Epic Games Store enables the scourge of gaming
Epic is finally publicly testing achievements on the Epic Games Store client. As of now, only Ark: Survival Evolved has them, but according to the brief announcement, it’s a work-in-progress. It’s been on the software roadmap for over a year, but better late than never.
Judging by the replies to the announcement, a lot of gamers think achievements are annoying or a plague on the hobby. Obviously, the “gimme” ones for sleeping through a tutorial or the impossible ones that sit forever in your incomplete box can be aggravating, but not all achievements are useless. Smart developers use them to lead players towards alternate goals or even different modes of play. You’ll get that one for killing all the pigeons in Grand Theft Auto IV yet!
Oh, I killed all those pigeons. And I stole all those cars, and did all those cop missions, and the hitman missions and whatever other side junk there was on the way to 100%. I did a solo legendary run in Reach. I found all the orbs in all three Crackdown games. Wait, what were we talking about again?
I don’t know what you’re talking about. Just because I own 61 games on the Epic Games Store and I’ve spent a total of $13.61 (for Observation) and haven’t played them yet…
(And ironically, now that Observation’s out for the Xbox One, I’ll play it there instead… Because of the achievements!)
Eh, from what I understand things like daily quests and randomized rewards (lootboxes) are more about those things. Like you are conditioned to log into game every day to do some simple tasks to see numbers rise - or you just plainly gambling.
Achievements are often useful tool for a game. Sometimes it’s cleverly used to let you know that some stuff is possible or accounted for - like stealth game can have an achievement for non-violent completion of the game. Or it can be used in open-ended game as a soft suggestion of goals or where should you end the game. As in Paradox strategy games have no stated goals but a lot of “scenarios” through achievements. Of course when developer really puts an effort into those they usually do it with some in-game system (Paradox strategy games have internal achievement browser showing you which conditions are fulfilled). When it’s a store feature it’s more about vanity.
I don’t pay attention to achievements, but I see how they could be useful. I wouldn’t call them a “scourge”. Finding Easter eggs or performing weird tasks has been part of gaming for a long time.
Achievements are just fine - they have their place in guiding players toward a potential “interesting thing to do” that they might otherwise not stumble upon. That said, I’m pretty sure I could come up with a list of around 10 functions/features of the Steam store that are absent from the Epic store that I’d rather have before cheevos.
