are achievements overrated?

[monkey_man]

I mean , seriously... i was just watching a trailer for bioshock 2 and i read a comment that said something like : this is the first game wth achievements i would like (something like that). I thought: are achievements that important? i just see them as a part of games, put i sertaintly wouldn't miss them. is it fun to spend hours of work for something, only to let the game tell you "congratulations , you got no life at all! let's reward that with a shiny achievement!" i mean when they got actual use, like they used to had in tf2(and some more), it was fun collecting them and get rewarded with more firepower! but in other games , with no actual reward, what's the point?
hey where did the poll go to?

 

[thejoshualee]

I guess they "do got use" (sic).

Any game is a completely arbitrary system of reward anyway. Any value we place on anything is based solely on the shared perception of it. Is it of value to beat a game like... Kingdom Hearts... without finishing beating all the optional bosses? Is it of value to get 100% completion on a game? Is it of value to rank #1 in multiplayer? Whatever value there is to the individual gamer is valuable on the very ground that someone thinks it is.

Example: Lobster is considered a luxury food today and is expensive compared to beef. During colonial days it was the opposite. It was the lowest food you could eat. Workers held violent revolts because they fed nothing but lobster. So... does lobster have any value?

I tend to like achievements. It's a simple little reward that shows up now and then to let me know that I'm doing good. It's a digital version of the t-ball coach who shouts out random encouragement.... even if you're not that good. I got an achievement just this morning when I was playing Brutal Legend for a very long vehicle jump. It was a cool jump in and of itself, but to hear the little bloop also tell me it was a cool jump made me smile just a bit more.

Overrated is such an odd term here also. I'd assume that achievements are just part of the gaming culture now. It's like saying "do you think listening to the radio when you are in the car is overrated?"

 

[Debatra]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_196/5942-A-Break-in-Immersion#at

 

[Jedamethis]

They give me a sense of accomplishement and something shiny to look at.
What more could you want?

 

[StarStruckStrumpets]

They give me a sense of accomplishement and something shiny to look at.
What more could you want?

Yay for the little bleep!
Honestly, I really enjoy achievements, especially when I get one accidentally. It makes me chuckle inside when I see that I got a reward for blowing off 400 heads.

 

[logiman]

I like this philosophy

Spoiler

minute 4 onward

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

I don't care about achievements unless they give me something other than gamerscore, like the ones in Mass Effect for example.

Gamerscore doesn't give you any benefit whatsoever.

 

[Supreme Unleaded]

I picked the The Do got Use reason, why? Because the 360's Bleep Bloop sound is sexy... really sexy.

THe PS3 isnt as much but its still pretty hot.

 

[teutonicman]

I hate the seriously 2.0 for gears 2. God damn that achievement sucks trying to get.

 

[Wibble]

I hate people who brag about their gamerscore, it has more to do with spare time than skill.
however, i have no problem with achievments, after all theres nothing wrong with somthing that makes you grin and feel accomplished.

 

[TPiddy]

Yeah... kind of helps people believe you when you say you beat Halo on Legendary... it's backing up your trash talk... .

Also, I think it adds another element to games... making you feel like you're getting your money's worth. I agree with some of the above article's points, as it was more about money, but then again, I don't buy the whole 'immersion' thing to begin with. If you're playing a game.... and you suddenly don't think you're playing a game anymore, you have issues.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

I don't think achievements are over-rated. They offer re-playability to games and give players a reason to do something from the norm of what they'd do in the game. There are some ridiculous achievements though.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

If the points got you somthing in return, then they would be enjoyable.

Like how about for every X amount of Gamerpoints that you got you get Y amount of Microsoft points. Like an insignifcant amount that could proably only buy an Avatar clothe or Themes.
It wouldn't be much, but it's better then what we got.

I like the idea of rewarding the player for reaching a milestone, but giving them a completly worthless point dosen't really cut it.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Example: Lobster is considered a luxury food today and is expensive compared to beef. During colonial days it was the opposite. It was the lowest food you could eat. Workers held violent revolts because they fed nothing but lobster. So... does lobster have any value?

Most obscure metaphor ever!

 

[thejoshualee]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_196/5942-A-Break-in-Immersion#at

meh... maybe.

I don't want to write that off completely as, yes, achievement announcements do break the 4th wall... maybe... in the same way commercials or the "previously on" bit breaks the 4th wall of tv shows.

I think the fact that it's a game you are playing with a little plastic toy takes some of the immersion away, or the fact that gameplay issues are so often distracting. Or that the very nature of nearly every game is so far from anything that could possibly happen in reality takes most of the immersion away.

But, yeah, when the bloop comes up you are reminded that you are playing an actual game and not... I don't know... living there. I make that sound like a bad thing but I don't mean to. A good game sucks you in like that.

Maybe that's just the nature of the beast. Maybe the fact that, first and foremost, it's a game you are playing precludes reality or forgives intrusions in the world. I was completely drawn in by Fallout 3, even though my computer crashed constantly and I didn't find dogmeat until I looked it up online and it was obvious that there was only a few voice actors and character models and so on and so on.

 

[thejoshualee]

The thing is that if they got you somthing in return, then they would be enjoyable.

Like how about for every X amount of Gamerpoints that you got you get Y amount of Microsoft points. Like an insignifcant amount that could proably only buy an Avatar clothe or Themes.


I like the idea of rewarding the player for reaching a milestone, but giving them a completly worthless point dosen't really cut it.

I do like the idea of token rewards for gamer points... but, again, worthless is so very strange. In that definition, all video games that don't give you real world benefits are worthless. We'd be stuck with Wii fit and possibly.... a few others.

 

[Wintermoot]

they are just bragging rights and some are to easy such as obtaining a weapon or something (see: Trusty Hardware achievement for HL2)

 

[Ammadessi]

To be honest it's a toss-up for me. I seriously dislike the break in immersion, however I think I'd be more likely to replay a game to try and get all of the achievements that I didn't get the first time around. In that sense I think of them like the 101 Stars in the Suikoden games. I like to play those twice, once without a guide, once with a guide to pick up all the characters I missed the first time around.

So if they have any use, it's only in making a linear game with little re-playability fun to replay.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

I do like the idea of little tokens of joy or accomplishing something hard. When I master that bastard song on Rock Band to hear that addictive "boink" and the achievement pop up it feels nice to have my milestones recognized.

On the darker side of things I fail to see why people will buy piss easy games just to get the chievos, you haven't accomplished anything and your not improving your skill so why bother.

To the people maxing your gamerscore in games like Ninja Gaiden 2, more power to ya!

The worst thing I've ever seen from an achievement whore is when I reccommended the new South Park game to my friend

I quote word for word here:

"I think it's kinda gay that it costs 800 Microsoft Points and you can only get 200 GamerScore out of it"

You can see the kind of level he's working at.

 

[theonecookie]

Got to love good old foamy bout sum up what i have to say

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1A-Ymf1VYY&feature=player_embedded