First of all, your current score isn't going anywhere. Can you imagine the nerdy uprising that would ensue if Microsoft were to essentially erase everyone's gamerscore? Seattle would be burned to the ground in minutes! Now exactly how your score "isn't going anywhere" could be another matter altogether, but Microsoft isn't really one to rock the boat once they hit on something big, so chances are you'll simply see your score carried right on over to the newest console/system (everything except Bejeweled, of course, because lets face it: it needs to be erased from history at some point). Still, starting from scratch has a certain appeal.
I've heard more than a few gamers express indifference over "hunting" achievements because they're already tens of thousands of points behind "everybody else" out there, and while the competitive aspect of achievements has been thoroughly overplayed, that doesn't mean that evening the playing field wouldn't indeed draw in some new customers, and possibly revitalize some of us war-weary vets out here. So maybe gamerscore ends up being generation specific - one for the 360, and one for the next gen, both ongoing - but that still seems like the least likely scenario.
Regardless of their form from generation to generation, achievements aren't going anywhere, so what are some future features we might finally find?
First of all: completions. Knowingly or not, whoever decided achievements would be permanent effectively fathered a whole mess of OCD children that day, and these completionist kids would love to see the dashboard take care of some of the nerd-work for them. Completion percentage for gamerscore, games, and/or total achievements unlocked would be a nice addition to the simple stat-shot screen I'm going to suggest in the next sentence. Also, we'd need a simple stat-shot screen.
While we're on the subject of stats, let's dream big: progress tracking. Valve, Harmonix, and Epic all built beautiful examples of this into their latest games, so why not institute a standard across all Xbox titles that results in a more informative dashboard, i.e. achievements that show just how close/far I am from unlocking them? Because some developers wouldn't want the required work - that's why not. But hey, a girl can dream.
And dream people have. The question isn't new, so there are plenty of ideas floating around the net:
- A separate score for multiplayer achievements
- "Dashboard" achievements for attaining certain milestones
- Enable achievement icons for use as gamerpics
- Dynamic achievements that change based on how you play
- Giant solid gold break dancing robots
"...so why not institute a standard across all Xbox titles that results in a more informative dashboard, i.e. achievements that show just how close/far I am from unlocking them? Because some developers wouldn't want the required work - that's why not"
ReplyDeleteActually if you mean progress indicators on the dash, then that'd be work on MS's part, and if implemented well then the work for game devs would be either literally or virtually nil. I think you're right too, it'd be an awesome addition.
For me I think the thing that is most missing right now is just more statistical information. Right now on the dash you can see your total GS, your total possible GS (which oftentimes due to DLC isn't even accurate) and that's about it. Why doesn't it show completion percentage? A list of achs that have yet to be completed? A list of all achievements unlocked, sorted by GS? Or a list of all achievements yet to be unlocked, sorted by GS? etc. When you look at sites like TA or MGC, you wonder why the same information couldn't just be on the dash.
More social aspects I think will (and should) be incorporated. Instead of just comparing my achievements in a single game against a single friend, why can't I compare all my achievements versus many friends? Or why isn't there a "friend feed" on the dash (ie - "Today II The Beard II unlocked the "Seriously 3.0" achievement in Gears of War 3") Or even just basic info past total GS for my friends (ie - why can't I view my friends total possible GS or total games completed?)
So far MS has just barely scratched the surface of incorporating achievements with the dash, so much more could be done.
RE: Progress Tracking - the more it lies in Microsoft's hands the better I'd say, I guess I just assumed that since devs design the ach and what unlocks them in the first place that they would also be the ones required to report the progress, but it makes sense that the Xbox could also just take advantage of the "tracking" that the software already does in order to unlock the ach in the first place - good point.
ReplyDeleteYour stat suggestions are spot on too, and you make a great point about 3rd party sites already out there: MS really only needs to look at what sites like mygamercard.net, trueachievements.com, and 360voice have done with player data provided to them to see what could be possible.
Unfortunately I think we're probably way ahead of ourselves - most likely we'll see just enough to make a splash, and then many more months of dreaming after that :).
Great Site! i believe it's amazing what Microsoft is already doing with achievements considering, that on the day of launch, they weren't sure if achievements were going to be anything people would be interested in and, thus probably don't have the resources in the system for a huge social network like that. Also, anything they would do to the dashboard would be for free. so, they would be losing money putting people on the programming of a new system. I also think that most people don't care that much about achievements. i know people like you and me would like these achievements updates, I think most people would just ignore them, or think of them as just another update.
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