Do you care about game achievements?

[Nemesis]

I cared about them until I realized they often ruined the experience. I couldn't immerse myself in the game because I constantly checked if my play style aligned with achievements: Did I complete the quest in a specific way? Did I hit for enough damage? Did I pick the right difficult? It was exhausting.

The game that snapped me out of it, of all things, was Assassin's Creed 3. I still remember struggling through specific quests to get gold medals, but I couldn't tell you the story. I 100% the game, but, Jesus, at what cost?

After AC3, I swore to never again get hung up on achievements, and my experience has improved. If a game has achievements, there's only one I focus on: Beating the game.

[Tweed]

Achievements are an easy way for the developer to install telemetry without the player freaking out.

[MC_Sea]

While I don't particularly care for progression achievements, it is interesting to see the percentage of people that completed each section of the game. It is particularly interesting to compare the amount of people who completed the main campaign vs the people who went out of their way to complete the postgame content. Another intriguing comparison is seeing how many people bothered engaging with optional content like multiplayer, mini-games, level creators, side campaigns, etc. You'd be surprised to see how little people decide to even check them out, much less complete them.

The main type of achievements I enjoy are the ones that encourage players to change from their usual playstyle or play in an unorthodox manner. I often find myself going back to replay games due to these achievements to check out how different playstyles affect the game especially when certain sections/bosses you previously brushed off suddenly end up giving you trouble because of limitations that previously didn't come up. (DoT builds vs buff support builds vs Aggressive low HP builds vs Defensive wall builds)

The main achievements I despise are the ones that require obnoxious amounts of grinding, repetitive tasks that cannot be automated, or ridiculously low chances of happening (think 1/256 or lower). They don't enhance the experience of the game in the slightest and are a lazy way to add playtime. It is exceptionally horrible when you aren't even close to completing them after completing all of the game's content or even all of the other achievements available. The worst part is that they aren't satisfying to complete at all despite the effort that was necessary to achieve them.

[rusty_shackleford]

Do you really think someone would do that? Just gamify the act of playing video games itself by handing out little achievements in the shape of badges?

[Norfleet]

I do not. But sometimes it's interesting to see the overall statistics. For example I started a IE campaign for Tzeentch in TWW3 and after a few turns I got an achievement for using Changing of the Ways ability. Steam shows less than 15% of players have this. This is some basic **** which you can get right after starting Tzeentch campaign and only 15% have it.

That's honestly unsurprising. Most people will have some subset of factions that they find interesting, and will thus not get around to playing any of the others personally. 15%, therefore, is probably fairly high.

[Norfleet]

It depends on the achievement. I used to play a game where there was one basic achievement, "Die a decent number (like 50 or something) of times ". Given that the average player would struggle to hold even a 2:1 K/D, anyone who played for any length of time would sort of passively acquire that one. I played over a thousand matches without getting there. Sometimes the real achievement is not getting the achievement.

[Yankee Zulu]

Do you really think someone would do that? Just gamify the act of playing video games itself by handing out little achievements in the shape of badges?

Some people really love that particular game and are willing to spend more time in it. Achievements can provide that. Therss actually a whole industry working on steam. People write guides about how to get all achievements for certain games.

I do not. But sometimes it's interesting to see the overall statistics. For example I started a IE campaign for Tzeentch in TWW3 and after a few turns I got an achievement for using Changing of the Ways ability. Steam shows less than 15% of players have this. This is some basic **** which you can get right after starting Tzeentch campaign and only 15% have it.

That's honestly unsurprising. Most people will have some subset of factions that they find interesting, and will thus not get around to playing any of the others personally. 15%, therefore, is probably fairly high.

You are not wrong but this achievement can be earned during first couple of turns. You can simply get it by trying out the faction.

[Norfleet]

You are not wrong but this achievement can be earned during first couple of turns. You can simply get it by trying out the faction.

That's still committing to either playing the faction at least once, or a deliberate attempt to farm achievements, though.

[LemonDemonGirl]

I usually don't give a **** unless they give me rewards.

[Yankee Zulu]

One example of achievements affecting gameplay is Guild Wars 2. Achievemnts in that game reward you with numerois gameplay items and unlock addirional gameplay abilities like shops, mounts, etc. Achievements are some form of horizontal progression in that game.

[Vaako]

They are just a psychological trick to waste more time of people which have compulsion disorders. If they unlocked some cheats or so like you used to get in the early resident evil games they would be worthwhile at least in some games. But AAA publishers will rather make you pay for those these days.

[Tangerine]

I'm not a fan of achievements.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I do not care about Steam achievements.

The only time I have cared about "achievements" is if they have exclusive stuff for an MMO. Winning 40 rated battlegrounds in WoW while above 1,600 rating and getting a cool Vicious Saddle mount, which I then sometimes use. Beating Mythic Garrosh during the MoP Remix event to get the Paragon of the Mists title. Or joining the 48 man Delubrum Reginae raid on savage difficulty where no resurrections are allowed, and beating the raid and getting the Cerberus mount, which I never used again.

[Classix]

Not one bit lol. I have hundreds of hours on many games and many locked ones to this day, simply because I have no interest in doing the things to unlock them, whether it be irl stances or just I have no interest in that character type/certain behavior. Like the Kotor/Mass Affect etc style games. Romances? In game smoochie-smoo and 'love' scenes? Never seen a single one lol.

► Show Spoiler

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lol yerhavinalaff

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Jail? Never been.

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No interest in playing as these.

[Tweed]

Depends on the game and the achievement. The No Needles run in Prey is fun to do, the little gold star it gives you an excuse to do it.

[mercerxiv]

Depends for me. Typically - don't give a ****, but if it's an MMO style achievement that either gives me something I want (typically a cool mount), or something that is prestigious and has not been devalued by bad actors in the raiding community selling said prestigious achievements for cash. A couple examples would be: glory to the raider achievements in wow, in particular the one that rewarded you with a iconic WotLK frostbrood vanquisher, or ultimate raid titles on ffxiv (before shitters started selling them to no skill randoms to make a couple bucks).

[Demonic Fate]

In competitive multiplayer games, some of them can make sense. All your (hopefully fun) gameplay is fundamentally aimed by a series of "awards" that act as lodestones - the individual match win, the rank up, the performance badge. An achievement for e.g. hitting a certain headshot % fits naturally in there, it's just a regular in-game objective that happens to be visible in your Steam profile. On the other hand, pure grinding achievements ("Play 500 matches with this dogshit gun") are just disrespecting the player's time.

In singleplayer, they very rarely make sense at all. But even if they did, you would have to actually buy the game lmao

[Rienen]

Achievements, for the sake of simply earning a shiny badge on a buried UI, mean nothing to me. I don't check/read them beforehand, and I certainly don't go out of my way to complete them. I'm happy they can be a driving force for some people, but they play absolutely no factor in my decision to play/keep playing a game.

[Doria_rhea]

I don't care for achievements given that I just play games in my free time and rather not get obsessed in getting some esoteric achievements instead of enjoying myself. In Crusader Kings 3 I sometimes look at the achievements available just so they may influence my playthrough but I don't play the game with gaining the achievement in mind.

[DDC]

I don't care about the achievements at all, I just like the statistics behind them and being able to see where everyone is getting filtered (especially in souls-like games). But I have never cared about the "gold star" itself or gone out of my way to try to earn one. I ignored them on Xbox when they first became a thing because there were no stats. On steam, I'll browse through them on especially challenging games. If I have one dictated purely by skill (such as clearing the game on a specific difficulty) and it's something less than 3% of players have, I'm happy I ****** the skill-issue zoomers, but that's about it. I couldn't care less about something like getting a badge for finding all the collectibles.

[Steel-Knight]

When there's an actual in-game reward for it I sometimes try to go for achievements if you get something cool for it, but otherwise I don't bother too much usually.

[rusty_shackleford]

If they don't have tangible rewards they shouldn't exist.

Even better if they have integrated into the gameworld itself somehow.

[edit]
wait I already answered this!

[Atlantico]

The idea of "achievments" doesn't work in all game genres IMO

I think it is a complete nuisance in RPGs, I hate them and the idiots who implemented them. "Patriot: Make the final assault" - ME3, what the **** is the point of that "achievement". You're just playing the game.

It's more fitting in something like FarmSimulator 2022 or sth "Achievement unlocked: you've farmed 10 thousand tons of corn". Or whatever ikd never played the game.

[Irenaeus]

I just like the statistics behind them and being able to see where everyone is getting filtered

I like this use of tracking to indicate how people play the game a certain way when a game has multiple paths/builds.

[wndrbr]

I noticed how it affects my playstyle. Turns playing the game into following some grocery checklist. You gotta do this, you gotta do that.

I don't mind telemetry achievements that are used to keep track of the story progression.

[Oyster Sauce]

[Humbaba]

Goyster is pornhub champion in his state just fyi

[KOS-MOS]

I don't care.

[Havitner]

I downloaded Counter Strike on a whim, and then quit as soon as I realized that you could get all the cheevos by killing bots in training mode.

[Thaddaeus]

Not really, unless its for something weird/funny I would not have thought of. Sometimes they'll make me do stuff I wouldn't normally do, like attacking bears with a knife.