As I completed Batman Arkham Asylum last night and three little bleeps notifications informed me of my achievement I thought to myself Microsoft really have developed something of great importance here. I guess it’s fair to say that achievements are the currency of accomplishment in the video game world, both the PS3 and Xbox 360 offer indicators to reflect one’s ability within a game with the concept of Gamerscore announcing the overall gaming prowess of an individual. It’s probably also fair to say that achievements are changing the way people play video games, some “achievement junkies” will do all they can to get the highest Gamerscore, boosting with their mates, using glitches and exploits, replaying a section over and over just to unlock a specific achievement. Personally I find this very sad and completely counter to the reasons why I play video games, but achievements can be developed in such a way that they make for a better gaming experience.

Firstly if the achievements are designed with different ranges of capabilities in mind they make everyone feel that they have accomplished something. Take Batman Arkham Asylum as an example – you get 5G for a five hit combo, something most players will accomplish within five minutes but you also have 10gG for a forty hit combo, something I haven’t accomplished even after completing the game. In this example both average and more advanced players are rewarded for playing the game well. Some games also offer achievements for playing someone else in the world who already holds an achievement – this is a great way to encourage people to get online, make new friends and broaden their online friends list. Achievements can also reward the player for exploring the game world fully, immersing themselves in the game more. In these cases achievements serve a greater purpose than an arbitrary number next to your gamer tag, the actually enhance the gaming experience.

Achievements can also help with communication skills in the form of group related achievements, players will need to work together to pull off a particular objective, something they will not be able to do if they sit mute. Moreover they can simply be fun – take the achievements in the recent Wolverine game that hinted to WoW and Portal – just simple fun. I guess achievements also encourage replay value even in the casual gamer which is no bad thing, I recently replayed Bioshock on the hard difficult setting for the sense of achievement I thought it would bring, it was a great idea as the game is an almost completely new experience on the harder setting, making the player really utilise the game mechanics more.

Ultimately gaming is becoming more and more a social medium, with the introduction of Twitter and Facebook on the Xbox 360 at the end of the year even more so, if achievements can tie into concepts like this and offer genuine worth for accomplishment they do and will continue to change the way we game. If they deteriorate into a meaningless number I think they are something that will not make the jump to the next generation.