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I just got all the medals in the great game Abobo's Big Adventure. The time it took me to get the balloon stage "No hit" Achievement took me 1/4 of the time to get all of the others combined. I should say that I am good at that game. But what means that I'm good at it and is it something to be proud of?

I'm fresh off beating the balloon level with perfect score and here are my thoughts if I had to play it again.
1.) "At beginning it's easy, hit the surfing monkey for extra rage bars"
2.) "Dodging Piranha is easy, so dodging other enemies is your priority"
3.) "Enemies tend to stack so, hit them as early as possible."
4.) "Balloons fill your bar a lot."
5.) "Use Rage only as last resort before being hit, it's like a hit allowance."
...
15.) "I'm skilled enough to dodge the Blob rocket, so don't panic and don't use a rage move."
...
30.) "Saucers shoot in a straight line, and escape up-right so beware."
...
50.) "Death shoots in straight line, don't panic, but coming Joust player is pain, but it's one hit unlike enemy with 2 balloons."

I could probably list 70-80 such "infos", and I wouldn't say that I'm a genius that I've found them. It all came with trial and error and no smart thinking. I definitely am not proud that I know all this info, as it is useless for me after I've gotten all achievements. My "goodness" at the game came from the fact that I sacrificed hours playing it, and I do believe most people who had sacrificed as much time and mental energy as me would have gotten all achievements. What has the game given me other than the achievements. Have I learned something that would make me a better person later on? No.

Having said that, I don't think I'm going to play games for achievements in the long run. I am going back to an old hobby of mine that is equally exciting as playing games, but also makes you a better person (programmer at least) - solving algorithm problems. So, I'm going back to TopCoder, ProjectEuler, and other sites. Also, many software great companies value highly good algorithmic solvers and it could be my back up plan to get a great 9-5 job should I decide making flash games is no longer fun/paying my bills.

So, think about what I said guys, and have fun. Expect great box2d games from me this year.

Yours,
Ozdy

PS. I don't mean sounds as I hate Abobo, the game is great. One of the few that would excite me to get all the achievements for! And achivements were feasible. Another game which I also love - Starcraft 2 also has achivements - but many of them are just absurdly dull and timeconsuming (get 1000 wins 1v1 as Random, and getting 700 wins Free For All). I'd never try to get these achivements!