Poll: Achievements/Trophies, Why do people care about them so much?

[beddo]

About 85% of the people i know with a console will get a game for one of the following, the later being the biggest reason

1. The hype a game has before release,

2. Achievements/Trophies.

I'll admit, i know more 360 owners who do this more, but people buy a game for "the Achievements/Trophies" and i think its so low class gaming.

Say i get a game like RE5, i think "yeah, I've finished the game, it was fun". the thing that gives me more of a challenge is the Trophies, but that is on a second play through, and i never buy a game just for the Trophies, most of them i get just for playing the way i usually do.

I think that Achievements and Trophies have been mostly damaging to games. I often find myself trying to attain achievements as they are somewhat addictive and the really bring in the whole one-up man-ship attitude into the centre of gaming.

In my opinion this basically draws away from the evolution of gaming, imagine if you were watching a film and you got achievements for getting to each new scene.

 

[squid5580]

Its completely irrational, and yet, when I play a game, I feel so giddy when I get the "Achievement Unlocked" sign. That said, I don't buy games for that specific reason.

Exactly that.

My question is why do people care why we care? It seems like every couple days a similar thread pops up asking the same question. So if a person has fun getting achs/trophies and games sole purpose is to be fun why do people keep asking?

 

[Symp4thy]

It must be nice to have so much money that one can go around buying games just for the achievements.
To answer your question, no, I don't buy games for the achievements. I buy games if they look appealing to me.
Achievements are fun to get though.

 

[Cowabungaa]

It's the high-score system of today. In the old days you played Pacman for days just to get 100 more points or whatever, now you play Left 4 Dead for days just to get this one achievement your friend doesn't have.
For me, they're a little extra, sometimes I like to get them, sometimes I couldn't care less.

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

It gives me something to do after I beat this game. Now I don't buy them because of the game. I buy the game because its good, but my friends have requested games that have easy to get achievements, and I never understood why.

 

[Blaxton]

I don't play for them. I get them incidentally.

My girlfriend is obsessed with them.

 

[NinjaKirby1322]

I'll never buy a game because of the achievements. I want the game for the game. Sometimes, though, the achievements will become a primary focus if I have nothing else to do.

 

[Space Spoons]

It's actually just a logical expansion on one of gaming's oldest traditions. Let me put it to you like this:
Ever spend an hour playing Galaga, making sure to blast every last spacebug and travelling to every last bonus zone, to ensure that you have the highest score on the arcade machine when you walk away?

Ever finish a run through on Street Fighter II: The World Warrior and taken a kind of childlike pleasure in entering your initials as "ASS"?

Ever sighed with delight when that score counter in Super Mario World finally rolled over to 1 million, earning you an extra guy and bragging rights to boot?

Yeah. It's like that.

 

[ae86gamer]

I myself do not really care about getting achievements. But I do know that my brother and his friends are big time trophy whores.