One huge plus of GW1 was its achievement system. The title tracks were generally geared around significant strides in character progression, and far less in number. GW2 achievements have taken on a more modern-360 approach, like in Halo Reach where you get an achievement simply for using a standard weapon a very small amount of times.
One simple comparison is between the Salvage Master achievement in GW2 and the Wisdom title track of GW1. With Salvage Master, you can reach the top tier by salvaging just 500 items (which fills the monthly requirement as well). For the Wisdom title, the maximum rank (7) requires you to identify 10,000 rare items. On top of that, the title granted bonuses to salvaging, giving you up to 20% better chance at recovering runes and better materials. For those of you who think you can easily buy a Wisdom title, think again. The average price per unidentified rare item(only rare items counted) was 750g. For 10,000 of them, that’s 7.5 million gold. In GW2 currency, that’s 750 gold, although gold in GW1 was slightly more scarce. I believe even the richest of the rich generally had a couple million tops. Even the most expensive armor in the game, Obsidian Armor, which had players farming for hundreds of hours, cost about 1.5 million gold.
Another point to made in the differences can be found in the comparison between the Gladiator achievements in GW2 and the Gladiator title in GW1. Both are related to points earned through standard PvP matches. The numbers themselves are comparable, as getting the max in GW2 requires almost twice as many points as it takes to get to Rank 80, and getting max in GW1 requires tens of thousands of victories. The difference lies in the intervals between minimum and maximum rank. In GW1, there are 12 tiers from 500 to 200,000 points. In GW2, there are 90 tiers from 50 to 15 million points. Achieving a new tier in GW2 simply doesn’t mean anything. This holds true for a lot of achievements in the game, where you don’t really care about the achievements because it seems like you keep getting one every 10 minutes.
The problem with modern achievements is that points are awarded for making progress on something as a separate achievement. While progress should be encouraged, it is still just progress. Going back to the Halo example, you get separate achievements for completing each level of the game, and then one for completing the game. Similarly, you get a different achievement for each boss in the Boss category. A lot of those bosses don’t feel like an achievement. And yet, when you beat all the bosses, and you actually feel like you achieved something, you get nothing. What gives?
This brings me to my main points:
- Much higher maximum for some achievements (salvager, every slayer achievement, revives etc)
- Less tiers, for only very significant milestones. Allegiance Rank is a perfect example of how to do this right.
- Achievements that can be bought should require a ludicrous amount of money.
- Reward achievement, not specific progress. You get an achievement for doing all paths for each dungeon and all paths for all dungeons. Combine them into one dungeon master achievement where I still get points for each tier but not as a separate achievement.
- Achievements that should be there just aren’t. Why don’t I get an achievement for unlocking all the dyes?
- Increase rewards for certain achievements. People did the Lightbringer title for a reason. Higher Lightbringer rank increased the potency of your Lightbringer skills quite a bit. There should be meaningful incentives outside points. What if completing the proposed dye achievement gave you a pack of special dyes that had particle effects, or completing a slayer achievement gave you a minipet of that creature?
tl;dr Achievements in GW1 were far more meaningful than in GW2 and worked well in keeping people playing.
(edited by gobberpooper.8165)