How do you feel about game achievements?

[Xojins]

As we all know, both Steam and XBL have added the achievement factor to their games. People feel very differently about these achievements as well; some think they're pointless wastes of time, while others feel they enhance the gaming experience.
Personally, I like the achievements because they allow you to challenge yourself. Yes, people say that games should be played for the fun, but games wouldn't be fun if there was no challenge. Achievements just add an extra challenge, and whether or not you choose to indulge in them and challenge yourself to that extent is up to you, so I think they're completely appropriate in games. But that's my opinion. What are people's thoughts?

 

[curlycrouton]

I do not care a jot for Steam achievements, or anything else that means nothing more than waving your virtual willy in their face.

 

[Nimbus]

They reduce alot of servers to "Achievement Servers" or "Achievemnet Games", which is basically grinding. Oh... Wait... THE MMO'S ARE TAKING OVER!

 

[Avatar Roku]

I didn't like them at first, but they really add replay value. They're the reason I went back to Assassin's Creed after my second playthrough (I do two playthroughs of everything).

 

[Caliostro]

Personally think it's a cheap, easy and fun way to add some longevity to a good game.


However, I do think people who start to "compare" or whore out achievements should instantly be electrocuted. Achievements should be something you try to attain for fun, not whore out so you pretend you're better than someone else.


For instances, in Left4Dead, I could have swiped almost all the achievements already by simply playing in normal or advanced... But I prefer to play in Expert the whole time. I think people who crank the difficulty to easy or something just to get achievements are pathetic. But that's me.

 

[TerraMGP]

I think its a way to sucker people into playing more for arbitrary rewards and kind of giving hyper competitive people another reason to continue grinding away at shooter games. Really I hate the whole idea of achievements. They all more or less equate to getting a certificate on the schoolbus for being the most responsible kid riding it...

... and yes, I was that girl.

 

[scnj]

I like the idea of adding fun challenges, but when it gets to people arguing over who has the highest score, they can fuck right off. And frankly, the achievement popup on Xbox ruins immersion. I'm just getting into a game then suddenly, *boop* ^_^ achievement unlocked, and I'm dragged forcefully back to reality.

 

[Pigeon_Grenade]

there something to do when you have nothing else to do

 

[Gamer137]

I think they motivate you to do things you would otherwise not consider doing, like finding all the collectables in a game. The Legendary achievement in Halo 3 is what started getting me into beating games are hardest difficulties solo. I even revisited some of my older games to do the same. Still working on Metroid Prime 1 and 2 though. overall, I think they are good, but they did introduce the boosting community, and I can't manage to get the expert achievements on Guitar Hero.

 

[Xojins]

I like the idea of adding fun challenges, but when it gets to people arguing over who has the highest score, they can fuck right off. And frankly, the achievement popup on Xbox ruins immersion. I'm just getting into a game then suddenly, *boop* ^_^ achievement unlocked, and I'm dragged forcefully back to reality.

This is true. Arguing over who has the highest score is childish, but I don't see anything wrong with just doing them because you want to. They don't really destroy the immersion for me though, I just see them pop up and think "Oh, cool."

 

[hellthins]

I think it's a good idea. I probably wouldn't have dived headlong into Call of Duty on Veteran the way I did, but I ultimately enjoyed it in spite of the good old frustrating deaths. Kept me interested, where when I messed around with Hardened or what ever's right below it I found myself rather bored with the whole thing.

That being said I think it can be really really poorly done, silly, and sometimes counterproductive. Case in point, Team Fortress 2 needlessly tying the new weapons to achievements. While I like having my pyro achievements and all, I find it really silly that I needed to get them to unlock already more or less balanced weapons. I still only carry my axetinguisher because it looks really cool. It's also annoying when they're tied to achievements that are boring to get or even contradictory to gameplay, such as the good old Zombie Genocide. I wanted that megaman blaster, but I had to talk to a friend to keep myself amused while playing the snooze fest you have to do to get that many dead zombies in one play through in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[SimuLord]

I don't like having my gaming directed by an external source; the moment I start grinding or doing anything I wouldn't otherwise have thought to do in the name of getting some completely arbitrary points, I've stopped playing the game on my terms.

Achievements are like Whose Line is it Anyway?, where everything's made up and the points don't matter.

 

[Darthracoon]

I am a Trophy Whore(Ps3's version of achievements) and i am always checking to see if i have the most trophies in my friends list and if i don't i find one of the few games that have trophy support and i hunt for them for hours on end, just so i can brag to myself about the fact that i have more trophies than people on my friends list.

I know, I'm that much of a whore.

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

To quote my first ever post here.

I quite liked the achievements on Timeshift, for example "Look What I Can Do!" for walking on water. However there are some achievements that just annoy me, like Zombie Genocider on dead rising who can be bothered to kill 53,000+ zombies

But achievements add replay value to a game and I love them for that.

 

[Galletea]

Achievements are like Whose Line is it Anyway?, where everything's made up and the points don't matter.

Nicely put.
It doesn't matter to me at all, as I've only played 12 Xbox360 games maybe, and I can't remember what half of them were. Added to that I'm not online, and as such cannot strive to be better than the dude who just got 'Avatar-Legend of Aang' for its easy 1000 points.
That said, I still feel kind of gleeful when I get a tricky achievement.

 

[Syphonz]

I <3 acheivements. I giggle with glee everytime i get one.

 

[Sewblon]

Achievements are as good a way as any to extend the use of a singleplayer or multiplayer game, if they are hard but concievable to acquire. In Condmened: Criminal Origins I triped over achievements which destroyed the satisfaction of getting them. In Team Fortress 2 many of them are nearly impossible to get except on achievement servers. For example I would have never figured out how to kill someone with a taunt without achievement servers. Thus it is a good idea but only works with restraint.

 

[Dudemeister]

I love them

 

[Avatar Roku]

Thought of something else: some make good jokes, like the trophy in resistance 1 (my friend told me about it) that's for teabagging 25 enemies in single player, or the achievement for Mirror's Edge for flipping a cop off.

Also, some can be used to draw attention to funny easter eggs you might not notice otherwise, like the singing vort in HL2.

EDIT: I also like what Mass Effect did, of having them affect gameplay, like the one for getting 1,000,000 credits allows you to buy Specter weapons, for example.

 

[Laughing Man]

Pointless, if I am gonna spend X amount of time in a game trying to get something specific then I want some sort of reward for that effort beyond a stupid trophy who's sole purpose is to sit there and do nothing. Could you imagine if you collected all the packages in GTA VC and all you got at the end of it was a trophy instead of that bad ass attack chopper.

The achievement should in some way go on to enhance the game and very few of them do. A lot of them are stupid things that you get simply for playing the game 'well done you picked up the controller' have some meaningless trophy.

The most recent one was getting my elite license in Burnout Paradise, you get a trophy for that and some seriously bad ass gold cars, the gold cars are of greater interest to me than the trophy.

The worst aspect is I have noticed a few server admins using the trophy as a way of determining how skillful ergo how worthy you are to stay in their server.