HOUSEKEEPING'S PROFILE

Thanks, I just finished paying off the mortgage! Good thing I'm so consistently employed!

Popular appeal often doesn't mean quality--"critically acclaimed" and "box office success" are generally not synonymous terms, and Pom sweeping the Misaos would be like if Transformers 3 swept the Oscars. Sated has every right as a critic to hate a game that has very little merit, and even if Pom's huge number of Misao nominations was the genesis of this review, Sated's critiques are all perfectly valid. He even praises the game's graphics. From what I've seen, I'd probably give it a one to one and a half stars and have the same basic gripes, but the ranking system is relative, anyway, so who cares. I definitely think this review is more accurate than all the four and five star puff pieces.

I posted this over at rpgmakerweb's music thread, but that thread doesn't get much love:

http://soundcloud.com/a-very-long-rope/osaka-konnichiwa

I'm going to try to use that as a modern city theme in a future project, but it's one that I don't really have the confidence to make alone, so right now that song's just going to kind of be in THE ARCHIVES.

I think the key concept here is that achievements aren't universally liked. This is evident from the mixed response they've gotten in this thread, unless you just assume that anyone who says they don't like them is actually lying for some reason. Here's what I'm taking from this topic:

-Most people like achievements for the reasons that Feldschlacht stated: a feeling of being told "you're good at this," a way to interact with other gamers, and basic human vanity.
-However, not everyone cares for these things; not every parent slaps the "My child is an honor student at Nobody Cares Elementary" on their cars because 1) it's not that big of an accomplishment, anyway, 2) the feeling of being a good student is its own reward (parents might reward their kids in other ways, but this doesn't really fit with my metaphor), and 3) those bumper stickers come off as bragging and no one on the road gives two shits about them.

So, I don't disagree with the idea that achievements work in some--or even most--games. However, I think we should naturally be skeptical of any game design idea that becomes basically mandatory. As I stated above, achievements seem like a good design choice for a lot of games, but in story-driven, immersive experiences, they don't make as much sense.