this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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For me the real question is why is there an achievement for starting the game?
I'm the first with several unopened games on Steam, but come on, let's not dilute the meaning of achievement
Because someone in the gamedev community once posted about using achievements to measure engagement with users, it caught on, and now there are actual achievements mixed in with standard progress, including just launching the game, apparently.
It lets you have analytics in your game (how many players do X, use y feature), without the backlash of analytics.
Steam provides analytics already
They are used to measure how far players get into the game so you'll often see one for starting the game the first time, completing the tutorial, and chapters as well as difficulties. The reason the numbers are off here is likely that achievement was added some time after the game released and those players never returned to the game and launched it again 5o earn that achievement.
I remember some games on Xbox did that in a way that fucked with people who liked to keep an even achievement score, award a nonstandard two point one for starting the game and lock the "corresponding" three point one behind something endgame with the rest being standard multiples of five or whatever
Wait, what? Was this some kind of meta game people played, or just some weird compulsion like having to have the volume set to multiples of five?
Bit of each for different people I suppose, but for most probably closer to the latter, most achievements being worth a multiple of five making ones that don't stick out. Checking mine, currently ends in 4 so must have run into a game that did something like that at some point, but am not one of the people it bothers
Well, to some people the biggest achievement is getting out of the bed
If you need to get out of bed to game, and getting out of bed is an achievement, you are doing your life wrong. Play from bed.
Mind = blown.
Achievements have honestly been diluted for over a decade
Diluted implies they were ever worth anything. They were only created as a dopamine drip to keep customers buying their product. Using them for publicly available analytics is great. I love being able to compare the drop off rate of one game to another. Comparing how quickly players dropped of compared to, for example, Dark Souls is fun and informative.
I used to hate achievements when they first came out back in the day and just thought they were dumb as hell. Surprisingly, as I’ve gotten older, I appreciate them as something to do for fun.
Paradox games especially like CK3 make me play completely different each time to unlock a different achievement.
The ones I despise are achievements that have a multiplayer requirement tied to it.
How do you feel about hidden achievements? Or ones that are basically riddles, or otherwise unclear from their description how to get it? Or ones that represent a clear challenge far beyond the primary intended path of play (not just "collect all the things", but accomplish X task in a time period or with a loadout you didn't think possible)?
Hidden achievements are fine. They let you compare with other people without spoiling secrets. You can't see them without getting them, which has some issues, but it's alright. I'm sure there's a way to view these anyway. The riddles basically fall into this too, except hiding them with a trick rather than a hidden tag.
Challenges are great. They don't really show progression, but it gives players something to do if they want. I don't think they add anything personally, but I'm fine with them.
Personally, I love having a ton of them - I wish there were more
I don't mind standard progression ones, they at least give me a rough idea how far through the storyline I am
But the high end ones are way too few - I like having an unlockable goal to work towards if I'm not done with a game by the time I finish the in game progression. I want them to be hard, maybe even require multiple playthroughs with a severe handicap. Not tedious collecting... But like in Prey when you had to play through with only human, typhoid, or no abilities unlocked. Then you had to save everyone and murder everyone - I had fun trying to combine as many as possible into a playthrough
My problem is that people get upset when 100% is a long and hard road, and a lot of games have lowered the bar to keep them from getting upset. Might as well make prestige achievements that put the total over 100% at this point... Hell if I launch something on steam I might do free DLC just for that
I wholly agree with everything you said. Sometimes you finish a game and want to keep playing but it's hard to find a "reason" to and weird achievements provide that.
That makes it sound like an addiction but I don't mean it that way. I wanted to 100% BG3 and got all but 1 or 2 achievements away from doing it I thought eh, that's enough for now. I'm not trying to impress anyone with my GamerScore™ so if I'm not having fun with one, I'll pass
Exactly! I left two achievements in Prey because while I loved it, a fourth playthrough was too much - years later I still remember the map intimately
But then there's games like saints row 4...I loved it, it was just pure fun. I was having such a great power fantasy I even got all the collectables. I tried to keep going, but I ended up just mindlessly jumping around until I faced reality
Or for a more recent example, satisfactory. It was great fun - I restarted just before the endgame to extend the experience. Then I did everything... There was so much more map left and I could've built so much more if I just had a reason. They get a partial pass because it's still in development and mods could give me a second, longer, playthrough but I wanted to enjoy the updates before I burned up all my desire to play
Give me some stat scaled enemies, maybe a bit more basic progression, and a flimsy reason so I can have my fill of the gam
Pretty funny you bring up Satisfactory...I JUST put that game down after making a gigantic factory. I just couldn't bring myself to build the last two I needed for the final milestone and decided I'd start with a new game once it was finished. I hate burning myself out on a game and resenting it.
...and Prey might actually be the next single player game I play. I have two friends hounding me to give it a spin and now you're singing its praises. I guess I have to now lol