Achievements - How do you feel about them?

[the7k]

If I really love the game, then I'll go for 100%.

I was in a fit of trophy hunting for a while, but then I played one particularly terrible game just to get the easy achievements (SAW) and that ended that. Couldn't stand that game.

The only games I've 100%'d since then have been Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes and Sengoku Basara 3 Utage. If the game is fun enough and the achievements seem fun to go for, then I'll go for it again.

[jfrost]

The achievements in The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth are gonna kill me.

[laurenhiya21]

I usually check them to see how difficult they would be to get, but there's almost always a few really annoying sounding achievements, so I generally don't bother going after them. I wouldn't want to go after all but a few, because then those annoying achievements would annoy me even more >< Seeing the ending(s) is good enough for me.

I do kind of like the ones with pretty art or funny names though.

[Cronozilla]

I think another positive is, you actually know what 100% means in the game you're playing. In a lot of old games, it's very ambiguous if you even have 100% or not, let alone what it takes to achieve that.

I don't really like the achievements where it's just passing a point or regular game play. I think the ones that are more like challenges are interesting.

[Nemoide]

I think another positive is, you actually know what 100% means in the game you're playing. In a lot of old games, it's very ambiguous if you even have 100% or not, let alone what it takes to achieve that.

I don't really like the achievements where it's just passing a point or regular game play. I think the ones that are more like challenges are interesting.

But IMO there's still some ambiguity. I have all the achievements in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection and I haven't even beaten most of those games.

And I personally think that if someone claims to have 100% completed Dead Rising but didn't get the achievement for something like standing around outside at the heliport for 24-in-game-hours, I think their claim of completion is still valid.

[Forlorn Drifter]

Another positive point I might add is that achievements or trophies that aren't hidden might direct you to things that you may never have known were in the game otherwise. I don't see it too often, but I doubt I would have known about shiv doors in The Last of Us if it weren't for the trohpies. I think of things like upgrading the wallet in OoT, many people wouldn't have known about that if it weren't for magazines and the internet back then. Even then, I know many people who are avid gamers who had no idea about it.

[Cronozilla]

But IMO there's still some ambiguity. I have all the achievements in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection and I haven't even beaten most of those games.

And I personally think that if someone claims to have 100% completed Dead Rising but didn't get the achievement for something like standing around outside at the heliport for 24-in-game-hours, I think their claim of completion is still valid.

I agree that they're not usually done well. But I'm mostly speaking to when they are.

I think most games don't utilize them in particularly creative ways and that they are generally used to eat at more compulsive players whom will keep playing purely because some aspect is noticeably not finished. This is probably the most common trait of achievements, and probably one of the darkest aspects.

There's plenty of games where you can get all the achievements and the game still isn't "100%", so it isn't absolute or anything.

[Key-Glyph]

I mostly love them. I like having long-term goals, and achievements are a fun and exciting motivator for revisiting a game I probably want to revisit anyway.

Like others have said, if I really love a game, I'll go for 100%. It isn't an obligation for me, but more like a labor of love, or a way of paying tribute to my attachment to a title. The effort generally stretches over several years, too, which makes for a really satisfying conclusion when everything finally wraps up.

I do get the unlocking buzz that irixith mentioned, and I do like the sense of validation that comes with having a trophy to prove my difficult feat. I don't think either is anything to be ashamed of. The trophy bit is especially handy shorthand for "this is how much I love that game," which can insta-bond you with another player you've just met.

I'm thinking about this effect in particular because I was chatting with a friend's boyfriend whom I'd just met at their house party, and was asking him what games he played because I saw a Kinect mounted on their wall. I had to press him for details for a while because he'd apparently assumed I was only interested in Kinect games, which he admitted he knew next to nothing about. When I could tell he was reluctant and trying to size up my seriousness on the topic, I said, "Look, if it means anything to you, I've unlocked all the achievements for the following titles," and then suddenly we started having a real conversation about video games. I'm not sure if he thought I might have been bullshitting to make fun of him or what, but he was obviously relieved at having the ice definitively broken, and proceeded to be unabashedly enthusiastic about his favorite games.

And to get more directly back to the topic, something I haven't seen mentioned as a potential annoyance is the spoiler factor to some achievements. It's never been a problem for me, but my best friend had some key plot points of Portal 2 blown for her when she read through the achievement list before finishing her playthrough.

[dsheinem]

I don't think you can really claim to be much of a gamer unless you can 100% achievements/trophies in the games you play. In my experience, there are a lot of poseur- gamer types out there.

In that same vein of thinking, real gamers should really also be buying games at release since some of the trophies are tied to online stuff.

[fastbilly1]

I don't think you can really claim to be much of a gamer unless you can 100% achievements/trophies in the games you play. In my experience, there are a lot of poseur- gamer types out there.

In that same vein of thinking, real gamers should really also be buying games at release since some of the trophies are tied to online stuff.

No one is a real gamer, until they have drinks with Dungeon of Dreadmor development team:
Sewer Brew - Meet somebody from Gaslamp Games and consume Alcholic Beverages in their presence.