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Fable 2: Achievements
By Corvus | November 12, 2008
I’m slowly winding down the Fable 2 posts and will likely wrap it up later this week with a spoiler-filled look at the end-game. But for now, I want to discuss what has been a controversial element of gaming on the XBOX 360–achievements.
I believe it was while reading about Bioshock that I first heard rumbles about the negative impact of Achievements on role playing. Not only does the “Achievement Unlocked” dialog intrude upon play, but the tongue in cheek nature of many achievements, such as Bioshock’s Toaster in the Tub achievement, is often in direct contrast to the in-game mood. Others reward you for such basic in-game activities that they hardly feel like achievements and still others encourage the player to behave in ways entirely inconsistent with the behaviors you’d expect of the protagonist. The general impression people seem to have regarding achievements is that they are a mechanic that is not conducive to experiential play, or role playing if you will.
A slightly off tangent point–once I got a 360 of my own, a little bit of research revealed that it’s pretty simple to turn off achievement (and friend) notifications. Once you’re logged in, bring up your profile blade by tapping the power button. Under Personal Settings -> Notifications are some customization options. I did not turn them off, however. I typically don’t care for, or pay much attention to, achievements. But I am interested in the impact, if any, they have on my play, and therefore leave them on.
As the relatively low score on my gamer card will attest to, I haven’t paid too much attention to achievements in the past. Even when I play a game to completion, I don’t chase down every last achievement. I feel no sense of pride in my gamer score–by and large it represents a competitive/completionist aspect of gaming that I don’t care much about. Usually.
Perhaps it’s because I knew I wanted to explore every nook and cranny over multiple play-throughs anyway. Perhaps it’s because Albion is a pretty silly place that the sillier achievements seemed to fit in. Perhaps it’s because most of the achievements you have to actively pursue are also related to an in-game reward. Whatever the reason, I found myself happily pursuing achievements while exploring the roles of heroism, good, selfish, altruistic, and evil in the realm of Albion.
My non-achievement related plans for the game involved completing the game at least three times in succession–once as good/pure, once as evil/corrupt, and once in a whimsical, unplanned fashion without any particular good/evil goal. The end-game even has three obvious options (complaints about that to come soon) that map to these play styles. Having completed my good and evil play-throughs, I reviewed my remaining achievements and realized that one is only possible with some planning. The achievement, ironically titled The Completionist, requires you to acquire all expressions, pet tricks, and abilities. The latter two items I’ve done in both previous play-throughs, but there are some expressions that are only availble if you’re good enough, and some that are only available if you’re evil enough.
Additionally, this achievement also correlates to passing through one of the demon doors–treasure-guarding magic doors that open in response to various emotes, character states, or completed tasks. So, I now have an in-storyworld reason to get this achievement–explore every area of the game, and an out-of-storyworld reason–get all the achievements. Clearly, playing through in a whimsical fashion is not guaranteed to help me achieve my goals.
As I strategized my next play-through, I came up with a role playing approach that followed a basically good, but emotionally fragile, hero that was irrevocably damaged by his mid-game visit to the Tattered Spire, where he made decisions to protect himself rather than help people–something for which he’d never forgive himself. As I hit upon this approach, I realized something interesting–I was taking a very actorly approach to achievements. Peter Molyneux was my playwright, and Lionhead was my director. Suddenly achievements had become an impetus, not a hindrance, to role playing. An impetus to take the storied approach. An impetus to build a fabula that fit within the provided parameters of the narrative.
A playwright will include direction in their script. Some, like Samuel Beckett, are notoriously precise in their direction. Directors work with actors, to one degree or another, to interpret available stage direction and provide their own guidance at creating compelling staging to engage the audience. Within the framework of this direction, actors tap into the core of their characters and find the emotional resonance that will reach the audience. The plot is set, determined by the playwright. The simulated environment is set, determined by the director and crew. But the exact means by which the play unfolds is finally up to the actors on the stage. It is they who must determine the audience’s need, they who ultimately determine the pacing and the emotional context of the performance. This is what was happening as I planned out my next play-through–only I was both actor and audience.
Now, I am not arguing that achievements are the best tool for providing direction to the player, but I think it’s interesting that they can be used for that purpose. Carefully selecting achievements for your game, and ensuring the wording creates the right tone, might be a powerful tool for helping your audience (and actors) discover that emotional resonance that keeps them playing your game.
Tagged:achievements, fable 2, storytelling. |
November 12th, 2008 at 10:08 am
This analysis of looking at the game through its achievements is interesting to me, as well. It was part of my analysis of Assassin’s Creed. My thought is that achievements are the developers way of saying “Here’s things you can do in this game, that we want to reward/punish you for.” In other words, it’s the way the developers think you should play the game.
That’s not necessarily the right way, or the best way. Programmers/designers often miss how people really use things. But it shines a light on their intent, I think. It’s the one place the developers’ voice is strongest, and not mediated by the game characters or interface.
It can be like having the artists’ take on their painting, or a novelist’s annotation of their own work. Or even the commentary track on a DVD. Of course, some achievements could be like “Did you find the seven birds hidden in my painting?” or “Saw my painting with 6 different people.”
But others can highlight something interesting about the game, I think. (And those might be interesting achievements in the right game, if they inform its design somehow.)
November 12th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I’ve said for a while that achievements are at their best when they are milestones in the game that are congruent with the game and provide small bits of insight on interesting “places to see while playing the game”, be they actual places or experiences or challenges overcome…
I’m not sure that I’m up to getting “The Completionist”, myself. Partly because I’ve still yet to decide if I want to buy Fable 2 Pub Games (and unfortunately you need Pub Games to get Completionist).
November 12th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
Write at least seven blog posts about Fable 2, or read another blogger’s posts.
What really endears F2’s achievements to me is that many of them are little rewards for playing with(in) the game. I don’t typically look at the achievements to be unlocked until I’m a ways into a game, so many of F2’s 5G and 10G rewards have come as little surprises: I was playing with the dyes for the first time, and *ding* 5G for dying most of my clothes black; or I was attempting to make Alex fall in love with my character with emotes at the clock tower, attracted a crowd and *ding* I threw a great party.
Meeting achievement criteria that aren’t tied to milestones in one’s progression through a story etc, just for the gamerscore can be a grind–is a grind–yes I searched out all 400 smashes in Burnout Paradise, but no, I am not going to carry that damn gnome with me in Half-Life 2. F2’s seem to come when you wouldn’t expect them, little pats on the back for playing around in the world. Having a goal of dying all one’s clothes black for chump change in gamerscore points is ridiculous, and no one should be excited about that: dye, dye, dye *ding*, okay now to get people drunk… But as little rewards and encouragement from Lionhead for taking my time and exploring the rules and experimenting with the game, those achievements are great and I think really separate them from milestone- or skill-based achievements (e.g. complete x, find all y, defeat z without taking damage).
That said, I have been browsing the list to see what else is there, and while I don’t plan, necessarily, to get any in particular they have enlightened as to what else is possible in the game: emotes in combat, and something to look forward to when I can sub-target! The former especially I might never have tried without knowing, and what a surprise that would achievement would have come as.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Mmmhhh I never thought about achievements in that way before. I was always too focused on how hollow they are. (Hollow in the “you can’t do anything with them, apart from bragging” kind of way)
Also, Severus Ape made me realize something else: Achievements can work as unexpected rewards for exploration. Granted it’s just a number and you can’t do anything with it, but it still feels like a reward. You just did something worthy of recognition in the developer’s eyes, and that’s what matters.
November 14th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
The first thing to remember about Achievements is that Microsoft requires them for a game to be certified. Even if they don’t fit in with the game particularly well, a 360-bound game requires the developer to shoehorn them in somehow. If they seem really weird and tacked-on at times, that’s likely why.
I’ve found Achievements to be especially in seeing what others are playing and how much/how far. The types of conversations I’ll have with folks about a game will differ if they’ve finished Fallout 3 or if they’ve just left Vault 101.
Corvus, I certainly hadn’t thought of them as a form of character direction, but that’s a fantastic light to view them in.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I’m on the bandwagon here of “achievements you have to grind for being a little ridiculous”, but I’m also not sure there’s anything wrong with it. If someone else enjoys scratching their completion anxiety itch, more power to them, they’re just not me.
I also agree that the most powerful use of them would be to ensure that a player experiences as much of the game as possible. The suggestion of altering the narrative through available achievements is awesome, but I think we’ve got a while to go before that’s a frequently employed tactic.
And finally, I’m glad that someone else mentioned the downside of the tongue-in-cheek nature of achievements. It’s all well and good in Fallout 3, which is snarky to begin with, but the whole affair vaguely suggests a gamer stereotype to me, which naturally puts me on edge.