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Strange things are happening in the magical kingdom of Ferelden. Sometimes a message pop up explaining that I have unlocked an achievement. I am somewhat puzzled by these messages. Should I be happy with having unlocked an achievement? I can not find information about them in the manual nor in the game menu's. What is the purpose of achievements and unlocking them? I hate to miss anything..

MordorMan wrote:Strange things are happening in the magical kingdom of Ferelden. Sometimes a message pop up explaining that I have unlocked an achievement. I am somewhat puzzled by these messages. Should I be happy with having unlocked an achievement? I can not find information about them in the manual nor in the game menu's. What is the purpose of achievements and unlocking them? I hate to miss anything..

Most of them don't mean anything. They're similar to plaques, vitiated by the fact that quite a few achievements are silly (such as making your first potion) or without any real reward. There are exceptions, so it's worth checking your character's info to see if anything valuable has shown up, but in general they're not important.

Some of them don't seem to work right: I got an achievement for going through an origin without my character falling in combat... and I swear I died more than once (hey I was just starting), also I got one for succeeding in five difficult (?) intimidation attempts after a dialog that I absolutely didn't use the 'intimidate' choice.

But yeah, their sole function is to look at them at your profile and be proud of how awesome you are + they are a (pretty cheap) way of giving you an incentive to go through the game again if you are obsessive enough to want to collect them all (something that has happened to me in some games I admit, but I doubt that I'll bother with them in this one: there's enough content in Dragon Age to keep me busy anyway)

You can view your achievements by pressing Esc during the game and clicking on Profile. You can also access them from the main menu by clicking on the Profile link.

I am magnificent!

Thanks for all the information. I think the essential part I did not get was that the achievements are my achievements and not the achievements of the character I play.

Now that I got a good look at all the achievements I have collected I do get the impression that the concept is rather belittling, it reminds me of small children getting a sticker for proper use of the toilet. But who knows? Maybe I will get that feeling of awesomeness when I have collected them all.

MordorMan wrote:Thanks for all the information. I think the essential part I did not get was that the achievements are my achievements and not the achievements of the character I play.

Now that I got a good look at all the achievements I have collected I do get the impression that the concept is rather belittling, it reminds me of small children getting a sticker for proper use of the toilet. But who knows? Maybe I will get that feeling of awesomeness when I have collected them all.

Its an Xbox thing - they've been doing achievements for a while and even keep score on your Xbox profile ... guess its a way to try and keep people playing by allowing them to show off how "amazing" they are at gaming. As Dragon Age was released for both Xbox and PC, I imagine they decided to include the Xbox achievements in the PC version - and even give you an online profile by which to prove your manhood

Can others see your achievements? Like.. will your friends notice if you banged the elf dude?

I wouldn't have a problem doing that, but I'd like to get behind the mindset of the average gamer.

Tricky wrote:Can others see your achievements? Like.. will your friends notice if you banged the elf dude?

I wouldn't have a problem doing that, but I'd like to get behind the mindset of the average gamer.

Ah, jeeze.

Back in the days of Fable 1 where the sexual orientation of your character was determined by who you slept with, I understand there was an NPC who would pay the player money to sleep with them. A friend of mine did this until his character was labeled "bisexual", which was then displayed on his profile. All of our other male friends had a field day at his expense. To this day, years later, he still gets smack for it (even if it's only a running joke, and not genuine disdain for the orientation).

Well, go figure, the main perpetrator of the aforementioned taunting is a major achievement seeker. When I told him you don't necessarily have to romance with Zevran to get his achievement - anyone can pretty much sleep with him one or two conversations after picking him up. He did so, the "Easy Lover" achievement showed up on his gamer profile, and now karma is paying him a little visit for all the bisexual wisecracks.

mr_sir wrote:As Dragon Age was released for both Xbox and PC, I imagine they decided to include the Xbox achievements in the PC version - and even give you an online profile by which to prove your manhood

Let us not discriminate. I happened to be an achievement collector myself, but I hope this is no way reflects upon the worth of my "manhood".

Aqua-chan wrote: Let us not discriminate. I happened to be an achievement collector myself, but I hope this is no way reflects upon the worth of my "manhood".

I'm an achievement collector myself, I just don't post them to my online profile I was just joking about that as to be honest I fail to see why people on Xbox make a fuss about having loads of achievement points on their online profiles ... I just collect them for my personal benefit as it gives me something to work for during my second playthrough onwards

I think its that "feeling of awesomeness" when you get them...:laugh:
Might steal this quote for a sig....

Seriously, like mr_sir,on second playthroughs is when I'll actually pay attention and try and get some of these....

Have noticed on a friend's PS3, you now get trophies, like the Xbox achievements.

The only problem is: What in blazes do you do with the roughly 1600-ish points after collecting them all? You can't exactly spend them....

For the Record: I have roughly 53 Achievements unlocked: Including First Knight and Easy Lover.

I'm trying to unlock "Wine, Woman and Song" with another woman, too.

Just wait. The last one will be unlocked by a Dwarf Male. Morrigan with a Dwarf....

Theres really, really, really extremely stupid archievements, too.

Like making a Mage with all spells from any of the schools.

Which is definitely a very bad build. Much better to try and get the best spells you can get.

GoldDragon wrote:The only problem is: What in blazes do you do with the roughly 1600-ish points after collecting them all?

Trade that, plus $20 US, for yet another 1-hour of DLC.

GoldDragon wrote:Just wait. The last one will be unlocked by a Dwarf Male. Morrigan with a Dwarf....

Heh. My first Morrigan romance was with my Dwarven rogue. Go go go stumpy!