[Bridget]

It is not final whether or not the Orangebox conversion will come with achievements, but I figured I would make this thread regardless. Now, don't go berserk when you hear the word 'achievements' simply because Team Fortress 2 uses them. Achievements in one form or another have been in video games for quite some time. I can think about having to unlock all the secrets in Donkey Kong Country for a 101% ending scene as an example. Even when achievements weren't available; we created our own. That is the whole point behind speed-runs.

Team Fortress 2 did screw up the way achievements worked by making advantageous unlocks dependent upon the achievements' completion. That's not the only problem with the way achievements were implemented. I want to outline what I feel makes achievements terrible and how I think we can combat it and produce achievements that add to the experience instead of taking away. Achievements have great potential.

1. Achievements must not be monotonous and repetitive. These achievements are a testament to patience instead of skill. Achievements should, when the person is capable and within a certain 'skill level' or 'skill set', be completed quickly. If you can't complete an achievement, it should be an indicator of your inability as opposed to lack of determination, which leads me to my next point:

2. Achievements should not be made difficult artificially. For example, in Team Fortress 2, achievements are often difficult to achieve. It has nothing to do with your ability or skill-level, it has to do with the achievements being so bizarrely constructed that even someone greatly skilled would need to dedicate time to it. If you can't complete an achievement, it should be an indicator that you are not ready (in terms of skill) to do so. This should encourage you to progress to that achievement. Inability to complete an achievement should never be based on the fact that the achievement is poorly constructed.

3. As stated above, people should have to progress to be able to achieve some achievements. They should have to do lower achievements to ramp up to the achievement they find difficult instead of 'rolling the dice' and attempting to get the achievement by blind luck or reptition. Achievements should build off previous knowledge and supply you with something that can be built off even further. TF2 tries to do this by teaching you how to use weapons and rewards you by giving you a new weapon, and that weapon's achievements lead up to another weapon, and so on. This is nice, but TF2 achievements often fall short on the other parts of what I think make achievements great.

4. Achievements should be informative and educational, teaching the player how to get the best out of his class and the game in general. Showcase what makes Fortress Forever great. If an achievement introduces something new to the player that he or she can benefit from, then it has achieved most of what it should have been created for. For example, an achievement that encourages the player to -- instead of sitting at the flag trying to blue pipe incoming offense -- set up a pipe trap on the flag and detonate it as enemies try to steal the flag is a good example. It teaches you something.

5. To follow up from point 4 and elaborate on point 1, achievements should always serve a purpose. Achievements like "Kill * x with y" are examples of bad achievements, because by the time you progress to the skill level where you can complete these achievements, they become useless. I have the skill needed to complete these achievements, I learn nothing by doing them (I don't build off my knowledge which is ideal in an achievements system) and waste my time doing them. Why do purposeless achievements? No thanks. Bad examples in TF2 are everywhere, but here's one: "While rocket jumping kill an enemy with the Equalizer before you land." This teaches you nothing. It's merely a bragging right. It's fun to brag about pulling off something amazing, but it's effect (unlike educating someone on how to play the game effectively) disappears eventually.

6. Achievements must be passive, encouraging good gameplay choices while the gameplay actually happens instead of departing from it. A example of a bad achievement that breaks this rule is the one in Team Fortress 2 where the Medic is expected to Ubercharge a Scout, who in turn kills three enemies with his Force-A-Nature. This is a bad achievement because 1. Scouts are not good ubercharge partners, so this encourages a bad gaming decision and 2. because Scouts are bad ubercharge partners, you depart from the intended gameplay (have a Medic jeopardize his class role and position) to get some pointless achievement that will never come in handy again. Medics would much rather Uber Soldiers or Demomen. Poor achievement design, imo.

7. This is a simple one. Achievements should be optional, though recommended. Of course someone who does his achievements might learn something new and useful and become better than the person who neglects the achievement system, but the idea is that the person who just wants to play the game doesn't lose out entirely. Team Fortress 2's achievement system becomes almost mandatory. The development team there strived to make the unlock items mere alternatives or 'sidegrades' but given the latest updates (Equalizer, Direct Hit, etc) that attention to detail has been thrown out the window. No unlocks, no broken benefits, just knowledge.

That's all I can think of. Discuss? Bonus? Try to create at-least one achievement for each class that follows the bold guidelines above. You can do more if you want. =D