Poll: Achievements and Trophies. Do you even care?

[FinalFreak16]

I'm not going to lie. I'm using this thread to try and get some feedback for a dissertation project I am doing for my third year of my Game Production course.

I'm looking into Achievements inparticular and how they can affect the way you play games and if they can increase or decrease your enjoyment for any reason. I'm also trying to find out which achievements are the most popular and which ones just end up being frustrating. Ultimately I hope to be able to prove why lazy design, when it comes to achievements, can potentially harm an otherwise great game.

I have a quick multiple choice questionaire here:
http://kwiksurveys.com/?s=LCKKNL_f7419b00

If you have a spare couple of minutes to fill it out that would be incredibly helpful, alternatively it would be good to get some discussion going here as well as to why you love, hate or dont even care about achievements in general.

EDIT: Thanks to those who have filled out my questionaire or posted comments to this thread so far. It has been extremely helpful!

EDIT 2: Over 100 Responses to the questionnaire so far! Some great comments as well as discussion here in the thread. Very grateful. Will probably close the questionnaire later tonight so I can start collecting data for my report but feel free to fill it out before then or continue commenting here!

EDIT 3: Questionnaire is now closed. Thanks to everyone who helped me out with this project. Lots to talk about in my report now. Right, better crack on...

 

[DanteLives]

I like achievements/trophies. It allows me to obtain bragging rights over those who don't bother playing the single player after they beat it only once.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I have no real love or hate for them, but I do like that they exist so I suppose I'm much closer to love than hate. I do, however, wish that achievement pop ups were set automatically by game and not by console setting. Pop ups are fine in many games, but I don't really like them showing up in heavily story focused games since they always pop up at moments that hurt the mood.

As for what I actually do like about them. I like that they offer some sort of reward, even if it's minimal, for doing things the hard way. Whether that be beating a game on a certain difficulty level, by choosing not to use a specific really powerful weapon, by being able to find all of the stuff in a game, etc. it's nice to get some sort of kudos. I also like that they sometimes extend the life of a game by offering you different challenges or even by opening your eyes up to new and different ways to approach the same game.

 

[FinalFreak16]

I like achievements/trophies. It allows me to obtain bragging rights over those who don't bother playing the single player after they beat it only once.

Good point. One of the main aspects about achievements systems is the social competitiveness it provides. Its great among friends, provides some friendly competition. The downside i would argue however is other players tend to judge you based on your gamerscore and such which often has no value in determining the skill of a player.

E.g. Guy with 50000+ Gamerscore have maxed out the score from Kinectimals or similar.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I like achievements/trophies. It allows me to obtain bragging rights over those who don't bother playing the single player after they beat it only once.

Good point. One of the main aspects about achievements systems is the social competitiveness it provides. Its great among friends, provides some friendly competition. The downside i would argue however is other players tend to judge you based on your gamerscore and such which often has no value in determining the skill of a player.

E.g. Guy with 50000+ Gamerscore have maxed out the score from Kinectimals or similar.

This is very true. In fact, tt's often likely that people with really high gamer scores have also played titles simply to boost their score. Heck, even for myself, the one game I've 1000 pointed is Kung Fu Panda. Now, I actually really enjoyed that game for it's fun take on a sort of kid friendly DMC/Ninja Gaiden but I won't ever say the 1000 points were had to get. The extra 1000 points it added to my gamerscore, however, doesn't reflect that ease.

 

[FinalFreak16]

As for what I actually do like about them. I like that they offer some sort of reward, even if it's minimal, for doing things the hard way. Whether that be beating a game on a certain difficulty level, by choosing not to use a specific really powerful weapon, by being able to find all of the stuff in a game, etc. it's nice to get some sort of kudos. I also like that they sometimes extend the life of a game by offering you different challenges or even by opening your eyes up to new and different ways to approach the same game.

I like how show Extra Credits once put it and explained that achievements could often be put into 3 categories.

The Unavoidable
The Optional
The Inspiring.

The achievements you mentioned such as 'not using a specific weapon' could be considered an inspiring achievement as it makes you play the game in a way in which was not initially intended by the developer. These are normally the most fun achievements. Feedback ive received so far seems to indicate that this is also the case.

 

[Epona]

Achievements are glorified high score tables that have cost us some freedom. Cheat devices are no longer allowed partially because of Achievements and locked saves exist partially because of Achievements.

I can't tell you how irritating it is to hear professional game reviewers on podcasts talking about "cheevos".

 

[FinalFreak16]

Achievements are glorified high score tables that have cost us some freedom. Cheat devices are no longer allowed partially because of Achievements and locked saves exist partially because of Achievements.

I can't tell you how irritating it is to hear professional game reviewers on podcasts talking about "cheevos".

Another very good point. It's something i've thought about myself. I think it was when GTA4 was released and many people, myself included was dissapointed in the lack of cheats available from a series which had such a great library of gameplay changing cheat codes before. Dont get me started on the locked saves issue. Backing up save games is now a pain the backside...

 

[Indecipherable]

I couldn't care less about them, I have absolutely no interest in it and I don't think I've ever discussed an achievement with a friend, ever. Good luck to you if you do care ...

 

[thomaskattus]

They don't really mean much to me. Back in my day the only achievement you got was the satisfaction of knowing you beat the game which is why I don't really care.

I play a game to play not to be competitive.

 

[FinalFreak16]

I couldn't care less about them, I have absolutely no interest in it and I don't think I've ever discussed an achievement with a friend, ever. Good luck to you if you do care ...

They don't really mean much to me. Back in my day the only achievement you got was the satisfaction of knowing you beat the game which is why I don't really care.

I play a game to play not to be competitive.

Perfectly valid opinions. Can I follow up by asking if the fact that achievement tracking being a compulsory feature bothers you in any way. Regardless of how much they mean to you you are awarded some achievements all the same while playing. For example notifications cannot be turned off.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

They do absolutely jack shit and I wish they would go away. 90% of them just boil down to "you played the game, have a gold star." They are tacked on and add absolutely nothing to the experience. They killed the gameshark and cheat codes. A few of them convince people to play the game in a different way, like the pacifist run, but people who wanted to do that were already doing those type of self challenges before cheevos. But now people do those challenges and the random funny achievements just to get the cookie.

I remember random people used to message me asking me for help because I had 1250/1250gs in Oblivion.

*checks gamefaqs*
Who the hell needed help with Oblivion? Every single one of them was a "play the game" achievement. Were they not capable of following the quest arrow directly to their objective?

 

[Indecipherable]

I couldn't care less about them, I have absolutely no interest in it and I don't think I've ever discussed an achievement with a friend, ever. Good luck to you if you do care ...

They don't really mean much to me. Back in my day the only achievement you got was the satisfaction of knowing you beat the game which is why I don't really care.

I play a game to play not to be competitive.

Perfectly valid opinions. Can I follow up by asking if the fact that achievement tracking being a compulsory feature bothers you in any way. Regardless of how much they mean to you you are awarded some achievements all the same while playing. For example notifications cannot be turned off.

It doesn't matter that tracking them happens or not, I just don't care. Every once in a while something will appear and I just shrug and keep playing. It doesn't bother me one bit, I won't complain about them as a feature - they mean nothing to me.

 

[Soxafloppin]

I don't care about the cumulative amount, as in how many Platinum trophies I have etc, but I like seeing %100.

Basically I allways try and get them but don't care about my collection off them, there a great way to increase replay value but most devs don't take advantage of this and just make them tedious.

I'l admit that my OCD has caused me to become addicted to Trophy hunting, but I'm not doing any harm, The day that I let it effect my purchases is when it has gone too far.

 

[scorptatious]

I like achievements/trophies. While I'm not someone who would usually go out of his way to get all the achievements, I sometimes will go after a certain achievement if it provided an interesting challenge that I think I can do. Plus I feel they can also extend the amount of time you play on a game, and to me that's usually a good thing.

 

[Epona]

Achievements are glorified high score tables that have cost us some freedom. Cheat devices are no longer allowed partially because of Achievements and locked saves exist partially because of Achievements.

I can't tell you how irritating it is to hear professional game reviewers on podcasts talking about "cheevos".

Another very good point. It's something i've thought about myself. I think it was when GTA4 was released and many people, myself included was dissapointed in the lack of cheats available from a series which had such a great library of gameplay changing cheat codes before. Dont get me started on the locked saves issue. Backing up save games is now a pain the backside...

Indeed up till this gen you could move saves to different consoles, saves on a memory card or a cartridge could easily be used on any console. I thought using HDD's for saves would be the best of both worlds, you get plenty of space without having to buy mem cards and the save is separate from the media but the industry found a way to screw that pooch too. This idea the even your saves don't belong to you is insane but people accepted it because of "cheevos".

It's sad too because you can't opt out of achievements and get your cheats and unlocked saves back.

People obviously don't realize how meaningless achievements are, for example, does anyone care what your high score for Pac Man was in 1982?

 

[Matthew Kjonaas]

I don't care because it does not make me a better at playing.

 

[FinalFreak16]

I don't care about the cumulative amount, as in how many Platinum trophies I have etc, but I like seeing %100.

Basically I allways try and get them but don't care about my collection off them, there a great way to increase replay value but most devs don't take advantage of this and just make them tedious.

I'l admit that my OCD has caused me to become addicted to Trophy hunting, but I'm not doing any harm, The day that I let it effect my purchases is when it has gone too far.

Part of my dissertation actually argues that getting that sense of completion, completing a game 100% often means collecting all the achievements too now, or is used as the basis for getting 100%. This means that for those who have no interest in achievements are being excluded from this satisfaction.

Would you agree with that?

 

[thomaskattus]

I couldn't care less about them, I have absolutely no interest in it and I don't think I've ever discussed an achievement with a friend, ever. Good luck to you if you do care ...

They don't really mean much to me. Back in my day the only achievement you got was the satisfaction of knowing you beat the game which is why I don't really care.

I play a game to play not to be competitive.

Perfectly valid opinions. Can I follow up by asking if the fact that achievement tracking being a compulsory feature bothers you in any way. Regardless of how much they mean to you you are awarded some achievements all the same while playing. For example notifications cannot be turned off.

It does not bother me at all. I am good at keeping my immersion in a game going even with the pop ups. And some of the cheevs I find amusing. It would be nice to be able to turn them off, but I am pretty easy going about stuff like that.