Mar 03 2009
Slave to Achievements
I have become somewhat of a slave to the Xbox’s Achievements. I will do my best to try the zany and outlandish Achievements, even if it goes outside of how I normally play games, which is more than half of the time. I know it’s silly busy work and sometimes it’s the developers’ way of showing what weird things you can do with their games (look at Fable 2 for the best examples) and the gamer points don’t mean anything, but I can’t help myself.
It started with Geometry Wars 2 and the “wax-on” Achievement. I never would have thought of gracing all four borders of the screen in the Pacifism mode, as I’m generally trying to just stay alive since I have no real weapon to defend myself. And then I saw Fable 2’s massive list of Achievement craziness. I doubt I would have gotten married or had a kid if it wasn’t for the Achievements. If I wanted to do that in normal gameplay, I’d play the Sims. On top of that, I’ve considered the Goth Achievement, the Party Achievement, and even the Swingers Achievement.
Now that I’m playing Lost Odyssey, I’m actually wasting time by having my immortals learn every skill from the mortals — including the ones they already know — just to get those Achievements. If I don’t find all the dreams or every treasure, I’ll replay just so I can get those Achievements. It’s become quite a sickness.
I need a support group.
