10 Moments That Defined The Current Gaming Generation

by Dan Wilson

1. Achievements / Trophies

I will freely admit that I'm not one of those Achievement Hunters, and I don't buy a game to get gamerscore. I buy a game to a) enjoy a decent story, or b) take out my pent up rage on noobs. I can see why people get addicted to this though. Achievements allow for a whole new level of competition with your friends. You can click on your buddy and see how much better or worse they are at a game than you. That's all it is really isn't it? It's a unit of measurement, and if you want a way to establish bragging rights by proving that you got 100% in Lego Harry Potter, Year's 5-7. You know what a lot of us use it for though (even if if we don't notice that we do it)? We will use achievements to measure out the length of a game, and establish a time-line. I don't intend to do it sometimes, but when I get an achievement that tells me I "successfully completed 20 side missions", I get curious as to how many achievements may be between that and "successfully completed ALL side missions". Some games even take this to new extremes. Call of Duty? Yeah... Want to know how many times I've prestige'd in CoD? Not once, not even ever. Want to know why? I worked my butt off to get my load-out, and I'm not going to reset that just to get a shiny star that proves that I've played the game much longer than I should have. Still, there are those completists that love having a way to track their goals. So, good job Sparky. As you can tell, I'm not an advocate of these Achievement / Trophy Hunters and their ilk, but I do love achievements. They are a major part of measuring one's progress in gaming, and some of their titles have given me a good laugh over the years. So there you have it: the moments defined the current generation of gaming. Some of these things are so small, or simple, that their implications may be unnoticed over the years. As it stands, these are some of the milestones that will stick with us as the PlayStation 4 in just a few days. We all have our own favourites though, and that's what the comment section is for. So, gamers and game-ettes, sound-off below.

 
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I'm a fan of pop-culture in all mediums: Music, Film, Gaming, Comics, TV, Whatever. I can generally find something enjoyable in even the worst trash. I guess as a B-Horror enthusiast, I kind of have to. Currently I'm an author working on a manuscript for a crime novel, and attending school to be an Environmental Health and Safety Technician. In the past I've made a go at running in an election for MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) for my hometown of Glace Bay. I was 23 at the time, and though I lost (by like a lot), I learned a lot more about politics in a month than I ever learned. Get at me on Twitter @DanWilsonWC