'World of Warcraft' still far ahead of curve on achievements

• 2013-02-22 17:20:57

One of the earliest in-game achievement systems was in Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft,” which was by far the best achievement system at the time. Along with Xbox Live, “Team Fortress 2” and others. “World of Warcraft” rocked the entire video game industry with its system, and almost every game since has included some form of achievements (a notable exclusion is “League of Legends”).

However, not only has no game’s system come close in quality to the “World of Warcraft” system, but also, no game has even attempted to reproduce it. The problem stems mostly from lazy achievements, which are achievements players receive by steadily progressing through the game’s main story. In some games, players get achievements for killing the game's first boss. That’s no achievement. The first “Torchlight” had an achievement for entering the game’s main dungeon. The writers must have thought players would appreciate a ticker-tape of their actions, but the players should be insulted that they need an achievement offered to them to start playing. After all, something everybody can do isn’t an achievement.