achievement-points
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Russian player unlocks every WoW achievement
Russian player Хируко has become the very first person to earn all 21,995 total achievement points possible in World of Warcraft. This human priest has filled out every single bar in every achievement category and has racked up 205 Feats of Strength along the way, as well. According to his own post on MMO-Champion, he managed to get the Realm First achievement for every single class to 90 on the same day by multi-boxing on a low-population PvP server while his guildies killed other players trying to out-level him. Perhaps not the kindest or most ethical manner of getting to the top but it certainly worked. In addition, he had to build a special PC rig in order to be able to run all 12 open screens simultaneously. Over at WoWProgress you can check out the achievement point leaderboards--currently Хируко is the only one to have all 21,995 points, however as of this writing there are five other players who are only 10 achievement points behind, and even more trailing only a few more achievements behind that. For serious achievement point collectors, the gauntlet has been thrown.
Guild Wars 2's leaderboards are up and running
Guild Wars 2's big March update introduced leaderboards as an abstract concept. Things were being tracked and ranks calculated, but we couldn't really see what that all amounted to. Those of you who have been unsure of your self-worth up 'til now can rest easy, though: The leaderboards have gone live. You can check them out for yourself. Right now the leaderboards show the top 100 players for PvP, WvW, and achievement points. The PvP boards are based on tournament matches, which players will need to have participated in at least ten of before their stats are tracked by the leaderboard. The team is looking forward to expanding the functionality of leaderboards in the future, but at least we've got some sort of stick to start measuring ourselves by.
Flameseeker Chronicles: High achievers
Well, ArenaNet certainly didn't let 2011 go out on a quiet note. The team had a few last tricks up its sleeve before closing down shop until the new year. We chatted with Eric Flannum about the Guild Wars 2 Mesmer, and the newest ArenaNet blog post contained some exciting talk of combat, achievements, and some tweaking to the Thief class. I loved hearing about the updates to the Thief and to combat because the fact that the developers are talking about fine-tuning says good things to me about the development process. However, it was the talk of achievements that really caught my attention because it's such a sweeping, game-wide system. Follow along after the jump and let's take a closer look!
Cataclysm Beta: New guild achievements added in patch 12984
Patch 12984, the latest Cataclysm beta build, just crash landed across the net, and MMO-Champion is mining out the latest changes. Included in the changes are a bunch of new or tweaked guild achievements. Here are some examples: Realm First! Nefarian First guild on the realm to defeat Nefarian in Blackwing Descent on heroic difficulty while in a guild group. United Nations Raise 55 reputations to exalted. Reward: Dark Phoenix Hatchling. You've Been Iced Figure it out. Perhaps the readers can actually help explain to me what "you've been iced" means. I wasn't aware there were bros in Azeroth yet, but I guess after all those popped collars on the priest tier 10, it was bound to happen. Hit the jump for the full list from MMO-Champion.
Breakfast Topic: 8,785,350
While preparing for the raid yesterday, the subject moved from the new Cataclysm info that was announced to statistics -- specifically the statistics tab of the achievements panel. One of our warlocks stated that the Battle for the Undercity ruined his statistics, because his highest hit dealt was over 800k, something that was possible due only to buffs received during the encounter. But then something odd happened. He mentioned his highest heal cast was for 8,785,350hp -- a very odd number for a warlock. Stranger still, after checking my statistics, I noticed my largest heal cast was for exactly the same number -- and I'm a rogue! One by one people in vent started checking their statistics, and a good two thirds of the raid had the same exact number. 8,785,350. And it didn't seem to matter what class -- plate wearers and cloth casters both had it. It took a while, but we finally managed to figure out the mystery of 8,785,350 and what it meant. So what's your highest heal cast? Is it the magical 8,785,350, or some other amount? How often do you check out your statistics panel, and have you noticed any other strange coincidences with your fellow players?
Microsoft loads up 56 Achievements in Game Room
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/xbox/Microsoft_loads_up_56_Achievements_in_New_Game_Room'; Inside MGC has posted a list of achievements for Microsoft's upcoming Game Room for the Xbox 360. If you're surprised to hear that a series of "interactive menus" has Achievements attached, you're not alone -- we didn't really expect there to be so many points hooked into this thing. There are a full 1,000 achievement points to be had in 56 achievements, and they seem squeezed in there pretty tight -- you'll get points every three medals, and even some points for just spending time in the arcade (36 hours total). In short, Microsoft really, really wants you to play in the Game Room a lot. There's less than a week left until it releases on March 24, so we'll see then if an enticement like this pays off. [Thanks, Jason Y!]
Breakfast Topic: A random topic
a·chieve·ment - n. 1. The act of accomplishing or finishing. 2. Something accomplished successfully, especially by means of exertion, skill, practice, or perseverance. The achievement system was introduced back just before the launch of Wrath of the Lich King. There wasn't really any purpose to the achievement system, although some achievements give pets, items, or titles -- the main purpose of an achievement seems to be just... something to do when you've got nothing else in mind. Personally, I love the achievement system. I like being able to plug away at something tedious and somewhat mind numbing every now and again, regardless of the fact that those points really don't mean anything. What bothers me though, and has bothered me since the first cries of an achievement being too difficult to complete is the little voice in the back of my mind that wonders if people realize what an achievement is supposed to be.
Breakfast Topic: Achievements and you
Ah, achievements, that funny little meta-game where everything's made up and the points don't matter. Why, oh why, do we flock to World of Warcraft's achievement system so? Of course, we all look forward to achievements with particularly lucrative rewards (or at least interesting titles), but many of the game's achievements, the only reward to look forward to is achievement points. And while you can certainly take some joy from watching those numbers build up, the points, essentially, don't matter. So what is it that keeps us hungering to complete even the silliest of achievements? Is it a passion for completism that prevents you from leaving these lists undone? Is it a need to prove yourself better or more dedicated than your fellow player? Is it the faint hope that some day Blizzard will reward your tedious labors with appropriately awesome swag? Is it the sense of accomplishment whenever an "achievement complete" alert pops up? Tell us -- what keeps you achieving?
Breakfast Topic: Feats of Strength
Allison's great post about all of the Feats of Strength still available in the game got me thinking: just what kind of value do players place on these "kinda" achievements? Personally, I never gave them much weight -- I have a few of them (I picked up the Vampiric Batling a while ago, and I've got the Competitor's Tabard, among a few other old-school and commemorative achievements), but the ones I've got I didn't really do anything to earn, and the Feats still available don't really mean that much to me. Unlike "real" achievements, Feats don't even give you meaningless points, and they can't be used to get you into any raids or runs that you couldn't do otherwise. They're boring to me. I'm not that way about all achievements -- there have been a few that I've worked to get done, and there are even non-achievement items that I've pushed for in the past (I worked like crazy to finally get my Netherwing drake, and the only achievement I got for that was the Netherwing reputation). But Feats of Strength in particular seem passive to me, by Blizzard's design: if they happen, great, but there's not enough reward there for me to go out of my way to get them. What do you think?
EverQuest II's Shards of Destiny game update goes live
EverQuest II's next game update Shards of Destiny is now live, and that means that players can take advantage of a number of new features. We've summed up the biggest ones just below: Chronomagic: Visit some new "mysterious erudites" that have moved into Freeport, Kelethin, Neriak, Qeynos and Gorothyn, to lower your adventuring level for a small cost. This allows for grouping with lower levels, and a lot of older content has been revamped with more frequent bosses and changed loot rarities to make this option more attractive. There are also 37 new missions related to going back and seeing dungeons of differing levels. Achievements: A new way to compete with other players. Most achievements will just give Achievement Points, but some will offer non-stat item rewards. Achievement categories include Exploring, Dungeons, Quests, Raids, Player versus Player, and Tradeskills. Miragul's Planar Shard: a x4 raid zone and the first in EverQuest II to have a scaled difficulty feature. The Shard of Love: Choose to help or hinder the Sisters of Erollisi, beginning by visiting either a Disciple of Love or a Disciple of Hate. Teleportation Spires Event: Rewards are up for grabs for those who can assist the Quellithulians with the reactivation of the Ulterian Teleportation Spires. Check out the full patch notes here, and before you head in-game, dip past the break to see the official Shards of Destiny trailer.
Zoltan scores over 10,000 achievement points
Zoltan of Aegwynn is the guy who's been sitting on top of the overall achievement point lists for a while, and he's just recently cracked the incredible total of 10,000 points. At the time of this writing, he's finished off a total of 908 out of 931 achievements currently in the game, giving him a total of 10,005 achievement points.The Champion of Ulduar is the one that put him over the top according to his Armory profile, and strangely, he doesn't appear to have any of the Feats of Strength (edit: never mind, I read it wrong -- he's got plenty). He is only missing the two World Event achievements left (Brewmaster and the meta-achievement, neither of which are yet possible), the Sea Turtle achievement, and then a few more Heroic Ulduar endgame points. Given that the 3.2 patch achievements will likely come out before Brewmaster, there's no way yet to clear everything completely, but he's as close as it gets.Very impressive indeed. Zoltan has just one or two people on his heels, and then the numbers drop out to a few hundred below 10,000 (and strangely enough, the top five players are all EU folks). There's no reward for all of those points (and Blizzard has no plans to offer any), but it's quite, as you might say, an achievement.
Breakfast topic: The impossible achievements
Every evening there's a guy on my server who spams looking for group for an "experienced" group to do the Less-rabi and Make it Count Heroic Dungeon achievements. This has been going on for weeks now. I kind of feel bad for the guy. Some of the dungeon achievements are harder than others, but these have clearly been a pain for him. He really wants the Glory of the Hero achievement, and I hate the Occulus enough that I really can't bring myself to help him. I never hear him complaining about the achievements being difficult, he just keeps at it. It's actually quite admirable. My guild has a few overachievers in it. We usually do the best we can to lend them a hand, but they seem to grind endlessly to earn their points. I don't usually go off in search of achievements, but there's one I just can't seem to get. Since I'm playing Druid it seems appropriate to get the Guardian of Cenarius title/achievement. The problem is not that it's difficult, but since my character was created after WotLK was released, I have no Cenarian Circle rep to speak of. I find it hard to make the time to go back to the old world and grind rep while still working on endgame progression. What's your elusive achievement?
No current plans to let you spend Achievement Points
Every now and then, I hear through the grapevine that in the future, we will be able to spend our Achievement Points on, most likely, novelty items. This rumor has been around since Achievements were announced, and has even been mentioned by a blue or two. Unfortunately, it seems that implementing this is far from being in the works. Bornakk has confirmed that Achievement Points are "simply a marker of progression in the game" and that there are no current plans to work in a way to spend them. How do you feel about this? Personally, I was hoping for the eventual vendor selling items like walking canes, pinwheel hats and walking-speed pogo sticks. Still, not being able to spend my points will not stop me from collecting them!
An Immortal in Ulduar and other troublesome achievements
Here's an interesting Ulduar request from Hugner on Hyjal -- he wants to ask that there be no "Immortal"-style achievement in the new raid instance. He says getting the achievement has been super frustrating for his guild, not only because, you know, it's hard, but because with one simple disconnect at the wrong time, the whole week's attempt is wasted.Of course, an achievement like that isn't meant to be easy. Some people in the thread suggest making it more like The Dedicated Few (so that not all the bosses have to be flawless in one run), but Bornakk says it's an achievement -- it's not required and if you really want to get the meaningless points, you'll just have to work around the disconnects. He's also shoring up discontent on the other side of things -- people are complaining that the Gonna Go When the Volcano Blows achievement is messing up their Sarth runs, because they're dodging insignificant damage rather than actually downing the boss. In fact, the easiest way to do that one is just to suicide in the very beginning (because the AoE can't hit corpses), and lots of people are doing that. Bornakk says change isn't likely -- the achievement is designed to be separate from gaining loot from the boss.Bottom line on both of these is that they're achievements -- if they're hard or random or waste time, that's kind of the point. Blizzard may have caved on a few of the holiday achievements, but these endgame achievements aren't meant to be gotten easily or even without a little RNG help.
X3F TV -- Points > Life: Halo 3 Mythic Map Skulls
In a very special edition of Points > Life, we outline the location of each of the three new skulls hidden on the upcoming Mythic Maps for Halo 3: Assembly; Orbital and Sandbox. If you plan on skull hunting when you pick up the maps (via Halo Wars CE or XBLM this Spring) you should remember, the skulls -- and subsequent achievements -- can only be obtained in Halo 3's Forge Mode.Assembly and Orbital have easy to obtain skulls but Sandbox can be quite a pain in the (Mark VI-plated) butt. The Sandbox Skull is hidden beyond the boundaries of the map so expect the large (Guardian protected) light towers surrounding the area to decimate any player who attempts to leave the area. Fortunately, with the help of a trusty teleporter, we were able to snag yet another Halo 3 Skull. A detailed description of how to grab the Sandbox skull can be found after the break.[iTunes] Subscribe to X3F TV directly in iTunes.[Zune] Subscribe to the X3F TV directly (Zune Marketplace link coming soon).[RSS] Add the X3F TV feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.[MP4] Download the MP4 directly.
AchievementTracker tracks achievements across the realms
Reader Jeffrey R. was kind enough to send us his achievement tracking site, named (conveniently) AchievementTracker.com. We've seen quite a few sites for tracking achievements on your own character out there already (especially since the Armory opened up the information to the web), but unlike the others, AchievementTracker seems to be focusing on ranking only -- instead of browsing over your own information, all the site really presents is a list of the top players in the world, US, EU, or by the various realms.There are a few caveats, the first being that they're only tracking characters above level 70, and the second being that they're not tracking everyone -- I had to put my own character into the system (though that won't matter if you're just looking for the top players, since I would never even rank on any lists anyone was watching). And while WoW-Achievements has Beelsebub of EU Darksorrow at number one and Minipuff of EU Stormscale in second place so far, AchievementTracker has them backwards (and their point totals are lower -- maybe Armory lag?).And of course we don't know for sure if there's someone on the realms that neither of these sites are tracking with more achievement points (it may be worth noting, too, that beyond Armory links, neither site tells us much about the characters -- is there a class or spec that's better for achievement point earning?). It'll probably take a little while until we can get a standard for tracking these, but until then, looks like we'll have a few different lists to watch.
The Daily Grind: Will you be exploring The Shadow Odyssey?
As many excited EverQuest II players are well aware, tomorrow is an important day. It marks the launch day for EverQuest II's fifth expansion, The Shadow Odyssey. Of course, for those folks who have been thinking about getting into EQ2 but haven't taken the dive as yet, it's a good time for you as well - SOE tends to bundle in all previous games with their expansions so you can check them out without shelling out a bunch of money. The Shadow Odyssey brings in lots of content for players from level 50 to level 80, with the addition of several areas brought forward from EverQuest like Guk, Mistmoore and Befallen. While this expansion doesn't increase the level cap, it does increase the number of Achievement points, adds heritage quests, opens alternate achievement paths - and so, so much more! Today we wanted to ask - are you heading into the shadowy world of EverQuest II's Shadow Odyssey? If so, what part sounds like the best part to you? Is it visiting places you may remember from EverQuest? The sharded gear rewards? Perhaps you're just looking forward to all those Achivement points so you can really get your character to where you wanted it to be. Let us know!
X3F TV -- Points>Life: Shedding Light on Secrets
Each week, X3F tips gamers to the tricks of the trade of Achievement hording in Points>Life. Every week a new achievement is unlocked to help you continue your unhealthy obsession with the Xbox 360 meta-game. This week in Points>Life we tackle the return of Alone in the Dark. From developer Eden Games and publisher Atari, Alone in the Dark is a strange game to judge. What it does well, it does very well but major technical issues could halt your desire to progress through the survival-horror classic's revamp. Either way bad game design has never been an issue for achievement fiends and this week we uncover three secret achievements in the game.Due to Canada Day celebrations Points>Life is hitting today rather than Tuesday. Expect Points>Life next week at its regular time.[iTunes] Subscribe to X3F TV directly in iTunes.[Zune] Subscribe to the X3F TV directly (Zune Marketplace link coming soon).[RSS] Add the X3F TV feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.[MP4] Download the MP4 directly.
X3F TV -- Points>Life: It's About Timing
Each week, X3F tips gamers to the tricks of the trade of Achievement hording in Points>Life. Every week a new achievement is unlocked to help you continue your unhealthy obsession with the Xbox 360 meta-game. This week in Points>Life we tackle the Matt Damon-less action shooter, The Bourne Conspiracy. Based on a modern interpretation of the books by Robert Ludlum (we think they mean the movies), you play as an amnesia struck Jason Bourne. This week's tip showcases an easy trick that utilizes a tutorial in the game to claim a cool, free, 25GP. Music Credit:USMC Cadence - 'Fire it up! Feels good!' (Remix by Robert Duncan)[iTunes] Subscribe to X3F TV directly in iTunes.[Zune] Subscribe to the X3F TV directly (Zune Marketplace link coming soon).[RSS] Add the X3F TV feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.[MP4] Download the MP4 directly.
X3F TV -- Points>Life: Lazy Ninja Technique
Each week, X3F tips gamers to the tricks of the trade of Achievement hording in Points>Life. Every week a new achievement is unlocked to help you continue your unhealthy obsession with the Xbox 360 meta-game.In honor of our brand new Ninja Gaiden II page, Points>Life is tackling an achievement from Xbox 360's Summer mega-action release, Ninja Gaiden II. Having difficulties landing a 100-hit combo? That wonky camera got you down? Just want 20 random points? You've come to the right place!Check out the video above for a few helpful tips and if you have any tricks of your own, make sure to leave them in the comments!Also, make sure to check out our retrospective features on Tomonobu Itagaki and the Ninja Gaiden Series itself.Music: "Ninja Gaiden" by minibosses[iTunes] Subscribe to X3F TV directly in iTunes.[Zune] Subscribe to the X3F TV directly (Zune Marketplace link coming soon).[RSS] Add the X3F TV feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.[MP4] Download the MP4 directly.
