Erfolge/Trophäen finde ich nicht so schlimm. Im besten Fall können sie Anreize liefern, das Spiel mal auf eine andere Weise anzugehen oder es gar auf eine neue Weise durchzuspielen. Im schlechtesten Fall vergeudet der Entwickler Ressourcen auf etwas, das keinen interessiert - aber man kann die Erfolge/Trophäen als Spieler ja immerhin ignorieren.
Das ist das Perfide an Achievements: Du kannst versuchen, sie zu ignorieren, aber wenn das Gameplay immer mehr auf Achievements zugeschnitten wird, ist das irgendwann auch nicht mehr möglich.
Zu dem Thema gibt's ein ganz interessantes Interview mit dem Braid-Macher:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6224/catching_up_with_jonathan_blow.phpRichtig interesssant wirds ab Seite 3 (da geht's noch um Farmville und Ähnliches, danach dann um Achievements):
[...]
It's only about exploiting the players and yes, people report having fun with that kind of game. You know, certain kinds of hardcore game players don't find much interest in FarmVille, but a certain large segment of the population does. But then when you look at the design process in that game, it's not about designing a fun game. It's not about designing something that's going to be interesting or a positive experience in any way -- it's actually about designing something that's a negative experience.
It's about "How do we make something that looks cute and that projects positivity" -- but it actually makes people worry about it when they're away from the computer and drains attention from their everyday life and brings them back into the game. Which previous genres of game never did. And it's about, "How do we get players to exploit their friends in a mechanical way in order to progress?" And in that or exploiting their friends, they kind of turn them in to us and then we can monetize their relationships. And that's all those games are, basically.
[...]
So there's this idea of intrinsic motivators versus extrinsic motivators. Intrinsic is when you really want to do something, extrinsic is "I'm getting paid to do it, whatever the payment is, if it's achievements or level ups or whatever." The more you get paid in this kind of string-you-along way to do something, is found in general by decades of very consistent psychological research, the less motivated people tend to be for interesting tasks.
That could have two effects. One could be people enjoy games less and end up only doing them for these rewards, which is kind of what's happening in game design, actually. And the other thing that could happen is that... because games are made through this cycle of focus testing and refining things and when these rewards become a major part of the game, that's a big part of the focus test and so now people are looking at, "How do we make the rewards work the best?"
And if they work the best in situations where the gameplay is dull, then you gravitate towards games where the gameplay is dull and it's all about the rewards, right? Because that's the system that works the best when you're reward heavy. So that may be happening as well.
[...]
Ich hab nur grob ein wenig daraus zitiert... im Grunde genommen ist das gesamte Interview recht lesenswert. Es versteht sich übrigens von selbst, daß ich der Achievement-Einschätzung zustimme.
