am i the only one that thinks achievements are dumb?

I don't think achievements are dumb, but I'm pretty much indifferent to them, they add nothing to a game for me.

Although having said that, you could look at them as a sort of surrogate for the "High Scores" from games in ye olde days of gaming. I guess people play online FPSs to get the most kills and racing games to get the best times, achievements are just another way of counting "best/highest" for games and situtions that don't easily lend them selves to that type of simple quantification, but which a lot of people clearly love.

I suppose that the collection of "Trivial" achievements, like the "Visit these five locations" or "Talk to a rock" type stuff becomes a sort of meta-game in it's own right for some people.

I guess if they add to someones enjoyment of a game without hurting mine, I'm all for that.
 
Personal achievements are just there because some people like them. For people that don't, they are fully capable of ignoring them. For example in TF2 achievements do not change the game play at all, it just gives frequent players something to shoot for when they are bored rather than the same old same old.
 
I think it all falls back to getting rid of the BS sessions between friends. I remember being a kid and having my friends brag about beating SMB when it first came out, though I knew they sucked at the game. "I got the high score... but it was in an arcade at another town". Same crap as "Oh, I went to the prom with a hot cheerleader... but it was her prom... in another state."

The achievements are good to also mark your, well, achievements. It let's people know how far you've progressed in a game, and at what difficulty. Like the Gears of War Insane achievement, or beating the game in the highest difficulty mode. When you're trying to find someone to co-op with, do you want someone who can hold their own or someone who couldn't even beat the game in easy? You can quickly look to determine this right from the achievement screen.
 
I find achievements to be pretty dumb overall and people tend to not even try to play with the team half the time anymore and just go out to get their achievements now.

How about instead of giving me a stupid achievement which is the equivalent of a virtual smack on the ass saying good job to giving me unlockable stuff in the game. Now instead of earning a new weapon, character, vehicle, or level for doing something in the game I get an achievement then they turn around and call the item I would have gotten for free if I worked for it and charge me for it calling it DLC.

Kiss my ass is all I can say to how the industry is heading, one of the reasons I left it.
 
i think online achievements are useless as well and do take away from team based games, because a lot will be playing just ramp up their achievements, it was one of the reasons i stopped playing COD4 online, a lot of players didn't care about the map or the goal they would just run around trying to get to the next rank.

but i do like the single player achievements, they are useless as well but after you have finished a game its good for replay to go back and try and get all the stuff. and it can be fun some times to try and get so many kills with a certain weapon or what have you.
 
THRESHIN said:
maybe i'm just getting old and cynical, but i've always laughed when i see achievements in a game. the only achievements i want out of a game are to beat the thing and enjoy it right through. only game i thought it was remotely interesting was TF2 since you can get new stuff for the pyro/medic but the achievements are so tedious that i had to cheap out and use one of the achievement servers.

just another useless rant, i see a lot of people liking the idea and i really dont care myself.
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You're the only one.
 
Its just a way for devs to try and make the game longer and add replayability without actually adding anything worthwhile.
 
Achievements have reinvented the way I play games, in a fantastic way. Whoever came up with this idea should be handed a metal. Now all Micrsoft needs to do is make them worth something, say unlocking higher tiered clothing/accessories for our Avatars :cool:
 
I like them. It's nice to be acknowledged for achieving something extra. This is why there is whole groups of people who strive to play Quake in the fastest time possible or people who spend hours trying to jump around maps in ways that they aren't supposed to. Being acknowledged for them in a gamerscore is simply taking out the have to prove to everybody I have done it part. Even old gamers back in Arcade days spent countless hours and quarters trying to reach the top score on a game.

You guys just seem to point the finger at the younger generation and consoles... like achievements are something new
 
I like achievements that add gameplay value.

A bad achievement is "Get to level 2". Are you kidding me? That's not an achievement that's just playing the game. Nothing other than normal play.

The worst achievements are grinds where you do something /boring/ for the achievement, that's worse than just playing the game, that's just work, not play.

An example of a fun achievement was car-flip tricks in Crackdown where you had to go out of your way to pull some crazy stunts. Value was added by giving a new goal to hit.

Sims 2 revolves around achievements as well, since there's no definitive game end, you make targets and hit them within the gameplay environment. You don't get a pop-up with points for completing self-made targets but you know you did it, and that's enough. Achievements that add a fun and unusual goal to the regular game are fun.

I don't give a damn about the points or if anyone else knows whether or not I did it, I'll only do it if it's fun.
 
they are lame, and i laugh when ever i read someone bought a game just for the achievements its so funny...
 
They are stupid. It is not worth replaying a game to get some stupid achievement mid way through. You beat the game, that is the point. If the achievement they wanted you to see was SO important they would have led you there.
 
I really think it's quite silly, however it can be done right.

On the XBOX, achievements are really just an arbitrary number, they don't mean anything.
With the PS3, some trophies can be physical items in your home, things you can show off in your virtual dwelling. I think this is pretty neat.

Anyone ever played NFL ESPN 2K series? In the last couple versions, they had a 'Crib.' You could buy team-themed items for your crib, show off the trophies you've earned in-game, etc.

This is really the way to do it.
 
I disagree. I really enjoy the achievements list and I think it ads a new dynamic to more recent games.
 
Tyrsis said:
I really think it's quite silly, however it can be done right.

On the XBOX, achievements are really just an arbitrary number, they don't mean anything.
With the PS3, some trophies can be physical items in your home, things you can show off in your virtual dwelling. I think this is pretty neat.

Anyone ever played NFL ESPN 2K series? In the last couple versions, they had a 'Crib.' You could buy team-themed items for your crib, show off the trophies you've earned in-game, etc.

This is really the way to do it.
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I think they're both dumb :p I think the whole HOME concept is kinda silly myself. I'm not going to sit around and deck out my virtual crib so virtual people can virtually hang out in it or whatever.

The only achievements I like at all are some of the ones added to oldschool arcade games because they lack much in the way of goals.
 
Achievements are for people that have NO life outside the gaming world. Thye need something to brag about.
 
No, your not.

When I got my [first] 360 I wondered about that number under my gamertag and it's function.

They're accumulated score points. Can I use these points to buy stuff off of XBL? No, you're thinking of the other kind of points.

Do these accumulated points grant me extras in games like maybe a 'god mode' in SP games or developer commentaries? No.

Is this just another nonfunctional 'e-peen' so stupid people on XBL think they're better than people with smaller achievement scores and can show their mommies what they've "accomplished" in a game? Pretty much, yeah.

Some game developers, like Valve and their cute Gnome achievement, did make good use out of a lot of them which may add a little more replayability or expose a concurrent storyline e.g. Halo 3's "Marathon Man" achievement. However, other developers get lazy and assign an achievement to every little thing that happens in a game ("HURR! I got a trophy for completing the first race out of liek 50 even though I finished next to dead last o_O"). Then there are some that don't even try.


On another note, did anybody think of those 4chan parodies of that so-called "Xbox Kid" when clicking on this topic?
 
Yeah, achievements are stupid additions. Sometimes I think developers think the same way too because of their lack of imagination that goes with them.

For example, Ninja gaiden 2.

beat the game only using dragon sword.
beat the game only using scythe
beat the game...and so on....for 5 pts each.

Overall, achievements are useless.
 
i think some of them add some replay value to some of the games, then again some of them are just useless
 
Depends how they're done.

Making unlocks rely on them I find leaves me a bit miffed, it forces you to try and achieve them.

But making them casual goals for people to reach on their own time is a good thing, it keeps people interested in the game, sometimes I make up my own "rules" in games like TF2 such as "only use the scout and only use the bat" and see how well I can do. Achievements are like this they make you play in different ways to keep the game interesting.

I'm enjoying getting the achievements in CoD4 just like I did with BF2 both very good games, TF2 is just lame, 1/2 the achievements are not realsitically do-able unless you're in a very precise situation which hardly ever crops up, most of the medic ones are like that.
 
GushpinBob said:
Is this just another nonfunctional 'e-peen' so stupid people on XBL think they're better than people with smaller achievement scores and can show their mommies what they've "accomplished" in a game? Pretty much, yeah.
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You mean like the high score charts in arcades that have been around for 30+ years?
 
Rurik said:
You mean like the high score charts in arcades that have been around for 30+ years?
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its funny you say that because who here would have predicted a documentary about two nerds trying to get the highest score in Donkey Kong. i think there are lot of people who care about a arbitrary number when it comes to playing games, look back on all FPS multiplayer games of the last decade, whats the last thing we see before the map changes who had the most frags. Add the UT bonus of the game screaming out at you "MULITIKILL, KILLING SPREE ect...." and think that alone motivates people to try and do better, plain and simple i think achievements in today's games along with frag counts just add to that alure of being number one for some people. and for some its just fun and games nothing getting to worked up about.
 
Achievements are enjoyed by nerds and kids who grew up with the "everyone wins and no one is a loser" age. They can finally get that feeling of kicking everyone elses ass satisfaction. It has been denied to them by bleeding hearts and soccer moms all their earlier years. It's not like when I was young. I grew up with winning/losing and getting my ass beat (literally) when I deserved it. I could care less for achievements. So if your over 30 and like achievements then most likely your a nerd. Embrace it. :p
 
Frostex said:
Depends how they're done.

Making unlocks rely on them I find leaves me a bit miffed, it forces you to try and achieve them.

But making them casual goals for people to reach on their own time is a good thing, it keeps people interested in the game, sometimes I make up my own "rules" in games like TF2 such as "only use the scout and only use the bat" and see how well I can do. Achievements are like this they make you play in different ways to keep the game interesting.

I'm enjoying getting the achievements in CoD4 just like I did with BF2 both very good games, TF2 is just lame, 1/2 the achievements are not realsitically do-able unless you're in a very precise situation which hardly ever crops up, most of the medic ones are like that.
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Not really. If you play in a 32 person server enough, the achievements that seem impossible are easily attainable. Some require a friend's help, but still ...

Show me a more balanced class-based online shooter than TF2. ;)
 
I'm all for them if they encourage enjoyment of the game, it's an interesting way for the game makers to add a "did you see this neat thing we made" to a game without making the neat thing mandatory. Some are just dumb, though.
 
samduhman said:
Achievements are enjoyed by nerds and kids who grew up with the "everyone wins and no one is a loser" age. They can finally get that feeling of kicking everyone elses ass satisfaction. It has been denied to them by bleeding hearts and soccer moms all their earlier years. It's not like when I was young. I grew up with winning/losing and getting my ass beat (literally) when I deserved it. I could care less for achievements. So if your over 30 and like achievements then most likely your a nerd. Embrace it. :p
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I think if you're over 30 and you like achievements, you like accomplishing goals and thrive on competition with friends. I'm 29, and coworkers and I snicker about our gamerscores from time to time.

It adds another 'layer' to the entire experience, there is nothing wrong with it. People who don't like achievements just need to get out of the way.
 
I think achievements are fine in single player but have no place in multiplayer as it detracts from a unified team effort. Everyone just runs around aimlessly focusing on different objectives.
 
Chams said:
I think achievements are fine in single player but have no place in multiplayer as it detracts from a unified team effort. Everyone just runs around aimlessly focusing on different objectives.
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Not much different from the usual online teambased FPS experience. :D
 
i think it's stupid to not like them. what does it hurt? i'll admit that when i first got a 360 i paid zero attention to them but after awhile you realize that it just adds to the whole experience of playing a game. so...i'd rather have them than not have them.
 
THRESHIN said:
maybe i'm just getting old and cynical, but i've always laughed when i see achievements in a game. the only achievements i want out of a game are to beat the thing and enjoy it right through. only game i thought it was remotely interesting was TF2 since you can get new stuff for the pyro/medic but the achievements are so tedious that i had to cheap out and use one of the achievement servers.

just another useless rant, i see a lot of people liking the idea and i really dont care myself.
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I don't particularly like them, but you could argue they add replay value to the game.
 
I prefer no ranks or achievements. Otherwise people always play for the competition and not for the fun.
 
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