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Achievements Planned for StarCraft 2, Diablo 3
by Aaron Linde, Aug 01, 2008 1:50pm PDTBlizzard Entertainment's anticipated PC sequels StarCraft II and Diablo III will track a player's achievements via a unified "Blizzard Account," World of Warcraft lead designer Jeff Kaplan has revealed.
"Eventually, our plans are for the Achievement system to become an account-based system," Kaplan told MTV Multiplayer. "For now the points are just a [World of Warcraft] character score. As we graduate to that Blizzard Account system, which is right on the horizon, it will switch over to a Blizzard Level."
Kaplan explained that a player's so-called Blizzard Level—essentially akin to the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Gamerscore—would be composed of achievements across numerous Blizzard titles including StarCraft II, Diablo III and World of Warcraft, which will see the addition of achievements in an upcoming expansion.
The developer further noted that the Blizzard Level would go further than a simple accumulation of points.
"Your WoW score would be just one factor that will go into your Blizzard Level," Kaplan added. "And rather than call it a 'score,' we just wanted it to be like you're leveling up on Blizzard games... You'll have this Blizzard identity, and you'll be able to see things like 'Oh, this guy was great at Diablo III, but he never played Starcraft and he was mediocre in WoW.' That sort of thing."
Comments
Fish up the Hydra in ZG.
Fish up the Lurker Below in SSC.
At least those really are achievements (i.e. not everyone will do them)
Other achievements are more like running tallies, such as number of times you die in a 5-man. I can see guilds looking at those stats for applicants much the same way people look at how many patients die on a surgeon's table.
"You're a mage who's died 100+ times on a 5-man and you're still in quest loot gear? Sorry, we don't want you."
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There must be some really good numbers floating around that shows positive gains from these artificial achievements. I know people love them on xBox but I haven't seen any hard info which correlates a boost in sales from a game containing achievements.
Has such an article/report/investors guide been published anywhere?
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So all in all, YAY!
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I can see how it might be stupid to backtrack in order to get certain mundane achievements (though Blizzard already suggested that in such cases as WoW some are retroactive), but gaining them as I progress a new character in WoW seems like a great way to add to what are basically go-here / gather-this quests anyway. For Diablo 3 I'm sure there will also be several interesting achievements.
I'd also like to see more (or in some cases more easily accessible) medal, heat map, and statistical information as in Halo 3 applied to Battle.net, especially for Starcraft 2.
Also, I would pay for Battle.net... if I were somehow guaranteed that Starcraft 2 matches wouldn't be cheat-fests.
Then they make you pay for real unlockables through DLC.
Example:
How it should be: Beat this level in under 30minutes and you will get a bonus level
How it is becoming: Beat this level in under 30 minutes and get an achievement. If you want a bonus level that will be $5.
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Meh?