I'm going to invent a company that combines all achievements (Steam, Live, Blizzard, etc), because this is getting way out of hand.

BTW, if a company does that, I get a share of the profits.

jackburnt

@RTW: So don't go for the achievements! As well, though, i don't enjoy grinding... its mindless drivel, yet thats WoW, and many other games. People enjoy them, people do them. If I REALLY enjoy a game, i'll want to see what i can do, and i'll try to do EVERYTHING. This is just icing on a cake.

Its not like Blizzard is going to put out a shit game... but with achievements! No, they'll still put out quality work, with extras.

WildWon

@RTW: They've been doing it for a while. Like the multiple avatars they offer for warcraft 3 depending on how many wins you get with each race or if you play tournaments.

Diablo ii altered your avatar depending on the gear you wore as well as how many of the difficulties you've finished.

kingmanic

valve got this achievement thing first... well of the two big companies anyway. TBH since achievements were introduced to dod:s ive only ever achieved 10ish and i dont care about the rest :D Ive played maybe 50 hours dod since

LoganForge

@Clamchop: I think they were referring to ladder rankings in "Oh this guy was good at SC2 and Wow" Maybe?

Yay for blizzard with the little touches!

Ranged360

@Clamchop: Where did it say that they are "NEEDED to move copies?" Or was that an assumption on your part of what they're trying to say?
--
I think this is a brilliant move on their part. I have no feeling of requirement to up my Gamer Score on mah 360, but there is such a great feeling when i get to hear that little "ti-cok" sound when i've unlocked an achievement. Hell, when i first started, i looked to get all achievements, reading how to do it, etc... then i stopped, and got pleasant surprises. I wouldn't mind if all games everywhere would implement this. Its a bonus to playing games. (and if it makes people spend money on games they wouldn't play otherwise... more power to 'em!)

WildWon

The only achievement I care about it Blizzard getting Diablo III out the door. Please Blizzard, achieve THAT quickly!

subnet6

@FLYBOY611: This just in. Blizzard is becoming EA and M$.

This whole achievement is so stupid, what happened to the days when playing a game just for it's content was enough, now we need to have something so people will spend their time doing useless dribble.

RTW

Something new! And interesting...

Never was a fan of RTS, so I guess I can't be That Guy and have a massive Blizzard e-peen.

Slust

@Sexy.KOT69:
That would be kind of impossible for them to do, considering they're adding in the achievement framework with the expansion. I'm assuming they'll only kick in for new characters created when achievements come out, and characters active when the expansion hits will be able to get some too.

But I'm pretty sure retroactive achievement support is impossible.

Archaotic

This sounds like a fun way to further segregate raiders and casual players. And people who will worship Starcraft II as their new religion, and people who just like a good game.

Talleh

@Sonistar: You under estimate the amount of players and playtime blizzard games get. bnet still has a huge population and the total number of active WOW/bnet players is greater then the total number of xbox live users. 9+ million to 6+ million. For many a special bnet tag is worth more then a high live gamer score.

kingmanic

This just in. Blizzard to add more addiction to their games.

FLYBOY611

pretty hilarious how up in arms you all are. who cares? It's just another little gimmicky thing a company is doing to add a little enjoyment to their games and maybe ship a few more

NakedLunch

welcome to the party.

Baroo

As long as that has absolutely no bearing on anything other than some digital "Blizzard level card", then I couldn't care less.

Arttemis

If wows stats are server based i think achievements would be retroactive

G-PoNg

woooow wait a min... does this means ill have to get all achievments at wow from a scratch? or it will count in the stuff i did before this system?

Sexy.KOT69

i hope for blizzards sake they don't run into whats happened with BF2 and their stats system....with stat server outages and points lost/reset....there would be massive nerd-dom violence breaking out all over the world

mind you, we're talking about EA/Dice vs. Blizzard...the differences are huge

drlard

I was never big into achievements. That's why I have a low gamer score on live. And this won't change anything. I won't get D3 or SC2 and not sure if/how long i'll come back for lich king.

MajinMexican

This kind of implementation is STUPID if its only "leveling up on Blizzard games".
The reason Xbox Live's gamerscore works is because is on ALL games, its an overall score.
So PC users will be split between Games for Windows (gamerscores) Steam achievements and now Blizzard Achievements?
wow, that sounds fun.

Sonistar

I'm actually looking forward to this - the ability to show my love of StarCraft and Diablo, while showing at the same time how I have never played WoW!

SuperFox

Well, they already going to get hundreds of my money for the stuff they are making....not like this will change anything for me

Zippidydoodaa

What a gimmick. I have no problems with achievements but saying that you NEED them to move more copies of two of the most anticipated games in PC gaming history is just foolish.

Don't see how having a higher achievement count can show that you are a poor/mediocre/good player at any game either...

Clamchop

Blizzard is the Sony of MMOs.

"What? WARHAMMER is going to have achievements?! Quick, make up some achievements of our own!"

Achievement Acquired: Assimilate pieces of 5 other MMOs into your own game.

WTG Blizzard.

Daobaz

I like what Blizzard did here. So much so, that I've been inspired to jump on the bandwagon and come up with achievements for real life.

(Bronze) Nuke The Fridge - Raid your refrigerator and eat/drink as much as you can in 10 minutes. Bonus if you have roommates/spouses and eat their stuff. Will not register if you consume Pepto/Tums/generic brand afterward.

(Silver) Wookiee Hookiee - Call off from work/school using a Star Wars-related excuse. Bonus if you actually come into work/school with Star Wars costume and tell them in person.

(Gold) Why So Serious? - Change your name to Batman (20 points) OR The Dark Knight (15 points) OR Bruce Wayne (5 points) for a week (not legally, but can be an option). Use it on your desk, name tag, signature, verbally, etc. Does not count at conventions/expos.

(Platinum) P. I. Staker - Consume at least 5 bottles of water/beer/etc., then proceed to wildly urinate in an important place (IE, manager's office). Bonus if you can get the ceiling.

I've got more. I'll be here all week.*

*Not responsible for results of said achievements.

Tyber_Zann

"Achievements in WoW: Because we keep dumbing down the game, can't properly fix our crafting system which is broken for a lot of 'professions', and are running out of ideas to keep people playing.™"

Achievements in WoW made me glad I decided to quit. Anyone who has played that game for any reasonable length of time knows what's going to happen. Those achievements will become nothing more than epeen stroking in Trade Channel and on the official forums.

Instead of having people acting like elitist pricks and talking smack to others because of their latest raid boss kill, they'll be talking smack to others because of their latest raid boss kill and their "achievement points".

It also says to me that they're running out of ideas to keep people playing so, 3 years later, they're going to take the old EQ and COH models and apply them in an effort to keep people hooked. Sadly, it works. Even though achievements aren't really new content, just a new way to rehash old or existing content, people can't resist getting a new shiny thing.

Sad, really.

Captiosus

That's awesome. I don't see how anyone can bash something that won't effect gameplay at all. You guys are a bunch of jerks, you really are =/.

Dalren

Doe these achievements do anything? At all? Or is it just bragging rights?

Belabras

@RTW: Actually, those days haven't changed much. Before achievements, there where High Score tables and points. The system hasn't really changed all that much.

[ZTF]

@drlard: in the words of the venerable ryan stiles from 'whos line is it anyway:'

'but the points don't... really mean... anything'

tetracycloide

Achievement Unlocked: Playing WoW for 2 weeks straight

Jhongerkong

I hope there is an option to turn it off. I don't want to be reminded of how much of my life I wasted playing video games.

Synthemesc

@Captiosus: someone had an epic-ed out geared 70 and their guild, their arena team, or their class didn't turn out as they hoped. Or, they played so much they lost their job, their wife, their kids, and their girlfriend. There are always stories like this behind anyone that says "wow is a shit game."

Mohican

@Archaotic: No, there are some achievements that are no longer possible for new characters such as PvP ranks. They are calling them "Feats of Strength" but they will not increase your score.

Blizzard's system will work better than the 360's simply because it's expected you buy all their games; there won't be any crap games to play for the sake of getting some easy points. It's a more level playing field.

BaseVilliN

@Captiosus: That's your opinion. WoW is still a great game in the minds of most people who still play. Which is a lot of people.

Dalren

@kingmanic:
Thats a good point actually, I apologise.

Sonistar

@WildWon: Hate to be a spoilsport, but WoW is a shit game. It used to be a good MMO until they got a bug up their ass to try to turn it into an "eSport".

An example: I love how they keep trying to say they "don't balance the game by looking at PvP", which is a complete and utter lie because ever since Arathi Basin was released almost every nerf that has been applied has been directly because of complaints about class balance in PvP. After arenas, class and item nerfing went out of control, again attempting to nerf the game for PvP.

Blizzard made quality games, yes, but with WoW, their quality took a severe nosedive as the game plugged along. The problem, now, is: They've been focusing on WoW for so long, can they retain the quality of their non-MMO titles (Starcraft, Diablo) or will their WoWisms leach into those games as well?

Captiosus

@Daobaz:

I thought Sony was the Sony of MMOs...

arekthorn

I don't get what everyone is bitching about. If you like achievements, you can do them. If you don't like achievements, pay no heed to them. Sure you can get aesthetic changes when you do achievements, but that's it(this isn't TF2's achievement unlocks). Oh no, you have to do achievements to get these changes? Unless you paid someone to grind something out for you, you've been doing that crap for the past however long. Now that it's spread across games, whatever. Wow, someone has dedicated a lot of time to playing these games. Ok, that's their thing, they like to play video games.

People will always be stroking their e-peens. Achievements won't change a damn thing except there will be less people who are lying.

Seriously, what the fuck is so complicated about it?

OiScout

To me the bigger underlying news is that this means by definition a direct tie between a WoW account and the "new" Battle.NET. That's interesting big information. And they have said very recently on their forums that achievements within WoW, for the time being, were going to be character-specific, not account-wide.

It's all very confusing.

PositivelyGreg

At least change the damn name. MS uses achievements, Sony uses trophies. Get a new name.

Does Not Equal

@Does Not Equal:
Haha... I was playing the Fatal Inertia EX demo on PS3 and it said "ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Speed Demon." Must gave been a speedy port job... extra funny since it was slated to be a PS3 exclusive at first..

fuchikoma

And the opt-out?

I didn't feel this way until these things got so common, but it's starting to feel like an invasion of privacy. I know there are people who want to show off all the awesome stuff they decided to play the game specially for achievements to get, but on the other side, what if you don't want to open up your whole cross-game history to everyone? What if you don't want people scrutinizing you based on a few arbitrary checkpoints? What if you're not in the mood to flash your game buying habits on a badge without even knowing it?

"Boy, you suck hard at ____"
"No, it sucks hard so I played for 5 min."
"Sure sure. I bet you can't do it."
"I guess we'll never know since I'm not going for it."
"Haha, more like you gave up!"
"Would you kindly shut your face?"
"Awww, I hurt his widdle feelings!"
Oh joy! Online drama!

I also find it really immersion breaking when a popup appears to tell me I've unlocked one. I really don't care. In an action game that can kill you.

By all means, they're easy to add so add them, but they just need an off switch too. That's not asking a lot, but it's curiously absent from PSN so far. It doesn't seem to be a consideration.

fuchikoma

@arekthorn: No, you're thinking of NCSoft.

Sony is the Funcom of Home Electronics.

Also, my Favorite Achievement:

"Priorities"

Meet a girl, get married, have a child then get divorced, all without going AFK.

MartinX

@PositivelyGreg: Someone on the beta forums said they were going to try and make them account wide, but there aren't any promises that will be ready by launch.

Dalren

It's never to late to retroactively add achievements to Lost Vikings now is it?

NeoStarr

WTF. All achievements do is ruin the single & multiplayer experience. People just try to get achievements instead of playing the ******* game. Another stupid ****** thing created by MS.

Gam3r

Gotta play them all!

ssh83

@Gam3r: Stupid PEOPLE ruin games WITH achievements, achievements themselves have a lot of uses, including engineering out the aforementioned stupidity.

cynopt

"crappy 360 games"...Kotaku's anti-360 bias is getting old, fast.

Lukems

@Lukems: So you're saying that all the people with 1000/1000 on Avatar, a Nickelodeon licensed game played for the amazing content? There are plenty of terrible games that are an easy 1000, and that's probably what's been moving them at all. The same way people are desperate for any first party Nintendo games, no matter what, because the vast majority of games are terrible.

Talleh

so pointless.

shade-black

Eh, I'm also not that big of a fan of Achievements. I agree with whoever said Achievements are like "OH! Here's a quarter on the sidewalk. Awesome!" other than "Let's spend our time walking up and down broad street looking for loose change." When I get them -- sweet, but I don't always go the extra way to obtain them though. But hell, if Blizzard will give me one of those nice WWI goody bags for getting all achievements in Diablo 3, I'll farm them day and night. Or even just a Murloc costume for getting 15 SoJs in D3... because you know that has to be an achievement. Ha.

SphericalCrusher

Something slightly like this is already present on BioWare's forums. You can add game keys to your profile and it shows which ones you own.

Pensador

@Archaotic:
o well then its their prob... not goin to pay for subscription then lol
anyway ill have to agree achievements are lame...the only good achievment system i ever seen was TF2 one. coz it was rewarding. the rest is juz crap

Sexy.KOT69

Yeah there's always the problem with people just grinding or whatever to get achievements (achievement servers on TF2 for example), but knowing Blizzard, it'll be stuff that takes actual skill to do, and obviously they don't need them to sell the game. It's nice to have a company that knows it's going to sell billions of copies of its games no matter what and decides to add more features anyway. Things that other games may tout as a feature, Blizzard has no problem with including merely as more icing on an already delicious cake.

but y'know, too much blizzard cake and you'll end up on Fox News like our good friend the princess. ;)

man in gauze is king ramses II, silly.

Good job imitating Steam. Also good job because this will be awesome. :)

Soulrivers

O.o

VivaPapaya

Now that all games look identical this makes sense -_-

VivaPapaya

Now that all Blizzard games look absolutely the same this makes absolutely sense ^^

One Game different perspectives - one BlizzardCard

VivaPapaya

Sweet sassy molassy! I wish every game would have achievements. I need a reason to sell my car and home.

TheMurderer