Gaming Opinions
The Hidden Bonus to Gaming Achievements
Achievements might very well be enhancing your gaming experience without you even realizing it.
There’s a high possibility that you’re not an achievement hunter or even is someone that pays attention to scores but I think there’s a side bonus to achievement systems that is often overlooked and entirely missed by the majority of players.
I’m not saying it’s like the little red notification dots on your mobile phone but yes, it’s like those little red notification dots. Achievements might very well be enhancing your gaming experience without you even realizing it.
Gaming Achievements 101
The majority of the mainstream gaming consoles and even some PC platforms are stocked with games that contain achievements for gamers to unlock and discover. Yes, I’m calling you out Nintendo, get with the program!
Call them what you will, achievements, points, scores, or trophies. We’re talking about all of them in their entirety.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that has picked up a controller in the past year. The Xbox Gamerscore and it’s achievement system gained mainstream popularity back with the Xbox 360 and has progressed into today’s achievement world with third-party trackers like TrueAchievements, score leaderboards, and subcommunities.
The decision to add achievements is solely left up to the developers of the game. Some developers create super fun or extremely difficult achievements. Achievements such as getting X amount of kills with an off-the-beaten-path weapon or completing missions without dying are usually among the most common.
Different Approaches to Achievements
For other developers, it often feels like a last-minute addition by having only simple progression based achievements. These achievements usually include game events that you would complete whether or not an achievement existed. Achievements such as completing a certain level and finishing the tutorial are quite common.
This is not to say that there can’t be a mix of the two different approaches to game achievements. Quite often there is, and the player experience is better off for it.
The Achievement Bonus
This is something I haven’t realized until just recently but achievements feel like little gems of sugar embued with a dopamine-inducing sound effect, coated with slick animation, and are gone before you even realize what happened. Let it be known that I’m not a doctor nor do I play one on TV so don’t take the previous highly unscientific claim to the bank.
Game achievements are akin to phone notifications with their sudden appearance, visual and sound cue, and disappearance. The difference is those achievements are not tied to the negative connotation of your phone’s notifications and are often taken as a welcomed surprise rather than a nuisance.
Herein lies the hidden achievement bonus. A small sudden surprise that hits your game brain in just a way, that increases your excitement at that exact moment. To deny this is to say that you don’t like it when you are playing a new game and are surprised by the shiny new rare Xbox achievement with the spinning diamond and text that says only 2.3% of players have achieved this. Not only is that sound effect a pure joy to experience but Microsoft went ahead and threw in the statistic to make you feel just a tad more superior.
Plain and simple, achievements are enhancing your gaming experience without you even knowing it by using tried and true notification elements tied to our inner beings as humans.
