broodwars: How do achievements bring gaming closer to Virtual Reality?
What does an achievement system have to do with the pointless waste of time, money, and technology that is the failed experiment of Virtual Reality? For that matter, it's all a different issue from DLC so I don't see why anyone would bring
that up.
Just an aside, I'm listening to the podcast right now and they
very clearly state that they believe that achievement/trophies are the
second most important gaming innovation this generation next to motion control. So whoever did that summary got that wrong. I will say this, though, to disagree with them: getting more people to play crappy games is
not a reasonable reason to implement an achievement system. Encouraging competition and personal fulfillment in gaming are the
only suitable reasons.
What I don't understand with Nintendo on this is simply "why not?" An achievement system costs very little to maintain once created and implemented, is relatively easy to program, and it only adds value to your products. Hell, Nintendo could even do something as simple as tie it into Club Nintendo for first party titles: do X in a game, get 5 coins added to your Club Nintendo account (obviously, these things would need to be few in number and significant). It adds value to game, encourages people to hold onto your games and not trade them in, and it encourages people to buy games sooner. Everyone goes home happy.