How to turn off Achievement Spam
by Robin Torres 
Oct 21st 2008 at 10:30AM
I love everything about Achievements. I love getting them, striving for them, perusing them, hearing about them and watching other people get them. (And, obviously, I love writing about them.) They have really added more enjoyment to my gameplay. I loved hearing "Grats noob" in guildchat when I hit 30 on my Mage. I even love it when I get spammed by a bunch of guildies achieving a Jenkins title at the same time. But not everybody does.
Some are turning off their Achievement Announcements. Whether it is Achievement envy or an aversion to fun (yes, I'm not objective), they have figured out how to turn off being notified every time someone in the vicinity loads up their pets and Tricks or Treats for the first time. It's easy to do:
Will update for guildchat when the servers come back up.)
Once Hallow's End is over and the flurry of easy Achievements have been conquered, the spam will die down. The messages will definitely not be a constant throughout Wrath. But, even if it were, I'd still be happily reading about my guildies and the people around me achieving things. But maybe that's because I'm a casual player in a guild full of hardcore raiders -- I get to read about the Achievements I will probably never earn. I admit it. Sometimes I play vicariously.
How do you feel about the Achievement Spam?
Some are turning off their Achievement Announcements. Whether it is Achievement envy or an aversion to fun (yes, I'm not objective), they have figured out how to turn off being notified every time someone in the vicinity loads up their pets and Tricks or Treats for the first time. It's easy to do:
- Right click on the chat tab that you want to remove the notifications from.
- Select Settings.
- Select Other.
- Uncheck Achievement Announce.
- For turning off Guildchat announcements, select Chat and then uncheck Guild Announce -- but this turns off all Guild announcements.
Once Hallow's End is over and the flurry of easy Achievements have been conquered, the spam will die down. The messages will definitely not be a constant throughout Wrath. But, even if it were, I'd still be happily reading about my guildies and the people around me achieving things. But maybe that's because I'm a casual player in a guild full of hardcore raiders -- I get to read about the Achievements I will probably never earn. I admit it. Sometimes I play vicariously.
How do you feel about the Achievement Spam?
Filed under: Tips, How-tos, Achievements
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Ekimus Oct 21st 2008 10:35AM
It's bothersome, but I will die down. I can wait...
Not to mention, some have cool and funny titles...which makes for interesting guild chat.
Ekimus Oct 21st 2008 10:36AM
"it will die down", not i will die down...
D.O.T. Oct 21st 2008 4:10PM
I agree with this. I don't mind the spam because it will eventually slow down... besides, why miss out on who is getting what. ^__^
Trilynne Oct 21st 2008 10:36AM
I love it, it's nice to know when other people discover something (like the 'Trick or Treat!" achievement), or when they complete a more difficult task (like getting 50 pets or mounts). It's even more fun when we raid! Sunday night we downed Kael'thas, a guild first, so there was an EXPLOSION of 25 people who got the achievement! Yes, post-nerf, yadda yadda, it was FUN, and that's the main point of a GAME, right? ^^
Teresa Oct 21st 2008 10:36AM
Some people are reporting that this checkbox doesn't work. That they have to turn off ALL guild announcements as well to get the spam to stop...
Incoming bug fix?
Dyna Oct 21st 2008 10:37AM
I rather enjoy seeing them, unlike most folks who seem so full of themselves that bring distracted by a little bit of text is akin to depriving them of some kind of constitutional right to never see any chat content they didn't approve of.
BillDoor Oct 21st 2008 10:37AM
I like the spam, to be honest. Sure, knowing that someone got a minipet is annoying, but finding out right away that someone got the horseman's mount? That's pretty cool.
lsschwartz Oct 21st 2008 10:39AM
I love them. It's part of the experience of sharing what you accomplish in game with your fellow guildies. And really, before this we'd go to gchat and say "Downed X or Y" anyway.
programmerchris Oct 21st 2008 12:16PM
Yeah, at least 50% of people i know who have tried that have found it doesn't work. It doesn't work for me either, and i can't find any other damn way to get rid of the spam!
I wouldn't mind having it in another chat tab, which i tried to do, but it still won't get out of my main tab...
Azman Oct 21st 2008 10:42AM
I actually does not works. I unchecked it and still see other's achievements in gchat and people still see mine. The only thing that it turns off is the the orangy brown achievement announcement in the chat window.
Amaxe Oct 21st 2008 2:28PM
That's ideally what I want. If a Guild member gets something, sure, that is great. But who cares if some orc in Shattrath named "Ipwnnoobs" visits the trick or treat and gets an accomplishment?
tanek Oct 21st 2008 10:44AM
Using the method here only turns off the proximity achievements (and your own, oddly enough). You have to turn off guild announcements to no longer see them from guildies, I think. But then you don't see the other guild announcements either.
Mondryn Oct 21st 2008 10:44AM
I love the announcements. I like to congratulate players who complete achievements and I like to be congratulated in turn. After all, the best part of WoW has always been its players.
Tordenflesk Oct 21st 2008 10:47AM
I don't mind getting them in /G /P or even /W :P
But /1 and /2 in SW and IF's smegging annoying.
akw Oct 21st 2008 1:36PM
I just wish the achievements were hidden until you completed them.
Arcaria Oct 21st 2008 11:08AM
Seeing other people's achievements doesn't bother me at all. As a matter-of-fact it can be kind of fun. Last night one of our hardcore guys finally completed 5 daily quests. So instead of getting that proud, tingly feeling we all got to call him a noob for taking 6 days to finally do 5 dailies.
Once everyone has a lot of the easy achievements out of the way, the spam will die down but I really don't see how someone can be so anal as to let that effect their gameplay anyway.
Mabon Oct 21st 2008 10:51AM
My co-guild leader didn't like the Achievement notices, and asked if I knew how to turn them off. I did tell my guildies, but not until I finished turning in my last Trick or Treat quest to get my own achievement noticed. I agree that the current festival has brought a flurry, and it will die down soon, I"m sure. But I like them, too, and think it adds a sense of camaraderie to guild chat.
Mark Oct 21st 2008 10:52AM
I love the announcements, its part of being friends with your guildmates, to be able to send a simple "grats" when something significant happens.
I do noticed your "casual player" comment and wonder if you might do a column on the future of casual players. It seems like up till now WOW was mostly for the hardcore pvp'er or hardcore raider (previous casual-player articles extolled the virtues of the fishing quests!). Achievements help and the new zones will be fun but I wonder how long casual players will find entertainment.
Tristina Oct 21st 2008 2:24PM
I think casual players might get more of a kick out of the achievement system than people think. If you're a casual player and have a limited playtime, but don't feel like grinding, you can hop on your mount and explore a zone or run around Azeroth buying mini-pets or something else quick and small. It's a fun new dynamic to the game that I think greatly appeals to the casual player.
holyground Oct 21st 2008 10:52AM
That box works only for the orange announcements (proximity announcements).
To stop the guild ones, you have to deselect guild announcements from the chat options.