Choosing which achievements to chase

To quote Michael Corleone "Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in."

Attempting to "complete" all the achievements sure feels that way.

I'll never be Beelsebub the gnome warlock, who at last count, has 7,630 achievement points.

But I also realize I already may be above average myself - nearing 5,000. For example, let me use the example of a guildie who has expressed no interest in acquiring achievements points beyond what we get through raiding, etc. I must preface that he's a Death Knight. He hasn't even hit 2,000.

It's similar to "anyone who plays more than you plays to much and anyone who plays less, plays too little." How far you want to take achievements is up to you, but I think most would agree passing the 6k mark as hardcore achiever.

I have a feeling getting that far will require me to play beyond my comfort level. That leads me to choose which achievements I should bother with. For example Baron's mount is one of those achievements that could potentially take a lot of time. Yet I want the mount. I could get a ton of other achievements done in that same amount of time. Yet...it's the Baron mount!

Yeah the choices may be harder than I thought!

Ranking achievements

Can we surmise from achievement points what Blizzard thinks is "important" to do in-game?

I imagine the level of time or difficulty went in to deciding how many achievement points an achievement would reward for completion.

Completing 3,000 quests garners you 50 achievement points. While completing a litany of arena requirements nets you the same.

Achievements involving questing, pvping, raiding, exploring and doing lots of seasonal events all can get you 50 points. So no surprise, this useless exercise proves all areas of the game are equally important. :)

To deserve an achievement

There is a really nice reward from the achievement "What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been", a violet proto-drake with 310% flight speed. Other than A'lar and the gladiator pvp reward mount I don't think any other mounts are this fast coming in at 280%.

No one will be able to get the reward for a year, because the achievement depends upon you completing seasonal events over the course of a year.

In theory it should only ever take anyone a year to complete this regardless of when they start playing. However since the seasonal Brewfest achievement - Brewmaster includes an achievement Brew of the Year which, surprise, lasts over the course of a year. If you missed this year's Brewfest you have to wait two years to get the proto-drake.

Over at the General Forums many have said you are simply undeserving of getting the reward within a year if you missed taking part in this years Brewfest. Mention of "poor planning", "no preparation" and "lack of research" keep popping up. Those commenters think either you should have been aware of what getting a proto-drake entailed and forgoing all and any obstacles completed the Brewmaster achievement or that perhaps you may not have known about the reward but should have completed the Brewmaster achievement for its sake alone and thus you are undeserving of a proto-drake if the only reason you wanted to do the achievement was for the proto-drake.

Many runners run with no intention whatsoever of being first, second or third. However I think achievement rewards in WoW are not gold medals and oversized checks, instead rewards are more like the t-shirt everyone gets simply because they paid way more than an actual t-shirt costs in their entry fee.

I don't raid on a consistent basis anymore, haven't for a while now. Yet, over the course of a few days, I was able to join some runs through some Azeroth instances like BWL and AQ40 and get the Classic Raider achievement. I didn't help learn any of the fights on my character in particular. I didn't spend hours and hours over the course of weeks and months and years. Did I really "deserve" the achievement?

That's why I think we need to get out of this line of thinking that any of us should be deserving of things in-game. At least not when it comes to making an argument for why someone should or shouldn't get something.

Achievements: The end of alts

I wanted to cut back on playing my army of alts in an attempt to cut back playing WoW so much.

But now my alts are getting neglected because of the introduction of achievements. Why level up my alt by running Razorfen Downs when my main needs to run through it for an achievement? Why bother getting some "easy" gear for an alt by going on to Karazhan when my main needs more rep with the Violet Eye?

So far I've heard two players specifically tell me they aren't interested in achievements. The rest of us are running around doing things we probably never would do for our dose of daily ding.

Maybe I'll play an alt after I become an Loremaster.

Nerfed content and Achievements

I'll search through my blog later (maybe) because I'm sure I talked about this before.

Blizzard should adopt a policy of creating really hard raid content with the intent on nerfing it on a schedule.

This would, perhaps, keep hardcore players and less hardcore players happy alike.

The reason why I thought of this again was because of the enjoyment guilds are having currently at finally killings some new bosses. This is occurring because of the massive nerf of TBC instances.

One common sentiment I see is along the lines of "Yes it is nerfed content but it felt good to kill X!"

It is easy to giggle at the guilds who assumed they could have done this even without the nerf. But why rain on their parade, all you uber guilds just give them a soft pat on the head and let them have their fun.

I think boss achievements should look something like
Be first to Defeat Kil'jaeden in Sunwell Plateau Worldwide
Be first to Defeat KJ EU, USA, etc
Be first on your server
Be first Alliance or Horde on your server
Defeat KJ within week of 1st kill
Defeat KJ within month of 1st kill
Defeat KJ within (1st nerf)
Defeat KJ within (2nd nerf)
Just Defeat KJ at some point.
etc...

Okay that may be overkill with the variety of achievements from one single kill. But Achievements come with points and the higher up on the list could get your more points. Or maybe a boss appropriate title and/or 310% mount?

It's along the lines of being rewarded something regardless of what pace you play. But those who progress faster would still get something more. I'm not sure this would keep the really hardcore happy because I think one of the major complaints is their boredom between raid releases.

My point is to make a earlier planned schedule of nerfing content. I imagine the content was nerfed because of Wrath.

But why not nerf it earlier? From what I've seen if you are going to kill the boss in its first incarnation, you'll kill it and relatively speedily within the first few months. But it is almost like it isn't until a nerf that a few more guilds flow through the floodgate. And it isn't until it is massively nerfed that the rest of the guilds are able to come out and play.

I guess I want a playground for all. If the less hardcore don't mind knowing they are making castles in the kiddie sandbox and the hardcore don't mind sharing their courts it might work.

Achievements!

The announcement about Achievements got me excited about Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

I think EQ already has this, but the achievements actually improve your character. These are more like maybe LOTRO things like exploring several places will give you a "World Explorer" achievement.

I was excited and at the same time sad. Because the things that are stopping me from playing soon - spending too much time in-game, well Achievements make it sound like I'd be on acid.

I never ran out of things to do really, I just ran out of things I considered fun. And achievements sound like a ton of fun things to chase after.

Exactly what would keep me playing hour after hour after hour.

I look forward to them adding it. Not for myself. But for other gamers who don't have a problem with their slash played. :)