Achieveing Something

With the pre-content patch download at home while I work away and the release date for Wrath announced I think it is time to have an in depth look at a couple of things. Achievements were announced quite a while ago to mixed feeling from World of Warcraft players.

To a certain extent achievement keeps a record of things you have done. You can keep track of how many quests you have completed, how much of the world you have seen. This might encourage you to go back and visit somewhere you have never been before. When I looked at “The Keymaster” achievement I realised I had never been to Dire Maul and subsequently I don’t have the key obtained there. Completely bizarre things will also be tracked for example /loving critters and reading different books.

For some players this might be an additional time sink they don’t need, feeling they have to go back to Straglethorn Vale to complete the Nesingway quests might be something they really can’t be bothered doing. Well the great thing is they don’t have to. Achievements do not reward anything you “need” just things you might want. In fact at the moment rewards are limited to titles and a vanity (non combat) pets. Many players will enjoy the time sink aspect, achievements provides many goals that all players can reach, even if they can’t raid, compete in high level arenas or log in for large blocks of time.

One thing you may want is a title, Ironarm still clings to his old “Sergeant” title and Alassiel invested a lot of time getting her new title. Achievements is bringing several new and exciting ones. You could be “the Seeker”, “the Explorer” or the “Flame Warden”. With enough time and dedication any of these could be attained. Blizzard are introducing new ones too> Personally I would like to see “the Drunk” (rewarded from It’s Happy Hour Somewhere) or “the Coward” (for declining duels).

Some achievements will be easy, some hard but Warcraft is all about filling in time, making and reaching goals and having fun, achievements is just building on this and providing some new paths to take.