why do people like 360 Achievements?

adds more objectives to the main game, makes it easier to replay games, they add points to the overall gamerscore...why wouldnt anyone try to get achievements?

But you DO realize that the gamerscore doesn't mean anything, right?darkSIDEechoes

You can use that same logic against videogames as a whole. I mean in the real world, games don't really mean anything at all. Its just a hobby that won't prolong your life, make you rich or help you in love. Yet people still play them? Why?

Achievements may not "mean anything", but they are a fun little bonus thrown in, that can get people to play deeper and farther than they may have otherwise. Sort of like the old "extra costumes" or "bonus levels" in other games can get people to play more.

Plus they help fuel the competitive spirits of gamers. With things like Friends lists on XBL you are finally able to see how far an online friend has gotten in certain games, and now you can do things like "point races" or "100% completion" tests against people who live no where near you.

They may mean nothing, but there is a certain thrill in having a high gamerscore in a game, being able to achieve things your friends haven't been able to. Just like all the old arcade games were based on High Scores for bragging rights, thats what achievements do for modern games. Just a little extra "fun" for our hobby.

But you DO realize that the gamerscore doesn't mean anything, right?darkSIDEechoes

Because 360 owners like to have a nice pat on the back.

They want more than to complete a goal...

They want everyone to know they did too.

That's all a achievement is, it annaounces that you did something.

[QUOTE="darkSIDEechoes"]But you DO realize that the gamerscore doesn't mean anything, right?CrimsonpugTwo

You can use that same logic against videogames as a whole. I mean in the real world, games don't really mean anything at all. Its just a hobby that won't prolong your life, make you rich or help you in love. Yet people still play them? Why?

Achievements may not "mean anything", but they are a fun little bonus thrown in, that can get people to play deeper and farther than they may have otherwise. Sort of like the old "extra costumes" or "bonus levels" in other games can get people to play more.

Plus they help fuel the competitive spirits of gamers. With things like Friends lists on XBL you are finally able to see how far an online friend has gotten in certain games, and now you can do things like "point races" or "100% completion" tests against people who live no where near you.

They may mean nothing, but there is a certain thrill in having a high gamerscore in a game, being able to achieve things your friends haven't been able to. Just like all the old arcade games were based on High Scores for bragging rights, thats what achievements do for modern games. Just a little extra "fun" for our hobby.

you could have just said it was fun.

But you DO realize that the gamerscore doesn't mean anything, right?darkSIDEechoes

LOL man what are you talking about...does anything you do in a game mean anything??

its the only thing on 360 that i can say genius

well ofcourse i wont buy a 360 just for it. as long as i know i do %100 in games why would i care others ? i'm not a loser that likes to show-off. so its the same with PS3 games but when its written all over the place, it will be like a goal so you'll be more hyped. its great addition i admit.

I don't have a 360, but there are achievements in the GFW-Live games, and for Steam, and for some reason I really dig them. I'm not going to try and go for some of the online achievements for GoW, but, as I read somewhere else, it's like a tangible reward of sorts for doing some of the things people were doing before for fun. And, again as I read somewhere else, it's a similar vibe to arcade high scores. They mean nothing in the grand scheme, but they give you some form of bragging rights.

But you DO realize that the gamerscore doesn't mean anything, right?darkSIDEechoes

it shows you who's really a nerd and plays games all the time cause they unlocked all the achievments.Bauers-Twin

[QUOTE="darkSIDEechoes"]But you DO realize that the gamerscore doesn't mean anything, right?CrimsonpugTwo

You can use that same logic against videogames as a whole. I mean in the real world, games don't really mean anything at all. Its just a hobby that won't prolong your life, make you rich or help you in love. Yet people still play them? Why?

Achievements may not "mean anything", but they are a fun little bonus thrown in, that can get people to play deeper and farther than they may have otherwise. Sort of like the old "extra costumes" or "bonus levels" in other games can get people to play more.

Plus they help fuel the competitive spirits of gamers. With things like Friends lists on XBL you are finally able to see how far an online friend has gotten in certain games, and now you can do things like "point races" or "100% completion" tests against people who live no where near you.

They may mean nothing, but there is a certain thrill in having a high gamerscore in a game, being able to achieve things your friends haven't been able to. Just like all the old arcade games were based on High Scores for bragging rights, thats what achievements do for modern games. Just a little extra "fun" for our hobby.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

You think I enjoy earning achievements? Uh-uh, no way. It's more of an obsession for me, because if I don't get all the achievements in the game I will feel obsolete to the others who do. And if you don't carry enough gamer points, you are practically laughed at in any online match, and looked upon as a complete "noob".

As an example for those who don't understand these odd obsessions, increasing the size of your gamer points through achievements is the same as wanting to increase the size of just about everthing in your life- You feel you need to do it to be accepted into society.

I love them. They are an extra reward and an incentive to spend more time with the game. It's not that I don't enjoy the games I play already it's just that they add more to it and with time being such a restricting factor these days it helps push me to want to spend more time with the games.

I also see them as a challenge both amongst the gamers and from the developer to the gamer. It's fun to see what achievements those on your friend's list have gotten. When a game has a really good set of achievements then that usually means that the developer has challenged the gamer to try things in the game that they may not have otherwise tried and when you complete them you'll most likely seen so much more the game has to offer.

I think it works best with having them all tied together in a unified manner like the 360 has done with a set rule for number of achievements and the allowable number of points per game because if it wasn't and some games had them, others didn't, or they had points and achievements all over the place it wouldn't be as enjoyable and have no cohesive feel to them.

Gamerscore is also quite fun to build up in a friendly competative fashion, much like high-scores in an arcade game. Of course I don't lose any sleep over it and I don't look at those with a higher or lower score any differently.

there fun

to those who actively attempt to get achievementsdarkSIDEechoes

Singleplayer achievements are fine but multiplayer achievements are terrible. They ruin the experience by not allowing people just to play the game for fun online and being a detriment to the experience if you are playing with people who only want certain achievements.foxhound_fox

Agreed.

Halo 3's whole Italian room where people went to earn achievements was silly. Condemned 2's multiplayer wasn't very good anyway, but it was only made worse by the achievements, since half the people entering rooms kept asking if anyone had the serial killer achivement, or if people would let them win, or get a number of blocks, or whatever.

It's fine in singleplayer, since silly achievements don't impact anyone else directly.