What Do Achievements Mean To People?

Gamer Euphoria writes:

''For the last year or so I’ve not spent as much time on my 360 as I once did. There’s various reasons to why my 360 time has been cut, mostly to do with games on other systems. Back when I was more dedicated to the 360 I would spend a portion of time focused on the achievement side of things. earning gamer score was a pretty big part of my 360 experience, which I’m slightly ashamed to admit, but things have since changed.''

[GuruStarr78]

They mean alot to some people... I myself enjoy trophies more than achievements, since they're specific to the games you're playing and achievements are just a number...

I really hope Nintendo gets with it and institutes a system (although I'm not holding my breath on that one), it would give me a reason to replay my Nintendo games and it would give me a reason to buy 3rd party games on the Wii U..

Since as of now, if I can buy a game on PS3 or 360 and get cheevos or trophies, I'll pass on getting it on Wii U.

[StrongMan]

I enjoy trophies more too. The trophy system has weighted trophies. The platinum is worth more than all and gold is worth more than silver and silver is worth more than bronze. You can play more games and get a lot of the small 10 point achievements and have a higher score than someone who play less games and got bigger points. But more bronze trophies won't give you a higher level than have more platinums and golds. The trophy system is perfect.

[Roccetarius]

You mean that Achievements and Trophies aren't one and the same?!

All you're getting is a number of bronze, silver and gold trophies. It's pretty much the same thing except for a colour added to it.

The gamerscore isn't what matters to completionists, but the achievements themselves. I myself have been a hunter for some time, and it's really just a goal i set for myself to complete games.

If i see a lot of movie games on someone's tag, then i value that less than someone who completes difficult games.

[InMyOpinion]

StrongMan is one of the biggest Playstation fanboys on this site. He'll spin anything into Sony's favor, no matter how ridiculous.

"The trophy system has weighted trophies." Not anymore than the achievements system has different amount of points depending on how hard they are to get.

Still it's down to the devs to decide the difficulty, which means some platinum trophies and 100 point achievements will be easier to get than others.

[Xof]

They mean "artificially inflating the amount of content we perceive a game to have," because that's all they are.

[MysticStrummer]

Exactly what I was going to comment.

They are an illusion of more content.

Same goes for Trophies.

[Campy da Camper]

I respectfully disagree. For me, I go for them on games I really enjoy. Infamous for example: I played the crap out of it and beat both endings. Going for all shards n takedowns it allowed me to keep playing for a few hours with a purpose. That plat is one of my most proudest.

[fsfsxii]

Trophies are important to me ONLY if i love the game.

[Campy da Camper]

Bingo! Bubs for well said.

[MilkMan]

Don't mean nothing to me. My buddy told me the other day I was upwards of 110k. I didn't even know. So I took a look and it seems I can have a max of 300+k, but I only have a third of that.

When we talked about it, I told him I just played games and once finished I retire the ones I liked and sold the ones I didn't.

Never cared about any scores or anything like that.
Besides, its not like it does anything for you. It says and means nothing.

[MooseWI]

Nothing anymore, this comes from having Xbox Live for 8 years. Eventually I got sick of them.

[GodsPerfectK7ng]

Achievements and trophies are just something little to show for and give you a little feeling of satisfaction/joy in beating a game on hard mode ect. Because you need a feeling to enjoy the game you are playing!! I got more achievements than trophies though I game on xbox 360 more than ps3!!

[mydyingparadiselost]

Before trophies gamers would just do all this stuff because it was fun and entertaining. I've never understood the idea of bragging rights to spending hours in a game killing 1000 'insert monster name here' and so on. It's nice that it's there I guess but it's just filler and nothing that someone couldn't just accomplish on their own without the need to get points for it if they really just love the game that much.

[Campy da Camper]

Hey, some trophies though are a badge of honor for oneself. Demon souls etc. I could care less about bragging but the satisfaction I got when I finally hear that plink is awesome. Anyway, that's just my opinion.

[mydyingparadiselost]

And your opinion sounds like it works for you. I'll admit I at least appreciate trophies that ask you to do something interesting with a games items or environment, like taking out oh so many enemies by knocking them off a ledge or with a grenade or knocking them off a ledge with a grenade. The worst are the ones you get for doing mandatory things just to progress in the game, makes me feel like I'm in the special olympics or something :p

[Unztayble]

Just a way to extend the playtime of a game I love. They don't mean much to me but I appreciate the fact that I get more playtime out of a game that I would've normally shelved or kept roaming around in. I only wish each trophy would unlock something useful in-game. That is my only complaint. Too many useless, time consuming trophies.

[Kidmyst]

Having earned both on each system, I much rather like Trophies. The Platinums stand out better then just saying "I have a gamer score of 10,000" but how many games did you 100%? On the flip side, the Trophies/ achievements sometimes hurts the gaming experience. Instead of beating a game and moving on, I'm driven for that trophy and spend countless hours grinding away for some. Others like "reach level 50 in MP" I say screw it, and on to the next game. Some devs balance the trophies/achievements right.

[Swiggins]

Achievements and trophies are nice, but I think people look too deep into them, it's really just a progress marker, or a way of showing that you've completed challenge X or Y.

I like my gamerscore, but it's not something that I actively think about while playing a game. In fact to my knowledge I've only ever "Perfected" one game, and that was Dark Souls.

[Williamson]

Trophies for me sometimes extend a game for me. With uncharted finishing higher difficulty, collecting treasure, getting certain amounts of kills with each weapon.

[SonyStyled]

i love em. they add longevity and replayability to a game. i try to platinum every game i have. i love that rewarding feeling once you hear that bah-ding! and plus, once you get all the trophies in a game, you know youve got your moneys worth outta it

[Campy da Camper]

Haha I feel its a "plink!"

[DarkBlood]

i like both for achievements i like to think im raising my power level dbz style for trophies i like to think im leveling my self up lol

[Jek_Porkins]

I like them them as incentive to go through games and do extra things. The fact that I've had my Xbox 360 since launch in 2005 and every single game out for it had them, it's easy to understand why I favor them and the entire ecosystem.

I never go for complete games, but I prefer to get between 400-500 Gamerscore for every game I play, makes it feel a bit more worth it to me. Also, if it weren't for Achievements, I'd have missed out on some great games that I only picked up for some easy ones.

On the negative side, I don't buy third party games on Wii U because of the lack of a system wide Achievement system, I would have gladly bought more third party games and play through them again on that console, but the lack of Achievements now bothers me for most games.

[webkatt]

means nothing to me. i started a new gamertag just because i grew tired of my other one (had foreign city in gt and got harassed a lot. also too cheap to pay 10 dollars to change name

[Imalwaysright]

I'd take the rewards that were given to us in previous generations for accomplishing something in a game like costumes, over achievements/trophies any day of the week.