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General discussion (archive)I Guess This is Why I Don't Like/Give a Crap About Achievements(61 posts)(61 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 23, 2014
LOL, I was just looking at my Steam library on the "Details" view (I usually never have it on that view) and noticed the game I finished the other day.

As you can see from the screenshot, I got 97% of the achievements.

And never even knew it.

I mean I saw the messages pop up in the lower right corner while playing, but like always ignored them, because I just don't give a crap.

But now I think this screenshot explains why. This is just "naturally" how I play a game. All games. I am anal about searching everywhere, doing everything. Which is one reason why Skyrim, for example, has over 320 hours into it and I'm nowhere near finished, but it's not just Skyrim. Every game I play always takes way longer than what everyone else appears to put in, because I am so "thorough."

My question is, how the heck do you even play any other way??? And thus, what the hell is the point of achievements??

To me, if I'm playing a game I enjoy, I want to get the most out of it. And that means going everywhere, talking to everyone, and doing everything. It just doesn't seem natural to play any other way to me.

Oh, and before anyone asks, NO, I'm NOT going to play that game again just to try to get the last 3% of achievements.
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Posted April 23, 2014
I like achievements. But when they add something extra. A challenge.
I don't like the ones that is simple progression through the game, like "Finish Chapter 1".
"Finish Chapter 1 Without Dying" these are the ones I'm looking for...
Post edited April 23, 2014 by Stooner
Posted April 23, 2014
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OldFatGuy: My question is, how the heck do you even play any other way??? And thus, what the hell is the point of achievements??
I know a few people who seek achievements. There are some that I have sought out (usually ghosting certain games like Deus Ex HR).

The fact is that most achievements are simply for making it to certain stages in the game - chapters or whatever. Others are just for show. I think most aren't so much achievements as digital applause for learning to walk.

I had a personal one in DX:HR, which was to get Pacifist, playing on the hardest level, while saving Malik in the downed VTOL in one game. That in itself is three separate achievements, so in fact it was a personal one and nothing told me I got it.

And I think that is how I play games - I make my own rules for personal achievements that aren't recorded anywhere except in my own head.
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Stooner: "Finish Chapter 1 Without Dying" these are the ones I'm looking for...
This is more my level too, if I'm going to look at the Achievements list. Something that actually takes some skill.
Post edited April 23, 2014 by anomaly
Posted April 23, 2014
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OldFatGuy: To me, if I'm playing a game I enjoy, I want to get the most out of it. And that means going everywhere, talking to everyone, and doing everything. It just doesn't seem natural to play any other way to me.
Depends on the game if it's fun doing so. For Example Mass Effect had a lot of side missions but all of them were more or less the same and rather boring. I decided it would be more entertaining to just follow the main story and move on to the next game.
Posted April 23, 2014
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Stooner: I like achievements. But when they add something extra. A challenge.
I don't like the ones that is simple progression through the game, like "Finish Chapter 1".
"Finish Chapter 1 Without Dying" these are the ones I'm looking for...
You're probably pretty hard core though. It's my understanding that simple game progression is actually exceptional these days. I think achievements may be warranted.


"What I've been told as a blanket expectation is that 90% of players who start your game will never see the end of it unless they watch a clip on YouTube," says Keith Fuller, a longtime production contractor for Activision.

Why most people don't finish video games
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/17/finishing.videogames.snow/
Posted April 23, 2014
Gamers Gate has achievements but most of them seem to involve buying stuff on the site, not gaming. I could be wrong, I haven't actually bought anything there.
Posted April 23, 2014
I used to like achievements, and heck, I still make a concerted effort to gain the low-hanging fruit among them sometimes, but I don't actively go for 100% completion anymore. There's one key reason for that - fucking multiplayer achievements.

You know, the ones that force you to play against snotty, obnoxious PC master racers on Steam and snotty, obnoxious 13-year-old kids on consoles (actually, there's a fair bit of overlap there, but you get my point). Also, when you finally come to play the game, the MP is often dead anyway, meaning that either way, you have no means of getting those MP achievements.

I've only ever 100%-ed/platinumed two games - Rayman Origins for PS Vita and Super Hang-On for the PS3.
Post edited April 23, 2014 by jamyskis
Posted April 23, 2014
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Stooner: I like achievements. But when they add something extra. A challenge.
I don't like the ones that is simple progression through the game, like "Finish Chapter 1".
"Finish Chapter 1 Without Dying" these are the ones I'm looking for...
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Snickersnack: You're probably pretty hard core though. It's my understanding that simple game progression is actually exceptional these days. I think achievements may be warranted.
Those achievements are usually added to small games, to add an extra challenge. I like that.
I do like story and simple progression too, but these things doesn't need an achievement for me, If I like the game I will get there anyway.
I also don't like those "Kill 100 Rats" for achievement X. But "Kill 100 Rats in one strike/combo", maybe. ;p
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anomaly: This is more my level too, if I'm going to look at the Achievements list. Something that actually takes some skill.
Exactly!
Post edited April 23, 2014 by Stooner
Posted April 23, 2014
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OldFatGuy: ... My question is, how the heck do you even play any other way??? And thus, what the hell is the point of achievements?? ...
There isn't really much point in achievements and we can safely ignore them. However playing in a less thorough style? Well let's say that a game is really, really boooooooring but you want to see the end... then you just play a bit faster.

I don't know if I have any game that has achievements in the form of achievements we are talking about here and I also don't know which achievements I might have achieved because I really don't care about them.
Post edited April 23, 2014 by Trilarion
Posted April 23, 2014
A tad unrelated but the 30+ somethings will dig it. My Activision Anthology CD has an achievement system that unlocks the original Atari commercials when you hit certain score marks. Anyone who grew up watching those things while sitting at home Saturday morning during cartoons and Dukes of Hazard will suffer severe retro backlash. :P
Posted April 23, 2014
Achievements can be done well, or done poorly. Nearly all of the achievements in the first season of Walking Dead, for example, are simple markers that you've finished a chapter; I think that's silly, because you have to finish each chapter to move on to the next one. (Then there are a couple of weirdly-implemented choices at the end, with an achievement to match).

Then again, Half-Life 2 gives you achievements for things like never touching the beach which you have to cross using pieces of debris manipulated with your gravity gun, or for finding the singing Vortigaunts, who are hidden in a cave beyond the acid pools. Those, I think, are fun, because they add something to the game experience. You don't get them the first time you play, but you can go back and try for them on subsequent runs.

I like achievements that encourage you to play in unusual ways or to uncover Easter eggs. The rest are just game devs adding something pointless to encourage the kiddies.
Posted April 23, 2014
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OldFatGuy: My question is, how the heck do you even play any other way??? And thus, what the hell is the point of achievements??
Kids these days. They have to be the first one to beat a game. In order to play through a game that fast, they are going to miss a lot of things.
I like enjoying games, so slow and steady for me. I even look for the little touches of nostalgia in games that probably would fly right over the heads of the average "I beat that game in 2 hours" gamer.

As far as achievements, I don't even look at them after a game. They are meaningless to me and a huge distraction when they flash in the corner of the screen. Games need to start coming with a disable all achievements option.
Post edited April 23, 2014 by jjsimp
Posted April 23, 2014
Given the fact that earned achievements are registered online, I think (but that is just speculation based on rumors, mind me) that the above mentioned are a clever way to monitor the audience and consequently adapt marketing strategies and game developement. Example: the single-player campaign of a game is divided in 10 chapters, and one achievement is assigned for the compeltion of each one. The multiplayer features are instead full of achievements based on gameplay results, like "kill 5 people in a row for X times", "participate to 1000 battles" and so on. If you see the majority of gamers ignore the single player (let's say, by compelting 3 chapters over 10) while completing a lot of multiplayer challenges, you'll know that a possible sequel should be more focused on that aspect. On the contrary, if very few multiplayer achievements are scored, the publisher should abandon that way an so on with the reasoning for every possible outcome, like "stealthy approach vs mass murderer approach".
The vast majority of people will not care to hunt for achievements, so the results SHOULD be quite accurate, thus saving the marketers a lot of research work.

Edited for typos.
Post edited April 23, 2014 by Enebias
Posted April 23, 2014
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LinustheBold: Then again, Half-Life 2 gives you achievements for things like never touching the beach which you have to cross using pieces of debris manipulated with your gravity gun, or for finding the singing Vortigaunts, who are hidden in a cave beyond the acid pools. Those, I think, are fun, because they add something to the game experience. You don't get them the first time you play, but you can go back and try for them on subsequent runs.

I like achievements that encourage you to play in unusual ways or to uncover Easter eggs. The rest are just game devs adding something pointless to encourage the kiddies.
This!

This is why I will attempt the ghosting / no kill type achievements in Dishonored and Deus Ex, Thief (2014), etc. I actually feel that I have achieved something if I get the message.
Post edited April 23, 2014 by anomaly
Posted April 23, 2014
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Snickersnack: "What I've been told as a blanket expectation is that 90% of players who start your game will never see the end of it unless they watch a clip on YouTube," says Keith Fuller, a longtime production contractor for Activision.
So, if this simple fact is understood by the suits, why do they harass youtubers?
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)I Guess This is Why I Don't Like/Give a Crap About Achievements(61 posts)(61 posts)
(61 posts)