I've been playing WoW for a while now. In fact, five days from now I will celebrate my fourth WoW Anniversary -- maybe I should get me some Delicious Chocolate Cake. Over the years I have seen the game culture ebb and flow, like a gigantic virtual tide, and just like the ocean I've been fascinated to watch the subtle changes that arise in the gaming population when new elements are added to the game.
Shortly after I first started playing WoW something called PvP was added to the game. Before the PvP system, Alliance players would congregate in a small town called Goldshire and duel eachother, over and over, all day long, as if they were back in the 17th Century. The players who had already started raiding Molten Core and Blackwing Lair, who had already done all the quests and gotten their epic mount and their Dawn's Edge, spent hours upon hours tearing eachother to pieces. A bloodsport of its own arose in this quiet little hamlet in Elwynn Forest. When the PvP honor points system came along, players suddenly had a reason to slaughter the enemy, and so took up the mantle of their faction and began raiding cities of the opposite faction. But the Goldshire fight club remained as a testament to the early days of WoW before the honor system, and it still remains down to this day.
These are the bits of online culture that fascinate me so. No matter how mundane the daily quests get, or the neverending clears of Naxxramas, I will always come back to the game to watch how people react to it. Lately, my latest socialogical observations have watched as the achievement system has turned many players into posturing peacocks, and I wonder, will this finally degrade the population of Azeroth?
The influence of Xbox Live
Originally, when achievements were added to World of Warcraft, I rejoiced with the rest of the player population. Blizzard was taking what was most popular about Xbox Live and applying it to an MMO, therefore giving longevity to their gameplay. Suddenly it wasn't enough to run an instance, you had to fight the end boss in under three minutes, or with only four people, or standing on your toes with nothing but a wand and a tabard equipped. Silly as they seemed, the achievements were merely recognition for the crazy stunts we've been pulling all along to keep ourselves engaged in the game.
Take the World Explorer achievement. One of my greatest joys was exploring the map of Azeroth back in the day. I am the sort of person who swam around the continents, climbed every mountain I could find, wedged my character into places they shouldn't have ever been. It wasn't that I was trying to exploit the game -- it's not like I made sure to visit the Ironforge airport or anything -- it's just that I had a lot of fun going where few had gone before. Maybe it was about testing the physical limits of the world I was in, I'm not sure. I what I do know is that when the explorer achievement was introduced to the game I had two places to visit to get the title and tabard, and one of them was added into the game with Wrath. Not two zones, mind you, two sections of the map within the zones. Yes, I was a sick puppy.
The elitist in me, the cranky old gamer, wants to rail and say that achievements are cheapening what we legacy players did on our own for so long. Ultimately though, I'm not so bothered by getting recognition for things I did for the pure joy of it. I am bothered by what the achievements are doing to the population of the game however.
What achievements were meant to be, but what they are
Originally I believe the goal of the achievement system was to extend gameplay for those who play a lot (I'm not going to use the term hardcore here, because a casual player can also spend a good deal of time in game and not earn that moniker). The trouble is that this isn't what is happening. Instead players are working on the achievements as they go, doing whatever they can to earn that badge in their Y-key display even before they have learned the instance properly. The Jedoga Shadowseeker fight in Ann'kahet: the Old Kingdom comes to mind. People had just a drive to earn the achievement that hundreds began to try to exploit the fight, pulling Jedoga down into the fountain so that they could get their ten achievement points.
I think that if you are going to add something in to extend gameplay, you shouldn't need to exploit a fight to get the achievement. Jedoga's achievement requires a crap ton of firepower, something that most players who haven't clear Heroic Naxxramas a dozen and a half times won't be able to pull off. The original intent of the achievement is clearly to add another task for raiders to complete after they are done with raiding.
However, in Patch 3.1 Blizzard is removing the Proto-Drake rewards from the game, all but announcing that if you haven't completed all the raiding and heroic achievements, you're too late. This is where I think the breakdown lies. My guild hovers in the 30's on WoWJutsu's rank for our server, and we are only about half done with the achievements. As a healer there are a couple that I simply won't be able to do unless my raid specifically allows me to play a DPS role for a fight. On top of all these challenges, I now have to finish all the achievements before Easter? Who is smoking crack, Blizzard, and can I have some? We had a ton of time to get our Amani War Bears, but only six months to get our Proto-Drakes? I cry foul.
There is so much new stress in the game that I dread looking at my achievements anymore. Originally I was incredibly excited to know I could eventually earn a white (well white-ish) Proto-drake, but now my hopes are crushed knowing that goal is out of reach. Even if we manage to pull these all off in time, what then? We will already have completed all the achievements (other than those that will come in with other raids) by next Christmas. The holiday achievements are at times easy and incredibly luck-based by turns, and don't get me started on the Brew of the Year -- that crap is just wrong.
I think a year from now we will find ourselves with a lot of achievements completed, and looking around at eachother wondering what next to do. This is the sort of thing that drives people from the game, and that would be a crying shame.
