Do you care about game achievements?

Post by **rusty_shackleford** » August 22nd, 2025, 22:39

99% of secrets in games are blatantly spoiled by achievements now, what's the point

Post by **rusty_shackleford** » August 22nd, 2025, 22:40

devs deathly afraid someone might miss a 10 second piece of content they spent 5 years working on because they're ********

Acrux · Post by **Acrux** » August 23rd, 2025, 02:46

The only time I care about an achievement is if there's a practical in-game benefit associated with it.

Tinky Winky · Post by **Tinky Winky** » August 23rd, 2025, 03:02

The game achievement mechanic was a mistake

Havitner · Post by **Havitner** » August 23rd, 2025, 18:32

They're like fast food. Enjoyable and fun in the moment, but ultimately shallow and unsatisfying (compared to properly integrated in-game/story content).

WrenchWring · Post by **WrenchWring** » August 24th, 2025, 20:55

There are basically three broad types of achievements; tracker achievements, completionism achievements, and challenge achievements. Tracker achievements are the "beat the main story boss" types, they're mostly for the devs to know how many people have completed the tutorial or beat the game. Or both, knowing how many people who actually launched the game went on to beat the game is a useful statistic. I don't care about these and no player should care about these, they're just a statistical tool. Completionism achievements are the "collect all 20 legendary doohickeys" types, they're for the people who feel satisfaction from checking things off on their to-do list or collecting all 1 million bananas in the game, I am not one of those people. These aren't for me but I don't hate them, some people really like them.

Challenge achievements are the ones I do like. The "beat the game on permadeath mode" or "beat the gimmick boss without using the gimmick mechanic" achievements. Getting these achievements usually requires knowing the game inside and out, being really good player-skill wise, or figuring out what's effectively a puzzle built from the game mechanics. Not all of these achievements are good, a poorly thought-out challenge achievement can be very frustrating to get and not worth the trouble, but when done well they're achievements I'm proud to be able to put on my Steam profile. Getting the Faster Than B achievement for Furi or the O Frabjous Day! achievement for AI War 2 felt really good.

Jordy · Post by **Jordy** » August 24th, 2025, 22:45

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ August 22nd, 2025, 22:39
99% of secrets in games are blatantly spoiled by achievements now, what's the point

Isn't that what the secret achievements on steam are for? Not sure if other platforms have the same but I would assume so.

Post by **Oyster Sauce** » August 24th, 2025, 23:03

Jordy wrote: ↑ August 24th, 2025, 22:45

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ August 22nd, 2025, 22:39
99% of secrets in games are blatantly spoiled by achievements now, what's the point
Isn't that what the secret achievements on steam are for? Not sure if other platforms have the same but I would assume so.

They're always datamined and never organically discovered. Is there a difference between 99.9% of players reading about a secret from another player who figured it out for them or some SEO achievement guide? I don't know. Maybe.

The last big secret hunt I'm aware of is the secret ending in Payday 2

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 3029681847

Post by **orinEsque** » August 24th, 2025, 23:15

If we talking steam achievements not really. I only care if I get something... like skins or something.

Post by **Tweed** » August 24th, 2025, 23:25

The best part about getting achievements isn't playing the game. It's showing everyone online that I did!

OnTilt · Post by **OnTilt** » August 25th, 2025, 04:38

Oyster Sauce wrote: ↑ August 24th, 2025, 23:03

Jordy wrote: ↑ August 24th, 2025, 22:45

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ August 22nd, 2025, 22:39
99% of secrets in games are blatantly spoiled by achievements now, what's the point
Isn't that what the secret achievements on steam are for? Not sure if other platforms have the same but I would assume so.
They're always datamined and never organically discovered. Is there a difference between 99.9% of players reading about a secret from another player who figured it out for them or some SEO achievement guide? I don't know. Maybe.

The last big secret hunt I'm aware of is the secret ending in Payday 2

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 3029681847

Gaming was definitely better when secrets were shared by friends and internet forums and there was no authoritative source to fact check information against. I remember trying to unlock Luigi in Mario 64 and trying to catch Mew by moving the truck near the S.S. Anne. While frustrating, combined with the secrets that were actually real, it kept alive this feeling that there was always something more to find in your favorite game. I'm sure a lot of this feeling can be boiled down to nostalgia and childhood naivete, but I don't think a similar mystique can form around gaming in the modern era.

Stack of Turtles · Post by **Stack of Turtles** » August 25th, 2025, 04:48

Oyster Sauce wrote: ↑ August 24th, 2025, 23:03

Jordy wrote: ↑ August 24th, 2025, 22:45

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ August 22nd, 2025, 22:39
99% of secrets in games are blatantly spoiled by achievements now, what's the point
Isn't that what the secret achievements on steam are for? Not sure if other platforms have the same but I would assume so.
They're always datamined and never organically discovered. Is there a difference between 99.9% of players reading about a secret from another player who figured it out for them or some SEO achievement guide? I don't know. Maybe.

The last big secret hunt I'm aware of is the secret ending in Payday 2

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 3029681847

I think it's good when people who can't help themselves from looking it up have their fun ruined, honestly.