in two instances. This achievement thing is yet another shitty grind to make players hate themselves.

KillerBee

So basically its a rip-off of the Deeds system in Lord of the Rings Online?

Kenny

This would push me to towards quitting I think. Looks like a cheap attempt to get players to log on for longer periods of time. They don't look like they're worth bragging about either.

everybest

achievements and warcrack, why do they want to destroy the human population

mythus

This game does not need another reason for people to never log off. I'm glad a quite a year and a half back...

OtherAdam

This achievement system actually makes sense, in a way.

It might be rumours and hearsay, but think about it for a moment.

An achievement for hitting level 15 without dying. Hey, guess what, now EVERYONE is rerolling to get this achievement.

Achievements for doing things along the way.

I would guess, if this is true, its to bring new/old players back into the fold without feeling dwarfed by the millions of 70's running around out there. Someone like me, who gave up on the game a long time ago, would suddenly have something to earn without having to grind out gold, and wouldn't mind starting a fresh character.

Of course, i still say the whole thing reeks of bs.

Komrade_Kayce

I laugh at people who justify their reasoning for playing this game. "It's still good, I enjoy it, stop bashing it, bla bla bla"

I'm really glad that I stopped playing this game. Like others have said, it was fun getting to 70, but the end game sucked more than you could imagine and the game lost all fun. I even had to resort to selling all my equipment,and going back to Elwynn forest as a level 70 and "replay" through the game getting equipment from scratch.

It feels good to be able to sit back and look with a perspective of someone who played WoW for a good 2 years and then seeing just how un-fun the end game was.

The fact that they are adding achievements to this game just shows how desperate they are to win new players and bring back old ones. They realize that they are no longer the #1 focus of the MMO genre, as games like AOC and WAR are quickly going to be the new popular ones.

Nice try Blizzard, but it's already too late.

Ken Hikari

@cowondinosaur: In ffxi every once in a while some moogles would appear that told you your stats, they kept track of of a bunch of things that other wise you wouldnt think SE cared about like the number of times you dies etc. It wouldnt suprise me if blizzard has been keeping track of these things for a long time.

MINIBOSS

Alrighty, now the obligatory wave of WoW hating has subsided, I got a couple thoughts, such as 'Who cares?' I still play the game, and I'm still looking forward to Wrath, but unless these achievements translate into some kind of gameplay related bonus, it's basically irrelevant except to the usual handful of e-peen worshippers and rabid completists.

cynopt

@stetsonblade: I was one of the people who said I was glad I quit. And you know what? I really, truly am. But that doesn't mean I hate it. I had fun playing it while I did, it's a pretty good game but in the end it really didn't seem worth all the time I wasted on it and I couldn't be more happy with my decision to stop playing it. Sorry you can't accept a difference in opinion.

Cipid

@mownkay:
indeed.. first it was pvp titles and now in pve too.

IroKuMata

I play WoW. A lot.

My opinion: Blech.

Project Thanatos

@KillerBee: Not so much sense as there probably wasn't a system in place to keep track of such intricate stats.

cowondinosaur

titles ruined Guild Wars after they became necessary to get into groups, ie. r6 Lightbringer to get into a Mallyx group, etc.

mownkay

@Kenny: Exactly what I thought. Then I realized that the whole game was a rip off of the Tolkien universe and stopped caring.

DaveKap

@stetsonblade: Of all the bandwagons of hate I really don't think the WoW one is as popular as you're making it out to be. You merely have to look at the console-wagons to see how it's done properly, and popularly.

Anyway, I played through my trial of WoW. Found it too cartoony and didn't bother renewing, City of Heroes is where I mostly get my kicks these days in terms of MMO's. Badge-chievments won't be enough to get me interested, but I'm glad they're continually adding updates.

Fallible

One of the few innovative things in LOTRO. Yes, LIVE had them first but LIVE doesn't have any MMOs.

Mara

You know, there aren't just 2 distinct groups of people. Those who hate WOW and those that are addicted to WOW. Some of us just play it for a few hours a week and really enjoy it. Is that OK? Am I allowed to do that?

As for the achievements, I don't see how you could acquire them all without starting a new character. Attaining level 15 without dying would clearly require a new character and Completing 2000 Quests is a little ridiculous on a level 70 character unless you're crazy for Daily Quests. Anyone know how many quests there are in WOW anyway?

Spiraltribesman

@stetsonblade: Perhaps we really ARE glad?
If you like WoW, thats fine.
But just because WE don't like it does not mean we're jumping on some bandwagon.

Not everyone has the same opinions.

Coquiton

Total rip off of badges in City of Heroes, in my opinion.

Doomstink

@ StopTheOncoming

It is just popular to hate WoW at the moment. Notice all the people saying, "I'm glad I quit playing". Yawn. Seriously, guys, grow up. You like AoC? Yeah, whatever. If--very big if here--it took the mantle of most popular MMO from WoW, two years from now you people would be saying the same thing about AoC. "OmG AoC is so lame. I'm glad I stopped playing it a week ago. Underworld of Diablo is so much better!"

Sigh.

stetsonblade

Isn't everything in WoW in itself an achievement?

At least everything in your equipment slots are achievements.

ImmortalZ

totally fake, blizzard is much more original and funny than this

Mohican

| Achievement: Make us money! [PH] |
| Stay logged in for 2 years. ............. | [50]

Patient

@ggodo: WoW has some questlines that give titles, it kinda is an achievement system.

I call fake on the screenshots, Super Quest 'Dude', Level without dying 'guy'? That's WoWed-up fratboy-with-photoshop speak right there.

I'm sure it'll drag people back when it comes out, and I look forward to playing with all the awesome people I've met through the game, but right now it's summer, there's outdoor fun to be had and there's Conan to fill the MMO slot.

NiceMissMayonnaise

That means we can expect WotLK about a week before Warhammer, right?

Johnny_Under

@Trencher-1:
And agree again...

People always want some sort of recognition for their achievements. Both in real life, and in fantasy. Which is fine.

As for the people bashing WoW with their little
"I have been wow free for a year now, and lovin it" Good for you, you quit a game..
You have unlocked an Achievement:
Kudos: You quit one game, to become a slave to another. Congrats.

moe84

@Morithain:
Agreed

moe84

People keep saying, that Blizz wants you to be logged on for longer periods of time. Which maybe true. What game developer wouldn't want their game to be played more and more. But there is nothing wrong with that. I guess since it is Blizzard, you all want to bash them. *shrug*

moe84

So what was the first game to have an achievement system - and not necessarily an MMO? I kind of enjoy it on TF2 because it influence what class you play and the way you play if you want to accomplish a particular achievement. But in an MMO it just seems to be an acknowledgment of doing something that you were probably going to be doing anyway.

Trencher-1

Nothing could get me back to WoW at this point. Once you've run through up to the top level, whats the point? Spend hours farming and raiding? Having to schedule a time each week for your guilds raid time? As soon as I reached the point where I would have to start gaming on a schedule I realized the game part was over. I've been WoW free for a year now, and going strong!

krizoitz

As others have pointed out LotRO in hardly original in having achievements. City of Heroes had it years before LotRO and a year or so before GW. They're called badges and you could choose a badge to display as your title. They even have an in-game UI complete with progress bar for the kill X ones. It breathed some life into the game, for sure.

BigWeather

Hmm. 360Craft anyone?

sir_carrot

All I can say is I'm saddened that I'll have to get annoyed by a whole new community of achievement point whores.

PositivelyGreg

This seems like pretty random, but interesting addition to the game, assuming it's true.

Morithain

"Level without dying guy"? "Super quest dude"? Screenshots seem faked.

Also, to add to all the WoW hate: I started a couple months after it was released so I could play online with my friends. Got to level 60 and got burned out with endgame and the fact that there are so many people who have less of a life than me and willing to be plowing away through raids.

I came back a year later to level to 70 through the expansion, then a month later I felt burned out again, and it felt like more of the same. I stripped down all my characters, sold all their stuff, then quit for the last time!

Age of Conan seems cool, but I hope I never touch an MMO again. Also, if the player base in AoC is anything like the immature morons in WoW, then I'm keeping far, far away.

franksvalli

I played for about a year and it was hands down the best, most immersive multiplayer experience ever, and the patches had good balance between "casual" and "hardcore" content. And then Tigole strangled it to death. RAIDS RAIDS RAIDS RAIDS RAIDS

If you missed out on the original, expansion-free WoW, you missed out on suck-free WoW.

Mr. Mastodon Farm

Would it make me play more? Hell yes.. hell yes. Finally a reason to care about PVE.

Voteforme2020

@Mohican: Uhm. It's in alpha. Game companies put retarded text in all the time to get a system mocked up and tested. Calling it fake because it isn't clever? Ugh.

cable83

@Strangelove: Note the "PH", which stands for placeholder. That is, if this is actually legit.

I despise any sort of achievement system - probably because I WANT MY NEW MEDIC WEAPONS NAO.

Aethyr

As some have said City of Heroes had badges (ie. achievements) way before LoTRO or GW.

I think, if this is true, that I couldn't care one way or another if WoW added it...in face I'm surprised they don't have something like it in the game already.

One of the things I log my lvl 50 character in CoH for is to work on badges. Sure the ones I'm working towards give me absolutely nothing (no new powers or anything like that...just a badge/title) but it does give me 'something' to do.

I would think games/MMOs should have some kind of achievement/badge system in place when it launches...when the badge system in CoH launched it didn't count some of the things your character did because it didn't keep track of it until the badge system launched....granted it's a little annoyance but it is an annoyance that could be solved if launched with the game.

smd31

"Super Quest Dude" and "Daily Quest Each Day" seem like made-up titles (particularly the daily/day redundance), but I wouldn't be totally surprised.

I do have to wonder if the achievements are retroactive for higher-level characters or if you would have to start from scratch (in terms of the requirements, not your toon) to achieve them.

Strangelove

Proves that Microsoft did it right by "inventing" achievements

mcool93

It was so amazing once I quite WoW. This fog lifted from my eyes and I realized that I had a wife and family. Every once in awhile I think about getting back into the game but then I usually just end up playing Rock Band with the wife.

darthsidious_7

Way to knock off Warhammer. They've had this feature in their soon to be released game since they started making it years ago.

jaxontyler97

Oh great. Like my brother and my friend (*cough*) need more reasons to confine themselves 24/7 (at their rate they may pass the 24/7 time frame, don't ask how it's scientifically possible, they play enough for them to break the law of time).

I've been playing tons of MMOs since EQ in 1999 (including WoW) and I have NEVER been addicted like they are. I played EverQuest for over 5-years and my best friend already had more playtime in less than a year on his WoW character than all of my EQ characters combined.

"OMG, need 2k honor! Shoulders! Season 4!" - Gah! I'm tired of hearing that shit. F*ck addicts, including my bro and my friend. Now I get to hear, "I just need these 3 achievements and then I'm done!" - Bullshit! Then 80 more achievements are pumped out the very next day.

Blizzard's got an army of zombies and they're not even the cool kind of zombies.

Jext

Ok, I'll add my bitterness.
I quit WOW too. Glad I did! I like to post about it too. Did I mention I'm so glad I quit WOW?

J449

Blizzard's desperate? WoW's jumped the shark?

Age of Conan's sold a million copies. Congrats to Funcom, seriously. That being said, I bought the CE, I gave it a fair shot, and I cancelled my account this week. I've never felt more disconnected from the community in an online game ever, and I'm too spoiled by WoW's overall polish to bear through another unfinished MMO.

I'm not addicted to WoW - I play really casually now - but it's still a superior game to me.

Funcom's doing a lot of things right, but let's see what kind of staying power AoC has before calling it the WoW killer.

And on a similar note, let's see what the finished product of Wrath is like before jumping the gun and calling one feature in alpha the nail in the coffin.

Aldashin

I can't believe there are people criticizing Blizzard for this, and saying they stole it from some other game/system. WoW has ALWAYS been about taking what other games did right in the MMO genre and perfecting them. This is just another one of those things, and it won't be the last.

I just can't see the reason anyone could possibly criticize Blizzard. They have the most successful MMORPG to date and it's only growing. WoW has not "jumped the shark" and is not dying in any way shape or form. I mean unless you just don't like MMORPG's in general, which I could understand.

Dalren

I quite like this idea. It's something that would definitely suit my WoW playstyle. I like exploring maps to finish them off, doing quests for the sake of it, etc.

The_Mo

@The_Mo:
Likewise, I'm a very casual player so I like having this sort of thing to do.

zef

City of Heroes was before Warhammer with Badges as achievements.

BrittanySalo

It's funny people say, "OMG T3h r teh ripping offz aye-oh-see and lo-teh-ro," as if those were the games to invent achievements. And I'm sure both of those games are ripping off things created for WoW (talent trees, intuitive questing system, etc).

Suzaku

@Jext: Not everybody is a loser like your brother and friend. Sucks for you and them I guess.

mownkay

level 15 without dying? LMAO. Is that a misprint? I'm highly offended that Blizzard approved such a non-achievement.

70 without dying would be an achievement.

rainofwalrus

It's fake

elEscroto

@rainofwalrus: I think you're confusing an "achievement" with a miracle.

skewt

It looks fake imho. I play WOW 3 nights a week, and thats to raid. Unless you play Arena or do High End PVE, there is not point to WOW at 70. There can only be so many quests in any game, and whats the point anyways. Taking down Rag and Nefarion in WOW preTBC and taking down Kael, Vashj, Archimond, Illidan, and soon Brutallus is very enjoyable. I'm sure 99% of the people here have not even experienece the Vashj fight, much less clearing KZ.

My guild only raids 3 nights a week and only raids for 4 hours during those nights... and is the most progressed guild horde side, not trying to brag, but what I am pointing out is if you know what you are doing you can have a good time and not have to dedicate 5-6 nights a week to raiding like many guilds do. I enjoy playing other games like Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike, Smash Brothers, GTA IV, etc, but the thing high end PVE gives you is a sense of group and team work because everyone has their job to do and when you are fighting Kalecgos or Illidan even and one person screws up then you will not get the encounter done... more so on gear checks such as Brutallus.

Anyhow, if playing a game at a certain time with a set group of people isn't appealing, or playing in an Arena team with other people, then there isn't much that Wow will offer you in TBC.

They are pandering to people and will have all instances with no requirements to get in and all of "end game" instances will have a 10 man and 25 man mode... maybe that will make the casuals more happy.

whodi

CoH had this feature for years. LotRO used it last year.

Should we be impressed?

LAGriffon

@skewt: I got my rogue to 63 (solo grinding, gold farming) without dying so 70 is completely doable.

rainofwalrus

@rainofwalrus: I'm sure it's doable on a PVE realm.

skewt

@rainofwalrus: 70 without dying would be totally stupid, not an achievement. Want to know why? Because we'd have people quitting in the middle of instances to save their own damn title, while the rest of the group gets fucked.

Don't think it'll happen? Take a look at Guild Wars.

mownkay

EVE-Online.

almo

@Exkon

@Kenny: Which is basically a rip-off of xbox achievement system?

Which is basically a rip-off of games like Golden Eye, except Golden Eye at least rewarded you with something like a paintball mode.

WillyLo

*Ahem* Doesn't Guild Wars already have a similar system like this? Only they're called Titles?
For something like "Get to level 20 without dying" it would have a cool name like "Survivor" or "Defender of Ascalon"

Floreum

Thisw as cool when city of heroes did this over 2 years ago. keep on innovatin' wow.

rianfrost

@ShaggE:
"Achievement Unlocked- Starved In Front of Computer- 50 GS" Have you seen the average WoW player? Starvation is not a problem. Perhaps "Achievement Unlocked: Died From Asphyxiation By Own Miasma Funk" or "Achievement Unlocked: Unable To Move Due To Skin Growing Onto Chair"

AmaryllisPashnani

YES!
More things to grind!

dj_fantastica

"Level without dying guy". If that's real...that's just awesome.

dahido

Just one person mentioned it, but this is less Lord of the Rings Online than a blatant ripoff of Warhammer Online's Tome of Knowledge. Way to go, Blizzard - if this is true, of course.

robur