Are Steam Achievements Pointless? (2024)

DucksOnQuack

When comparing the lengths of effort people like myself will go to attempting to get their 1000G on Xbox or Platinum Trophy on PlayStation, why do I not care about Steam Achievements in the slightest? My personal view point is that the same amount of reward is given to those who collect 1 achievement and those who collect 11,500 achievements. I like seeing my Gamerscore on Xbox or my Trophy Collection on PlayStation; it gives me visual indicators that I am in fact awesome/sad. Whereas Steam gives no visual pointers as to how well you are doing collecting achievements. And the only games I care about regarding achievements are ones that reward in items like Team Fortress 2.

So should Valve just do away with their system or totally revamp it? Or worse don't do sh*t (like usual).

9 years ago

NickN5

Irishladscark

DominusFerrus

Are Steam Achievements Pointless? > yes
why:
/common sense
/flood of games - p-p-pointless ...
/no point other than bragging
/time is of essence, achievements are a waste of time
/use more time on a game than you consider to be enough - being reminded you didn't
achieve killing 10000 of something or knifing 1000 of something ... kokujin kudasai
/i'm not 12 anymore (not that i ever collected achievements such as PS3/X360/...)
/their only purpose is to extend game time - if the "achievement-tasks" aren't fun, then you're being made fun of - hahaha

Should Steam offer to disable those completely from one's account and for all games? > yes
If i were to play a game extensively due to motivation/joy - i'd find out about stuff that is doable in games anyway
even without interwebs or guide, but that not the point - i don't need no map to show me wtf i can do in order to
check something off or, pop some weird symbol that i did.

Lastly - "Achievement Unlocker"
^ enjoy your hard earned achievement that you pulled for real, and neither brought you joy or anything
^ also enjoy the fact that sh*tload of people simply unlock those silly achievements automatically

Akantha

I wouldn't say pointless but meaningless.

Achievements can give directions, milestones, let you know there are "secrets" to be found, alternative storylines and endings, play the game in a multitude of ways and extend the life of a game.
For example Binding of Isaac has many achievements and unlockables for playing the game with certain characters and in with which bosses you encounter, the more you unlock, the more endings to be found and playstyles to be tried.

Don't get me wrong though, there are some achievements which really seem stupid. Like Garrys Mod play for gazillion billion hours or L4D kill a gazillion billion zombies. We could do with less of that artificial life extending.

I don't think they should remove achievements. There are plenty of people who like 100% a game just to feel done with it.
If you think achievements are pointless, don't go for them and let those that like them continue their way of playing. :)

Danielsg

Yes, you do not get points for getting achievements so they are - in fact - pointless.

Honestly, I don't care about achievements that much, but they don't bother me too much either. Some kind of reward for getting achievements could be interesting, but the problem is that the "quality" (for the lack of a better word) is pretty much all over the board, with some achievements requiring you to replay a 200h game and others being 'click the credits button in the main menu', not to mention the unachievable ones.

And that isn't even getting into computer-aided-systematically-unlocked-achievement-logic (C.A.S.U.A.L. for short)

Jonex

UraniumFalconPunch

Yes, but in the very same way that gaming is.

If you've ever felt like you want to beat someone or another team in a multiplayer game, ever thought you want to improve your high score in a game that has them, ever thought you wanted to complete a level or defeat a boss then it's the same sort of thing. It's a challenge that doesn't give you anything tangible in the real world and it's all rather pointless.

K3W3L

Whereas Steam gives no visual pointers as to how well you are doing collecting achievements.

What about the Steam Achievement showcase? You're at least level 10, you could display that on your profile, you know...

talgaby

Pointless? Yes.
But not more pointless than trophies on consoles, Steam trading cards, CS:GO skins, TF2 hats, Twitch emotes, or any other digital "goods" that serve no purpose other than collecting.

And that's the point (pardon me the paradox). They are stuff to collect. I think achievements are personal trackers, nothing more, but they are great to know how big effort you put into a game or all your games.
And for some devs they can also see how far did the people who bought the game progress in it. Which, in turn, is good for us too, because it's one thing if a game has 100,000 sales with promotions and bundles, but when you see in the global tracker that less than 1% reached the end, it may indicate that the game is far from being good enough to actually play and waste time on.

Gummydrop

Swampous

Jastrzap

BubbyBobble

Most of the time they're only worth +1 for someone's profile, as well as a bit of an e-peen extender, but the more challenging ones are rather entertaining. I see those as more of a goal for myself to work towards. Like the ___Boy achievements in Super Meat Boy.
It can also be used as a milestone marker. For example, it might tell you when you first completed a game, or when you did really damn good in a multiplayer match.

Of course, like with everything else, YMMV.

xarabas

I don't think Valve is mostly to "blame" here, achievements could be a nice cosmetic incentive if only developers decided to put more effort into them.
As a good example, I'll go with Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons. It is an easy game to achieve 100% completion but did you know that if you go straight for the story, you can miss absolutely every achievement and yet complete the game? Most of the achievements in Brothers require you to interact with the scenery or wildlife in some way, making you learn more about your surroundings and game lore in a very unique way. While in some other releases, you get an achievement for merely starting the game, clicking on credits screen or completing the tutorial.
I also noticed quite a few developers are taking advantage of people's obsession with such things by adding ridiculously easy achievements in games (and only 2-3 of them) knowing that some people will buy the game just because of that, regardless of quality.

I guess a lot of people need some concrete proof that their time with the game had an impact outside their mental ecosystem.

Psygineer

AlexRow

If the SAM didn't exist the achievements would have more value and possible better rewards, it's a shame :(

Still, I'm pretty proud of get many of my achievements that bring back good memories, and all them are legit (without SAM of course, I will never use it).

Axelflox

blotunga

mecorx

Arimajinn

Psygineer

al3x0805

Asperyules

Notional

vledermau5

I've not really been a fan of achievements, but then I discovered those achievement websites like astats, Metagamerscore and achievementhunters (which closed)...now I prefer playing games with achievements over those without.

I think they could improve the system though, even though SAM is kind of a problem.