Statesman of Catan

Just earned the "Statesman of Catan" Achievement, thereby marking my 500th Victory Point in ranked play in Catan on Live Arcade. I reached this milestone with a record of 17-43 in games played, although a couple of those losses came due to network hiccups. I wasn't keeping track of how many points I earned in each individual game, but was figuring an average of about 7 points per game so I actually expected to hit the mark in my 70th game played, not in my 60th. Including the false-losses in the tally, I actually scored an average of 8.3 points per game which goes to show that even my losses were very close (games are played to 10).

Other games in my collection have Achievements such as this; they simply reward constant play. No matter how good or bad you are, if you play the game enough you'll eventually earn the Achievements. I've never earned one of this type before, as I always grew tired of the games that had them. For example, I've never even earned any of the various Achievements from Gears of War that required getting 100 kills with specific weapons in ranked online play. I love the game, but in the case of Gears of War, it was the imbecilic people playing it that I grew tired of. That's another nice thing about Catan; it doesn't attract the overly-aggressive asshat crowd that the shooters do.

A ranked match of Catan typically takes about 20-30 minutes to play. If not for my 17-43 record (not including single player and unranked matches), there is no way I would have guessed that I've logged nearly 30 hours with this game. But I have and I see no end in sight. Games like this are meant to be picked up and enjoyed for years. Did anyone ever stop playing Monopoly two weeks after they bought it? Of course not. Catan is like that. I have one more Achievement left to earn in the game -- I need to score an additional 500 Victory Points in ranked play to get it -- but I'll still play the game beyond that too.

And I can't think of another game I can say that about.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Catan is a very rewarding and engaging game, but this achievement is driving me nuts! My record in ranked play is currently 50-84 and I still have not unlocked it.

Anonymous said...

Yeah I am having the same issue. My record is 139-252 and still haven't received the achievement. Starting to get very frustrated.

Don said...

50 wins at 10 points per win alone puts you at 500 total victory points.