Guild Wars 2

I’m a little bit confused by achievements. When I first started GW2, I saw the huge tables of various achievements, and the “score” at the top. Looking into it, I learned that it was primarily for titles and (in the case of monthlies and dailies) Wondrous Coins.
“Ok,” I thought. “That’s fine. I’ll do them when I’m bored or something. And they’re good for people who want more to do, or want an idea for a challenge.”

However, with laurels, there is now an emphasis on doing achievements. Its the only way to obtain this new currency. But why?
Wasn’t the basis of hearts and dynamic events that players wouldn’t have a “grocery list” of things to do? I mean sure, ultimately that’s what you’re doing in a video game, no matter what. But its hidden. You let yourself get caught up in the flow of the game, play for a while, then open up your inventory to see your spoils.

Don’t get me wrong. I know ultimately its my choice whether or not to pursue these things, and I’m sure its only a matter of a few patches before laurels can be obtained through other means. I guess I just don’t understand why achievements are playing a larger role in GW2, and why they’re so important to modern video games. Anyone care to explain?

I’m questioning the same thing. Anyone know?

They’re worthless yellow numbers that some are obsessed with…

If they touch the Achievement system at all again for anything more than balance or beneficial updates (like the upcoming patch where you can pick your dailies) then i’d be alarmed. I think they just don’t have a cohesive vision for the long haul in this game and they’re scrambling to try and appease the latest complaints every month. This is why we have these worrisome problems. Give the game a couple years. It’s no where near ship-shape even 6 months after launch and that’s sad considering how vapid and shallow the gameplay is.

People are more focused on daily achievements now because of Laurels, which can purchase Ascended gear. That’s the same reason people focus on Fractals.

It’s all because of gear tiers. Ascended items are pretty much best-in-slot, even though they supposedly only benefit people going up in Fractal levels.

They are making such changes because they want to keep people who need end-level treadmill grinds, never mind people who preferred the character of GW1. This is a sequel in name only, as most people playing obviously have known for a long time.

Daily Achievements/quests/tasks/challenges/objectives… indeed, almost every MMORPG seems to have them nowadays.
Why? To keep people coming back every day so they stick around. Pretty much every daily in every game I’ve played shared the same feature; a moderate (and sometimes, such as in GW2’s case, unique) reward for comparatively little effort. This gives players incentive to log in at least once a day to do these (usually) small tasks. I don’t think I have to explain how this turns out to be very lucrative for the companies behind these games.

Even though laurels are only obtainable through dailies/monthlies right now, most of the rewards are not that unique. I think it’s more likely that there will be new ways to obtain the currently unique laurel rewards (ascended amulets, minis, utility infusions etc.) rather than laurels themselves.