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Assassin s Creed III launched yesterday on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Just as the game launched, Ubisoft began selling DLC for the game that added up to $60 , the same price of the actual game. Half of that DLC grants players early access to abilities, costumes, bonuses, etc. It s essentially allowing players to pay their way to get ahead in the single player portion of the game. It s also the sort of thing that used to be offered for free.
DLC abuse is nothing new to write about. There s a ton of articles out there examining the practices of companies like Ubisoft (many from Laser Lemming). But there hasn t been much discussion over one of the most obvious comfort inn san diego reasons developers are able to get away with it: Achievements.
In 2005, Microsoft introduced Achievements with the launch of the Xbox 360. The idea was simple, do something noteworthy in a game, get a little Congratulations from your console. You ll get some points and they ll add up to one big score that you can share with others. comfort inn san diego It wasn t complicated. However, it quickly became a tool for developers to use as a replacement for unlockables and cheat codes
And it worked. Gamers ate it up. Almost overnight Microsoft had turned a generation of gamers into OCD patients with a need to show off how much of a game they had completed. Achievements were so popular that Sony and Valve added their own versions of them to PSN and Steam in 2008. Nintendo is rumored to be doing the same with the Wii U this year.
Quickly gamers had traded unlockables and cheat codes for the equivalent of a digital pat on the back and bragging rights. This change is measurable. Let s take a look at ladies man, Tiger Woods. In 2005, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 released with a healthy amount of cheats and unlocks. comfort inn san diego By 2011, EA had whittled that number down to 0. EA had replaced all cheats and unlocks exclusively with Achievements . This, of course, was no different this year. It should be noted that you could unlock more courses by paying for them on the PSN and XBLA stores.
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger comfort inn san diego released in 2009 for the PS3 and Xbox 360, sporting comfort inn san diego several unlockable characters, modes, galleries, etc. The 2010 sequel, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift contained fewer unlocks and charged players for the privilege of swapping their character s color. There were plenty of Achievements and Trophies to be had though!
Developers are well aware of this new-found obsession over Achievements. And the greed is beginning to overlap itself. DLC, the primary reason we lost cheats/unlocks, is now often using the promise of new Achievements as a selling point. And in some cases you can t even attain Achievements in the core game without paying for some sort of DLC.
It s not like Achievements are evil in nature. I personally like seeing that little award pop up. But I hate what we ve sacrificed in order to have them. We ve traded everything for practically nothing. The fact that Assassin s Creed III is offering gamers the option to pay $30 for features that used to be in our games is very telling of the direction the industry has taken.
Irony note: In Tiger Woods 12, there are achievements / trophies for unlocking certain clubs. You could also purchase the upgrades via DLC -- but this cancelled out the trophies. Lots of pissed gamers.
Achievements didn't do this. DLC did. You're confusing the issue somewhat. Achievements are not a terrible idea and in many cases artificially extend the life of many games and get people to play optional missions and try and play the game in ways they wouldn't of bothered trying before.
I don't think we disagree on anything except that Achievements played a role in the killing of cheats. A lot of the DLC we see today is the result of our cheats comfort inn san diego and unlocks being sold back to us separately. Achievements were the exchange. I think one of the most telling links are the Tiger Woods examples.
I just don't think the two are at all related. The five year period that the tiger woods example covers also shows the marked increase in peoples adoption comfort inn san diego of dlc. In 2005 it pretty much didn't exist and now its a common practice for extra tracks and courses to be sold as dlc.
Maybe achievements are a bit of a smoke screen to divert our attention away from these underhand practices but if you go online and read the million and one angry articles and comments about dodgy dlc i don't think it worked too well.
I run a cheats site and I am very dissapointed the fact that cheats and cheat codes rarely exist now. The last game with cheat codes was Lego Undercover a few weeks ago!! I really hope developers choose to create comfort inn san diego cheat codes as well as achievements. That way it gives people a choice: Whether to cheat or achieve!!
I hate achievements because theres nothing real to post on my site rather than a achievement list. But I really prefer cheat codes more. A lot of people still search for cheat codes than achievement lists. I really hope cheat codes return. In Shaa ALLAH!!!!
I've written plenty of articles on DLC abuse myself (and I consider this one of those articles). comfort inn san diego There's plenty of complaints but it's falling on deaf ears. Because even though so many people complain about it, there's a enough people that will still spend money on it to justify the actions by the developers. 9 out of 10 people can complain, but as long 1/10 of those people pay, it's not going anywhere.
Achievements are now a commodity. People rent games for the sole purpose of getting more of them. They'll rent easy kid games to up their Platinum count. They are marketed in DLC promotions. I think very much so that we've traded Achievements for having content removed from our games.