Nerd Mentality

The Ethics of Achievements

Posted November 14th 2007 by Curtis Brunet.

I've written in regards to Xbox 360 Achievement Points in the past, so I won't bore you with the details. If you are unsure of what I am discussing, I have written about them in the past in the article Achievement Unlocked. But if you are familiar with Achievements, check the article out anyways. I'll give you some time.

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Back already?

I wrote an N-Sight about 2 weeks back detailing my misadventures trying to find Guitar Hero in the land of the North. Needless to say, I was mad. Nay, I was furious that I could not find my game of choice. How is it in this day of mass-production they cannot supply enough product for demand? Regardless, I made my trip to Boston, Massachusetts (just a short 7 hour trip...sigh...), visited with my brother, took in a Boston Bruins beating by the Ottawa Senators (woot), and scored myself a (plentifully available) copy of Guitar Hero 3. I guess I shouldn't have expected anything less, hell, EA is stealing Canada's copies of Rock Band for Americans as well, so I really shouldn't be surprised.

ANYWAYS, let me get back on track. I have my copy of Guitar Hero 3, and I'm obviously loving it. Tracks like Preistess's Lay Down, Before I Forget by Slipknot, and Queen's of the Stone Age's surprisingly catchy 3's and 7's are all a blast to play. That and the fact that I don't have Crazy on You by Heart blocking my progression on Hard means I might actually play this title more than Guitar Hero 2 (yes, I'm more of a Guitar Sidekick than a Guitar Hero).

It was also with great glee that I found myself finally with a second Guitar Hero guitar controller. Finally, co-op, and face-offs are mine. So obviously, the first thing I did was played through the Co-Op Career with my lovely girlfriend. Playing through on medium, we quickly cleared the mode, amassing quite a few Achievements... at least for me. The first run through a song, we hit a 276 note streak and I was promptly rewarded with the Achievement "A Couple of Streakers", which is rewarded for "Earn a 200 note streak in a Co-op match". I use quotes there cause that is exactly what the Achievement is listed as. I noticed immediately that the Achievement only registered for myself, but moved on anyways thinking it must have registered for my girl and I simply missed it. After a few matches, I went into her gamertag and took a look, noticing immediately the low gamerscore. *sigh* Then came the testing phase: What if she was 'Player 1' in the game? What if she was 'Player 1' in the system? What if we swapped guitars? What if she logged in first? Nothing. No matter what we did, when we played our created band, she would not receive Achievements. She definitely did "earn a 200 note streak in a Co-Op match", but apparently that doesn't matter.

Traveling to the Activision site finally gave us an answer. At first I was sure I was doing something wrong, surely this couldn't be how they created the system, right? But alas, Activision has let me down:

Question

The person I am playing with is not getting any co-op achievements. Why is that?

Answer

The way it is designed, only the main player on the left will get these co-op achievements.

While this isn't technically true, what they do mean is the the main player who creates the band is the one who gets the Achievement. Regardless, I'm sorry, but "the way it is designed"? Who decides that that is how it should work? What moron in a board room decided that Achievements all of a sudden only go to 1 person in a Co-Op environment. That's like playing Halo 3 for the Skulls and realizing that only the person who picks it up gets the Achievement, or worse yet, only 1 user gets the "Campaign Complete: Legendary". How upset do you think gamers would be if that were to happen? Just admit that it was an oversight and move on. Don't lie to us Activision. You got lazy, theres really no other excuse for it.

But fine, argue that its part of the game, and that you should play in your own band. Fine. But what of the harder Achievements in the title? Earlier today I came across a forum thread on Xbox360Achievements.org entitled "Enlightened Guitarist-Glitched". In it, the forum goer Pyroman31 details how to unlock this Achievement WITHOUT doing what it lists you need to do. Technically speaking, to unlock this Achievement you must "Gold Star 20 songs on Expert", which, I'm sorry, I just will never be able to do (again, I'm a Guitar Sidekick, only slightly better than James Hetfield) . There are plenty of posts in the thread ranging from "is this legal? I thought it was... "cheating"... ?" to "Come on Neversoft, get with the [EXPLICIT DELETED] program..." and even a few "Neversoft is the worst company ever and I seriously don't want them to keep doing Guitar Hero."

Wow, harsh, but maybe not far from the truth for some users.

I understand people are upset over this, but I guess the question remains, how is this not part of the Achievement process? Think about it, if a person can unlock it, then isn't the Achievement deservingly theres? It really doesn't matter how the user got it, its the act of getting the achievement that matters. You did something, you get the achievement, so it should be yours. The flip-side of this argument goes back to my dealings with the Co-Op achievements. It's "by design" that the Achievements are like that. Is that fair? Everyone seems to be very vocal in their disagreement over these supposed "glitches", but something like the Co-Op Achievements is fine, and just part of the game. Why can't this glitch be part of the game?

I'm having a real personal dilemma right now over this. Is it ethical to unlock these Achievements? If Activision was so lazy as to create them this way, is it not a users prerogative to do it? Who HASN'T gotten some help for Achievements? I know I just sat down yesterday and got all the skulls in Halo for the Achievements using a guide to where they are. Is that cheating in the same manner that this is? I don't know, I don't think I went to College long enough to accurately answer that question.

So I guess the question is, is if you can get the Achievement, does it not mean that you earned it? No matter how you got it?

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