Breakfast Topic: The reason for the seasonal achievements
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Nov 15th 2010 at 8:00AM
That said, I'm still deciding whether or not I'll actually take the time to do them. After all, none of the Pilgrim's Bounty achievements are needed for What a Long, Strange Trip. I mean, an extra turkey pet is sort of cool, but otherwise, there's not really much of a profit to them. Also, some of the achievements seem downright annoying. Turkey Lurkey? Do I really need to run around looking for all these dumb rogues? Why so arbitrary? And what about the Turkinator? Do I really need to run around a newbie zone like a chicken with my head cut off trying to target critters more quickly than the other 100 people doing it? What does that accomplish?
Then I think about some of the other holidays. It's not like I haven't had to run around Dalaran looking for random class and race combinations before, and it's not like I haven't run around the newbie zones doing silly, inconsequential stuff before either. So why is Pilgrim's Bounty bringing out the achievement cynic in me? I like to think I've been doing achievements because they're interesting and fun, but what if they've been about the carrot and stick all along? Now that there's no reward I'm really interested in, am I finally seeing achievements for what they are, or am I just being a grinch a month early?
What do you think? Do you do achievements for fun, or are you pretty sure you'd leave them alone if they weren't rewarding you with shiny stuff?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Achievements
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Darky Nov 15th 2010 8:03AM
I'm only in it for the mounts, and i cant be bothered with the violet proto drake. To be honest achievement hunting isn't my game.
Knob Nov 15th 2010 8:23AM
I do the seasonal events to break up the daily routine of the daily heroic and raid preparation. That being said, since I've already completed this on my character before and have no alts, I won't be repeating it this year.
justincmorris Nov 15th 2010 8:53AM
Well the pilgrim event does allow you to get your cooking upto pre wotlk max level for fairly cheap and I have a new 80 plus another alt at 69 that means I can work towards max cooking on 2 more toons. To me that is what makes this in game event great
Noyou Nov 15th 2010 10:19AM
It's another good opportunity for mages to earn gold: "Now porting to....." Plus as stated it is a fantastic way to get your toon/alts cooking up to 350 with minimal effort. It's also an easy title to earn if you are into those things :)
Kodak18 Nov 15th 2010 1:54PM
I'm another "Pilgrim's Bounty = cooking skillups" player. It's the reason that I look forward to PB more than most of the other holidays.
MusedMoose Nov 15th 2010 8:08AM
I think these achievements are in the game for the same reason the game exists in the first place: because it's fun. ^_^ Granted, some things that are supposed to be fun can get really, really annoying, but that's when it's time to stop and step away from whatever you're doing for a bit.
Personally, I got the "Elder" title on one of my mains a while back, and I enjoyed doing the holiday stuff so much that I figured I'd go for the meta-achievement. That main also collects purple mounts, so it's pretty much win-win.
All the same, I'm really not looking forward to finding the race-class combos for upcoming achievements, since Dalaran's not going to be as highly-populated once Cataclysm comes out. @_@
Nipah Nov 15th 2010 8:21PM
I agree with the Moose.
I do them for fun, and if they're still fun the next year, I'll do them again.
Take the Hollow's End events for instance. Sure, I really wanted the items from the HH, but he was in a dungeon and I could go kill him every day no problem. However, I still went trick or treating on my various characters, both for random cool items (helm, squashling) and for the awesome disguises (Undead Pirate > all). I didn't really do all the candy barrels in the inns again, as I've done it once on my Shaman and didn't care enough to go out of my way on my alts (though if I was there, I got em... 6g or a chunk of XP is a nice bonus).
Amnesiatic Nov 15th 2010 8:10AM
"Finishing" in the first paragraph should be "finish".
On topic: I always do all seasonal events. They are a welcome change from all the dailies, battlegrounds and dungeons.
Sleutel Nov 15th 2010 8:21AM
Or "end up finishing."
Rufio Nov 15th 2010 8:28AM
In Australia, that'll be changed before we all wake up! I dunno, I find that interesting. Did I just time travel...?
gale Nov 15th 2010 8:39AM
I think of achievements as little games within the game. They are definitely the reason I'm still busily having fun while half my guildies are constantly moaning about how bored they are. I think I've recently made some converts by dragging them along on some silly expeditions :)
brian Nov 15th 2010 12:23PM
Hey I heard you like games, so...
Nevermind.
Rommster Nov 15th 2010 12:54PM
^^ This! WoW has so many non-shiny things to offer us...and to me the holiday events are just fun to do. They're things that break up the "must kill boss here for their fancy shinies. I think people who get "bored" at the end of an expansion could benefit from a few days of stopping to smell the cranberry chutney.
cj Nov 15th 2010 8:16AM
Pilgrim's Bounty is worth doing for power leveling Cooking alone...
Neyssa Nov 15th 2010 8:21AM
that's exactly what I will do now, leveling cooking on something like 5 alts :)
Last year I only did it on my main, and I could not wait for this year to level alts too.
razion Nov 15th 2010 8:26AM
What I like most about it is the fact you can do it with so few low-level recipes. It really consolidates your recipe book down so you don't have to scroll down through half a hundred gray things you never make anymore (I really wish the game had a "forget how to make such and such" feature) to have a list of recipes you do make all on the same page without having to scroll.
Camo Nov 15th 2010 8:35AM
Like the new "has skill up" option maybe?
musicchan Nov 15th 2010 8:51AM
I do all the holidays on my two mains because I love doing holidays, but the easy cooking leveling is EXACTLY why I do Pilgrim's Bounty on ALL my other characters, everywhere. Easy cooking leveling? PLZKTHNX
I have a lvl 25 character with 350 cooking. There is nothing more awesome then that.
Neyssa Nov 15th 2010 9:09AM
@razion:
If you use crafting addons, I recommend you get Advanced Tradeskill Window.
It lets you categorize your recipes.
For cooking, I have 'achievment food', 'raidfood', 'interesting low-level stuff' and 'meh-never-use-it-who-cares' food categories. You dont even need to ever open the list of the last category, and you find your favorites listed on top and categorized.
Kurtis Nov 15th 2010 9:12AM
@raizon - sounds like you need Advanced Trade Skill Window. I have all of mine sorted by difficulty (descending) so the recipes that will give me a skill up are always at the top.