{"id":92552,"date":"2019-04-25T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2019\/04\/talking_point_do_we_still_want_achievements_on_switch"},"modified":"2019-04-25T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T20:00:00","slug":"talking-point-do-we-still-want-achievements-on-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/04\/25\/talking-point-do-we-still-want-achievements-on-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Point: Do We Still Want Achievements On Switch?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/30e7c1cc302a6\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/30e7c1cc302a6\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"OdysseyCheev\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/26f2c5654b0f5\/odysseycheev.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/26f2c5654b0f5\/odysseycheev.900x.jpg\" alt=\"OdysseyCheev\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s been many years now since Xbox 360 introduced its achievement system and added an extra layer of gamification to your games. Microsoft\u2019s system-level Gamerscore was introduced way back in 2005 (that&#8217;s right, <em>fourteen<\/em> long years ago). That little dopamine hit on hearing the \u2018Achievement Unlocked\u2019 sound struck a chord with a whole generation of gamers and they soon became an addiction. Bragging rights for grabbing the most obscure, most difficult ones made adding to your Gamerscore a point of pride for many.<\/p>\n<p>Valve soon followed suit on Steam and Sony\u2019s Trophy system made the word \u2018platinum\u2019 a verb. Nintendo gamers, however, never got to experience that sweet, sweet addiction &#8211; not at a system level. Many titles implement the achievements used elsewhere into the game itself, but Nintendo has never created a similar framework of its own.<\/p>\n<p>If we\u2019re honest, after fourteen years achievements have fallen off our personal radar somewhat, and wouldn&#8217;t rank particularly highly on a wish list of features for future Nintendo consoles. We\u2019ve got used to not having them. Of course, they\u2019d be a fun extra, but we\u2019re not clamouring for them like we did a decade ago. In fact, we thought that was the general feeling amongst Nintendo gamers, but a quick scan of social media shows that there\u2019s still a healthy appetite for a platform-wide system on Switch:<\/p>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NintendoUK?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@NintendoUK<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NintendoAmerica?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@NintendoAmerica<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NintendoEurope?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@NintendoEurope<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nintendo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Nintendo<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nintendolife?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@nintendolife<\/a> All the talk at the moment is about the Nintendo Switch mini but why are <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Nintendo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Nintendo<\/a> continuing to ignore the fact millions of us want an achievement \/ trophy system! Get with the times already.<\/span>\u2014 Paul (@Paul7Law) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Paul7Law\/status\/1120663381235703808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 23, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You need to add achievements to nintendo switch<\/span>\u2014 super Mario odyssey and splatoon 2 retweeter (@Jkidd657911) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jkidd657911\/status\/1121103471879643136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 24, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Nintendo Switch update requests:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Folders (For the love of god)<br \/>&#8211; Achievements<br \/>&#8211; Menu backgrounds<br \/>&#8211; Netflix<br \/>&#8211; Make the friend system more accessible<br \/>&#8211; Make the eShop more easier like the Wii U one.<\/p>\n<p>Other than that, i&#8217;m cool!<\/p>\n<p><\/span>\u2014 Haese (@HasanLasan98) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HasanLasan98\/status\/1118070820868382720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 16, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Introducing the Nintendo Switch 9.0.0 update! Lots of new features are incoming, Such as a web browser, folders, Achievements, themes and many more! Make sure to update your console to check out these great new features! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Vhm5v4mj2y\">pic.twitter.com\/Vhm5v4mj2y<\/a><\/span>\u2014 Nintendo of America (@Ninterdo1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ninterdo1\/status\/1120355864181911553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 22, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<p>With Xbox achievements arriving on Switch in due course thanks to the release of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/cuphead\">Cuphead<\/a><\/strong> and Xbox Live integration, it seems to have reignited people&#8217;s passion for the little pop-ups. Calls for Nintendo to \u2018get with the times\u2019 are easy to hear, although for a company that believes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendo.co.jp\/ir\/en\/management\/message.html\">\u2018the true value of entertainment lies in its uniqueness\u2019<\/a>, implementing a system based on a competitor\u2019s fourteen-year-old success hardly showcases the &#8216;Nintendo difference&#8217;, does it?<\/p>\n<p>Still, it\u2019s a feature that many players crave. Personally, we\u2019ve fallen out of love with them a bit, for various reasons. For every game that uses them creatively and encourages you to experiment or play a different way than you might otherwise, there\u2019s another which simply doles out the cheevos as you finish a level. There\u2019s nothing inherently wrong with that, but they lose significance to us if they\u2019re simply a mark of progress \u2013 sure, you can \u2018prove\u2019 to your online mates that you\u2019ve completed a game, but that\u2019s not enough of a draw.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"object object-youtube\">\n<div class=\"youtube\">[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HkExBV05_EY?rel=0&amp;hd=1&amp;showinfo=0&amp;modestbranding=0&amp;autohide=1&#038;w=900&#038;h=507]<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>They\u2019re not particularly developer-friendly, either. Microsoft\u2019s mandate that <em>all games<\/em> were required to include unlockable achievements created extra work for game devs, and its easy to understand why so many take the uninspired form of \u2018You completed Level 3!\u2019 or \u2018You jumped 10,000 times!\u2019 It\u2019s <em>another<\/em> layer of work added to each platform the game releases on, and while it\u2019s often easy to track certain player stats and actions (especially on modern platforms), it can be more difficult for smaller indies already crunching to get the game running and not wanting to tack on a bunch of dull, token achievements after they&#8217;ve worked so hard on the core game. Being creative takes time and the best achievements are imaginative and playful.<\/p>\n<p>They can be mighty intrusive, too. You\u2019ve just completed some emotionally significant narrative moment \u2013 shot a traitorous friend, galloped into the sunset or whatever other video game scenario you care to remember\/invent \u2013 and up pops the notification. You\u2019ve completed a game, spending hours battling your way to a reckoning and you sit there, bathing in emotional and physical catharsis as the screen fades to black\u2026 <em>doop-doop!<\/em> &#8216;Achievement Unlocked \u2013 Winner Winner!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re exaggerating, of course, and other platforms do allow you to mute notifications, but a platform-wide system is inherently ignorant of the actual content of the game, so if a developer hasn\u2019t thought carefully about how achievements will unlock across all supported platforms, you often get these pop-ups destroying the atmosphere of a tender or significant moment. These interruptions occur on Switch already, of course. While playing <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/hellblade_senuas_sacrifice\">Hellblade: Senua&#8217;s Sacrifice<\/a><\/strong> a couple of weeks ago, emotionally striking and <em>heavy<\/em> moments were repeatedly interrupted by Switch telling us that \u2018Tony80085 is online\u2019 (a pseudonym has been used to protect Tony\u2019s true identity, but we do wish he&#8217;d make his bloody mind up!).<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"HellbladeCheev\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/a0b187c30909a\/hellbladecheev.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/a0b187c30909a\/hellbladecheev.900x.jpg\" alt=\"HellbladeCheev\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>Despite Switch not having an overarching infrastructure, many games implement their own achievements lists, and perhaps that\u2019s enough. No, you don\u2019t get the platform-wide integration or that satisfying unlock sound, but we\u2019re rational human beings for crying out loud! Do we really need that &#8211; or even <em>want<\/em> it &#8211; in all our games?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the best place they could fit in on Switch would be the selection of retro titles that come with your Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Little objectives could provide some of the focus lost with the introduction of save states and give players an incentive to revisit those old classics on the service. Many of us have fired it up, dipped into a few classics before losing interest and closing it down after a few minutes. The wall of games arguably induces paralysis and it somehow feels \u2018easier\u2019 \u2013 or more satisfying \u2013 to play something else despite <em>loving<\/em> stone-cold classics like <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nes\/super_mario_bros_3\">Super Mario Bros. 3<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nes\/legend_of_zelda\">Zelda<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed right img-\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a title=\"NSOCheev\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/b3b2eb2f63c66\/nsocheev.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/b3b2eb2f63c66\/nsocheev.300x.jpg\" alt=\"NSOCheev\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Save states would render anything as boring as \u2018Achievement Unlocked: You finished 8-4!\u2019 utterly pointless, so Nintendo would have to be very creative \u2013 very <em>different<\/em> \u2013 with its challenges. We\u2019ve seen that the company is happy to play with these classics with the SP versions it&#8217;s been dropping and the service only contains a small selection of games, which would make a blanket \u2018system-level\u2019 structure possible where it would otherwise only be realistic (logistically speaking) from the very start of a console cycle. Others have already taken the trouble to gamify retro titles in this way \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/retroachievements.org\/\">Retro Achievements<\/a> has been doing it for ages.<\/p>\n<p>There are plenty of opinions available on the subject of achievements, and the most interesting ones tend to come from game designers themselves. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/feature\/185436\/an_alternative_to_achievements.php\">Keith Burgun<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/chrishecker.com\/Achievements_Considered_Harmful%3F\">Chris Hecker<\/a>\u2019s thoughts are worth a read and delve more deeply into ideas of intrinsic versus extrinsic rewards and the mechanics of how achievements actually work.<\/p>\n<p>They used to be the new thing &#8211; an incredible bit of seasoning to go along with Xbox Live on the 360 &#8211; and we have fond memories of them, but now achievements themselves are almost retro. Some would argue that they\u2019ve had their heyday and it\u2019s probably time to forget about them. Nintendo-only gamers never sampled their addictive properties in the first place, but anybody who has gone cold turkey with Switch need only hear that little unlock \u2018dong\u2019 <em>once<\/em> to have their nostalgia booted up and experience little \u2018cheevy cravings.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"SmashCheev\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/5636e264cc376\/smashcheev.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/5636e264cc376\/smashcheev.900x.jpg\" alt=\"SmashCheev\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p><em>What are your thoughts on achievements at a system-wide level? Do you still care about them on other platforms? Have Nintendo gamers really missed out? Feel free to share your thoughts with a comment and vote in our poll.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been many years now since Xbox 360 introduced its achievement system and added an extra layer of gamification to your games. Microsoft\u2019s system-level Gamerscore was introduced way back in 2005 (that&#8217;s right, fourteen long years ago). That little dopamine hit on hearing the \u2018Achievement Unlocked\u2019 sound struck a chord with a whole generation of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}