I grew up on PC gaming and console gaming back in the late 80s and early 90s. We never had achievements. Back then in console gaming, completing a platformer like Contra without using the 99 lives cheat was considered an achievement considering we didn't have saves back then, a simple power outage will wipe your progress.

I don't give a damn about achievements in modern gaming. Now I game on PCs mostly. I'm not bothered by them as long they don't affect gameplay. I know there are some gamers who game solely for achievements, I prefer to actually enjoy the game and not rush for achievements.

I like achievements as I see them as a target to shoot for.

Since I don;t do social though, no one else sees them so it;s really moot.

*shrug*

I don't hate them quite as passionately as Breja, but I do dislike how distracting it can be in-game when you attain one. It often throws me right out of mah immerzunz.

For one thing, I see them as a cheap way of padding out games length without actually providing any additional content.

For another, they brake immersion, encouraging the player to engage in activities often utterly ridiculous from in-game perspective.

Finally, despite the name they are often awarded for the most basic tasks or just simply playing the game. In some cases you get "achievements" for dying the first time, or completeing the tutorial and stuff like that. To me this feels condescending, like someone congratulating me in a very theatrical manner for succesfully turning a page in a book or tying my shoes, and on the other hand I fear it helps raise a generation of players who need to be given a medal for not dying during character creation or they feel the game is treating them badly.

I guess there's an upside to everything :D

Achievements generally feel to me like something stuck into a game during beta testing for the benefit of those people who play a game for hours upon hours attempting to break things. You know, folks who have to play a game well beyond the point where it's actually fun, it's just a job. If I need achievements to keep me motivated to play, then I must not really be enjoying the game that much.

I don't remember seeing them in consoles, but then again I haven't powered up the PS2 in... 6 years or so. And that was to play a 15+ year old game.

In PC games, I guess it depends on how it's done. I like what's done in the Mount and Blade: Warband mod, Prophecy of Pendor. The game doesn't advertise the achievements, and I think they're all just numerical goals. And you get a stat boost from them. Basically, "Hey, you whupped a lot of butt, so here's +1 Leadership!" Oh, cool. Thanks!

I can understand the appeal of them for many players, but it does get aggravating that people sometimes make a disproportionate amount of fuss when a game comes here without achievements. I mean, the rest of the game is completely playable, start to finish, and you get the benefit of the entire story. But by gawd, if the game doesn't give me a ding when I've gone fishing and caught my fifth Largemouth Growler Beast... rrrrrrrRRAAAAAGGGGEEEEE!!!!!!

Uh, really?

I'm mostly thinking to myself, "Damn, apparently I spend too much game time fishing."

Seen some games - none coming to mind, but they're out there - where you get an achievement for doing something you have to do anyway. Something like "Ding! Achievement! Made it out of the training area." Well no shit. I already friggin' know that because the story told me so, and if I never make that achievement, well, guess I'm not going to complete the game.

I don't think the issue is achievements in and of themselves. Like anything else omnipresent (including powerpoint presentations or tv shows) they can be done well, but often seem to just be mindless filler.

I tend to like achievements when they are creative, or humorous, and esp. if they can prompt you to really approach a game or an encounter or a skill differently than you would if 'beating' it was the only point.

If, on the other hand, they are things you would normally do anyway in the course of completing the game, I'm not sure they're worth much.

But worst are achievements that are pure grind and zero thought/skill, clearly intended just to fill space and/or waste time.

They prey on my OCD. I try to ignore them.

YES. Ugh, the grindfests are the worst. Dead Rising 3 has one which involves killing a ton of zombies and it's suuuuuper slow to get.

But some games do achievements that can lead to fun things. Bioshock Infinite had some interesting moments with achievements. They weren't too grindy, and one I appreciated was finishing the game on the 1999 mode (hardest difficulty) which I did along with one that involved not buying anything from the vending machines. It took me out of my comfort zone, it beat me to a pulp sometimes, but it turned out to be fun!

Don't worry, we had a safe word.

My point is, I only went for that achievement because I wanted to perfect the game, which is something that I don't think I'd do nowadays. In fact, I finished Infinite again today (for the 900th time or something) on the PC, but I'm not doing that achievement on Steam, I got my fun from enjoying the gameplay and story, you know?

My problem with achievements is that I like to fully complete games I truly enjoy. So getting all the loot, all the side quests, maximizing characters and such. And after I finish the game, truly satisfied, thinking that I completed the game, the achievements tell me 30% of all achievements earned. Taking a closer look, the achievements are all arbitrary, grindy or random. Of course 'Fuck that!' is the normal response, but the fact that you wonder if you 100%ed a game without getting 100% of the achievements, cheapens the catharsis of finishing the game.

Don't care about competition or popups, personally, but I do sort of like the Xbox One's achievement sound. It's got that ethereal vibe to it that makes starting up a PS1 so satisfying. And achievements sometimes help out when a game first comes out and there are no detailed guides available online. Mostly to discover if there's a hidden ending or feature or something.

I started out hating them and ended up at more of a shrug, so put me down for a mild "opposite." They're still dumb, but I can't really deny how helpful they are in determining whether I've missed something important in new/obscure games before moving on.

I think it has to do with balking at the mentality it tries to instill and the deeper implications of it all that we understand on some level but don't articulate the best:

Getting rewarded for a minor achievement. People "need" to feel self-validated and the brain releases good-stuff-feelings each time (people of a certain mentality - most people I think?) it gets that validation and that is what achievements do.

It's sick.

I also hate the popups.

this is a good example of a level of prescience about the psychology of it

achievements seem to have been fueled by a console culture. one that you've noticed the absence of as you move to PC. I think they mainly existed as a way to make a platform interesting, they alongside other stuff were there to make the fee. I think that method is starting to look outmoded. I think in the future, achievements will be tied into DLC-lootcrate shitfests, I mean recurrent engagement-related monetizable game design paradigm shifts.

anyway I care not for them. I like it when they're witty.