I am a gaming girl; yes, I know we have determined this already. However, I play on several platforms. PC, console, mobile device, even tabletop; I like them all. Some games are only available on one platform, others work better on certain platforms, and some it doesn’t matter.
I do prefer console gaming to everything else though. Why because you achievements! Now that might be a stupid reason because what are achievements anyway. They are just a woobie you can show off to other gamers that “hey I did this”. They don’t serve any other useful purpose than that. I’m not even sure that is a useful purpose in a game but still.
Now the whole achievement thing didn’t even exist until the Xbox 360 came out. Microsoft is the reason they exist today in the gaming world, or at least what really made people notice them. All new games for the 360 had to have an achievement score that equals 1000 points. Developers can give their achievements any number they want as long as they add up to 1000. DLC games only have 200 points, but again they are required to have them unless they are indie games.
With that single addition, Microsoft boosted their sales because gamers wanted to be show off that they got the 1000 points to their friends. And all you get is bragging rights. You don’t get extra Live months, extra Microsoft points, nothing except the right to say you got the points. However, what the achievements did do was create a community within the games. It makes people want to see what their friends are playing, if they have the same achievements, or if that friend got the achievement before you. Sony eventually joined the bandwagon with the PS3 too but they call them trophies and their woobie system is bronze, silver, or gold medals.
So why don’t computer games have these? I think the biggest reason is that most games are a single identity. They exist within themselves and not outside. Some exceptions to this are games on places like Steam and Kongregate; and heck even Kongregate has achievements for their games. I think even if the game itself had achievements for just that game, and you could post them to a forum or they would automatically show up if you were a member of the forum computer gaming would be that much more fun.
Do you agree with me? Do you even care? I know I would play more PC games if I could earn that woobie to show that I did beat the big boss at the end of the game.
