Are achievements spoiling games?

K1LLSW1TCH said:
I used to be an avid PC gamer right up until around 2006 ish, this was when I got my first job, and my first real purchase was an HDTV and an Xbox360. My gaming PC fast grew out of date and was unable to play all of the games that my 360 could so I found myself using the console as my only gaming tool.

We all know that the 360 has achievements with pretty much every game, something that gamers can aim for, to one up your friends maybe, or just to squeeze some extra life out of the games, but does anyone here think they are spoiling the games a little by adding them?

A lot of PC games nowadays, especially Valve games are shipping with the PC versions of Achievements and I find myself now playing the games and constantly checking the achievements, striving to get as many as I can, and it actually spoils the games a little for me. Instead of sitting back and soaking in the atmosphere that some games can provide, I find myself rushing through them, trying to complete X mission and trying to collect 100 of Y items.

Back in the day I could sit and play Half-Life or Opposing Force and not have a care in the world about whether I have picked up all of the different weapons or killed 1 of each different type of enemy. But now I find myself inadvertently and subconsciously playing games solely for the Gamerscore in GFWL games, or just for the pretty pictures and the 100% in Steam games, it's hampering my enjoyment somewhat. You could maybe compare it to 'grinding' in MMO or RPG games.

Does anyone else find this?
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I don't think achievements are ruining games, but i do think poorly planned ones are.

Like the ones in Prototype and other games where you have loads and loads of achievements to do with killing 20,000 mobs in 2 secs or other stupid achievements that are completely pointless.

Achievements if planned right should be about hidden things in the game, different paths in the story and other things, giving you incentives to play the game again for enjoyment, not grinding out achievements.
 
They add a nice new element to the game for me, and if I really like the game they give me more reason to continue playing after completing the story.
 
In terms of showing off and proving how good you are they are pointless, as i'm sure nobody on my steam list cares what achievements i have and i dont care about theres.

But if you really enjoy the game it can add some replay value trying to finsh the game 100% or getting all the achievements.

Bu sometimes achievements are added to quite short games or games without a lot of depth to make up for lack of content (as some one said)

I've know a few people buy some really bad games just cause they have acheivments or to get more gamer points.

I like the way achievements are done in things like the cod games and tf2, the way you can be playing and will just get one for doing some thing. Its cool if they unlock a title or item something you can actually use in the game.

But other then that i dont bother with them or care about them, the only way i would bother with them is if i got a discount at the steam store.
 
No, I love them. They add a bit to the game for me. I dont actively go out of my way to get them (Monotonous ones like "collect 200 of these"), but if one pops up during a game unexpectively I really like it.

I also find it fun to compare my achievements with my friends.

The simple thing is, if you dont like achievements, dont aim for them. If you do, then feel free.

(*Exception to this is ones that you need to get to unlock a special weapon or reward. This is silly. As someone above said, the only thing that should give you an advantage in a game is skill. Everything else should be available to everyone.)
 
The problem is that most of the achievements don't really require any skill. and are just simple tasks designed to pass the time.

The bigger problem in my eyes is when you are forced to complete these tasks in order to unlock new weapons or content.
 
The achievements that require you to replay the same game content again are annoying, e.g. Fallout 3 achievement for evil, neutral, good alignment at three different levels.

If the game wasn't good enough for me to replay it, then sticking in some MMO style grind rewards isn't going to improve its legacy in my memory.

Didn't bother with the achievements for Mass Effect, as they offered no incentive just being stored on your computer just being listed on your computer.
 
I like the tf2 achievement where you had to do a certain amount of achievement to get the weapon's. I didn't see the point in jumping on a server soley to do all the achievement what's the point in that? The whole point of the achievement was to enjoy the game and get your moneys worth.

I have a ps3 and the tophies on that are pointless you don't get anything from them but i guess it give you something to work too and add's too the amount of playtime like with cod mw2 with the guns get so many kill and your reward this amount of xp i like that makes me try all different weapon's and not just stick with one.
 
Grinding achievements can break teamplay, but well thought out achievements can help greatly - many of the TF2 ones teach you how to play your class correctly, rewarding medics for healing, spies for stabbing heavies etc.

Whilst the Killing Floor achievements are crap, I love the perk/level-up idea, which also forces you to play your chosen class correctly.
 
Bane said:
The achievements that require you to replay the same game content again are annoying, e.g. Fallout 3 achievement for evil, neutral, good alignment at three different levels.
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Those are very easy just save before levelling up then reload your save after getting the ones you need!
 
AWPC said:
Those are very easy just save before levelling up then reload your save after getting the ones you need!
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Yep that's what I did, easy peesy.

Load save game, go to Megaton, kill people to decrease karma, leave Megaton, level up, job done
 
While I occasionally hunt few achievements in some games, I think they do more harm than good. WoW was in my opinion ruined by achievements. Nowadays literally half the raids are spent trying to get some achievements that I could care less about. We could literally drop our raids per week to half if it wasn't for some people wanting more and more achievements. The only thing to do outside of raids is to.. ermm, try to get some more achievements. All the holiday events are achievement hunts, there's literally no other reward (well ok, a useless mount if you do a whole bunch of those achievements over a whole year). Heck, you can't even join pug raids or 5-mans (not that I would join but..) without certain achievements the raid leader wants to see you have achieved.

I wish achievements were optional in MMOs...
 
uv said:
Whilst the Killing Floor achievements are crap, I love the perk/level-up idea, which also forces you to play your chosen class correctly.
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It doesn't do anything of the sort...

Only the Medic is really focused and thats pretty obvious since it has no specialities with weapons. The rest of them are mostly just 'do x amount of damage' which translates as 'Play the class a lot, in some cases, badly because it gives you more damage'. Perk levels in KF are horrible and take way too long to max. The achievements are mostly just generic things like completing a level which is fine. They don't detract from the game, Perk levels do.

I don't see why your complaining about those FO3 achievements... its to encourage you to ROLE PLAY as a different type of character. You wouldn't start bitching about how Dragon Age has achievements for reaching lvl20 as a Warrior, Rogue and Mage would you? The 'gain all xxx line spells/talents' achievements are pushing it though. You can't honestly only play these games on 1 character and nothing else.
 
Achievements on the PC are meaningless because there is no central system which keeps track of it all like Live or PSN. I don't even bother to look at them really.
 
I quite like achievements, but I'm not one of these nutters that hammers a game getting every single achievement possible... like my mate does with his 360 games :)
 
dbmzk1 said:
Achievements on the PC are meaningless because there is no central system which keeps track of it all like Live or PSN. I don't even bother to look at them really.
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Even though i agree with you 100% and i think it is really bad that they do not keep track of your achievement progress... however to introduce a system would be huge =/

I do think Achievements are a good thing at the end of day because they give you a sense of accomplishment and you can compare with other players etc...
 
I like the l4d team ones, they're good for messing about together with.

but in VS don't really care if i get one it's a nice "yay \o/" then back to playing.
 
I have never checked my achievements, on any platform, and don't think I ever will. I have no interest in them, but I do like it when I randomly get one for doing something in a game, it's a nice little surprise. ;)

But like I said, I'm glad they exist as people get a lot of pleasure and play out of them, but I really couldn't care less about them.
 
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