Guild Wars 2

While it’s been true for a while, especially following the recent (fantastic) Aetherblade update, it’s very easy to find players complaining about the difficulty of some achievements. Players ask for the dungeon to be made easier, for achievements to not be placed in Obsidian Sanctum, and for the achievements to be available for longer than 2 weeks. I’m not sure how you all feel, but to me, it sounds like the players are asking for ENTITLEMENTS, not ACHIEVEMENTS.

An Achievement is supposed to mean something – they certainly can (and some should) be ones that everyone can do, such as mastering crafts and completing story quests. Those kinds of achievements show that time was put into certain aspects of the game, and that’s totally cool. Aetherblade had ones like that as well, with the caches and Aetherblade slayer achievements. No problem.

Some achievements, however, need to exist to show the completion of a difficult task, such as mastering a complex dungeon in a short amount of time. Achievements like Faster than Light and Unfriendly Skies (Personal Space was, unfortunately, exploitable) are exactly such achievements – and they are cooler because they mean something. Players want them because they mean something, but unfortunately, many players seem to think that because they want them, they should get them.

Sorry guys, but it doesn’t work both ways. Either they are cool because they are tough, or trivial because everyone can get them. You already get an achievement for completing Frizz’s Lab at all, why do you think you should get the other one for free too? Take this to the extreme, and we start handing out 193 achievement points for simply logging in during an event. What is even the point anymore?

Long story short, if an achievement is too difficult for you, then you need to either accept that you won’t achieve it, or work until you do. Achievements are fun because they provide challenges. Many players seem to be completionists who also feel entitled to having everything complete without working for it, but they don’t understand how self-defeating that is. Make every achievement easy, and nothing is actually an achievement anymore.

To the players who completed Faster than Light and Unfriendly Skies, congrats. To the players who completed Personal Space legitimately, double congrats! Completion of a difficult achievement is rewarding and should not be undermined by players who feel entitled. I sincerely hope ArenaNet doesn’t listen to those players and continues to produce content of reasonable challenge (such as Aetherblade Retreat) with extra-challenging achievements to EARN.

Please share your thoughts on this here.

I agree wholeheartedly.

DaG.5103:

Either they are cool because they are tough, or trivial because everyone can get them

The complaints you are talking about exist in the context of the new reward system for Achievement points. So it’s neither a question of “achievements are cool because they are tough” nor a question of “achievements are trivial because everyone can get them”.

It’s a question of “I want free stuff so please give me free achievement points”.

As soon as the reward system is implemented, the community will find ways to exploit the system as much as possible to get the achievement rewards. I can assure you that those doing the exploiting couldn’t care less about how achievements are meant to actually be a sign of something being achieved.

That’s the MMORPG community in a nutshell.

I gotta agree with the OP on this one. I have about 3k achievement pts. That’s not a lot, but I play casually and have some cool armors and multiple alts. I have fun and as a result of my chosen play style I will get the rewards commensurate with 3k AP. That’s what I deserve.

Those who say it’s not fair because they didn’t know they would need to grind dailies and monthlies and salvages for AP rewards are just going to have to accept that because they achieved less, they get fewer rewards. And these constant events every 2-4 weeks will bring easy AP (really, they’re pretty easy). A few hours doing some new content can easily unlock 50-100AP from an event. Frequent content updates mean frequent new achievement point access.

AP rewards now create some motivation for players to try something new. I have almost no PvP or WvW achievements. But I might explore em a bit to get those last 100 pts I need for the next reward tier for instance.

So with such a large number of AP easily accessible just for playing the game, I’m not upset with some achievements points being demanding enough to truly be called an achievement.

Seras.5702:

I gotta agree with the OP on this one. I have about 3k achievement pts. That’s not a lot, but I play casually and have some cool armors and multiple alts. I have fun and as a result of my chosen play style I will get the rewards commensurate with 3k AP. That’s what I deserve.

Those who say it’s not fair because they didn’t know they would need to grind dailies and monthlies and salvages for AP rewards are just going to have to accept that because they achieved less, they get fewer rewards. And these constant events every 2-4 weeks will bring easy AP (really, they’re pretty easy). A few hours doing some new content can easily unlock 50-100AP from an event. Frequent content updates mean frequent new achievement point access.

AP rewards now create some motivation for players to try something new. I have almost no PvP or WvW achievements. But I might explore em a bit to get those last 100 pts I need for the next reward tier for instance.

So with such a large number of AP easily accessible just for playing the game, I’m not upset with some achievements points being demanding enough to truly be called an achievement.

Well said.

I agree. In this game I’m not much of an “achievement kitten”, but in games like “Orcs Must Die” I am. I’m not playing for reward- I have all the skins and skills and all that- I play for the achievement. For being able to say “yep, I did that!”. The same should apply here.

If I don’t want to do the “Complete Arah in 25 seconds or less” achievement (or whatever the achievement is), why would I expect to GET that achievement? Right now, achievements don’t earn you items or rewards- just the novelty of having the achivie and saying “I did it!”. So what possible argument could I have for saying “It takes away from my gameplay that I don’t get to have an achievement for something I didn’t achieve!” >_>

I don’t play for achievements, but I do know people who do. It’s yet another playstyle that doesn’t appeal to me (in this game at least) but I respect other people enjoy. I think there should be more achievements, harder achievements and achievements that require more time and effort overall.

EDIT- Wait… AP rewards? I missed something. Let me go read the patch notes. My entire rant above was on the notion that there is nothing to gain via achievements except achievements. >_> brb lol

I don’t mind ‘tough’ achievements. I have no issues working towards such things. For example, to me, the jumping puzzles are a massive PITA. But, with the kick in the pants from Aetherblades, I’ve started doing them, and even managed to complete a couple. There are many others on the list that I’m sure will make me want to yank my hair out in frustration, but that’s ok. I can opt to continue trying for them or not of my own volition.

What I tend to take issue with is when the achievement requires me to rely on other people in order to complete it. Take ‘Faster Than Light’ for example, while yes this is based on personal skill, it also requires that you find 4 other competent people in order to do it (and pray for no lag), and if you aren’t in some amazing guild, this is insane with pugs. If your team wipes, the only thing you can do is die, negating your chance at that achievement for that run. Now you get to start all over and hope the next group/run goes better. Not fun. As this is a ‘personal’ achievement, I don’t feel that it should require someone to have to rely on other players’ competence.

I don’t have a problem with achievements being hard to get, quite the opposite actually. It’s just time limited achievements which artificially take someone out of the running because he or she might not have a solid 3hrs straight to play a dungeon or what have you.

Problem is that all new content seems to be about points. Huge amount kitten which i don’t wanna do. Like this new patch. After 20 min i got bored and probably never go back.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

… As this is a ‘personal’ achievement, I don’t feel that it should require someone to have to rely on other players’ competence.

Where exactly does it say “personal achievement?” They’re called achievements and this is an MMO. You can’t be shocked that some will require the aid of other players. To be able to complete any dungeon you’re going to need a group. Competency level is just something you have to deal with in an MMO. Remember, those other players are trying to earn the same achievement you are…and they have to rely on your competency too.

Having said that, there are plenty of achievements that can be done solo, most in fact.