gaming Video Game Achievements. Yay or Neigh?

[Tom The Diamond 1,828]

Odds are if you play video games, you know what achievements are. To sum it up for those who don't know, achievements(Which can sometimes go by other names like trophies) are basically little icons and text you get for accomplishing a goal in the game. They're usually small, add nothing to the gameplay, and only completionist tend to strive to get all the achievements in a game.

 

Of course, like all things in life, some ponies like them, others don't. I've seen some hate these things as if they were the spawn of Satan, as I've seen others practically worship these things. So I figured I'd check just what you ponies here thought. Do you like achievements? Don't? Do you think games suffer because of them?

 

Personally, I enjoy doing fun ones. They let you do stuff that odds are you normally wouldn't do, and trying to get all the achievements in a game can add a few hours to it. Though I dislike the stupid ones that are more of chores then actual fun(I.E. Destroy 1000 buildings). Those are things that should just be completely avoided. Other then that though, I enjoy getting fun achievements, like in Minecraft where you have to snipe a Skeleton from afar, or ride a pig off a cliff.

 

So anyway, what is your opinion on achievements?

[Trixies Apprentice L 489]

I like doing some of themk when I have time but I am not the type going platinuming all my games and stuff I'll ge eassy one and interesting nes but I am not going to search for the 100 [X] in the whole map/levels/whatever

[Crispy 5,563]

Depends on the game. If I like the game enough, I'll do achievements.

[Killian Jones 2,653]

I really like achievements that have fun consequences to gameplay. For example Out of The Blue, once you have the dual portal gun, only enter the orange portal. That achievement was fun, because it required me to be careful of portal placements.

 

Doing the whole of Half Life 2 Episode 1 using one bullet was challenging because it's easy to shoot your way through, it's a lot harder to dodge and use physics and grenades.

 

I hate doing grindy achievements like "win 200 multiplayer matches" because it forces you to play instead of trying to mix things up.

[QueenChrysalis 176]

i like them cauz they show a players skill in that game and how many games he play

[Anachronous 682]

I kind of only see acheivements as a way to excise more replay value out of a game that might not have some inherently. That being said, it's not necessarily a bad thing.

[BlazingDawn 52]

The best achievements are the ones that can only get gained through skill and strategy, not luck and grinding.

[Jokuc 8,172]

I don't care much about them actually.

[Evilshy 5,089]

I like achievements that take skill. Grinding ones are okay as long as it's not some obscenely high number. An example would be the kills achievements in TF2. Yes, they're grinding achievements, but play long enough and you're bound to make 1000 kills. Those are more of a "wow, I've been playing this quite a lot" sort of thing than a "okay, gonna start a new the game AGAIN." thing.

 

Some of my favorite achievements are from half life 2. Get through ravenholm with only the gravity gun, get through sand trap without touching the sand, find all the lambda caches. Things that you actually have to have skill, or at least go out of your way to do.

 

 

One thing I absolutely HATE. Achievements that are just handed to you. No, I'm sorry, completing an obligatory tutorial is not an achievement. Getting up and walking across the room in FONV is not an achievement. Hell, beating the game shouldn't even have it's own achievement unless it's on some insane difficulty or there are some restriction. Achievements are supposed to be extra things you do for fun, or to prove your skill.

[GrooveBroove 680]

I love achievements. I used to be pretty addicted to them actually mainly in high school. I would play a game and get absolutely as many as I could before being done with the game. I'd even play the game a certain way to grab some of the harder ones.

 

But now having a full time job and such less time, achievements have taken a back seat. Unless its a game I really like, I usually just prefer now to beat them and call it a day.

 

But that's not to say I don't still go for achievements. Especially if they're very easy. No reason not to have the achievement for watching the credits or making a custom character for example.

[FinalGamer 192]

On the one hand, they've encouraged me to be better at games in a Pavlovian way.

 

On the other hand, I've started to wean away from games that don't have them like Nintendo, unless they're games that are way too awesome for me not to love (such as Zelda, or No More Heroes for me).

 

I'm indifferent I guess XD

[Zoop 8,384]

They exist.

 

I don't typically pay much attention to them and am honestly baffled at the unhealthy obsession that some gamers seem to have for them. They don't bother me, but in many cases they do strike me as a shallow attempt at artificially increasing the amount of time people spend in a game.

[Lady Rarity Pony 4,892]

Achievements:

A way of turning a crappy 3 hour experience into a 70 hour grind to get useless gamerpoints that don't even look like an accomplishment worth smiling about!

[Ron Jeremy 2,032]

I really don't pay attention to them.

 

The kind of achievements I like, though, are the ones you get for just playing through the game. Beat world 1, beat world 2, beat the final boss, etc. You know, things you'd do naturally.

 

What I hate are ones that are just lame excuses to attempt to extend the game with grind. Get 100,000,000,00 kills with a wet noodle while wearing a tutu and humming the Duck Tales theme while a boar belches out flaming frogs that subsequently defecate solid gold cans of refried beans, that kind of thing.

 

Pretty much, I go for the achievements in games if they're reasonable. If they require massive grind/luck, I avoid them. But reasonable achievements are so rare (at least in a lot of games I play) that I don't pay attention to them.

Edited January 31, 2012 by Sky King K. Roop

[FLARE 951]

I like them, I think they are fun, cheating at them ruins the fun.

And some people hate them for bragging rights, I however have no one to brag to who gives enough of a fuck to react, which is good I guess.

[Zero000 435]

First priority is to enjoy the game. Then if I honor the game enough, I'll actually try to earn all the achievements.

 

I'm still enjoying Skyrim too much to worry about getting the 4 achievements I'm missing.

[Guest]

I like them I feel accomplished.

still mad that my bf already has all his skyrim achievements. :/

[Kyreth 193]

I like them. When you've finished all the content in a game but you still find it fun, its something else to do.

If you don't want to get them you can just play the game and ignore them.

[ScottishUnicorn 284]

After I started playing on Steam my caring in achievements dropped significantly, although it is nice to get an achievement for doing something crazy in a game like Street Fighter.

[Killian Jones 2,653]

You know what is stupid, hidden achievements, people will look up the ones they are missing anyway.

[DumbFabric 37]

Depends. It gives the player something extra to do in the game, similar to sidequests or LoZ heart pieces or something.

I just don't like the achievements like "Play for over 200 hours!", or the like. lolwhat, I'm only gonna play for 200 hours if you give me something to do and it adds up. No way am I playing for 200 hours because I need that achievement.

[Mr. Wobbels 664]

They're just there. I don't pay attention to them.

 

[letterone 1,203]

I do quite like the achievements like in Minecraft, but I've also found it to be a nice surprise to play some Sonic game or something on Steam and get a random achievement every now and then (I don't really go and look at what the achievements are most of the time, so it's a bit surprising).

Edited April 6, 2012 by letterONE

[DrOphthalmos 497]

I like them when they happen, but I never go after achievements. If I get them by accident, nice. Otherwise, I pretend they are not even there.

[Jon the VGNerd 842]

I like acheivements, or trophies (considering how trophies are the same as acheivements), for the PS3, since I have most of them, although other players have 5000+ or 8000+ trophies, which is beyond me IMO. I also like acheivements for PC on Steam, although it doesn't excite me much than the trophies.