Achievement Point$: How Microsoft Can Unlock More of Our Wallets
By BiggerBomb 43 Comments
I have been lazy. Actually, I am still lazy. That said, I'm going to try to muster up the energy to blog my thoughts. Anyway, the preface is irrelevant. Let's begin, shall we?! :D
It's pretty stupid, if you think about it. But it's the utter stupidity of the achievement system that, paradoxically, makes it so damn ingenious. Achievements are the (virtual) carrot at the end of the stick that manage to create a self-sustained longevity in the games we buy, as well as an incentive to purchase multiplatform games on the Xbox 360; rather than on the competitors' consoles. People even play bad games, in order to get the achievement points! And that's just it, people spend money to unlock achievement points.
It's a modern day bread & circus, we have come to a point in time when the consumer will give away their hard-earned cash to up their gamerscore. That's simply incredible. That's quite an achievement (sorry!) This brings me to my main point, or idea, if you will. I've had an easily implemented idea, floating around in my head, that would allow us (the players) an opportunity to earn more achievement points, all the while enabling Microsoft to unlock more of our wallets. What is this idea that I'm taking an unecessarily long time, teasing you with? It's simple: Achievements for Xbox Originals.
First, let me clarify what I mean by this. I'm not suggesting that Microsoft burn through time and resources by creating a set of achievements for all Xbox games that have backwards compatability with the Xbox 360. That would be crazy. What I am suggesting is that Microsoft create achievement tables for all Xbox Originals that are available (and that will henceforth become available) to download on Xbox Live.
The economy sucks right now; and even though people are still buying games, how many of them are spending their money buying last generation games? I'll wager it's not an impressive figure. But Microsoft knows the way we "tick." Microsoft knows what will make us spend money. Microsoft should know that we will pay for achievements.
This is entirely beneficial to Microsoft and on a personal note, I would love to see this implemented as well. Not only would fans have another reason to replay their favorite titles, but this would also encourage players to purchase games that they either (a) never heard of, or (b) never got around to playing.
I can't predict the future, but I sure as hell would bet a pretty penny that the Xbox Originals program would become far more successful should the promise of achievements be added to the equation. The details could be ironed out by Microsoft, those details being largely comprised of how many achievement points to allocate to XBO's; however, I don't see any reason why the full 1,000 would be less enticing than a mere 200 or so points.
Also, let me mention that achievement points are available for Banjo-Kazooie (the XBLA port of the Nintendo 64 game.) If Microsoft could get achievement points into Banjo-Kazooie, I'm sure Psychonauts would be no more of a challenge to update.
Bottom line: I think this works on so many levels, for both Microsoft and us. When it comes to win/win situations like this, it's always appreciated to see them in full effect.
So please do tell, GiantBomb. What do you think? :D
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