When the XBOX 360 launched in 2005, nobody expected the runaway success of the platform's achievement system. The advent of platform-wide rewards across games has really changed the way many consume them. Ever since the 360 implemented it, equivalent systems have been put in place for the PS3, WoW, Steam and within certain Wii titles, just to name a few.
Now, gamers have an added motivation to play games for reasons outside of the game. These achievements often encourage gamers to play their games in ways they normally wouldn't in order to boost their achievement score. People will go out of their way to play games they don't even like if the achievement reward is large (or easy) enough.
For those who own a Wii and a system with achievements, some will avoid the Wii because there are no real achievements to be had on the platform. I hate to admit it, but the lack of achievements totally factors into my reluctance to play Wii games. It almost feels like you're not accomplishing anything, even though making progress in a game in reality is more of an accomplishment than any cross-platform point system.
On a darker level, there are those who will go as far as cheating just so that they can flaunt a larger score.
ABOVE: The aftermath of XBOX 360 user StripClubDj, who was busted for cheating the system.Before I ever saw "Achievement Unlocked" on my screen, I thought the idea was stupid and that the points don't mean anything. I played games for the joy of playing games and that seemed like enough for me. However, a couple of factors have won me over.
Adding persistent online connectivity to the 360 makes achievements so much more valuable. People love checking and measuring themselves up against each other, and achievement points allow for a metric to measure nerd-levels. I still laugh at Soulja Boy Tell'Em for putting out that video where he was bragging about how good he was at games, yet didn't have the achievement points to back it up. As of right now, he has only 5,694 points and has played 172 games. In contrast, I've played 32 games and have over 10,000. I hate to admit it, but I feel really good about that.
For me, it's also a way of measuring how much of a game I have completed. Because beating most games doesn't fetch you all the possible points a game has to offer, there is a motivation for me to go back to a game to get points and 'really' complete a game.
While I recently crossed the 10,000 achievement point threshold and I do regularly check my points and the points my friends have, I definitely wouldn't call myself an achievement junkie. I've unlocked less than half the possible total points I could get with my current game library. I don't work too hard to get achievement points that I don't get through "naturally" playing the game. Also, I don't go out of my way to play games I don't care for just to get achievements. Ok, I did play the free Doritos game for the easy achievements, but that's it.
ABOVE: My biggest achievement point shame. I've had this game since the day it came out and I can't get any of them.The game glitched out when I tried to get the Street Fighter team achievement and I'm still upset about it.
Often times though, I look at my achievements screen and say, "Maybe I should go back to that game to get points,". The only things that stop me are the difficulty of the achievements and my desire to play new stuff. The main reason I play games is still, to play games, which ultimately overrides most of my urges to quest solely for achievements.
If I were to commit to earning more achievements in the games I have, I probably could boost my score by a few thousand easily. But what if achievement hunting gets the best of me? What if I end up spending countless hours playing crap video games in order to boost my score? Here's to hoping I don't take my love of video games to that level.