Sun 27 May 2007
A few months back, Clint Hocking did a “rehearsal” of his GDC exploration lecture at IGDA Montreal. Since I had just started playing Crackdown, his one point of “providing many small/dispersed rewards, encourages exploration” really stuck in my mind.
Those dang agility/hidden orbs scattered across the map motivated me to explore the richness and depth of Pacific City, way beyond what I would have done in a normal, more linear, game.
Mind you, the fact that they were linked to Xbox achievements was certainly part of the motivation as well. And, more generally, the idea of all those achievements serving as small rewards to more thoroughly explore the game overall is an interesting one. That is, minus the achievements, would most folks simply clear the 21 gang leaders and be done?
Raphael van Lierop has a lengthy discussion on achievements running in the IGDA’s forums…
May 28th, 2007 at 10:10 am
if someone had told me a year ago that i would have spent so much time playing that silly cell-shaded GTA wanabe, i would have laughed. and walked away.
but HELL, this game is my suprise hit of the year. the orbs, the co-op, the awesome new DLC and most of all, that euphoric feeling of being a 50-meter jumping, semi-thruck throwing, grenade exploding superhuman god-cop.
i love crackdown.
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
[…] I’m blogging this now, though, because the variety of player reactions toward the achievement system may offer an interesting glimpse into what people see as the purposes and appeals of video gaming. Raphael van Lierop has started up a conversation spanning several web pages about the pros and cons of the achievement system. See the original forum thread here, which I came upon via Joystiq, via GameSetWatch, via Dearest Copernicus, “via IGDA executive director Jason Della Rocca. […]