A video interview with EA’s senior director Ryan Stradling on Nintendo’s E3 site hints at the possibility of an achievement-tracking system.
Stradling takes a moment to share his excitement for the new device and its possibilities. He calls it “brilliant” and a “really hot platform”. He’s particularly excited for the possibilities that the 3DS offers for EA Sports.
He then draws attention to the 3DS’ online capabilities.
“Playing games is about playing with my friends,” he says. “And I want to know when my other friends are online, and [the 3DS] is going to give me the ability. It’s also going to let me know what games they’re playing, and there’s real time updates I can get via that. Sports scores, exchanging achievements…”
It’d be a throwaway comment were it not for the fact that Nintendo saw fit to put the words “Exchanging achievements” up in big letters on the screen while he said this. That’s “achievements”, not “Achievements”.
But when you look at the other things he mentions – friend lists, seeing what games they’re playing, real-time updates – it all sounds very Xbox LIVE. And given the 3DS’ purported ability to download information via nearby Wi-Fi access points and even other 3DS devices in the background while you’re doing other things, there’s a ton of intriguing possibilities.
Stradling makes reference to the huge install base that the DS currently enjoys.
“That’s a lot of friends for me to go talk to and communicate with,” he says.
The Achievement and Trophy systems on the Xbox and PS3 have certainly been hugely successful. So successful, in fact, that popular PC and Mac digital-distribution service Steam adopted them, too. And even some Wii games incorporate a quasi-Achievement system, albeit not one which carries across between games.
There’s concern from some quarters that “Achievement culture” leads to gamers treating games more as a “grind” than an enjoyable experience. Some developers such as David Jaffe have been very outspoken about their dislike of them. And it’s true that sometimes badly-planned Achievements and Trophies can spoil gameplay. But sometimes, there are creative, fun Achievements to enjoy.
The original Crackdown on the Xbox 360 was a great example. Its Achievements incorporated the sort of silly things that super-powered open-world gameplay encourages. Keeping a car up in the air for 5 seconds using explosives, for example. Or climbing to the highest point on the map, then jumping off and surviving. Some other games, like Viva Piñata and Test Drive Unlimited, even tie in-game progression to the number of Achievements or Trophies attained.
So it can be done well, and it provides a nice twist on the growing social side of online gaming. And it might be coming to the Nintendo 3DS. Just one more reason to get very excited about the device – as if anyone needed another.
