Time to take a break from the creative writing on here for a little while (though I will try and continue doing it behind the scenes) and talk a little bit about the current hotness that is Diablo III. Now the furore over its botched launch has somewhat subsided and at least a few people are starting to realise that “online game” and “persistent online DRM” are two completely different things, we can take stock of the things that the game does extremely well.
I wanted to focus on one in particular, because it’s something I think Blizzard handles extremely well, and it’s also something which divides opinion about modern gaming immensely.
Achievements.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Achievements. On the one hand, if used well, they can encourage you to try playing a game in lots of different ways — Crackdown springs immediately to mind here, with its quirky challenges such as playing tennis with a car and rocket launchers, sticking things together, climbing up to the top of the highest building and leaping off without dying. On the other, you get shit like you see in Call of Duty, which gives you an Achievement for starting the single-player campaign.
Some people actively pursue Achievements (or Sony’s synonymous Trophies), even going so far as to play a game well beyond its enjoyment event horizon just so they can say they have “1000G-ed” or “Platinumed” it. There’s often a lot of “filler” Achievements in there, making this an unnecessary slog at times. On other occasions, it can ruin the experience of playing a game by directing the experience too much — I “1000G-ed” The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and walked away from the game realising that I had still missed at least half of the game’s content — and had no motivation or incentive to seek it out after that. The Elder Scrolls series is supposed to be about freeform, open-world exploration, and the Achievements (tied to various quest lines) completely spoiled that for me by shunting me down specific quest paths.
So back to Blizzard, and Diablo III specifically. Diablo III features a wide range of Achievements for all sorts of things. There are Achievements for reaching significant milestones in the game’s story — beating bosses, completing Acts, that sort of thing. There are Achievements rewarding those who explore thoroughly and delve into the surprisingly deep lore. There are Achievements for completing special challenges, encouraging players to play more skilfully. There are class-specific Achievements, nudging players in the direction of a good way to play said classes. And there are plenty more besides. There are hundreds of them, as they are not limited by Microsoft and Sony’s arbitrary limits, and chasing them is an immensely addictive experience.
One key thing about the whole system uses Diablo III’s persistently-online nature to great effect. As soon as someone on your friends list attains an Achievement, you’re notified. This helps to encourage communication between people and also lets players see at a glance how their friends are doing. It’s even possible for players to browse each others’ profiles and check out what Achievements they’ve managed to snag, providing incentive for a little good-natured competition when, say, one sees that the other has somehow killed the Skeleton King in less than 20 seconds. In short, it helps make Diablo III into a more social game, which is exactly what it’s been designed to be. Where its predecessors had discrete, segregated “single player” and “multiplayer” components, Diablo III blends this all together into a seamless online experience that encourages communication, competition and cooperation, where players can feel like they’re making progress even when playing by themselves, and continue making progress when they want to play with friends. It’s a good fit for the series’ gameplay, though it makes the ludonarrative dissonance between the ridiculous on-screen action (punching people’s skeletons out!) and the rather serious fire-and-brimstone plot seem all the more silly.
If you haven’t given Diablo III a shot yet, it’s well worth it. Over 6 million people can’t be wrong. Although if you value your sanity I wouldn’t advise looking at Blizzard’s forums. Ever.
(I think I still have a Starter Edition code knocking around somewhere, so if anyone wants to give it a go for free, get in touch and I can give you the code. First come, first served.)
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