PhatDaemien's Blog (11 followers)

Um, I don't know what I just read. Sounds like someone is in pain though.

Yeah, and I just popped it...go figure...now I guess I have to figure out some witty blog for Vidic and Styx LOL

Wait and you will much more to write about!

Yup I am excited about that!!

Personally, when confronted by cheevos such as these, I do not judge myself against my failure to get them, I judge the game designers on what They Consider "humanly possible" and what is outside the bounds of "realistic gameplay". 'Seriously' comes to mind. I have a few super high ratio cheevos, but they're all things that have to be earned past the point of enjoying the game. But yeah I'm a completionist so I'm a sucker. Case in point: Collectibles. One of my first 'stupid' cheevos was in the Simpsons Game, running around and collecting hundreds of collectibles in any manner of stupid hidden places and then missing 3-4 and having to search everywhere again, based on a guide by some poor sod that took more time than me to note them down. Or, my less enjoyable and more work intensive favorite, AC1 and the flags and Templars. People that never got that one and started in 2 or 3 had the benefit of maps with icons. And as an old school gamer, pre-gamefaqs/TA/etc if you couldn't find them, you couldn't find them. But, the point I'm making is, with reasonable time and effort, you can get it done.
Now, with the faptastic or whatever thing that just involves massive button mashing and luck, I'm reminded of my first non-time intensive but skill and luck intensive achievement that released more endorphins when I unlocked it than most of the rest of my sad life combined. It was called Perfection, in a game called Time Pilot. It required you making it to the last level without dying. A common theme amongst achievements, but when you consider Time Pilot was an arcade game from the early 80s and their main goal was to entertain you long enough to get about a dollar's worth of quarters into the machine, they didn't care whether you left satisfied with your experience. Needless to say, it was insanely hard and frustrating. I'm not a violent controller throwing person, but I shouted myself hoarse at the screen every few weeks for a few years trying to get it. Got it. What was it down to? Luck. Random patterns of bad guys and dodging bullets and frantic superhuman thought and twitch reflex. There's no way to be "good" at the game beyond understanding the goal and being good at shooters. I think my train of thought derailed halfway through this rant, but I think the point was, game designers need to be a little more careful when deciding the achievements list and what's realistically and enjoyably achievable. Then again, I guess most gamers aren't as OCD as me...
Last point, to compare... Perfection in Time Pilot made me realize the hazards of excessive gaming on my hands. Outside of wearing out controller buttons and joints, I seriously felt numbness in my fingertips a while after an attempt.

I was an original sufferer of the often mocked "Nintendo Thumb" from playing Mario and chugging beer and vodka. Days upon days of that game and all I got for it was a sore thumb, a couple of hangovers, and mocked by my friends/roommates that actually were able to beat that game. I never did it because I refused to do the extra life cheat thing...oh well!

I agree with you completely on the programmers needing to keep achievements realistic, or at least considering the parameters of their achievements and keeping them somewhat reasonable. That being said, this achievement actually fit in to this game perfectly. Yes, it sucked. Yes, it was extremely difficult for me. Others did not take anywhere as long as I did, and I know that my anxiety over getting it done actually made it take me a lot longer than most other people out there. But the crappiness of this minigame was exactly what this entire game was about. Remember when it came out they openly admitted to glitches that they were not going to even attempt to fix. It is also a game with absolutely no plot or goals. The only actual objectives in the game are simple skill "quests" and the achievements and with no achievements having much difficulty to them whatsoever, if there was no Flappy Goat, this game would be done in about two hours at the most. Although it sucked, and it was a pain in the glitched ass, my post was more about mocking myself and my inability to get it done simply because I would psyche myself out when I got to seven or eight. And I was completely amazed at strange thoughts that went through my head as I hit nothing more than the while I chain smoked and contemplated my own confidence level as I was told over and over "You Lost, Again". Crappy achievement, they could have done a lot better in finding a way to extend the playability of the game, but that is pretty much what this game is all about