Formerly owned by Mirror’s Edge achievement creator Fredrik Thylander posted on twitter He thinks achievements and trophies are bad for the game, although he’s made some pretty good achievement lists in the past.
His original tweet read: “Unpopular opinion: Achievements/trophies are bad for the game. It shrinks the game, it disrupts and diverts attention, it eats up resources that could have made the game better.” In his reply, he elaborated, “Games should have the rewards that work best for them, and a one-size-fits-all mandate from platform holders to create a reward system that favors the platform makes games worse.”
Hot or not, that’s a convincing argument! We’ve all played games where the sense of accomplishment is rethought. They seem to be included only because they have to be farmed for pointless points, rather than adding any substance to the experience of actually playing the game.
Fans of the achievement, however, can do well to point to Thylander’s own work as proving the opposite of the achievement’s merits. In Mirror’s Edge, numerous achievements act as carrots, encouraging players to learn and master game elements, thereby enhancing the experience.
If you’re around my age, you probably remember sitting down and trying to unlock some of the trickier parkour achievements, like Free Flowing and May I Have This Dance after school. Once you earn these achievements, you have another tool that will allow you to race around the map with greater efficiency. In this way, players hungry for achievement points can gain expertise in the game they’re playing. A spoonful of sugar can help the medicine go down.
This is an interesting conversation. While it works well for Mirror’s Edge, maybe there’s a reward system that compliments the game better and serves as a better training tool for players. Also, just because it works for that game doesn’t mean the system gets a pass for everything else. The time spent completing the Swamp Standard achievements is time that could have been spent making the game more rewarding in avenues unique to that game.
What do you think of the shot? Do you agree, or do you think achievements are good for the overall game? Let us know below!
For more Mirror’s Edge related articles, check out this rad Unreal Engine 5 Mirror’s Edge project, and a related episode of the iGamesNews podcast: Best Assassin’s Creed Game, It’s Not an Assassin’s Creed Game, You Can’t Choose Tsushima soul.
