Well I was comparing online distribution services (mostly Steam and GOG with each other) and I came up with a question I thought I would ask the community here.

What is your opinion on Achievements and would you want to see such a system integrated into GOG (wherever possible)?

Nope

Meh. Wouldn't bother me, but it is not a feature that I particularly enjoy or need.

Not going to happen, because then that'd mean that GOG's games would have to be tied into the GOG service somehow, which'd require the developers to modify their games' source code to do it. That, and GOG would have to have the infrastructure for it.

GOG's whole identity revolves around being DRM-free, which implies that once you get your game, they and everyone else should be hands-off.

Against

They wouldn't necessarily need to link games to accounts to have achievements. They could have site achievements like GG does.

I would rather they didn't though. Never understood the attraction/point of achievement hunting.

Why do you need that kind of thing? Everywhere I see achievements there some people that just brag about it or just get too overexcited about it. Everything is going good here :)

Personally, I'd rather not see achievements here. And it's unlikely we ever will since the games gog sells are not integrated into any kind of game client. There are plenty of other options available, such as Steam, for those who like achievements. I myself think they're fairly retarded, but that's just my opinion.

When the whole achievement idea first came about, it wasn't terribly bad. Still just a nerdy, childish epeen flexing system, but they still weren't too bad. The achievements you could earn were actually things that were difficult to do.

Now however, achievements have become... well, even more pointless than they were initially I guess you could say. Games give you achievements now for doing necessary, non-skippable and completely trivial in game events. So basically you get achievements now in games for simply playing the game and following the story line. It's like getting an achievement for pulling your car up to the drive through at McDonalds. Then, you get another achievement for actually ordering the food. Then, another for paying at the window. Another for receiving your food. And finally one for leaving the parking lot. You get the picture....

As an example in Steam, the achievement in Skyrim for completing all of the optional Daedric side quests are okay. But "Eagle Eye" in Witcher 2, is completely pointless, since it's something that everyone gets.

I once read that achievements on modern games are set so you could feel fullfilled artificially, as games didn't do it by themselves anymore. I kinda agree.

Example: Hitman absolution has a built-in achievement system where they encourage replayability by awarding you bonus points for completing "challenges" on the levels. However, I never needed such a system to play Blood Money over and over again.

In short: I see no point on standard achievements, but they don't particularly bother me. In-game rewards for in-game achievements can be cool if done right, but still no big deal.

I agree with you, I myself am against the idea of achievements unless it's in forms of badges and medals for online games. A game should be satisfying enough on itself to not need to rely on pointless unlockables like achievements.

Achievements are fine by me but they should not to be tied to services, IMHO.

Edit: The rise of encrypted saves in the attempt to maintain the sanctity of 'gamer scores' and the like is one of the worst things to have ever happened to gaming.

Nope. Having all these rep skirmishes is bad enough. :-)

Can someone give me a brief tutorial on achievements?

Not necessarily. The achievements could be optional, just like cloud saves.

But I personally prefer GOG would continue to keep things as simple as possible, and I am sure there are other things for which they could use their time more productively. Also, I feel that even if GOG offered an achievements system, people who like achievements would still bitch because they are not _Steam_ achievements.

All that said, I prefer ingame achievements, which reward you somehow inside the game for doing the extra mile. The example I like to use is how in GTA3 you got some kickass weapon (very usable e.g. for the end fight) if you found all the "packages" scattered around the city.

I need no stinking badges, I want the game reward me somehow inside the game for doing extra stuff. And I want them to be somehow meaningful, the "external" achievements tend to be rather artificial.

No, I don't need a dog biscuit to motivate me.

On achievements:
Knights of the Dinner Table: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRshMRyRrgs

Just another way for elitists to wave their shiny around pretending to be so much better for accomplishing something probably pointless.

bingo, meaningful and in-game I like.