Breakfast Topic: Are achievements putting too much pressure on players?
by Lesley Smith 
May 5th 2009 at 8:00AM
The thing is, I know precisely why. It's the pressure of achievements and festivals. Let me be clear, no one is making me do these things but me. Last year I enjoyed Children's Week because it was my first time doing the Outland version, I got rep, money and the smug feeling you get from taking a cute Draenei orphan around to see her heritage. Now all my guildies and most of the other people on my sever are frantically going for the achievements and, in some ways, it feels like the holiday has been cheapened a little. Being so close to Noblegarden probably hasn't helped either.
But it makes me wonder if I'm the only one? Right now I'm a casual player, but do you think the point of these holidays has been lost by the desire to get a Violet Proto-Drake?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 10)
Vandar May 5th 2009 8:06AM
Well after 4 days of WSG, I'm still yet to return a flag. Yes I suck at PVP, I'm the first to admit it. I just hate stressing out over it so I can continue chasing after the "What a long, strange trip its been" meta. I enjoy a good challenge but this is just stupid.
Zuuz May 5th 2009 8:13AM
I spent at least 4 hours yesterday trying to return a WSG flag. I almost broke my monitor getting upset about it in the process. I've given up, it's not happening and not worth the stress.
Kolo May 5th 2009 8:36AM
My usual philosophy with achievements is if they stress me out for even one second, give up. I'm in the top 100 achievement earners on my realm, but I have some basic ones not done because of this.
However because of the proto drake I feel forced into doing these, and I'm ashamed to say for the first time in 2 years I allowed a friend to log my account and do the AV achievement for me. Simply put I felt too stressed. It's sad, and I feel like I might need a break from the game lol.
velutina May 5th 2009 8:41AM
School of Hard Knocks has made me hate this game more than anything else in the last 4 years. I hate my class, my spec, my faction, my battlegroup, and my guild. It's a game, in real life terms it doesn't matter diddly-squat but my blood pressure has gone through the roof. I got the "Patron" Monday night but I'm still seething about the stupid battlegrounds -- WSG especially.
Pexxle -=SilverHand (RP)=- May 5th 2009 8:41AM
Not to point fingers Vandar.
But honestly whether ppl are casual/hardcore this is a video game. Being an open world setting RPG, its difficulty varies from location to location.
I personally enjoy PvP, but not from the hardcore angle. I rather PvE before anything else but, "Returning the flag etc, is not requiring you to engage in battle, you can do this "solo" by not fighting, and pretty much following another who is adept at PvP. You can do it, it just sounds as if you rather not, which is fine, but no different from wiping in an instance repeatedly.
This achievement is up to chance, will your team be an organized PUG or just honor farmers not really worried about the task at hand.
Your best bet, is to bring a friend or a "group" of friends with you into said BGs, you'll be running back with Flags/Attacking Flags in no time.
DCd May 5th 2009 9:02AM
Beware of saying the word 'first' in the first comment :-)
it wakes bad blood way too often >.
Wyred May 5th 2009 9:09AM
"I'm in the top 100 achievement earners on my realm"
Interesting, how can you check this on the armoury?
Thyago May 5th 2009 9:35AM
I was telling my guildies yesterday how I'd lose my first seasonal meta-achiev - cuz really, I do suck at PvP. So I bought myself my first two PvP gears (taking my Resillience to an incredible value of 101), and kept on going. This was kinda of exciting (again, only cuz I suck). Hear the tales I got hitherto:
AB: They were battling at the ramp that lead Mines to Stable. My sneaky mage (rogues, learn!) feather falled + epic mount with running start jump, to make me land in the middle of Blacksmith (already invisible, did I mention?). Ran to Mines, jumped down the cliff, blink'd before hitting ground and there I was at the flag, watching them fight on the ramp. Dude, I swear I could hear my heart beating louder than the swords and spells clashing.
WSG: I was outside the tunnel, just hanging around with my little Draenei girl orphan, you know... telling her how evil hordies are. And there comes that half-spent Shamman throwing earthbinds and trying to heal himself from arrows and spells on his back. And I see him half-life trying to heal himself. Counterspell + Pawnage. Only me, my orphan and the flag. I cried in happiness.
EotS: I thought this would be the hardest. Well, it took a long time though. But finally I convinced three guys to help me secure mid. One time it was me and two nice guys that didnt want/already did the achiev. I threw a gentle "can I?" and my Orphan stared at them with those big pretty eyes. They couldn't help but let us have our fun :P
AV: Today! Oh yeah, 'twill be today! =D
Nekudotayim May 5th 2009 9:45AM
Just to clarify: the achievement in Warsong works when you kill someone who is carrying the flag of your faction, he drops the flag on the floor and you right click on it to take it back to your base.
This was the hardest part, took me one entire hour.
I heard some ppl are waiting on the base with the entire team dancing with their kids. That's an achievement signal.
When that happens and the other team gets it, the invader gets the flag and drops on the floor ten times until everybody gets the achievement. After that, both teams switch the bases and repeat the process on the other faction.
I just loved to hear that. That's a great answer to blizzard.
Kitrine May 5th 2009 1:33PM
I've never done a BG except for AV, and I only did that one a few times to get the Spirit of Competition pet. I would really like to get the title and the meta achievement, but I'm afraid I will be a huge liability to my side. I don't even know where the flag is or where I'm supposed to bring it, lol.
Grats to everyone who has it! : )
Whif May 5th 2009 11:11AM
Wyred said...
"I'm in the top 100 achievement earners on my realm"
Interesting, how can you check this on the armoury?
I don't know if you can on armory or not, but I use . . .
http://wow-achievements.com/
danawhitaker May 5th 2009 11:59AM
I went and got all four of the School of Hard Knocks requirements done last night with a group of guild members. I'd never been in any of the battlegrounds until last night. It took much coaxing/yelling at me on vent on where to go and a lot of dumb luck. The best, best advice I have is to try and go in with a group of people (even if it means you'll be taking turns to do the achievements) because people who know the battlegrounds much better than you will be able to provide advice.
I think the time-limited holiday achievements do add a lot of pressure. Love in the Air was worse for me than any of the others because of trying to get the candies (only got 3 bags during the whole event, and I logged in a *lot*). I think a lot of people who didn't start early felt pressure with Noblegarden because it was hard to find certain female races. I'd hate to be running around doing that on the last day. Children's Week, being much less about the RNG completely, wasn't very frustrating for me.
I think the problem that people ultimately run into is this. If you start the event ON DAY ONE...you will likely be fine (bags of candy situations notwithstanding). If you wait until day 3 or 4 of a short event to start doing stuff, you're going to feel rushed, especially on more frustrating things like the PVP aspects of Children's Week or the "find a _____ female". Anything that relies on a bit of luck and randomness is best done early, so you have the maximum amount of time to accomplish it. Some people don't care much and don't bother starting early. Some people can't for real-world or in game reasons. I think the amount of stress people feel is exacerbated by two things: one, the factor RNG/luck plays into it and, two, how quickly you start working. If you want to avoid stress, try and start early.
I would hate to be hanging around in the battlegrounds the next few days watching people trying to get achievements. It was bad enough last night.
Cor May 5th 2009 1:48PM
Bliz seems intent on forcing people to PvP and BG. I did the achivement, but I'm not proud of it. I went into the BGs with the single propose of getting the achivement. I didn't help the team. I didn't work toward the objective. I got what I needed and /afk out.
Now before you say I suck big time did I really do anything wrong? Sure I violated the "sprit" of the BG and the achivement but the fact is when you are asked to do something you dislike you will do the least of it you can and still get the job done. If they wanted us to play the BG then make the requirements that you win the BG.
Over time it has started to disappointment how little thought Bliz seems to put into these achivements. Or they just don't have a problem trying to force people to play the way they decide the game should be played.
Yes the mount is optional but for some people it is their only chance for a very fast mount and for others like me the attraction of this game is achiveing different goals. As much as I hated it I was not going to give up on a year long quest just because it messes up some BGs.
Don't hate the player, hate the game they're forced to play.
Sargenus May 5th 2009 1:11PM
I suck at PvP to, I thought i would not get SoHK, but i managed, this is my incredible story!
AB: LM, Theres the Horde and Alliance just on the ramp leading down to the Farm. I come up with my orphan, no ones there but a NE Resto Druid who has his back turned. I start to cap the flag and just before I'm almost done he turns and switches to NE form and hits Moonfire. "Dammit!" I say to myself, but turns out; he Moonfiredm y ghoul by accident and I got the flag capped, and proceeded to tear his face off.
WSG: I'm in the flag room with my little Blood Elf girl. A Ret comes in and proceeds to rip my face off, but he manages to get owned by the 4 rogues sitting in there. The rogues left and I went back to the flag room when a warlock comes in and doesn't see me, he picks up the flag and does /dance for 2 seconds before running off. /deathgrip. /faceoff. 'Nuff said.
EotS: Like prolly every single EotS match, everyones in the center spamming AoEs. Well my shammy friend managed to get in there and he Thunderstormed everyone, a good portion of the allys fly off the edge into the Nether(Is that a bug or could you always fall of?), I got the flag and ran to the Blood Elf tower and capped it, not 2 seconds after capping the flag Allys took the tower, so I got it in the nick of time :S
AV: I ran straight to the Bunkers, ALL the horde passed the S-Bunker, so I headed north, I started to cap the tower, until the NPCs had no more ground units to attack so they decided to attack me. I sicked pet to grab all their aggro(Gotta love being a pet class)and I got the tower right as he died, DING! School of Hard Knocks! The funny thing is; We didn't down a single tower because Allys kept capping them back, and we didn't kill their General. But we managed to down the Commander and we won, goes to show you, it's nice to have 6 tanks in the group :P
Wyred May 5th 2009 1:29PM
http://wow-achievements.com/
Beautiful, thank you Whif.
vasich May 5th 2009 3:07PM
Okay really? Enough QQ. If you want the achievement, you have to plan ahead and not be an idiot. Other than that, just be patient. I don't PvP at all, but I did this meta in one sitting without a group helping me.
WSG: Follow the flag when you see it. If they die, spam-click where you think the flag will be. You'll get it.
AB: Mount up and put on autorun during the countdown. When the match starts, run in a straight line toward nearest flag thing. You'll get there first.
EotS: Same as WSG: follow the flag carrier. If it's an enemy, kill them and spam. If it's a team-mate, don't help them and spam. Again, you'll get it.
AV: Same as AB: autorun out the door and mount up. Run in a straight line to the nearest tower and hide behind part of a wall to avoid being interrupted by archers. You'll cap it.
Now stop crying about how this is "ruining the game" and "stressing you out". This is why WoW is being watered down.
croe May 5th 2009 3:20PM
Honestly, it's not that hard to get the flag.
Here are the steps.
Have Blizzard inadvertantly mail you Martin's Fury.
Equip it.
Kill everything in a 30 yard radius.
Return flag.
See? Simple.
TokenChick May 5th 2009 8:07AM
I can see how doing holiday achievements back to back like this would be rough on a casual player, but for a raider like me who doesn't do much on the weekends or whenever I'm not doing dailys or raids, it's a perfect thing to keep me occupied.
Achievements keep me from getting bored with the game. And I wouldn't have experienced as much of the game as I have without them being there. I would never have grinded rep or gone back to those old instances and raids from Vanilla and BC (since I recently started playing).
As for holiday achievements, at the end of the year you get a 310% flying mount, so I don't think it's asking too much of players to do tedious holiday achievements year-round just to get it. Looking forward to receiving mine after Brewfest this year :)
Shulkman May 5th 2009 8:07AM
If the albino drake was 310% I probably wouldn't be driving myself crazy for the violet one.
Raved May 5th 2009 5:29PM
I have to agree with you. I feel somewhat burnt out as well. I don't have the want to do Children's week. I was excited to do the Noblegarden achievements, but I done with achievements for now.