Microsoft updating achievements, "fundamental changes"

[Valyrious]

https://gamernewsdaily.com/xbox-one-achievements-receiving-fundamental-changes-microsoft-says/
 

Speaking to Windows Central, Xbox corporate vice president Mike Ybarra revealed that Microsoft is working on “something that fundamentally changes” its approach to Achievements. “[W]e are working towards a bigger, more meaningful change about somebody’s gaming accomplishments in history, as a gamer on Xbox,” Ybarra said.

“[W]e can do a lot more to reflect and let people show their gaming history and their status,” he explained. “Whether it’s somebody who only plays multiplayer in Halo 5 at a professional level, maybe they only have 2,000 Gamerscore, you want to be able to celebrate that person. You want people to be in the know. This person doesn’t play a lot of games, but they’re world top ten at Halo 5.

“[W]e’re going to go big in the area of letting people show off and represent their gaming history and the type of gamer that they are, far more than we do with Gamerscore,” Ybarra said. As for what form this new system will take, Ybarra offered very few details. He did, however, assure that it wouldn’t replace the current Gamerscore system but “complement” it.

Seems interesting. Looks like some people with over 100,000 gamerscore are a little nervous about what they're going to do.
To me, it seems like a good opportunity to go the Steam route and showcase time played and provide special badges for time invested in specific games, rather than simply buying games to whore achievements.
Achievements, and by association trophies, have gotten a little stale for me. So I think both companies need to do something to refresh them. Depending on what it ends up being, I like the direction that Microsoft is going with their achievement system.

 

[KingGuy420]

Xbox is already better in terms of achievements IMO. The stat tracking is infinitely better then what PlayStation is offering. It tracks time played, overall kill counts, etc. Also keeps track of progress on individual trophies. Not to mention a leaderboard that tracks friends, even down to who got more achievements that week and stuff. PlayStation could really learn a thing or two in the sense.

 

If they're expanding the achievement system even further, god bless them lol.

[ExHaseo]

Probably more exclusive achievement nonsense, like the weird timed achievements and ones like people got for getting a day one X1.

[Kittens Are Awesome]

https://www.xboxachievements.com/game/killer-instinct/achievements/

 

464 achievements for Killer Instinct alone. No thanks. MS goes ape shit over their achievement lists. They can keep all that noise.

[Shadiochao]

From that, it doesn't sound like they're going to change achievements at all, really. Just that they'll give more options for showing off other accomplishments that aren't necessarily covered by gamerscore.

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy]

Saw before, no idea what it could entail, don't care that much, but defo agree with most of y'all that achievements>trophies. The stat tracking alone makes it worthwhile.

 

Good example, Tony Hawk 5. A game I've plat'd a fair few times on PSN but also have on Xbone. On Xbox you can bring up the list and it says the percentage of the thing you've done, so get to level 50 or something for example, if you're on level 10 in game it will say you're 20% of the way to the achievement. Shit like that just makes the whole system that little bit better.

 

That being said, overall I'm over the trophy/chivo phase anyway and am happy just playing, but it would be cool if they actually managed to pull something out of their ass that made me care again, I won't lie. I think what Nintendo is doing, in showing only the amount of time you've spent in a game publicly is really cool. I mean, mine all got fucked up when I had to reformat to remove the Japanese news on my Switch, so I'm already over that too unfortunately, but I think it's cool. Seeing that a friend platinum'd a game or something no longer tells me that they think the game's great like it used to, but seeing that a friend spent over 100 hours in Zelda in a couple weeks, and that it wasn't something uncommon to see, is what pushed me into buying the game. Trophy lists no longer motivate purchases thankfully, but seeing how long people plonk into a game definitely could influence where my wallet goes.

[EternalChaos72]

I wish Sony would do something like this with trophies. It'd love to see it revamped for the better. 

[direct-harvest0]

38 minutes ago, Phil said:

https://www.xboxachievements.com/game/killer-instinct/achievements/

 

464 achievements for Killer Instinct alone. No thanks. MS goes ape shit over their achievement lists. They can keep all that noise.

464 is a seemingly ridiculous amount of time, but at the same time it would be pretty fun trying to collect almost everything and in my opinion it would revitalize certain games and collecting/completing a game for me. Also you would be able to see who the real compeltionists or game fanatics are based on an over expendable trophy list.

[Kittens Are Awesome]

7 minutes ago, AydenBonnette said:

464 is a seemingly ridiculous amount of time, but at the same time it would be pretty fun trying to collect almost everything and in my opinion it would revitalize certain games and collecting/completing a game for me. Also you would be able to see who the real compeltionists or game fanatics are based on an over expendable trophy list.

 

For the games I enjoy that much, I just keep playing them after plat/100%. I don't need achievements to entice me to continue playing a game.

[Undead Wolf]

I would have to see what exactly this "new system" is before I pass final judgement, but for now I'm of the mind that you shouldn't fix what ain't broken. The people who only play one or two games don't care about achievements in the first place, so I'm against them changing the achievement system to better accommodate these people. It sounds like this will just piss off the achievement hunters. If they want to implement a system entirely separate from gamerscore, though, I guess that would be okay.

 

A lot of Microsoft's decisions regarding achievements since Xbox One became a thing have left me scratching my head. They seriously have achievements for Netflix, owning the day one edition of Xbox One, and who knows what else!? Oh, and every game is required to have 1000 gamerscore as well, no matter how small the game is. Like what the hell are they doing over there!? ? I'm so glad I converted to being a trophy hunter before all this stuff started going down. It confuses me whenever people say Xbox achievements are better than trophies. From what I've seen, that certainly isn't the case.

[ExHaseo]

1 hour ago, Undead Wolf said:

A lot of Microsoft's decisions regarding achievements since Xbox One became a thing have left me scratching my head. They seriously have achievements for Netflix, owning the day one edition of Xbox One, and who knows what else!? Oh, and every game is required to have 1000 gamerscore as well, no matter how small the game is. Like what the hell are they doing over there!?  I'm so glad I converted to being a trophy hunter before all this stuff started going down. It confuses me whenever people say Xbox achievements are better than trophies. From what I've seen, that certainly isn't the case.

 

This. If Sony did the crazy stuff that MS has been doing, it would do a pretty good job shutting down this site. Completion percentage alone would mean essentially nothing, as there'd be a bunch of times exclusive achievements that unless you play only that game you'll easily miss, and people would be forced into putting insane stuff on their profile like the Netflix and Hulu lists, which would ruin profiles because of some of the crazy high number of hours and different shows they expect you to watch. I'm honestly surprised the achievement hunting community didn't collapse when the X1 came out. With insane stuff like this and games getting hundreds of achievements, it seems pretty impossible to even complete much. I guess for them it's less about completion, and more about a high gamerscore though. Which is why I'm a trophy hunter. Anyone can just play a bunch of games, never 100% anything, and still have a high gamerscore. But for trophy hunters, it's all about the number of plats. 

[Spelunkette]

4 hours ago, KingGuy420 said:

Xbox is already better in terms of achievements IMO. The stat tracking is infinitely better then what PlayStation is offering. It tracks time played, overall kill counts, etc. Also keeps track of progress on individual trophies. Not to mention a leaderboard that tracks friends, even down to who got more achievements that week and stuff. PlayStation could really learn a thing or two in the sense.

 

If they're expanding the achievement system even further, god bless them lol.

I really love the stat tracking built into Xbox One, and really hope PlayStation implements something similar in the future. Xbox building on what they already have is only a good thing if it means more to copy, as I have way more PS friends to compare with than Xbox these days so I don't get much use out of it ?

 

Hoping to see something unexpected here ?☺️

Edited August 11, 2017 by Spelunkette

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy]

Just an FYI to the ignorant, the "timed" achievements, like the ones for playing something early or having a day one Xbox, aren't on the list for everyone else, in fact they're not even on the list at all. They come up as challenges, it's like a little section next to the achievements for the game. And they exist for other things too, I can't think of an example, since I don't really care that much, but there's stuff like "play this game during this double XP week" or something and it's a cool idea in my opinion. I think the only one I've got is in Mass Effect 4, I got it for playing the game before launch via EA Access and completing the tutorial or something. 

 

It doesn't add any GS, and doesn't even show up in the actual list. It literally doesn't affect GS or your overall achievements at all and thinking they're a bad thing is silly. The only people who will ever look for them are the people who really give a shit about chivos and whatnot, and those people would generally think someone having something like that, something that no one can get after it's time period is over, is pretty cool. And missing out on nit because you bought an Xbox 3 years later or something means nothing, because it's tucked away in a separate section anyway.

 

Timed "achievements" are really cool and I'd love if PlayStation did a similar thing. Say you played the beta of Uncharted or something, instead of the avatar I still see here and there, imagine you get a special little trophy saying you were there before the beginning... wait, you can't assign zero points to a trophy and it would never work and people would complain. If only there was a way to do it without it affecting your overall counter, like Xbox does.

______________

Also, apologies for the intro. I just re-read the first line while scrolling up and it definitely comes across as ♥y, well, unintentional so soz boz.

[Kittens Are Awesome]

2 hours ago, Undead Wolf said:

I would have to see what exactly this "new system" is before I pass final judgement, but for now I'm of the mind that you shouldn't fix what ain't broken. The people who only play one or two games don't care about achievements in the first place, so I'm against them changing the achievement system to better accommodate these people. It sounds like this will just piss off the achievement hunters. If they want to implement a system entirely separate from gamerscore, though, I guess that would be okay.

 

A lot of Microsoft's decisions regarding achievements since Xbox One became a thing have left me scratching my head. They seriously have achievements for Netflix, owning the day one edition of Xbox One, and who knows what else!? Oh, and every game is required to have 1000 gamerscore as well, no matter how small the game is. Like what the hell are they doing over there!?  I'm so glad I converted to being a trophy hunter before all this stuff started going down. It confuses me whenever people say Xbox achievements are better than trophies. From what I've seen, that certainly isn't the case.

 

I refused to believe in what I read in your paragraph. I thought, "there's no way MS would be that retarded." I thought, "maybe hyperbole?" Nope, you weren't exaggerating or lying at all...

 

https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Netflix/achievements

 

I....I can't even respond to this. I think I'm now dumb and dumber for knowing this exists.

[Satoshi Ookami]

They are going to kill achievements?

[Zenpai]

5 hours ago, Phil said:

https://www.xboxachievements.com/game/killer-instinct/achievements/

 

464 achievements for Killer Instinct alone. No thanks. MS goes ape shit over their achievement lists. They can keep all that noise.

 

DLC was a mistake.

[crimsonidol38]

 

1 hour ago, Phil said:

https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Netflix/achievements

 

I....I can't even respond to this. I think I'm now dumb and dumber for knowing this exists.

 

It might be stupid to add such achievements but keep in mind that they have no Gamerscore associated so binge-watching any series or rating every shit doesn't help to pad your Gamerscore at all.

 

And not to forget: Sony also has at least one free app with trophies:

https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/1804-new-paint-park

 

[jacks]

This doesn't really interest me, since on the off chance I'm playing for achievements, then I'm usually playing the single player where the bulk of them are. I definitely do not fall into the category as a lot of the people i know IRL or see on PSN that play COD multiplayer exclusively, and nothing else, and probably play more of that in an entire week than I do playing a variety of games in a single month, yet have 1 MP trophy or no trophies at all (since a lot COD games don't actually have straight MP trophies, or in the case of IW, ones that actually work).

 

Hopefully if this means they are going to further improve stat tracking, then PSN will take note.... WE NEED A GAME TIME COUNTER, first and foremost. I love that feature on most Xbox One games, where I can see the exact time played for most games that feature it in the main stats menu. There's also so many other cool things about the sub menus of the One that they really need to bring over to PSN.

 

While we are talking about things each console can takeaway from the other: One can learn a thing or two about how to do menu's and just general UI... they are changing the main menu AGAIN, and this one looks almost as terrible as the last ones they've piled on. I hate "window shopping" on the One, because unless you are knowing exactly what you are looking for... well.. forget it. I love the storefront way more on PSN.

[Kittens Are Awesome]

24 minutes ago, Crimson Idol said:

 

 

It might be stupid to add such achievements but keep in mind that they have no Gamerscore associated so binge-watching any series or rating every shit doesn't help to pad your Gamerscore at all.

 

And not to forget: Sony also has at least one free app with trophies:

https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/1804-new-paint-park

 

 So you're comparing "achievements" from a Xbox app, Netflix, to trophies for this?...

 

 

 

I think you are further fueling my disdain for MS achievements and their whole system. Keep in mind, I was completely indifferent on the subject before noticing this thread. I now wish I hadn't. 

[crimsonidol38]

6 minutes ago, Phil said:

So you're comparing "achievements" from a Xbox app, Netflix, to trophies for this?...

 

Yes, I do as both are apps. The one is a painting app, the other one a video streaming app. Why is it okay to have achievements for the one, but not for the other one? Only because the one is more interactive? Still I wouldn't count New Paint Park a game. And it's not like the achievements in NPP are for anything difficult or something that requires skill.

[Kapika96]

What ever happened to not fixing something that isn`t broken?

 

That said, Xbox One achievements do have a fundamental flaw in that they require online servers to work. Can`t be unlocked offline and can have errors that prevent them from unlocking when they should. So how about fixing that?

[madbuk]

8 hours ago, KingGuy420 said:

Xbox is already better in terms of achievements IMO. The stat tracking is infinitely better then what PlayStation is offering. It tracks time played, overall kill counts, etc. Also keeps track of progress on individual trophies. Not to mention a leaderboard that tracks friends, even down to who got more achievements that week and stuff. PlayStation could really learn a thing or two in the sense.

 

If they're expanding the achievement system even further, god bless them lol.

Microsoft have done some terrible things with the achievement system lately, such as giving every game 1000G. But the achievement tracker might just be the dumbest, which is saying a lot since the 1000G decision makes the whole system pointless in the first place.

The tracker is abusable. There's a trophy to beat every chapter on the highest difficulty? Let's say there are 20 chapters. The way achievements are tracked now means you can just do chapter 1 20 times. Or you can save before picking up a collectible and just pick up that same collectible over and over instead of getting the harder ones. It's fundamentally broken and abusable.

 

24 minutes ago, Kapika96 said:

What ever happened to not fixing something that isn`t broken?

 

That said, Xbox One achievements do have a fundamental flaw in that they require online servers to work. Can`t be unlocked offline and can have errors that prevent them from unlocking when they should. So how about fixing that?

And if this is true, the system is even worse than I imagined and I didn't think that was possible. iOS pissed me off with this shit, I was playing Broken Sword and missed an achievement because I had no internet so I had to redo the entire game.

 

I do think that Steam is still worse, due to mods and abusing console commands, but it's a close contest, and Sony seem to be joining in on the initiative to make the worst system possible, dumb games like Mayo, 1000 Rated, Nubla, etc. are getting plats left and right and decent games that don't deserve plats like Artifex Mundi games are getting them as well.

Sony are still far behind in the worst achievement system contest though, thankfully.

[Miles_Warren]

8 hours ago, Phil said:

https://www.xboxachievements.com/game/killer-instinct/achievements/

 

464 achievements for Killer Instinct alone. No thanks. MS goes ape shit over their achievement lists. They can keep all that noise.

 

 

Somebody please tell me this is the exception rather than the norm on X-Box. Oh my poor fellow X-Box trophy hunters...smh

[Lightin_August]

48 minutes ago, Kapika96 said:

 

That said, Xbox One achievements do have a fundamental flaw in that they require online servers to work. Can`t be unlocked offline and can have errors that prevent them from unlocking when they should. So how about fixing that?

 

Wow that sounds awful. I wasn't really into the achievement system when I had a 360 but it was an okay system. Hearing about how it works on the Xbone makes me glad Microsoft screwed up that console announcement years ago and scared me away for good. 

 

[Undead Wolf]

8 hours ago, Phil said:

 

I refused to believe in what I read in your paragraph. I thought, "there's no way MS would be that retarded." I thought, "maybe hyperbole?" Nope, you weren't exaggerating or lying at all...

 

https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Netflix/achievements

 

I....I can't even respond to this. I think I'm now dumb and dumber for knowing this exists.

 

If you think that's bad, just wait until you see this. 

https://www.xboxachievements.com/games/app/

 

Yup, there's an entire section on xboxachievements.com dedicated to apps. Just looking through these lists blow my mind. You've got gems like this one on the YouTube app.

 

Oh, and there's even a trueachievements app that you can earn achievements in if you can believe it.  

https://www.xboxachievements.com/game/trueachievements/achievements/

 

I wonder if achievement hunters who want to boost their completion download a bunch of these things. I mean there have been dumb achievements/trophies in games before, but I think this takes it to a whole new level. I hope Sony never go down this route.