Diablo III Wild Speculation and Rumor Mongering Abounds

[Thrawn]

If anyone is bored and wants some entertaining reading, Blizzard has announced that players in the closed beta will receive a unique "Feat of Strength" achievement as well a special sigil to put on their banners.

People are flipping out over how "unfair" this is.

[LK]

Blizz needs to reinject some spontenaeity into their gameplay, and let go of the goddamn reins once in a while.

Corporate overlords wouldn't allow it. Too much at stake.

[Malakili]

If anyone is bored and wants some entertaining reading, Blizzard has announced that players in the closed beta will receive a unique "Feat of Strength" achievement as well a special sigil to put on their banners.

People are flipping out over how "unfair" this is.

I'm I the only one left on the planet that doesn't care at all about achievements? 

[Pennilenko]

You are not alone.

[caladein]

I don't really care for them themselves outside of having an easy means of tracking things as I love data.  I do care about cool looking mounts and titles though, so I don't completely ignore achievements.

[Slayerik]

I think achievements are the worst thing about the last 5ish years of gaming.

[Thrawn]

I think achievements are the worst thing about the last 5ish years of gaming.

I don't think you get how they work, a higher achievement score means I'm having more fun than you are and I'm a better person. 

[Segoris]

Just like having more posts than someone means you're cooler

IMO, I wouldn't mind achievments if they were actually difficult and not just a spam of instant gratification. Make an achievment where you have to kill 40 mobs on hardcore in the last act/quest, then watch the tears come in as people lose their characters. That would be an achievment I'd enjoy. When crafting 10 items is an achievment, I think the system is fucked.

[01101010]

Achievements are the new purple.

[Draegan]

I never understood Achievements.  I've always thought they were a waste of time as a primary content item.  I always viewed them as pretty cool if I triggered one, but usually forgot about it after the message left my screen.

I never actively went out and tried for achievements.

[murdoc]

Achievements don't matter to me, but I like all the stats they can put behind them. I do love my stats.

[Paelos]

I like them. Then again, I like having directed goals in games. I'm not a sandbox person at all.

In addition to loving them, I also love that in WoW they are directly attached to your postings. So, the days of people fronting about how easy shit is are more difficult than ever.

Also, the stats. OMG I  STATS. The accountant in me loves to see exactly how the populace is completing content, versus the amount of screaming we hear about said content, and the translation of that content into cashflow for the business.

[Thrawn]

Also, the stats. OMG I   STATS. The accountant in me loves to see exactly how the populace is completing content, versus the amount of screaming we hear about said content, and the translation of that content into cashflow for the business.

I'm not usually a big achievement guy either, but I do have to admit the nerd in me smiles at seeing stats like -


I do enjoy having little side goals in achievements to point me at something to do sometimes though.  I think for me the D3 question will be, are the achievements just insane grind/luck based stuff, or things that will actually be difficult and challenging.  Beat inferno on hardcore seems like an obvious big one for example.

[Merusk]

I never understood Achievements.  I've always thought they were a waste of time as a primary content item.  I always viewed them as pretty cool if I triggered one, but usually forgot about it after the message left my screen.

I never actively went out and tried for achievements.

They're a motivator to get me to play more.  (See my vanity title!)   Without achieves, I play a game, finish it and toss it aside.  With achieves I have additional things I can strive for if I don't want to just run through the game again.  "I'm bored but want to play fallout 3.. oh look, I can go do xyz achieve. I'll go try that!"   

Unless they're totally unreasonable, like Blizzard's "Insanity" title.  Too much time for very little reason to pursue it.

[Lantyssa]

Just like having more posts than someone means you're cooler

That's why I shine like a star in comparison to most of you.

[Malakili]

Also, the stats. OMG I   STATS. The accountant in me loves to see exactly how the populace is completing content, versus the amount of screaming we hear about said content, and the translation of that content into cashflow for the business.

I'm not usually a big achievement guy either, but I do have to admit the nerd in me smiles at seeing stats like -


I do enjoy having little side goals in achievements to point me at something to do sometimes though.  I think for me the D3 question will be, are the achievements just insane grind/luck based stuff, or things that will actually be difficult and challenging.  Beat inferno on hardcore seems like an obvious big one for example.

I have no problem with doing those things, I'd just like people to do them because they think the actually doing of them is worth it for its own sake, not because they get a shiny star for doing it.

[Paelos]

I have no problem with doing those things, I'd just like people to do them because they think the actually doing of them is worth it for its own sake, not because they get a shiny star for doing it.

Ok, that's just silly. MMOG players don't do things for their own sake. They min/max the ever-loving fuck out of everything.

Face it, getting shiny stars works. That's why they give them to kids when they achievement. Billy just unlocked "LEARNED TO READ!"

[Merusk]

I do enjoy having little side goals in achievements to point me at something to do sometimes though.  I think for me the D3 question will be, are the achievements just insane grind/luck based stuff, or things that will actually be difficult and challenging.  Beat inferno on hardcore seems like an obvious big one for example.

Based on the beta the achievements will be reasonable things.   "Reached the level cap with class abc"  "Killed Act 1 boss" and metas like "Killed Act 1 boss with all classes" or "Ressurected each class at least once."   

Then there are boss achieves.. like "Make the Skeleton King Kill at least 50 of his minions before you defeat him."

There were some grind achieves like "Killed 50 elite monsters in a group" but those were grinds achieved in normal play-through.

D3 achieves just grant nifty banner stuff at this point like sigils, patterns and sigil shapes.  Maybe there'll be something like companion customization, but with the game being so loot-centric and lacking companions and mounts like WOW there's not much else to grant via the system (and thus reason to do it) other than bragging rights or OCD.

I have no problem with doing those things, I'd just like people to do them because they think the actually doing of them is worth it for its own sake, not because they get a shiny star for doing it.

Some people don't think of doing them until they see that shiny star as a possibility.  Lord knows I wouldn't have thought, "HEy.. I wonder if I can kill this boss while all his minions are up" until I saw the possibility.  I just don't think that way when playing games.. why make life more difficult when the point is to win?   So don't think of them exclusively as motivators as such alternate gameplay also extends the life of a game.

[Malakili]

Ok, that's just silly. MMOG players don't do things for their own sake. They min/max the ever-loving fuck out of everything.

Face it, getting shiny stars works. That's why they give them to kids when they achievement. Billy just unlocked "LEARNED TO READ!"

*shrugs* I played games for most of my life without achievements and never had problems motivating myself to play them or even to try for things like stealth runs just because I wanted to.  I understand mix maxing, and if achievements had an affect on my effectiveness in a game you can be sure I'd begrudging slog through them (or more likely just quit the game, but that isn't the point).  

I know it works, I'm not saying it doesn't, I'm just saying that I think anyone who really needs them to be motivated to do something which is supposed to be enjoyable in the first place should perhaps reconsider the games they are playing. This isn't learning to read, or passing your math test. Then again, I'd say the same thing for a WoW player who logs in ONLY to farm for that one piece of loot, or whatever.  I'm fine with people enjoying the loot collection part of a game (hell, this is Diablo we are actually talking about here!), but when you start feeling obligated to log in instead of playing something else because of some reward, then it starts to feel sketchy to me.

[schild]

The achievements for Diablo will most likely be a grind. See: "Betamaxed" in the current achievement set.

That said, complaining about achievements in general makes you as much of a shitstain as the people who brag about them.

[Fabricated]

I'm not exactly a fan of achievements since it all just looks like "AustismScore" to me.

[Tannhauser]

Sometimes I'll dedicate a couple of hours of playtime to complete easy to moderate achievements.  It's like a side game.  I never bother with the hard ones.

I do admit it's fun to hear them ding.

[Hawkbit]

I'm on a gamification project at work for our website.  It has me really, really torn.  I really dislike badgers personally, but one cannot deny the retention marketing benefits it offers.  The data is just simply "there".

That said, I'm really against "one time only" achievements - nobody should be made to feel anxiety over having to choose between logging into their favorite game or going on vacation/wedding/whatever life event.  Whole arguments can be made as to what it means to feel that anxiety in the first place, but that's the whole thing good gamification endorses:  Retaining users without making them feel anxious about your product.

[Musashi]

Can we have those arguments (again) in a different thread?  This derail is giving me agita.

[Paelos]

Six Days left, and I'm getting the twitch.

[schild]

Forum will go up Sunday night or Monday morning. This thread will get locked when it does.

Also, I want that forum to be fucking rainbows and buttercups and shit, so if you want to bitch - bitch here.

[Lakov_Sanite]

It would almost be worth the ban for a "what went wrong?" day one thread but no....it's going to be a fucking awesome game.

[Malakili]

Maybe we are actually going to find out what an F13 subforum looks like when everyone is actually playing the game that just came out instead of complaining about it.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Maybe we are actually going to find out what an F13 subforum looks like when everyone is actually playing the game that just came out instead of complaining about it.

To be fair, most recent games have been shit

[Paelos]

Maybe we are actually going to find out what an F13 subforum looks like when everyone is actually playing the game that just came out instead of complaining about it.

To be fair, most recent games have been shit

2011 was a really bad year for my kind of games. The only things I bought during that year were Shogun 2, Bastion, Rock of Ages, Dungeon Defenders, and Skyrim. Also, I guess you can count SWTOR as 2011.

[caladein]

I thought the major sports games were pretty shoddy, but outside of that I couldn't disagree less more about 2011.

E: Different tastes and all, but I didn't like Bastion.  New Trine though makes up for it.

[Malakili]

Yeah, 2011 was pretty shoddy.  Portal 2 was probably the highlight, looking back it.

[apocrypha]

I really dislike badgers personally

Yes, ever since DaoC I've also hated badgers.

[Lantyssa]

Forum will go up Sunday night or Monday morning. This thread will get locked when it does.

Also, I want that forum to be fucking rainbows and buttercups and shit, so if you want to bitch - bitch here.

Bitch in the locked thread.  Subtle. 

[Rasix]

What the big deal? You can't post in locked threads?