How Quickly We Forget
August 20th, 2007Joystiq is pitching Prime 3’s ”token” system as Achievements Lite. But you can make at least a colorable argument that the basic idea of accomplishing in-game feats to obtain rewards has been around at least since the Warp Pipes in Super Mario Brothers. And although I’m not sure exactly where the idea of using in-game rewards to “redeem” additional content originated, it certainly wasn’t with Live. I mean, Mega Man had Rush-accessible areas, Mario World had the Yoshi Coins and Star Road system… I’m sure you can think of other examples.
This isn’t to demean Live, of course. But Achievements were an outgrowth of existing ideas, not an innovation in and of themselves. In fact, I rather prefer Metroid’s system, since at least the tokens there can be used to do something in the game. Bragging rights don’t really motivate me to do anything.
Posted in Geoff, Wii, Xbox Live |
August 20th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
The innovation of achievements was not in creating them. Clearly, you’ve proven that they existed long before xbox was a twinkle in bills eye. The innovation was in naming them, and unifying them across the platform. I thought this was really cool initially, until it lead to the creation of the “achievement whore” which made a mockery of the system to my mind and nullified its usefullness to the point that your statement is totally accurate. You can’t DO anything with them.
I’m interested to see how the tokens in MP3 add or alter the dynamic of the gameplay if at all. If they add some replay value or help experience more of the game, they will succeed in my mind.
August 21st, 2007 at 12:22 pm
I think that the first “good” Mortal Kombat:Deadly Alliance had a system where you unlocked points and then could use them to buy extras in the game. It’s probably been done before then as well, but that game did a pretty good job with it and actually made unlocking the points worthwhile.