Achievements In Video Games

[El Presidente]

Alien Isolation has 2 such examples of awful achievements: one requires you to find all the game's hidden trinkets (soldier IDs), and the other requires you to beat the entire thing without ever dying, I can't even begin to imagine how frustrating that must be considering the game's surprisingly pretty long and the Xeno is far too unpredictable and pretty much one shots you. There's no way in hell I'd even consider doing that one.

 

[DicLupa]

They are far from required, although appreciated. As always, we can quibble about implementation. I'd like all sets to be reasonable, although I don't mind if a few are reserved for people who wanna champ Permadeath Nightmare Naked runs or whatever. Multiplayer-only cheevs in primarily SP games can fuck right off.

I do find Retroachievements encourages me to play some older games on emulators I otherwise may not have, and they're of course completely optional. There's ROMs I have queued where I'm holding off until sets are released. I recently played HL1 on PCSX2 for the fuck of it and had a pretty good time! And since I'm not really playing these games seriously - more like retro gaming tourism - I don't really care if some cheevs are ridiculous. Somebody back in the day grinded up every character, limit break, and materia in FF7 in between not doing his homework, and by all means let them relive that nostalgic hell if they want to.

 

[Ezekiel]

Alien Isolation has 2 such examples of awful achievements: one requires you to find all the game's hidden trinkets (soldier IDs), and the other requires you to beat the entire thing without ever dying, I can't even begin to imagine how frustrating that must be considering the game's surprisingly pretty long and the Xeno is far too unpredictable and pretty much one shots you. There's no way in hell I'd even consider doing that one.

For the no death run you can reload save files. It's one of the games I actually did get all the achievements in. Don't like it that much anymore, though. Deeply flawed.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Multiplayer-only cheevs in primarily SP games can fuck right off.

I absolutely feel this. I was considering 100% for Red Faction Guerilla until I realised it had loads of them

 

[Falksi]

How important are achievements to you?
- Not one iota.

If a game has achievements, is that game only finished when 100% of the achievements are acquired?
- Nah. I see a game as finished when you've beaten it with all playstyles on all difficulties. Then you move on to "Mastering" the game, which could indeed include achievements. Completing bonus content isn't required to finish something, much as watching deleted scenes and director commentaries isn't required to finish watching a movie.

Are achievements a console mindset?
- Originally yes, but obviously they're all over Steam now too.

Do you make sure a game doesn't have broken achievements before purchasing?
- No. I rarely look at achievements in general, other than those which connect with mildly amusing game aspects (e.g. you farted a frog)

Are there any achievements that you are proud of?
- No. Most achievements are garbage, and don't really require much skill, thought or ability to actually achieve. I'm far more prouder of being able to 1CC games like Hellfire than I am anything which any modern day game has ever thrown at me.

Do achievements have an effect on how you approach playing a game, such as looking up guides?
- No. I very rarely look up guides, only if I'm stuck for days and have exhausted all options, and I wouldn't spoil my gaming experience just to get a pointless pat on the back from a computer program.


I think achievements matter for the spods trying to make their careers as gaming celebs, but most are a fucking bore to actually undertake. Worse yet, they rarely actually test the players skill or ability, it's usually just a case of doing monotonous busywork.

 

[oldbonebrown]

I care about achievements in games that I like enough to want to keep playing far beyond a normal playthrough.
Ideally I like achievements to be challenges set to make the most of what is possible within the game, a path to squeezing every drop of juice out of a game.

 

[Dadd]

I switch off the notifications for achievements and never check achievements.

 

[jaekl]

I remember that when achievements came around, cheat codes died and everyone said that you can't have cheat codes anymore because it would devalue their precious gamer score and for that I will hate achievements with all of my heart until the day I die. If I happen to perish before the guy who made achievements does, I will haunt him and curse future generations of his family with some type of degenerative disease of the nervous system.

 

[deuxhero]

Achievements exist so publishers can see how many players did X, then say too few players did X in first game so don't bother implementing it in sequel. Look at Saints Row 3: They didn't include the job diversion activities because the achievements (360 only) showed nobody completed them in SR2. This was completely ignoring how you had to do all of them, including the literally broken tow truck missions which offered no other reward of consequence, to get that achievement.

 

[processdaemon]

I don't care about achievements in the sense that I 100% every game, but they're a way to eke out a bit of extra fun from a game that I like but have nearly finished with, especially if there's a postgame that isn't as structured as the main game. I sometimes struggle to keep playing games if there are no wider goals even if I enjoy the gameplay, and the achievements act like a kind of pseudo main quest when I've done most of the other content. Note that this only counts for achievements that don't require a lot of grinding, farming, or walking about aimlessly; beating every secret boss is fine, finding all 150 of the herpa herbs scattered across the world is not.

With regard to the console question, I think there are different mindsets that compel different types of achievement hunters and some types are more common on console than PC. I think getting 100% of the achievements can be more of a social flex for some and that console players who play a lot with irl friends might be more likely to fall into that camp, but for others it's more akin to collecting stamps or coins, and I'd guess that the latter is more common in PC gamers.

 

[std::namespace]

 

[Iucounu]

The Long Dark actually has a kind of achievements that are tolerable, since they don't just give you a silly badge but also unlock bonus perks in subsequent playthroughs.

 

[Abu Antar]

I was reading a discussion about achievements amongst some friends of mine. I cherry picked some of the talking points around this discussion to pose as questions. I would like to know how you feel about achievements in video games.

How important are achievements to you? Not very, even if I sometimes go for 100%. It's a rare occasion. Games that don't have achievements is fine with me.
If a game has achievements, is that game only finished when 100% of the achievements are acquired? The game is finished when I do not feel like playing anymore, and the story is done.
Are achievements a console mindset? I don't know.
Do you make sure a game doesn't have broken achievements before purchasing? No.
Are there any achievements that you are proud of? Ehh.
Do achievements have an effect on how you approach playing a game, such as looking up guides? I rarely look up guides on a first run. If I'm stuck, I might consult one.

Generally speaking, not having achievements/trophies wouldn't change much when it comes to how I game. The Switch doesn't have such a system, and I am happy playing games on it.

 

[DemonKing]

I ignore them completely.

Hope that answers your questions.

EDIT: Actually I lied - I occasionally look at them when I finish a game to see what all those annoying notifications were about while I was playing.

 

[Alienman]

I was reading a discussion about achievements amongst some friends of mine. I cherry picked some of the talking points around this discussion to pose as questions. I would like to know how you feel about achievements in video games.

How important are achievements to you?
If a game has achievements, is that game only finished when 100% of the achievements are acquired?
Are achievements a console mindset?
Do you make sure a game doesn't have broken achievements before purchasing?
Are there any achievements that you are proud of?
Do achievements have an effect on how you approach playing a game, such as looking up guides?

1. Not very, but I think it's a nice addition.
2. No.
3. Maybe from the beginning, but now I think they are a staple of all gaming-related.
4. No.
5. Finishing a game in Ironman mode is a nice achievement
6. No. Maybe after I complete the game to see if it's anything I missed. Usually, you can get an indication of what you have missed, in let's say an RPG. Those achievements are for the most part hidden, which then would indicate that there are paths I have missed. It tells me it might be worth a replay.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Hello, this is Porky. You may remember me from such movies as Waterworld, Free Willy 2, and The Good, the Bad, and the Fat.

If you are talking about such achievements as "Congratulations, you just launched this game!" begotten by somewhere between 95 and 99% of the people who bought it, then no, nobody should care about those.

But if you are like me, and have a large number ~0.1-3% achievements, there is no reason not to brag about this like a shameless whore. You know, if you did shit like complete all end game crises in Battle Brothers on Iron Man mode, beat bosses in Japanese games that would make their own head designers drink fermented Xanax, or ever finished a game on Tactician mode where the toughest enemy was not committing suicide because some asshole kept screaming for hours that NO ONE HAS AS MANY FRIENDS AS A MAN WITH MANY CHEESES!

Veni, vidi, veni, lucidum factum.

 

[e-mailio estevez]

A lot of my rarer achievements are rare simply by the virtue of being games with a smaller playerbase.

The only 'earned' achievement I'm kind of proud of was from Super Street Fighter 4- where I earned the 'Tenpeat' achievement by going on a 10-game win streak in ranked mode on release day. I did this by abusing a frametrap, my day 1 character was Adon, who had a move where he'd leap to the edge of the screen, kick off the edge and jumpkick into the opponent. It looked super punishable on-block- but it wasn't- so I'd go straight from a wallkick into an invulnerable Ultra move. This would land 100% of the time- well, at least for 10 matches on day 1.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

What are achievements?

 

[Zlaja]

They have some minimal monetary value attacked there, via the points system (?)

I think that was only in the beginning and both Microsoft and Sony quickly removed that when they realized many people would hunt that shit obsessively no matter what.

If you don't like speedrunning for example, which I particularly hate, speedrun achievements are an instant and free "ugh, fuck this shit"

I hate those type of achievements with a passion too. All Resident Evil games tend to have them, and that pisses me off.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

The only good thing with achievements is that they allow you to keep track of what you have done in the game. Depending on what they record they serve as interesting statistics. But I would rather just have statistics over kills, different endings and so on.

Sometimes achievements make you do silly things like killing a Chambler with the axe in Quake.

 

[NecroLord]

I think most modern games should have achievements for simply making you suffer through them and play the games until the end and finishing them .

 

[Darkozric]

What about codex achievements

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I see it as the encroachment of the corporate, to-do list, busywork mentality on videogames. Obviously millennials are to blame.

 

[NecroLord]

I see it as the encroachment of the corporate, to-do list, busywork mentality on videogames. Obviously millennials are to blame.

Bingo!

 

[Sibelius]

I see it as the encroachment of the corporate, to-do list, busywork mentality on videogames. Obviously millennials are to blame.

This is an interesting perspective.

I'm sure some devs include difficult to obtain achievements to maximise 'engagement' with their game. It's an interesting thought for sure.

Makes me wonder if any achievements have ever been directly linked to micro-transactions. Sounds like the kind of experiment EA or the like would perform, just to see if it would generate some extra sales (and if they could get away with it).