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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast 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 3 of 4)
Trilynne Nov 15th 2010 8:24AM
Just like any other aspect of the game: if it's fun for you, go for it! If it's not (or isn't going to get you a reward you would find fun [I'm looking at you, School of Hard Knocks... gimme my drake!]), then don't bother. :P I happen to enjoy the break from all the other stuff we do year-round, and a turkey pet is enough incentive for me to deal with the more annoying achieves. ^^
Szass Nov 15th 2010 8:26AM
I have One (1) toon I do achievements on.
If its a fun achieve I might do it with a few of my 80's.
But, really, I only do this stuff once.
Neutrallo Nov 15th 2010 8:30AM
I've been playing for a bit over 5 years, and I'll continue to play when Cat comes out. But I have decided to do it differently this time.
This time around, I am going to do everything that I can to AVOID raiding and dungeons for at least a year. I'm going to spend that year doing mostly the Long, Strange, Trip on alts and levelling to 85 through questing/harvesting/crafting (whatever). Outside of Sinister Calling and Hard Knocks, and a few of the "find this class/race combo" achievements... the LST is fairly fun to achieve.
It's grown pointless (to me at least) to work HARD for gear that I will just be replacing in a month or so. Which is the way it's always been of course... but I have grown tired of that cycle and want soemthing new.
At least with Long, Strange, Trip I get something that lasts and saves me some gold (310% flying).
Noyou Nov 15th 2010 10:32AM
Amen to that. I have only been playing since Jan/09 but I seem to get bored running a dungeon more than 2-3 times. There are a few exceptions. However it seems I can run thru holiday events on all my toons. I currently have a lvl 41 (thanks to hallowed end and the elemental invasion quests) warrior who doesn't mind the easy XP at all. With 2 more 80s planned post-Cata I will be running holiday events for a while. One good thing is the more you run the holiday/special events the faster you get them done. I also like the social aspect of wow and like meeting new realm mates :)
sckeener Nov 15th 2010 9:24AM
I'll be doing the holiday on my alts to level their cooking skill and I might as well do the rest while I'm at it.
Rob Nov 15th 2010 8:29AM
I really like this holiday for some reason. Alot of it doesn't depend on other players killing your fun, and you get something very useful out of it - free cooking leveling. Now if only this could happen *after* 10 million alts are made. (And I think all the mats are BOP, at any rate the recipes are, i think).
Idk, i just find the idea of an 'optional' low-stress, yet zanny and fun holiday...fun. Now, lets compare it to things that really suck.
Easter - Yea for egg campers. Get a life!
Valentines - used to be pretty horrible, still is. May actually do it this year for long strange trip.
Elder - this one is okay, but you get to slog through the entire world. And the guardian of moonglade hasn't be updated since Vanilla, and drops nothing. Oh and the reward - rockets and glowing things...So, this basically sucks.
Halloween - pretty fun, but the RNG is hell. Last year I logged in (seemingly) a zilion times for the freaking toothpick, and it dropped once. This year, i logged in a zillion times, and not a single wand (not like I really need wands, but still). Oh, and the loot still sucks from horseman, but win for improved drop rates on everything. Overall I love this holiday.
Xmas - i don't even remember it. I like the pets...that's about it. Usually i'm gone for most of the time.
Midsummer - actually this isn't terrible, and come cataclysm should be free money since if you are high enough you can fly in all the world now.
Childrens week - eh this is fun. The PVP thing is not all that bad, and I hate pvp.
Basically i hate holidays with huge RNG, that require camping (easter eggs); and i'm not fond of flying all over the world to click a button (its just...why would i play a game to click a button every 10 minutes or whatever). So, yeah thanksgiving has none of this, esp if you can port to dalaran.
Neyssa Nov 15th 2010 9:12AM
"(And I think all the mats are BOP, at any rate the recipes are, i think)."
The recipes are all in the cookbook, and you can buy the book at every major city.
The materials are not BOP, so you can just send them around to alts.
Rob Nov 15th 2010 10:07AM
But the cookbook is essentially BOP right? I'm pretty sure I can't save this stuff for my new goblin alt. That was my main question. Thanks for the info.
Drakkenfyre Nov 15th 2010 10:54AM
Cookbook is BOP, the mats are not.
However, the mats and the items they create are on a duration. Two weeks. So even if you were able to send a cookbook over, and a crapload of mats, they would disappear before you could even create your character.
Traazu Nov 15th 2010 8:40AM
Fair Warning, the only two achievements left on your World Events section after LST will be Dead Man's Party, and Pilgrim's Bounty. I got LST and have had to stare at these two for a year.
Njall Nov 15th 2010 9:50AM
I will use the season to level the heck out of my cooking on all my toons. Again.
Tricia Nov 15th 2010 9:12AM
I pushed hard on all the holiday achievements to get my violet proto drake, and now that I have it, I usually do the fun stuff and leave the boring stuff alone. I full expect I'll cook like a fiend on my alts for Pilgrim's Bounty if only to lvl some of my skill and learn some recipes, but beyond that I doubt I'll do much with it.
I know I put out a lot of fires at Hallow's End and killed the Horseman, alot. Still no reins and still haven't completed the Mask achievement despite 3 years of work now.
I didn't do a -thing- with Brewfest except Kill Coren. Likewise Missummers. I do enjoy egg hunting though, at Easter, and always do Children's Week cuz i think those orphans are super cute.
Tucker Nov 15th 2010 9:25AM
I look at holiday achievements as a sort of "vacation" from the game. I'm given the option to do something that is only available once a year for a about a week for 2, that allows me to take a brake from hard core pvp or hard core raiding, or dungeon grinding, or whatever else we may be doing in this game.
anjeney Nov 15th 2010 9:29AM
350 cooking on a level 10.. nuff said
Chubz Nov 15th 2010 10:19AM
I just realized from this post that I never got my Turkey Pet from last year, I have the title but I never got the pet. Makes me sad panda :(
But seriously, if y'all need a macro to do any of these steps...
Chetti Nov 15th 2010 10:21AM
I like most of the holiday achievements. I've been paying more attention to them since they've changed the way the holiday boss is accessed. Before dungeon finder, it would have been hard for me to come up with a group to down the boss. I pretty much put out of my head any thoughts of a proto-drake and just did the metas that I could do. Of course this is the first year I'm level-ready for the bosses anyway. It seems last year I didn't do any of pilgrims bounty, not quite sure why since there's no big boss to it.. I'll probably do whatever of the achievements I can get to. My main is already at max cooking, so I'll probably do the cooking things on an alt or 2 as well to make use of that. I'm still not counting on a proto-drake, unless I somehow get good at pvp.. otherwise childrens week is just going to continue to go unfinished.
Tim Nov 15th 2010 10:25AM
I do em if I get something at the end. did a few Thanksgiving achievements last year. Mise well try again.
txnicole Nov 15th 2010 10:27AM
"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?"
But THEY ARE rewarding me with shiny stuff. Even if there is no biggie reward (like a mount or title), each one gives points. Plus I get a cool flashy box on my screen which gets screenshotted automatically by an addon of mine - it feels like getting a little certificate of completion. I can't tell ya how many times I alone, or with a pack of guildies, have gone through the most ridiculous or difficult attempts at something just for that little box to pop up and those points to get added to the tally. :D
manticora Nov 15th 2010 10:31AM
I'm not that interested in achievements unless there's a tangible reward for them, and even at that, I'm not too bothered with pets or mounts unless they are particularly cool ones. I'd rather not waste my time farming reputations or chasing turkeys for an arbitrary point value that doesn't affect anything other than the way epeen worshippers react to you...
That said, I do like how they have enabled the devs to provide special parameters for making boss fights different/harder if you so choose to try them.
Drakkenfyre Nov 15th 2010 10:56AM
This will be the last time you can do it before they remove all the portals from Dalaran and Shattrath City. So if you want an easy way to jump between the cities, do it now.