Random thought on Achievements

I think the following story applies well to City of Heroes and the badge system.

My room mate was relatively depressed this weekend, so I invited her to play New Super Mario Bros. Wii. For those that don't know, each level has three hidden large gold coins. I want these. The following exchange occurred:

Me: "Come play with us, but if you see any Star Coins, you need to get them. I'm huntin' 'em."
Her: "Why?"
M: "Because there are three in each level."
H: "That's it?"*
M: "Yes. "
H: "So having them all doesn't actually do anything... it's just... for your own happiness."
M: "... Yeah."

In one crystalline moment, the idea of receiving validation of progress from a machine that is absolutely oblivious to your existence just seemed... absurd. Like asking a rock what it really thinks of you and hoping that it will say "You're good enough. You threw me far!"

Anyway... just a thought.

You cheeky monkey.
*I am aware that Star Coins have multiple applications, but none that were worth explaining to someone that was new to the game. Hearing her verbalize those thoughts brought me to City of Heroes, though... and those badges.

Pretty much the same way I am with badges. I want to get them all. Why? Because they're there.

One of the...annoyances...with badges and this game is the number of people who will refuse content because they already have the badge or will trudge through content they don't like because they have to get the badge for it.

Personally, "Gotta' catch 'em all!" never worked for me. I enjoy HAVING them all, but dislike actually CATCHING them all, so if had to choose, I'd choose to not bother in the first place. I'm never going to have everything, and it's not worth to only go half-way, or even almost all the way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I suppose one of the benefits to having taken some time off from the game is that I've missed anniversery and event badges. As such, I'll never have them all and so don't feel the desire to try. I'll go for badges that either give special benefits (some Accolades) or ones that mark little milestones in my characters' lives (GMs, various TFs, Masters TFs, etc) or ones that I want just for the name ("Nuclear Powered" for my Rad/Rad) but I don't have to swear at the ski slope for the -nth time because I NEED that badge for my collection.

I've got 470 different Pokemon in my boxes in Pokemon Diamond, with room for 19 more without cheating (I'm pretty much forced to cheat to get Darkrai, Shaymin, or Arceus... ). Between my badgers, I think I've got at least 1500 badges in CoH.

I'm very much a collector

If you want a real headache in receiving achievements, you should try playing Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time.

Some of the requirements for Battle Trophies in the game are literally insane. I'll give a few examples.

Defeat the final boss of the main game at level 1.

Defeat the final boss of the main game at level 10 on Hard difficulty.

Defeat the final boss of the main game with your weakest weapon.

Defeat the final boss of the postgame on Very Hard who has 60,000,000 hit points in less than an hour. Other related trophies related to some of the superbosses include not getting hit, and defeating them alone.

There are 300 battle trophies in all. I've been playing the game since 2004 and only have 180 of them. Getting all 300 requires playing the game on Hard and Very Hard as well. (But if you've ever played an RPG and wished there was more content after the main game, the Star Ocean games do not disappoint.)

Needless to say, this game isn't for everyone.

I generally only go out of my way to get badges for the passive accolades and the two useful click accolades (Vanguard/Megalo not so much anymore after the PvP mez changes) since they directly affect my character's stats. Any other badge I get is incidental.

Badges?

On the plus side, the coins and City badges are non-fattening. I cannot say the same for my chocolate donuts.

This reminds me of a moomintroll story I remember from years back. It was about an old troll who collected stamps but then he got to a stage where he'd got every stamp, ever. So he became really sad because he owned them but had nothing more to collect. The challenge of collection was what motivated him, rather than the acquisitions themselves.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk