360 Achievements / "Accomplishments" Research

[standing ovation]

Of course there is a flip side. Achievements are also a way for publishers/developers to see how people are playing games. And in the case of Bizarre Creations, this knowledge changed the fabric of Gotham racing. PGR4 is easier to play than previous iterations (by turning down the skill level, casual players can complete all of the single-player events without being overly obsessive about it) and the achievements seem to be a more natural result of just playing the game.

http://www.bizarrecreations.com/article.php?article_id=5267

Let me explain some of the reasoning behind the 360 achievements this time round. When we designed the achievements for PGR3 (an Xbox 360 launch title) we didn't really know how the system would work, or how popular they'd become!! Although we had a good stab at them compared to other launch titles, there are a few things we changed for PGR4.

On PGR3 we gave too many points out for 'hard' achievements. Here's a little stat for you platinum players to brag about - how many people completed PGR3 on platinum? 20%?..... 15%?.....5%?

Answer = 0.76%

So remember when you think the Platinums in PGR3 were too easy, you're well within the top 1% of PGR players! Even if you're a mere gold player, only 2.95% of players completed PGR3 on gold! The numbers for Silver, Bronze and Steel were much higher. This really shocked us, as we thought most players played the game on silver and gold when actually the vast majority of gamers were playing on silver, bronze and steel. This also meant that the vast majority of players were completing PGR and earning hardly any gamerscore. Players were putting in 15 hours plus of effort and coming out with 200-300 gamerpoints! So for PGR4 we decided we'd give out more points for the 'easier' achievements, as we know you hardcore gamers will play just to earn the achievement badge itself.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Interesting point. Does anyone embed analysis tools into online games, to measure how they're played? Like H3 was tested in that play laboratory, couldn't user metrics report back to developers on how much a game is played, how it's played, where and when a player stops playing, etc. It wouldn't need to be online play either. You could save data to HDD or memory card and upload it when the user goes online to get an update or download something, even if they online play games offline

I guess you'd need to notify the users, which might annoy them. Although would you need to? Couldn't you just inform them that the game sends back diagnostic data for future development purposes, and no personal information is sent? Perhaps have it as an option with an added incentive - 100 Achievement points if you enable data feedback for a month of play!

 

[PARANOiA]

Of course there is a flip side. Achievements are also a way for publishers/developers to see how people are playing games. And in the case of Bizarre Creations, this knowledge changed the fabric of Gotham racing. PGR4 is easier to play than previous iterations (by turning down the skill level, casual players can complete all of the single-player events without being overly obsessive about it) and the achievements seem to be a more natural result of just playing the game.

http://www.bizarrecreations.com/article.php?article_id=5267

Great link - thanks

 

[mister slim]

Interesting point. Does anyone embed analysis tools into online games, to measure how they're played? Like H3 was tested in that play laboratory, couldn't user metrics report back to developers on how much a game is played, how it's played, where and when a player stops playing, etc. It wouldn't need to be online play either. You could save data to HDD or memory card and upload it when the user goes online to get an update or download something, even if they online play games offline

I guess you'd need to notify the users, which might annoy them. Although would you need to? Couldn't you just inform them that the game sends back diagnostic data for future development purposes, and no personal information is sent? Perhaps have it as an option with an added incentive - 100 Achievement points if you enable data feedback for a month of play!

Valve does that through Steam. They'll actually patch single-player based on that information.