Not me just thinking people picked factions because they seemed cool to play in a video game or they liked the faction companion even if it did not align with their real-world politics ;-; or wanting to explore what the story had to offer from every side (I guess that could be completionist or achievement-hunter?)
Never heard of people tracking faction data, so I never even conceived of the idea that you might do multiple playthroughs, one for each faction just to hide who you really wanted to join. Now I’m curious to find the data.
It’s not just tracking faction data. Microsoft introduced the achievement system with the Xbox 360 for two purposes. One, to give gamers an overarching goal (play multiple games, get the highest Gamerscore). But two, to show developers (or maybe more publishers?) how their game is played. Consider: Every achievement is time/date stamped. Also consider: Most games give you an achievement for starting the game (or beating the training dungeon, as it were). So they have the time/date you started. Then they have the time/date you did all the things.
Even if you got all the achievements, they still know which faction you went to first. Which one you saved for last. Which side missions and challenges you completed (provided they have achievements). Sticking to Fallout 4, it’s widely speculated (but has never been confirmed) that the reason you can only play a good guy in Fallout 4 (until you get to Nuka-World, the final DLC) was because there were achievements in Fallout 3 for reaching levels 8, 16, and 24 (IIRC) at Good, Neutral, or Evil Karma levels. So they know that most people hit those landmarks at Good. Achievement hunters hit them first at Evil, then reloaded a save, dumped money into the church to get Neutral, popped the level up, then reloaded, donated even more to get Good, then popped the third one, then reloaded their Evil save and continued. But they see that, they know you’re gaming the system, so they don’t consider that data for determining who plays good or neutral; that would be considered an Evil player.
Not all games “care” about achievements. The Avatar game on 360 infamously gave you 200GS for beating 20 enemies in a row, 5 times. So you could get 1000GS at the start by just standing there and fighting 100 guys. Apparently it’s not hard. Those developers didn’t care about the metrics.
As far as Steam and PlayStation, I know they also have achievements and trophies respectively, but I don’t know if they’re providing the same data to publishers. Their achievements and trophies are also timed and dated, so they probably are. Nintendo isn’t, and has said that they won’t. That said, I’m an Animal Crossing player, and that game has internal achievements which are dated. I’m not sure if Nintendo is tracking Animal Crossing Nook Mile Achievements, but they might be. I’m sure they’d be very interested to know if anyone is actually catching 2,500 fish, bugs, or sea creatures. It’s a dumb achievement, like you really have to be dedicated to go for that. Then again, Rockband 2’s Bladder of Steel achievement exists. In that music game, there is a setlist called “The Endless Setlist.” It’s all 84 songs on the disc. Of course, there are achievements for completing it at Medium, Hard, and Expert (and yes, completing the harder one gets the one(s) below it). Now if you do The Endless Setlist without failing or pausing, you also get the Bladder of Steel achievement. It takes 6 hours and 20 minutes. Ask me how I know this.
Thank you so much for the long post! Informational read. I never played Xbox 360 and never found out about this kind of tracking before your post, but you are right that what you can do with just the information of achievements attained and when would absolutely be useful to devs.
I cannot imagine never pausing in 6 hours and 20 minutes, but if you time your meals and drinks right it is definitely possible to go 6 hours and 20 minutes without feeling the urge to use the bathroom.
I did the Bladder of Steel achievement on Medium Vocals. Some of those songs have solos, that’s when I’d run to the bathroom. The setlist is not randomised, so I knew in advance when the solos were. I planned it out.
I cooked a whole pot of Kraft Dinner with hot dogs and green beans in it. Not a meal I’m proud of now. But it was filling, it tasted good, and best of all, it held up sitting out for a long period of time. I mean I had the pot on a pot holder in front of me. I ate when I needed to, and when I could. I also had a gallon of water on standby. I don’t remember the entire set. I do know at one point I was “late” coming back from the bathroom, the song was going on and I was missing line after line, my “crowd meter” dropping. I got there in time and started singing, and one “excellent” (highest rating) rated line sends you straight to the top of the crowd meter. I could have gamed it so I could miss a lot more than I did, and just coast through. The game is very forgiving, especially on lower difficulties, and especially on vocals.
Not me just thinking people picked factions because they seemed cool to play in a video game or they liked the faction companion even if it did not align with their real-world politics ;-; or wanting to explore what the story had to offer from every side (I guess that could be completionist or achievement-hunter?)
Never heard of people tracking faction data, so I never even conceived of the idea that you might do multiple playthroughs, one for each faction just to hide who you really wanted to join. Now I’m curious to find the data.
It’s not just tracking faction data. Microsoft introduced the achievement system with the Xbox 360 for two purposes. One, to give gamers an overarching goal (play multiple games, get the highest Gamerscore). But two, to show developers (or maybe more publishers?) how their game is played. Consider: Every achievement is time/date stamped. Also consider: Most games give you an achievement for starting the game (or beating the training dungeon, as it were). So they have the time/date you started. Then they have the time/date you did all the things.
Even if you got all the achievements, they still know which faction you went to first. Which one you saved for last. Which side missions and challenges you completed (provided they have achievements). Sticking to Fallout 4, it’s widely speculated (but has never been confirmed) that the reason you can only play a good guy in Fallout 4 (until you get to Nuka-World, the final DLC) was because there were achievements in Fallout 3 for reaching levels 8, 16, and 24 (IIRC) at Good, Neutral, or Evil Karma levels. So they know that most people hit those landmarks at Good. Achievement hunters hit them first at Evil, then reloaded a save, dumped money into the church to get Neutral, popped the level up, then reloaded, donated even more to get Good, then popped the third one, then reloaded their Evil save and continued. But they see that, they know you’re gaming the system, so they don’t consider that data for determining who plays good or neutral; that would be considered an Evil player.
Not all games “care” about achievements. The Avatar game on 360 infamously gave you 200GS for beating 20 enemies in a row, 5 times. So you could get 1000GS at the start by just standing there and fighting 100 guys. Apparently it’s not hard. Those developers didn’t care about the metrics.
As far as Steam and PlayStation, I know they also have achievements and trophies respectively, but I don’t know if they’re providing the same data to publishers. Their achievements and trophies are also timed and dated, so they probably are. Nintendo isn’t, and has said that they won’t. That said, I’m an Animal Crossing player, and that game has internal achievements which are dated. I’m not sure if Nintendo is tracking Animal Crossing Nook Mile Achievements, but they might be. I’m sure they’d be very interested to know if anyone is actually catching 2,500 fish, bugs, or sea creatures. It’s a dumb achievement, like you really have to be dedicated to go for that. Then again, Rockband 2’s Bladder of Steel achievement exists. In that music game, there is a setlist called “The Endless Setlist.” It’s all 84 songs on the disc. Of course, there are achievements for completing it at Medium, Hard, and Expert (and yes, completing the harder one gets the one(s) below it). Now if you do The Endless Setlist without failing or pausing, you also get the Bladder of Steel achievement. It takes 6 hours and 20 minutes. Ask me how I know this.
Thank you so much for the long post! Informational read. I never played Xbox 360 and never found out about this kind of tracking before your post, but you are right that what you can do with just the information of achievements attained and when would absolutely be useful to devs.
I cannot imagine never pausing in 6 hours and 20 minutes, but if you time your meals and drinks right it is definitely possible to go 6 hours and 20 minutes without feeling the urge to use the bathroom.
I did the Bladder of Steel achievement on Medium Vocals. Some of those songs have solos, that’s when I’d run to the bathroom. The setlist is not randomised, so I knew in advance when the solos were. I planned it out.
I cooked a whole pot of Kraft Dinner with hot dogs and green beans in it. Not a meal I’m proud of now. But it was filling, it tasted good, and best of all, it held up sitting out for a long period of time. I mean I had the pot on a pot holder in front of me. I ate when I needed to, and when I could. I also had a gallon of water on standby. I don’t remember the entire set. I do know at one point I was “late” coming back from the bathroom, the song was going on and I was missing line after line, my “crowd meter” dropping. I got there in time and started singing, and one “excellent” (highest rating) rated line sends you straight to the top of the crowd meter. I could have gamed it so I could miss a lot more than I did, and just coast through. The game is very forgiving, especially on lower difficulties, and especially on vocals.