Fun Achievements

[DrNob]

Hello fellow developers and BGA gamers!

I am the designer and programmer of Flaming Pyramids, and I have a fun idea I would love to run by you.
Let me know what you think...

When I play games on Steam, many of them have game specific achievements. Many of those are silly or fun achievements.
I see a lot of potential for something like this on BGA.

I think it would be totally worth it for the following reasons:
a) it is highly successfull on Steam
b) people care strongly for their ELOs
c) "but it's not part of the physical game" - neither are ELOs

Point c) is most important to me, personally. The ELO system is imho kinda problematic for a game like Flaming Pyramids, because it puts an overly strong emphasis on winning. If you trigger a huge fire that burns down half the pyramid and all you think about in this moment is your ELOs instead of how cool this event is in itself, then you are kinda missing the point of Flaming Pyramids. I saw this in playtesting for the physical game over and over again. Many kids love the game, because they love the collapses - even if they happen to themselves. Wining is important, but the game provides more positive experiences than just that. Fun achievements could reflect that.

Fun achievements for Flaming Pyramids could be:
1) Pyromaniac: burn more than 10 tiles at once
2) "I'm afraid of no heights": Place the 200 at layer 5 or above.
3) "Burning down the house": burn at least 10 tiles so that all of the pyramid is gone
4) "Curse Apprentice": trigger the curse
5) "Curse Master": trigger the curse through a collapse
...

Some of these achievements could be visible, others hidden and only shown when achieved - as a fun surprise.
They would help to illustrate that the game is about much more than just winning.

I can easily see that this would be beneficial for other games, too.

What do you think?

[57erniepyle]

I like it. I do enjoy those on Steam, especially the unexpected ones.

[Murlonioteam]

I just have the same idea. I would LOVE to have a specific achievement of a event or a part of a game. Even conditions on wining, or loosing.
It points events or situations not allways easy to achieve and also it gives a new perspective for some plays. As yoy said, it focus less on ELO and give a new perspective at some games.

TOTALLY SUPPORT!

[Ankeszu]

I like the idea.

My ideas for such achievements:

Hanabi:
- "Bake a Pi" - make 3,14 in each colors discard pile during one game
- "Boom ending" - last move in the game is a third Bomb
- "Happy Boom ending" - last move in a game is a non-third bomb
- "Red first" - play 5red (properly without a bomb) before any non-red 1 is played; similar achievements for each color
- "We can count to 5" - play all 1s, then play all 2s, then play all 3s... etc
- "5 shower" - play all 5s in consecutive moves
- "High 5" - last move in a 5 player game is playing a 5 multicolor
- "Hanabi trainer" - finish a game as a Master with a Beginner (0 games played) - 2 player only
- "31 points" - in a game with no bombs, have 8 clues in the last turn, and then play a 5 (properly) - like to gain 9th

Eminent Domain:
- "I forgot my cards" - start a turn without cards in hand
- "All power is mine" - end the game with all three highest-level tech
- "The trader" - collect all point tokens (no opponent can have any point token) in a game
- "Balanced" - end the game with the same amount of standard Colonize and standard Warfare cards
- "I don't like science" - end the game with 0 researched techs (do not ever use research role) *it counts for scenarios irrelevant of starting tech
- "Quick ending" - end the game with all players under 20 points
- "I hate this hand" - use Research, Data Network or (the highest level white tech) to remove from the game all cards from your current hand (*with or without Research/Data Network when using it)
- "Diverse empire" - have planets with each symbol, each type of resource slots and "+1" hand limit increase sign in your empire
- "Specialized" - have planets of only one type
- "One then three" - Do not have 2-level techs but have 1-level and 3-rd level ones
- "Big hand" - have 10 cards hand limit
- "I can hold a lot of cards at once" - hold 13 cards in your hand at some point
- "Best war chief" - use War Path to gain 10 points during an action
- "Gold digger" - gain more than 10 points during your turn
- "Many of the same" - use Specialization to gain 10 points or more
- "Genetic Manipulation" - use Genetic Engineering to trigger game end
- "Ooopsie" - be the one to trigger game end, but do not win
- "Close but I'm better" - win on tiebreaker

Takenoko:
- "Hungry as hell" - during the game, take only Panda goal cards
- "Best gardener" - during the game, take only Gardener goal cards
- "Feng shui" - during the game, take only Plots goal cards
- "Balance" - win while having equal number of each goal type cards realized
- "Maybe a few rounds more" - win while having not-fulfilled goal cards in your hand

etc...

[MasterMar]

Support.

[bananasplay]

When I play games on Steam, many of them have game specific achievements. Many of those are silly or fun achievements.
I see a lot of potential for something like this on BGA.
[...]

What do you think?

Thanks for asking. I see the potential for nothing but trouble with achievements, especially the "fun" ones, which would almost certainly do nothing but encourage degenerate play: tacking on incentives that are external to the game (as intended by the actual designer) adds nothing to the experience, and only has the (highly probable) potential to detract from it.

It's bad enough when a player makes a ridiculous move that throws the game to another player... but for BGA to actually incentivize such behaviour would be even more ridiculous.

Consider that BGA already has "kingmaking" as one of its categories for red-thumbing other players... you should expect this reason to be utilized a lot more often if achievements are implemented on this site.

Final point: if people want video-game style achievements... let them play video games. :-p Please don't clutter boardgaming with them. Thanks.

[JPreto]

Agreed that some achievements can "detour" the normal flow of the game... if you have to achieve something that:

- can alter the way you play (like zero points in a specific game that requires you to score)
- allow you to grind for something (get all of a specific thing)

... nevertheless other achievements could really mean something good:

- Perfect game (6 nimmt! - "Not a Bulls fan" - finishing with 66 points).
- Cooperation (Carcassone - "Split City" - finish a City that belongs to 3 players)

Just saying that Achievements can be fun, if they don´t change the way you would normally play the game.

[Ankeszu]

If the player plays to get the achievement, all achievements alter the way he play. (Unless the achievement is totally out of his control, something like "50 games played" or random-related, like "you draw the same terrain type three types in a row".)

I assumed players would approach it like me, "ok, nice, I do not try for any achievement and if I do get one, it's just a nice suprise", but you're right that many players would seek it.

[hasi6562]

hallo,
um niemanden beleidigen zu wollen, aber ich finde die Idee für Schwachsinn. Es gibt viele Spieler die das Original spielen wollen, wie ich zum Beispiel und von solchen Abweichungen rein gar nichts halte. Flamming Pyramide da gehört es zum Spiel, aber bei den anderen wie 11 nimmt oder 7 wonders für mich Schwachsinn und ich werde wenn man nicht wählen kann das Spiel nicht mehr spielen.
gruss

[N_Faker]

Christ, no.