A Sense of Achievement

There is a large misconception among people who do not play games that anything that happens in a game is fake. It's not tangible and therefore holds no value or purpose and is seen as a waste of time. Perhaps even some gamers feel this way as well and treat games as just something to fill in the time but it's not at all true. Just because you can't touch something doesn't mean it's not real; I can't touch gravity but I firmly believe it's there. The brain is a complex organ and holds a lot of secrets that we are yet to unlock and it can be tricked quite easily and games can do this well. When I think back on a battle in a game, in my mind's eye, I don't remember seeing the edges of the monitor or my hands on the keyboard. I don't remember any outside stimuli; only what was happening in the game. As far as your brain is concerned, this shit matters.

Holy shit our brains are gullible.

I was firmly against the idea of achievements and trophies when they first cropped up. I saw them as little more than hamster wheels to keep people playing the same game, like bits of coloured ribbon given to soldiers, and not worthy of wasting my time and I think this is an attitude held by many PC players. Unlike consoles, nothing gets bigger when you get an achievement on the PC. On the 360 your 'gamer score' gets bigger and on the PS3 you gain levels as you get trophies. On PC the achievement gets marked off but that's about it. Sure it means that other people on Steam can go to your profile and see what achievements you earned but, come on, how many people actually do that? Most people I know who play on PCs are not social creatures when it comes to games. There's no incentive to deliberately go after achievements and I saw them as an irrelevant and superfluous addition to the gaming sphere. Then I got a console.

"Wow 'grats dude!" - said no one ever

Achievements meant a lot more on consoles than I knew and after a while I started to go a little bit more out of my way to get an achievement or two. I started to see the value of achievements apart from earning a few 'gamer score' points or another intangible trophy: it wasn't about giving you a reason to play a game a different way. It introduced a meta game where you did things differently, looked for alternated solutions and changed the nature of play. Some requirements for an achievement were ridiculously complex and I viewed these as impossibilities such as trying to play Metal Gear Solid with no kills, no alerts, as fast as possible and no reloading; I'd never be that keen on getting a silly achievement. But then you find yourself replaying a game you've played several times and you realise you're in a rut. You're doing the same thing all the time and you bring up the achievement list to see what you haven't got, something to aim for this time, make this playthrough mean something.

 If I've not already made it clear, I'm an ardent fan of Metal Gear Solid and recently got my first 100% completion, a Platinum trophy, for Metal Gear Solid 3. This was the first time I'd ever fully completed a game. Seeing that little icon pop up at the finale heralding the fact that I had bested everything this game had to offer made me swell with pride. It got me thinking, 'I should try to get 100% on Metal Gear Solid 2', the game I was planning on playing next. To get that, you have to do a lot of tediousness like collecting every single soldier's dog tags on every difficulty and completing every virtual reality mission (of which there are about 350), something I never thought I would do. It was hard, and I mean fucking stupid difficult, but when I finished that final VR mission and the little icon popped up heralding another challenge met, I swelled up with pride. Just two more playthroughs and it's another Platinum trophy. The allure of trophies made me do something I never thought myself capable of doing.

The sense of accomplishment, or achievement if you will, is not artificial. The feeling of relief when you finally complete something that was previously seen as impossible washes over you like a cool breeze. The sheer joy of never having to do those fucking VR missions ever again made me cry tears of joy. Those salty tears were real. All the emotions and sensations I felt by playing these games and conquering these challenges were created in my mind. To most people having these little trophies and achievement points are meaningless and a waste of time. To gamers it represents a lot of good times, nightmares, and a degree of skill and dedication. They don't have monetary value and you can't polish them in a cabinet but doesn't stop these virtual trophies being as important as the physical ones. You don't get participation trophies in games; you earn that shit motherfucker.

Achievement unlocked: being a little bitchª

there's no way I'm fully completing Peacewalker...



ª http://quinseyblog.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/participation-trophy-generation.html