Cataclysm: Achievements

Today I wanted to look at one of my favorite things in the World of Warcraft: achievements.

Achievements is a large part of why this game has held my interest for so long. When I got bored, I could go chase down some achievements. I did pretty well, too. I think there was only a dozen or two achievements outside of the raiding and PvP that I was missing.

It pushed me to explore areas of the game that I otherwise wouldn't have been interested in. Before achievements, I didn't bother with world events, much PvP, the Stranglethorn Fishing Tournament or exploring the outer reaches of every zone. I certainly never thought I'd get around (and find others interested in) old-world raids and dungeons.

Blizzard has given us a reason to push outside of our comfort zone, and pursue areas of the game that we would otherwise have skipped over. I certainly don't think I'll ever get Arena Master, or Battle Master. Most of the raid achievements (since I no longer actively raid) will have to wait till they are long obsolete. But, there is never a lack of things to do on my main, and my interest in the game is made stronger because of that.

The 200+ new achievements added in Cataclysm encourage you to really take a look around this new world of ours.

There's the standard fare of exploration and completing X amount of quests in zone Y. There's even more that are plugged in as "gimme" achievements to keep people happy as the realm of attainable achievements is a bit larger. Namely things like completing a certain quest chain, or bouncing on a trampoline, or completing a certain daily so many times or in a certain time limit. Naturally, Glory of the meta-achievements exist, with their requisite requirement achievements ready to go.

All in all, there seems to be plenty to keep me entertained and shelling out my $15/mo. However, it has not been without its disappointments. First, it seems that perhaps our good friend Hemet Nesingwary has hung up his gun and is no longer depopulating all of Azeroth of a myriad of critters. This was disappointing since his quests have been around in every iteration of WoW since Vanilla.

Also, the rare-spawns of Cataclysm don't have a deathwarrant out. Getting "Bloody Rare" took me a good six months to finish. I got up extra early every morning some time after Wrath came out and would scour Outlands, looking for those final rare spawns. I'm still 7 mobs shy of Frostbitten.

Also missing from this expansion are further iterations in the mount and companion chains. I still plan on collecting as many as I can, but it would be nice to see that little flash of gold at the bottom of my screen to reward my efforts.

Altogether, not a bad set of achievements, but it is missing just enough to feel lacking.