Oh. My. God. The fucked up future of gaming.

[Twinfalls]

Right. There's a little thread on the official Oblivion board that sprang up with yet another poll. This one is interesting - it asks whether people approve of the fact Oblivion is the first TES game to keep track of idiotic stats, like 'number of Daedra killed, number of jokes told', shit like that.

In that thread, MSFD makes this little comment:

I'm pretty sure that EVERY Xbox 360 game has to have Achievements you can earn. Oblivion is no exception. You'll have to wait to find out what Oblivion's Achievements are, though.

Holy fucking shit. Do you get the import of this? I knew every game was mandated to have 'downloadable content' by MS or it wont get release on the platform, which is bad enough. But this is an open declaration that MS is dictating content.

It reminds me of the scene in the movie 'Office Space' where Jennifer Aniston (the only good thing she's been in) is told she has to wear at least five 'pieces of Flair' on her clothes to keep working at the diner. Its MS making game developers their total, utter bitches, not to mention gamers themselves.

Guess what, fuckers - Fallout 3 will have 'Achievements' too.

 

[Lumpy]

Achievements don't have any effect on the gameplay. Still, they are one of the most idiotic things in Oblivion.
NOw, players will actually be encouraged to powergame and join all guilds to get lots of points. l33t

 

[Sol Invictus]

No shit! Microsoft, like Sony and Nintendo, is the holder of a proprietary platform. Anyone who wants their game released on the platform has to go by the rules, or they won't get authorized, much less hyped. In return for catering to Microsoft's demands, Microsoft authorizes the product, and furthermore advertises it. Most people tend not to say no if they want to survive in the console industry.

 

[Zomg]

What the fuck is MSFD's avatar over there?

Actually, from what I can gather from that thread, the "achievements" MSFD refers to are something connected to your Xbox Live account, "gamer points" or some shit. So you kill the whatever dragon and get +5 gamer points on your Xbox Live account, which I assume can be redeemed for pancakes and RealDolls.

The page of stats a la Fable or GTAIII is not dictated content, it seems, but rather something Bethesda mimicked on their own.

 

[Twinfalls]

Actually, from what I can gather from that thread, the "achievements" MSFD refers to are something connected to your Xbox Live account, "gamer points" or some shit. So you kill the whatever dragon and get +5 gamer points on your Xbox Live account, which I assume can be redeemed for pancakes and RealDolls.

Thin edge of the wedge. What this implies is a coralling of games towards a certain template - munchkinism. The 'more stuff' mentality. The looming possibility is the stifling of new types of games which do not have any aspect easily condensed into point-scoring or 'achievements'.

 

[Micmu]

Why the fuck would one want to show his "achievements" to anyone?
Nice gimmick for 12yr old kids. (Moronic) parents will pay the Live expenses, of course.

Kids in kindergarten chatting: What's yar high score in oblivian???

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Achievements are "awards" Xbox Live members get when they reach certain goals in a game. Every Xbox Live member has a "Gamer Card", which lists their gamer score and what Achievements they've reached for the games they've played (each Achievement awards a certain number of points that get added to the player's gamer score). You can add other Xbox Live players to your friends list, and compare Achievements for different games.

What exactly the achievements are depends on the game. The game I find myself playing most on Xbox 360 so far is Hexic HD, and addictive puzzle game by the guy who made Tetris. Hexic's achievements range from the trivially easy to the nearly impossible.

Every Xbox 360 game has achievements, and has to. Oblivion, being on the Xbox 360, of course will have achievements too. Now that doesn't mean that the achievements are catered towards collectathons or powergaming -- for example, you might get an achievement for becoming the head of a guild, or completing the main quest -- things people will do anyway.

Yes, it's bragging rights. But since Xbox Live is an online community, that's no less appropriate than parading around as a level 75 warrior in World of Warcraft.

Is Microsoft dictating content? Heck no. You have to have achievements, but they have no say as to what those achievements have to be awarded for. And no, there are no achievements awarded for the PC version -- achievements are an Xbox Live thing.

 

[Twinfalls]

Every Xbox 360 game has achievements, and has to.

Is Microsoft dictating content? Heck no.

Ummm..... I see a contradiction, kind Sir.

 

[Revasser]

Hot damn. That's one of the most fucking moronic things I've ever seen.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I don't see a problem with it because as MSFD said, Microsoft exisn't exactly dictating content (although it's dictating features but it's their right to begin with). It's not like we'll be getting "Y halo thar Mircosoft lubs u now pay to play lewl" messages or intrusive ads in games, or every game needing to have the same type of content. As a concept of sharing gaming experiences geared towards an online community, this is no different than message boards - except it boils down to achievements in games.

I am more worried however, insofar as Oblivion is concerned, with the possibility that these achievements will only matter as an online comparison chart but will not be as important in the game itself. But time will tell.

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Every Xbox 360 game has to be Live-aware (you can voice chat with others in ANY game, even single player, and send & receive text messages, among other things). They all have to use the built-in software keyboard for text entry, they all have to represent controls in certain ways both visually and textually. There are a lot of feature requirements that Xbox 360 games have to have, and Achievements are one of them.

Achievements are an Xbox 360 Live feature, but they're not really a part of Oblivion's content, which on PC has no Achievements.

 

[Micmu]

Every Xbox 360 game has to be Live-aware (you can voice chat with others in ANY game, even single player, and send & receive text messages, among other things).

Looks like Micro$oft is on a crusade to slowly turn every game into a MMO arcade/sports.

 

[tanjo]

The demo kicked off in what's known as "The Great Forest"

No, seriously, is that what it's really named?

 

[Proweler]

Bragging rights. Right.

Xbox cheats anyone?

Voicechat!?

Emperor: "Close shut the marble drawers of Obliov...."
L33tkiddy1: "OGMOG OMGO IT"s PATRICK THA STEWARD111!11!!11!!! OMOGLOG!""


I'm getting a PC now.

 

[FrancoTAU]

Wait, there's no achievements for the PC version? What a gip! Now i'm not buying it!

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Every Xbox 360 game has to be Live-aware (you can voice chat with others in ANY game, even single player, and send & receive text messages, among other things).

Looks like Micro$oft is on a crusade to slowly turn every game into a MMO arcade/sports.

Hey, playing Gauntlet on Live with 3 others scattered around the globe is a hell of a lot of fun, especially since you can add in voice chat Last week I was playing Hexic while chatting over Live with a friend of mine in Japan. Say what you will about Microsoft, but Xbox Live is extremely well-implemented on 360.

 

[tanjo]

Every Xbox 360 game has to be Live-aware (you can voice chat with others in ANY game, even single player, and send & receive text messages, among other things).

Looks like Micro$oft is on a crusade to slowly turn every game into a MMO arcade/sports.

Hey, playing Gauntlet on Live with 3 others scattered around the globe is a hell of a lot of fun, especially since you can add in voice chat Last week I was playing Hexic while chatting over Live with a friend of mine in Japan. Say what you will about Microsoft, but Xbox Live is extremely well-implemented on 360.

Hey man how's it going I've been playing computer games online with voice chat for about 30 years



and i have a gamepad and my graphics card and monitor is like 10 times better than xbox 360 and a tv so if you like 360 man you should try a computer because it's better

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

tanjo wins Post of the Year, and it's only January 6th! :D

 

[Twinfalls]

Every Xbox 360 game has to be Live-aware (you can voice chat with others in ANY game, even single player, and send & receive text messages, among other things).

Looks like Micro$oft is on a crusade to slowly turn every game into a MMO arcade/sports.

Yup.

 

[war3rd]

What the fuck is MSFD's avatar over there?
quote]

It's an octopus. They have a defensive strategy where they curl up to look like a rock and use the tips of two tentacles to 'run' away across the seafloor.

 

[Trash]

Remember how cool it used to be to get the best highscore on an arcade machine? Bethesda is hardcore oldskool!

 

[bryce777]

Right. There's a little thread on the official Oblivion board that sprang up with yet another poll. This one is interesting - it asks whether people approve of the fact Oblivion is the first TES game to keep track of idiotic stats, like 'number of Daedra killed, number of jokes told', shit like that.

In that thread, MSFD makes this little comment:

I'm pretty sure that EVERY Xbox 360 game has to have Achievements you can earn. Oblivion is no exception. You'll have to wait to find out what Oblivion's Achievements are, though.

Holy fucking shit. Do you get the import of this? I knew every game was mandated to have 'downloadable content' by MS or it wont get release on the platform, which is bad enough. But this is an open declaration that MS is dictating content.

It reminds me of the scene in the movie 'Office Space' where Jennifer Aniston (the only good thing she's been in) is told she has to wear at least five 'pieces of Flair' on her clothes to keep working at the diner. Its MS making game developers their total, utter bitches, not to mention gamers themselves.

Guess what, fuckers - Fallout 3 will have 'Achievements' too.

Well is this a big surprise? Only a fucking idiot would buy an xbox in the first place if they know anything about microsuck.

 

[Twinfalls]

Think of the principle, and the broader implications, especially since we're facing a future where very few games with a decent budget will be PC-only.

 

[Keldryn]

Well is this a big surprise? Only a fucking idiot would buy an xbox in the first place if they know anything about microsuck.

Aww, that's so sweet. You do care! Thanks for the compliment!

 

[Drakron]

Think of the principle, and the broader implications, especially since we're facing a future where very few games with a decent budget will be PC-only.

Think of the PS3 release, think of Sony not forcing some kind of features just so they can sell a online system membership, think of Xbox 360 continue to be only 1/5 of the total market share.