Wow!
Haven't heard that one for quite a while. "Force"?
"Force" people to do what more than they need to? Oh, definitely.

I don't know where exactly, but recently I've heard the word "competitive" tossed around in some video game or platform advert as if that was an end to itself. I mean, it probably is. Life is a beauty contest, and we're only just contestants. If you're not better than others at playing games, why play games anyway?

Well, because it's fun, you might say. That's an intrinsic reward as opposed to the extrinsic reward scheme that achievements are. But are they? Are games still fun to play? Is it really fun to sink a hundred fifty hours into some repetitive vast open world shitolomania just so you get a Platinum trophy? Or is it actually something you feel forced to to?

Maybe we need those achievements because games today aren't designed particularly well. Every ten steps somebody needs to pat you on the back for how well you've done by attempting the same shit a thousand times. Because if nobody constantly reaffirms that what you're doing is sensible, you might find out that it really isn't.

Take a look at kids' playgrounds these days, a bunch of medium density fiberboards held together by bone glue, painted in bright colors, and a bunch of teachers running around screaming "WELL DONE JAKE". That's our games, and that's achievements in a nutshell.

There is no need for achievements, most peoples ignore them and just unlock them while playing normaly, i personaly don't care if a game have achievement or not, if i really like a game i might try to unlock them all once i finish the game if it wont require a new playthrough but mostly i play without Galaxy or i unlock some only by playing the game without looking at them at all.

But my personal opinion is like other said, telemetry and a lazy way to increase artificially play time.

Games either have achievements or they don't, these are the only two options. Let me explain:

1. Games with achievements, come in two categories:

Unlockable skins and bonus content that unlocks after performing a specific (usually difficult) task and/or icons/medals that describe the task in question and are accessible offline in the game menu under extras.

2. Games without achievements:

A vast majority of games. Reality is, that most games don't have real achievements! For example: back in the day on steam i unlocked all of Skyrim "achievements". But then they gave me the Special Edition that had the exact same "achievements" except they were locked, at this point i was raising an eyebrow. Why in the world would i do the same things again? that is the definition of insanity! Also these "achievement pictures" were not accessible from an ingame menu. Conclusion: Skyrim does not have achievements! And same is true for the GoG version, in the ~200h of gameplay not a single achievement was unlocked.


Not to mention that it is a common practice, that new "achievements" are added with the DLCs. This is just a FOMO tactic to fool simple minded individuals to buy DLCs! For example: I 100% CIV V "achievements" and here comes a new, one single Civilization DLC that i will never play, with... wait for it... it's very own achievements! Obviously i didn't fall for it, but it sure was an eye opener for how pointless achievements are.

Lastly they are nothing more than telemetry connected to a third party software i.e. game client. To track game progress.

At best they are a checklist of stuff to do in the game.

I think most here already covered the negative aspects of video game achievements, but there are plenty of useful examples as well. Many content creators use some public achievement metrics (in Steam for example) to determine roughly where most players stopped coming back to a game. This is also very useful for devs as some folks mentioned.

Having progression-based achievements for example can give a glimpse into how far in a given story a player progressed. For competitive games, achievements can help determine certain aspects like how dedicated someone is... though I think this one is somewhat unhelpful.

When implemented properly, achievements add a layer of meta to any game. They could lead to you experimenting with mechanics that you might have never engaged otherwise. A good example of that is Dead Space which has achievements related to every weapon usage. They encourage you to at least sample all weapons properly, if for no other reason than an achievement.

When implemented poorly, achievements are there to put a measure on someone's ego. Some older games used to have crazy things like being the best in the world in a given tournament. Or playing with a dev. Or supporting with Kickstarter. All of these are examples of terrible achievements. This category is bloated with games which have achievements which will never be acquired by anyone diving into those games today. Just like with older games in general, older implementations were rife with awful decisions.

These days, I think most devs use these meta systems properly. Though there are exceptions or either too easy or too difficult/unnecessary achievements. Have to judge game by game.

My personal verdict? As a completionist, I have a love/hate relationship with it all. Sometimes, I feel like it gives a marker of when I am finally done with a game. Other times, it sets up the exerience as something that I'll never be able to complete fully and that leaves a sour taste right from the start.

For the former, there are plenty of game guides online and also several games have stats(like secrets found/map area completed, etc) in their menus somewhere. And with the latter, people can easily make their own challenges(think nuzlocke and the like). They have that now with Xbox1, where if you complete certain things(start a few games a day, score an achievement in a game, etc...they vary over time) you get points you can spend on things like GamePasses and other content.

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"Complete the majority of Mass Effect 1 using x companion"

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This entire post: *slow clap*

I think most of us can agree that we'd rather prefer the devs spend 6 hours of their day per store polishing up their game or fixing bugs rather than programming something external that interacts only with clients.

But in all honesty, the achievement system is so deeply enrooted in some gamers' minds and expected these days that not having achievements is an easy way to lose out on sales...

Achievements are the worst thing that happened to games.

The game Quilts and Cats of Calico has an achievement related issue where the game will hang to the extent that you cannot finish the game's single-player story mode unless you're logged into Galaxy to be awarded the useless achievements. I'm hoping it's an oversight bug, but I still think that there will come a point where developers intentionally use achievements as a form of less obvious DRM. The game won't progress further unless you are awarded a story progress achievement. Naturally earning that otherwise useless achievement means being online and logged into the launcher of the store you purchased the game from so that it can confirm you actually purchased the game.

Check this out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0t-DYPWVw0

Proving that achievements are just fake features and garbage.

Oddly, I don't feel the slightest "urge" to install Galaxy and have the "Achievements" and "Hours Played" counted. I just want to play, and finish, each game I start, as thoroughly as I can, with a normal playthrough.

The Steam developer documentation page on DRM open encourages using as many Steam 'features' as possible with exactly that underlying intention in mind:-

"We suggest enhancing the value of legitimate copies of your game by using Steamworks features which won't work on non-legitimate copies (e.g. online multiplayer, achievements, leaderboards, trading cards, etc.)"

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/drm

That's an entirely different sort of DRM were the player is just collateral damage. I think that Steam's real objective is to have the game so integrated with Steam that the game cannot even function without Steam and therefore cannot be released on GOG, Epic, itch, or any other storefront that isn't Steam.