Trophies and Achievements...

[robbievgb]

These are things I might not have necessarily considered if the achievement hadn't been there, and they made the games both more challenging and interesting.

I completely agree. I think that achievements/trophies force me to get as much replay value out of my games as possible. That doesn't mean to force myself to get every achievement possible (because I don't have that amount of time), but for the games I really love it gives me more motivation to keep playing. For some games it almost creates brand new strategies or mini games within the current context of the game itself.

I feel that trophies/achievements have become this generation's "hi-scores." Someone having a higher score than you in Game X actually means that individual is better than you at Game X. It motivates you to get a higher score than that person so that you become better than him at Game X.

I also agree with this, high scores were what kept people playing arcade machines, where video gaming was born, without the high score and increasing difficulty, there'd be no reason to play. One of my favorite classic games is Galaga, a game with no substance or storyline at all, yet when I get going, I can't put it down until I beat my last high score.

I've heard people get livid about achievements ruining the gameplay experience, but I think achievements are extension of what gaming's core experience is: Challenge. Challenge from friends or the game itself, we wouldn't play if we didn't feel challenged, and achievements give us that challenge in so many ways.

Some might call me bad gamer for loving achievements so much and being proud of my gamer score, but I don't care because I had fun getting every single one of them, and that's all I want, is to have fun.

[Bradtemple87]

I play games because I enjoy them for the experience they provide on their own. Something is wrong if you need points awarded for an experience you should have been happy to have based on its own merit.

[Flake]

I play games because I enjoy them for the experience they provide on their own.

Games should never be played for fun.

[Droid party]

I play games because I enjoy them for the experience they provide on their own.

Games should never be played for fun.

Calm down Mr Kotick. Just concentrate on stealing Christmas.

[lisalover1]

I actually like Trophies/Achievements because they give me incentive to do more in a game than I normally would. I see it like taking a dare from a friend. For example, in Brutal Legend, you can get an achievement for riding a "Razorboar" [a weak animal that dies easily when hit, and when you ride it, cannot stop or slow down] from one end of the world map, all the way to the other end, then drive it into the ocean, and jump out at the last second, so it falls in, and you don't. It just seems like that is something that you would be dared to do in a game, but with achievements/trophies, there is already a list of dares, and you actually get rewarded for them.

[Para]

They are a joke and the whole concept is exploited and totally in the wrong direction. The concept is good but I have only seen a literally a couple games get it right out of the thousands that have achievements in them.

[Gamerforlife]

I'll echo what's been said already

I love the concept of achievements and trophies, but their execution in many games over the past couple of years has been just utterly horrible. They're either too insane(Dead Rising Survivor achievements), too easy(congratulations! You beat the tutorial! You get a cookie!), too multi-player focused(achievements for playing a game with another person are fucking stupid)or they are just money grabbers(like all the achievements in Viva Pinata:Trouble in Paradise that required you to buy a special camera)

Course, like EVERY problem in the gaming industry, the real issue is too many dumbfuck developers simply copying what everyone else is doing with their achievements instead of THINKING FOR THEMSELVES!!!

[Opa Opa]

Course, like EVERY problem in the gaming industry, the real issue is too many dumbfuck developers simply copying what everyone else is doing with their achievements instead of THINKING FOR THEMSELVES!!!

I think the real issue is that too much time is going into making achievements/trophies and not enough time into making the games. Sure it doesn't take long to program a box popping up on screen but that is time that could have been better spent.

[Gamerforlife]

How do you feel about them? You find em' good? Bad? How much importance do you put in them?

Personally: I hate trophies and achievements. Why? Because I believe I'm quite literally addicted to them. Not kidding. Nowadays I find a serious lack of accomplishment if I don't get a lot of the trophies in a game. Example: I bought Battlefield: Bad Company 2 a while back. I didn't like the game. The multiplayer was fun when it worked (Almost never), and the single player was a wasteful snore fest. I returned the game a week after purchasing. But you know what? I felt regret at returning the game because it had really easy trophies and I only got 57% of them. Because of this I find myself often playing on harder difficulties or buying games known for there difficulty in order to still feel accomplished. I also find it hard to buy any PS3 games that don't have trophies because they came out too early (Valkyria Chronicles, Devil May Cry 4, etc...). Seriously, I think I need rehab or something for this bullshit.

What about you guys?

I would just like to point out that Valkyria Chronicles DID have a trophy system. That's what the ingame metals were. VC is very old school in that way, the challenges are within the game itself, not some list of things on the PS3's main menu that have to cater to Sony's trophy guidelines

Final Fantasy 12 also had a cool in-game achievement/trophy system that I really liked. Personally, I find it interesting that these two games actually had far better challenges for players to complete than they probably would have with actual achievement/trophy support had those things been available back when these games came out

Interesting to see the kind of challenges a developer can come up with for players when there's no "corporate" influence(looking at you Microsoft)

[saturnfan]

I like achievements because I get more value out of my games by trying to unlock them.