Not necessarily Fallout 3-centric, but Fallout 3's Games for Windows Live achievements are what made the Escapist's Andy Chalk realise there's a little console gamer in all of us.<blockquote>Several hours later, I resigned myself to the fact that if I wanted those Achievements, I'd have to replay the game. I was disappointed, and surprised by my disappointment. It suddenly dawned on me that I did want those Achievements. I'd invested a lot of time in the game, I'd earned those markers of accomplishment and I resented the fact that they were being denied to me. Microsoft had set a cunning trap, and like a fool - like a console gamer! - I had stumbled blindly into it.
Except it wasn't really their trap. With Achievements, Microsoft has figured out how to tap into the very basic and normal human desire for recognition, but they're far from the first to do it. 25 years ago and more, in the heyday of video arcades, countless hyper-reflexive teenagers spent their evenings in dingy, smoke-filled rooms blowing untold dollars for little more than a chance to enter their initials into a machine's high score list. I myself pumped quarters by the pound into games like Time Pilot and Bosconian in a ceaseless battle for supremacy with my fellow coin-op warriors.</blockquote>
Except it wasn't really their trap. With Achievements, Microsoft has figured out how to tap into the very basic and normal human desire for recognition, but they're far from the first to do it. 25 years ago and more, in the heyday of video arcades, countless hyper-reflexive teenagers spent their evenings in dingy, smoke-filled rooms blowing untold dollars for little more than a chance to enter their initials into a machine's high score list. I myself pumped quarters by the pound into games like Time Pilot and Bosconian in a ceaseless battle for supremacy with my fellow coin-op warriors.</blockquote>
.
