Achievements - How do you feel about them?

[trobadur85]

Are they a waste of time or an itch on a completionist's back or were they the greatest thing the previous generation brought us ?

What do you think ?

[Erik_Twice]

I think they can be interesting and a way of making the player try new things on the game but most achivements are terrible "Kill X guys" bars.

[trobadur85]

I was thinking to replay Assassin Creed 1 so I can remember it and move on to AC2 and the rest of the series and considered doing the achievements. Collect collect collect.

Part of me wants to have a nice "complete"status of the game, part of me feels all that time could be invested in other games I never played before instead

[Sload Soap]

How bizarre, I was just thinking about this myself. GREAT MINDS!

I think the person who came up with them deserved whatever bonus they got but for me personally, I cared less and less about them as the last gen went on. Like Erik says, they can have interesting goals or require some genuine skill to achieve but most are just busywork. No way I'm shooting all those pigeons in GTAIV.

I only have five games out of hundreds with all the achievements unlocked and two of those were games that basically guaranteed them (Walking Dead and Sonic the Fighters).

[Nemoide]

They're fun but I wish they were never created.


I mean, do you know what it takes to get all the achievements in something like Street Fighter IV? INSANITY. PURE MADNESS is what it takes. I mean, I've sunk a considerable amount of time just trying to unlock achievements in some games. And the thing is, I know that NOBODY CARES. None of my friends are looking at my Xbox Live profile wondering "hmm, I guess this guy doesn't care about at Sonic & All-Star Racing Transformed since he hasn't gotten all 1000 points." NOBODY CARES. But I'll still waste time trying to unlock things...

[irixith]

Love achievements.

Many games add interesting challenges (!@(&%#@$ GARDEN GNOME!!!!) that don't take away from the core game but can significantly change the way you play it or approach it. Definitely adds interest to games with repeated playthroughs. Personally it fuels the completionist in me...the one who can see 100% achievements and think "completed" and get the little happy endorphin rush that comes along with it. I don't see any problem with them being there or part of the experience -- they can be completely ignored and nothing is lost.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I mostly ignore them.

Too many are based on stupid fickle shit.

Earlier this year I beat Ys Origin for the first time. Had a really good run. Sped through the game rather quickly and died maybe 2-3 times. But I ended the game with something like 5 (out of 60 or so) achievements. Why? Because so many are based on random unintuitive nonsense or require multiple playthroughs to achieve.

I am slightly amused by the achievements one gains by dying (either once or multiple times). I tend to see these while playing shmups. Big surprise.

But yeah, most gaming features that aren't present in retro games (online mutiplayer, social media sharing, achievements, DLC, etc) aren't really my thing.

[samsonlonghair]

I don't care for achievements. In fact, I don't even finish most of my games, let alone try for 100%.

[winds]

When I first got my 360 and was ushered into the online aspects of gaming, as well as this new "achievements" concept, I remember thinking how awesome it would be if the game gave the player some sort of motivation to actually acquire all the achievements/trophies. For example, maybe give the 100%-ers a discount on the upcoming DLC or give them some new unlock or something. As soon as I found out this wasn't the case, I lost all interest. To me it just seemed like a waste of my time doing menial tasks that actually hindered my enjoyment of the game.

For the entirety of last generation, I managed to bypass caring about achievements even in the slightest. I assume that will continue on into this new generation of consoles as well.

I also remember hearing about some gamers going crazy and seeking out cheap, easy to 100% games just for the achievements, despite the quality of said game. While I understand people liking achievements, I could never understand spending money on a known low quality game and dedicating your time to getting all it's achievements just for achievement's sake. For some OCD gamers, I think it shifted the focus from enjoying the game to just a collect-a-thon.

[marurun]

I hate achievement that are like "You did/made/found the first thing/event/whatever!" or "You beat the first boss!"

Those are dumb. I much prefer the ones that are like "You did this perfectly/you found all the doodads/you are awesome because you did this thing that isn't obvious or required."