360-esque achievements could head to World of Warcraft

by Justin McElroy { Jun 10th 2008 at 8:40AM }

It's a common complaint you hear from World of Warcraft fans: "I love the 14 to 16 hours per day I spend in front of the computer followed by an hour of self-loathing and crying myself to sleep, but the game's just not addictive enough." If some leaked screens from the Wrath of the Lich King alpha are to be believed, Blizzard could be answering that very concern with a new "Achievements" system.

As some of you know, Lord of the Rings Online already has a similar system in place, which rewards players for sitting next to pretend Aragorn in the Prancing Pony and pretending to listen to him spin yarns for 20 minutes, etc. We can't wait to see how Blizzard can compete with that.

Tags: blizzard, world-of-warcraft, wow, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

name123 @ Jun 10th 2008 8:48AM

Achievements are crap.

baby sea tuna @ Jun 10th 2008 8:52AM

Your comme...

nah, I'll let someone else do it.

xFenixKnightx @ Jun 10th 2008 8:52AM

Why haven't you been banned yet? You contribute nothing. You might even be worse than Curmeo or Crazy Ken who was funny at times. You just make me want to punch babies! >:(

Ethan @ Jun 10th 2008 8:59AM

Your Comme des Garçons perfume smells lovely.

Thanks bst!

Scott @ Jun 10th 2008 9:12AM

NO U

Totally burned you 123 =3

NATO_Duke @ Jun 10th 2008 9:59AM

Name, you are one pathetic loser. I know of nobody at this site that comes off as worthless and annoying as you.

It’s pretty sad that you can't even come up with one educated comment that comes from knowledge and experience after all this time. No matter how many times people say you're a jack-ass, you still offer nothing of interest in your posts.

Christopher Grant @ Jun 10th 2008 10:11AM

banned.

Farseer (GDI) @ Jun 10th 2008 10:19AM

Wow, thanks Christopher. That was mighty nice of you. :)

PojoMofo @ Jun 10th 2008 10:23AM

and thee ban hammer dropeth!!

WOW, Fenix speaks, and it is done!!

Although I agree with Name123 a lot of the time, it seems trolling is his sole purpose, as opposed to actually discussing topics.

NATO_Duke @ Jun 10th 2008 10:26AM

Thank you. He is the worst troll we have ever had around here.

PojoMofo @ Jun 10th 2008 10:31AM

I disagree NATO, Wiiwarrior360 and his aliases are worse than Name123, IMO

xFenixKnightx @ Jun 10th 2008 10:34AM

namePS3, dude...

You arent wanted here go away. You're just pathetic now. Thanks Chris, but I guess he's...err IT'S back. IP ban this tyme?

t_m @ Jun 10th 2008 10:35AM

I kinda liked his avatar tho...

xFenixKnightx @ Jun 10th 2008 10:44AM

pathetic123 < See what I did there? Yayyyy, its fun!

*sigh

Don't you find it sad that you even have to do that?

NATO_Duke @ Jun 10th 2008 10:45AM

Pojo, your little buddy made comments about putting us in concentration camps in one of his psychotic tirades. So be careful who you buddy up with.

Name reminds me of the losers who hack into people’s teamspeak to annoy them. Very sad and pathetic.

deaftly @ Jun 10th 2008 11:07AM

*hugs chris grant*

Mr.ESC @ Jun 10th 2008 11:18AM

I wouldn't go to far with the hugs deaftly he still holds the All-mighty B& Hammer.

deaftly @ Jun 10th 2008 12:11PM

WRONG, I wield the almighty bampersand!

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread) @ Jun 10th 2008 12:33PM

finally! thanks Chris.

i can honestly say, as a Playstation fan, that guy was an embarrassment. he just spewed fanboy dribble all this site all the time with nothing to back it up most of the times.

i will certainly enjoy the 15 minutes of peace until we see "name123 2" pop up...

Jakka @ Jun 10th 2008 1:18PM

He'll be back within minutes.I know I'm playing Devil's Advocate since I got banned recently but what's the point in "banning" if they'll make another account within seconds?

And btw, CAN JOYSTIQ HAVE FORUMS? I can imagine the 50 page Console Wars.

Korova Pyro aspect @ Jun 10th 2008 1:57PM

orifice123 got owned

*

baby sea tuna @ Jun 10th 2008 8:48AM

Oh, Jesus. More OCD related grinding? This is the *last* thing that people who play this game need.

xFenixKnightx @ Jun 10th 2008 8:54AM

This can prove to be deadly. I'm scared. :S

Skunk Ape @ Jun 10th 2008 9:00AM

Thats evil. man Im glad I stopped playing that game when I did

Korova Pyro aspect @ Jun 10th 2008 2:06PM

Yeah, I graduated from MMO Anonymous a while back and have been dry for about 5 years, although that Final Fantasy XII is dangerously tempting. No, No, bad!!

Ethan @ Jun 10th 2008 9:06AM

I'm the type who runs off and sets myself little challenges, but I can see how this will make all the fun the slaves are having moreso.

Obie @ Jun 10th 2008 9:12AM

Achievement whoring? Or hoarding? Hmmmm.

arrakisman @ Jun 10th 2008 9:16AM

They did this in Guild Wars. I remeber my wife spending weeks uncovering the entire map to get her cartographer achievment.

Mr.ESC @ Jun 10th 2008 11:24AM

Oh yeah I remember but they were like medals or something.I clearly remember one that you get if you finished all missions in Heroic or something.

I got bored of guildwars after playing Factions but Nightfall was pretty good.

Sam406 @ Jun 10th 2008 9:19AM

I think achievements are a great idea, even if I'm not WOW fan.

I don't understand why some people hate achievements, I mean, it's not like you're forced to complete them all.

You have to see them as side missions. Some times I go out of my way to do thing I normally wouldn't if it weren't for the achievements.

But I have to say, I don't like those achievement whores that treat their gamerscore like some sort of e-penis and actually buy games just for easy achievements.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 10th 2008 10:59AM

I loathe gamerscore, for the same reasons you talk about.

As to achievements, often they're okay. I don't value them, but what could be wrong with them? Well, for an example, look at the new achievements in Team Fortress 2. There are achievements for (something like) a character helping a certain class 5 times in a row. The problem with this is then people enter the game trying to get that achievement and the play in a way that isn't helpful to the team, instead doing just what will get the achievement.

Jakka @ Jun 10th 2008 9:39AM

LOL!

It looks like Blizzard-Nerd are so WoW hungry they already managed to take the site with leaked screens down.

kataztrophy @ Jun 10th 2008 9:39AM

Achievements can be good, but not for every game. Any game that has quests don't really need achievements. Seems redundant to me.

Vagn Henning @ Jun 10th 2008 9:46AM

Only 478 days???

Mike @ Jun 10th 2008 3:15PM

Even a level 6 elf dragon guard can do that!!

Dr. Jones @ Jun 10th 2008 9:55AM

Site seems to be down but this reminds me of the Star Wars Galaxies badges.

Rob Bourne @ Jun 10th 2008 9:56AM

The URL under 'leaked screens' is broked

Oh and achievements for this game - and any other MMO tbh - is stupid. Like they're not soul-devourers already. I'm glad I broke free from WoW when I did.

Rob Bourne @ Jun 10th 2008 9:57AM

Oh for f...

Joystiq - please fix the avatar system. I've updated it a million times already and it's still a sodding Mario :'{

Christopher Grant @ Jun 10th 2008 10:13AM

try flushing your cache, using a different browser, or uploading a different image. still not working?

Rob Bourne @ Jun 10th 2008 10:22AM

I've tried in both FF and IE (IE at home and work), flushed, ctrl+F5 etc. Still no luck.

Tried the original image and also a modified, shrunken one in case there's a size limit. Is there a limit of sorts? It always says the upload was successful and to allow 5 minutes for it to update, but nothing :|

eyao @ Jun 10th 2008 10:06AM

Yeah, I can't view the leaked screens. Wouldn't it make more sense to have more (time consuming) quests? Achievements for random things in mmo's seem more like a lame attempt to keep people playing. I don't think it will work like the 360.

PojoMofo @ Jun 10th 2008 10:25AM

I agree with Justin, do people really need an excuse to spend MORE time in WOW?? This reeeks of an Activision decision.

t_m @ Jun 10th 2008 10:36AM

MMOs can be scary:
http://www.danwei.org/electronic_games/gambling_your_life_away_in_zt.php

tmacairjordan87 @ Jun 10th 2008 10:42AM

God dammit blizzard is trying desperately to reclaim my soul again with my biggest weakpoints, achievements. LEAVE ME ALONE BLIZZARD >:(

Imaginationland Warrior @ Jun 10th 2008 11:19AM

This site is so much better without name. Thank you Chris.

Mr.ESC @ Jun 10th 2008 11:29AM

Achievements make people play games more than they should (I know I always try to get most of them) and Wow is a game that requires a certain dedication. This sounds like a deadly combination,the amount of deads caused by Wow is about to increase.

Emceay @ Jun 10th 2008 11:50AM

meh, you know you'll have that moment where someone says, "look! look! I got _____ achievement! I'm a beast!" And you say/think, "That's great, I went to work and put some money in my pocket.. real achievement."

shMerker @ Jun 10th 2008 12:11PM

But World of Warcraft already is an achievement system. That's pretty much the whole game. Between quests, reputation, honor, battleground marks, experience, and skill points, there's very little that isn't already being measured. The whole point of achievements was to introduce an element of persistent advancement into games that didn't already have it. This really seems genuinely stupid. But at the same time achievements are a take it or leave it proposition, so if you don't care about them, they don't affect you.