Profile: Guernica
Send PM  Forum Posts  Forum Topics 

One of the nice new features in WoW's WotLK expansion is Achievements. This system runs exactly the same as Microsoft's Live Achievements - complete certain ingame objectives and you get points. I'm really looking forward to seeing this implemented in WoW.

There are achievements for exploration (visit named zones within the four continents), killing bosses in dungeons, completing quest chains, and equipping leet gear. There are points available for obtaining lots of vanity pets (the little novelty companions that follow you around and occasionally do some entertaining idle animations) and mounts. I'm particulalry excited about the PvP achievements though. As well as the endless grind for your welfare epics you can now also spice up bg's and world pvp by trying to win shutout matches, racking up massive amounts of damage/honour kills/healing, and completing various other PK-flavoured tasks.

In contrast to Live's system it does seem most of the WoW achievements cannot simply be boosted - there's very little chance an Alliance team could persuade a Horde side to throw an AB just so they could get a perfect 2000:0 score.

One thing that does seem to be missing from WoW's scheme though is a point to all the point's. I mean - I have 3000 achievement points - what does it get me? A couple of the achievements reward you with a title - an ever-popular option for WoW players. But apart from that..... nothing.

A major part of WoW's fun is getting hold of gear and adornments, such as the aforementioned vanity pets, to show off around town and in BG's. Rare mounts and armour show you have achieved a level of success in instances. Wearing the current season's gladiator gear instead of two seasons' past shows you have real pvp skills, not just the ability to play hours of AV's. Why not include items that can only be obtained through the redemption of Achievement points?

Exclusive mounts, tabards, buffs could all be quite nice. The latest invite-a-friend scheme allows you to allocate bonus levels to your lower level toons - why not allow players to buy levels through achievement points? After all, most of them require a certain level of dedication and investment in time, so why not recognise that by making the long haul to 80 withnew characters a little easier? (Surely Blizzard are going to have to speed up the journey from 70 to 80 anyway to save us from a plague of Death Knights in the endgame? Otherwise the LFG channel next summer will resound to the cries of 'Tank LFG for anything!)

So, its a good idea and this meta-game will breath fresh life into much of the content, both new and old, when WotLK is released. But it could do with a bit of polish at the back-end. Give us more reason to labour at the tasks you set, Blizzard, and make Achievements something we really want to get done, not jsut a pointless stat, good only for trade-chat battles.