achievements in video games

glennmagusharvey

Some of them are quite pointless.

I can understand achievements in order to recognize easter eggs, in-depth features, funny coincidences, etc.

However, there shouldn't be achievements for beating the first level, beating the basic game, and the like.

Saigyouji

They can be used by friends to see how far you are into the game. People like to compete, after all.

Formaldehyde

^That's how I use them, actually- to see how much of the game is left. Also, they're good for continuing to dink around in a game that's finished story-wise.

MadassAlex

I'd saying an achievement for completing the main part of the game is fine. 

That said, I agree with the general sentiment. There are too many achievements uncreatively based around things every player is going to do anyway. They can be a way to add another, implicit difficulty level for challenge gamers or a means to reward lateral thinking. Or any other range of things. One avenue is that achievements could even be a surreptitious continuation of the tutorial, where you unlock said achievements for properly executing advanced gameplay actions.  

glennmagusharvey

> There are too many achievements uncreatively based around things every player is going to do anyway.

This is exactly my point.

Lai

>Thought this was a thread where you brag about your achievements in games.

Oh. My bad.

TheConductor

On the Xbox, you MUST have a certain amount of gamerscore in your game. A lot of developers don't give a shit, so they throw in achievement for simple reasons.

 

I know that if I made a game, I'd have only one achievement "You pushed start."

Bee

The way the SDK advises you to organize achievements is to stagger them out at "reasonable intervals of progression" without asking them to go too far out of their way to keep the player interested in collecting them.

DYRE

I would much rather have all the achievements be things like "beat half the game," "beat the main story," "did the secret dungeon," etc. than nonsense like "died 30 times on the same level" or "threw a basketball into a hoop during a cutscene" since the latter tends to be not only unfun but actively detrimental to me having fun with the rest of the game (well, that or I feel like I'm missing out because I'm not getting all the achievements, which is usually a less bothersome feeling but it's still something).

Icalasari

At least with Minecraft it makes sense, since the acheivements are basically the tutorial

Bee

My favorite achievements are usually of the "do weird shit" or "mildly break the game" sort.  Grind is generally a bad idea though.

Super Lazuli

I like achievements when they unlock stuff.

Otherwise I tend to just sort of tune them out.

 

 

lrdgck

The sort of achievements you guys complain of, also cause a different problem. If the notification appears on the screen, like in Dragon Age, they sort of break immersion. Instead of a romance subplot, you get "*ka-ching!* Digital chick nailed!".

Counterclock

They can be used by friends to see how far you are into the game. People like to compete, after all.

Also, corporations and game developers can see how much of their game was played. It's a pretty handy tool for them actually if I'm not mistaken.

Kraken

Yeah, achievement-based humour is pretty immersion-breaking.