Are Videogame Achievement system pointless? - Games

I love achievements. There's nothing to do where I live and it makes me feel like I've accomplished something. I never thought in my life that I'd get into achievements because at first I just labeled them as "stupid", but holy shit...

for some reason developers think that consumers are too dumb to deduce a sense of achievement from the gameplay without a notification popping up and explicitly telling them that they have achieved something [editline]19th December 2010[/editline] i agree with them

In fallout 3 the prankster achievement taught me I could put grenades in someones pants.

I find achievements fun. The ones in Mass Effect 1 were good because they added in-game bonuses for getting them.

Achievements do make the game fun but they are not mandatory.

Achievements like "Find all the hidden spots" or "kills 3 enemies with 1 grenades" are fine It's the ones that are like "KILL 5 ENEMIES!!!" that are stupid

They arent pointless. On L4D I got some my friends and we tried getting an achievement. It was really difficult but we got it, and we were proud seeing how many players attualy had it on steam.

On Fable III there is an Achievement for Upgrading Ranged, Magic and Melee to Level 5, one for each of them, one of my friends doesn't have the one for Magic, meaning he only uses Melee and Ranged Weapons. Achievements are fun to show your friends what you got and what you did to get it, they're also good if they Unlock items or whatever in games, i see more point to them on PS3 and Xbox 360 because on PS3, it counts towards your PSN Level (Mine is Level 5 and about 45% to Level 6), on Xbox 360 it counts towards your Gamerscore. (Mine is 38,614, meaning i've played alot of games) They have different meanings on different Systems and for different people, i don't hunt for them unless i want to, some people hunt for them, either way they're not something you have to do but it can be fun if you decide you want to. [editline]19th December 2010[/editline] [QUOTE=D4vils Buddy;26800172]I find achievements fun. The ones in Mass Effect 1 were good because they added in-game bonuses for getting them.[/QUOTE] Mass Effect 2, Complete the game and you get 50,000 of each resource and Credits on a New Game, as long as you have that Achievement, that's what you get.

The ones that you actually have to achive something to do are nice and all, but the ones that you get anyways with just playing and really not doing anything are stupid. But that's just my opinion.

They give you a reason to keep playing long after the fun has run out.

Achivements should be hard or silly, not just boring "kill 25 enemies with a shotgun". [editline]19th December 2010[/editline] Stuff like enviromental kills and such.

They're only good as long as they give tangible benefits other than that they're useless.

I don't mind difficult achievements, but when it's something like "get a 5 kills with 1 grenade in a multiplayer match" where you need the luck of the fucking Irish, then it pisses me off.

The only good achievments are those that give you a bonus or change the game mechanics in some way. Like in STALKER: Call of Pripyat, getting the "Marked by The Zone" achievment grants you the ability to survive radioactive emissions without hiding in safe spots.

duh.

I'm pretty impartial to achievements. Personally, I barely even notice them - I just play and if I get them it's kinda like "oh cool" but I don't really pay much attention. My brother, on the other hand, tries to get pretty much every singleplayer achievement in every game he owns. Sometimes I think "God... why is he grinding so much trying to get every single flag in Assassins' Creed" or whatever, but then I again I can equally think to myself "hm... I wish I could play a singleplayer game for that long. He really is getting his money's worth out of it".

Pointless or not, they always make me feel happy. Kinda like receiving a golden star in a special needs class :downs:

Achievements keep me playing games I'd normally stop playing, which usually results in fun times that I otherwise wouldn't have had. It's nice to try and aim for 1000/1000, even if you fall short. I actually had a ton of fun getting all the flying rats in GTA4 because I got to explore the city like I never had before.

I don't like them if they are KILL 1000 of that, but if they are something clever like the gnome achievement in EP2 they I'd say they are good.

[QUOTE=gbtygfvyg;26800762]I don't mind difficult achievements, but when it's something like "get a 5 kills with 1 grenade in a multiplayer match" where you need the luck of the fucking Irish, then it pisses me off.[/QUOTE] Worst has to be when developers think their game is going to be a smash hit and played by all so they put ridiculous multi-player achievements in e.g. The Club.

Achievements detract from the reason one should be playing a game in the first place.

[QUOTE=Lizzrd;26800609]Achivements should be hard or silly, not just boring "kill 25 enemies with a shotgun". [editline]19th December 2010[/editline] Stuff like enviromental kills and such.[/QUOTE] Dang, are you the Lizard from the CC forums? I suppose, since you have the same avatar :v: You're awesome :3: Ontopic: I like achievements, but not the ones like "play 1000 hours in multiplayer" BC2, I'm looking at you.

They make me feel good.

Left 4 dead has the best achievements. Of ANY game.

[QUOTE=myalt22;26802088]Left 4 dead has the best achievements. Of ANY game.[/QUOTE] Not really you don't get anything from them. I understand if getting all of them did something awesome like unlock a fifth character or give you UT style modifiers or something, but they do nothing.

[QUOTE=BCell;26798407]When you think about it, WHEN YOU REALLY THINK ABOUT IT! Video game achievements serves no purpose in real life other than bragging rights and size of e-peen. I mean back in the 16bit era, there was no achievements and the game are still enjoyable. The only achievement they have is the high score I see achievements as one big gimmick just to increase the re-playability. The sad truth is these achievements forces player to grind for it. It makes them frustrated and unhappy. Video games are suppose to be fun and they are not to be made like chores. Chores like get this achievement to unlock new map and weapons. But I want to know from you guys. Are Video Game achievement pointless and should be entirely ignored? Or do they make the game more interesting and challenging. If you ask me, it is the player who should set his/her own achievement in a video game. Example, Team Fortress 2 Achievements used to be useful at getting weapon drop until they adopted the drop system. Achievement hunting only waste time to those who seek it.[/QUOTE] High scores serve no purpose other than bragging rights and size of e-peen - they are a gimmick to increase replayability. If you want to look at it that way. High scores and achievements are both a method of rating your performance that doesn't directly affect the gameplay.

I like achievements that give me ingame bonuses or something. If it's just a checkbox near an image, then it's useless.

Absolutely. But that doesn't mean they can't give you an interesting way to play a game.

When you get bored of a game they give reason to keep playing. Same thing with unlockables really.

I like good achievements, such as these [img]http://i.imgur.com/yCPQH.png[/img] Ones that make you play the game in interesting ways, or ones that you get for doing extremely difficult tasks. Bad examples are "Start the game", "Kill 5 Enemies", "Beat Level 1 on any difficulty"