Do achievements add to the game play experience?

To me they do the exact opposite. I mean, while it's interesting to get an achievement I hate how they dictate how to play the game and encourage an uniform experience across players. Would rather see achievements becoming more intelligent not just a collection of preset goals.

Depends on if you notice them or even give them much thought if you do

It depends.

Personally I turn all notifications off when I play so my experience doesn't get disrupted, but there are certain games where the achievements can serve as challenges for the person playing. Kingdom: New Lands is a good example of this, as many of the achievements are focused around unique challenges (Don't run for so many days) and speed runs of sorts (escape the island in X number of days) which I thought were a neat addition. I went back and attempted the challenges after I had already run through the game a few times and I thought it was fun to do so. This is pretty rare though. I'll usually glance through the achievements once I've completed a game or played enough just to see if there are any interesting ones.

I've never really understood the inclusion of 'progress achievements' since they are basically awarded for just playing the game. The Simpsons game from a while back had an achievement for pressing start on the main menu, although that was pretty funny.

I think this is a 'to each their own' kind of deal. I have never played a game just to gain achievements, but I do know plenty of people who could be classified as 'achievement hunters' and they seem to enjoy it.

I used to think achievements were pretty useless, and if anything, got in the way. However, I recently played through the Bioshock Collection and made it a point to get all the achievements in the game. It was surprisingly fun. Granted the Bioshock series is straight up one of my favorites, but I I found the achievements to be the perfect amount of challenge in order to merit another play through. Some of them were interesting and forced interesting play styles. After this experience, I think achievements are great for second play throughs, but I'd still rather enjoy the game on its own the first time around.

I think achievements do add more to games. Challenging yourself to accomplish things that you normally wouldn't in a game is fun.

These days, they just slam achievements as part of a linear progression.

Why not achievements that sparks my interest to explore the game a bit more? Some do it right, some do it wrong.

Sure, gives you something to aim for.

They are just a tool that developers use to keep u playing the game, in my opinion. The more u play a game the more likely u are to spend on dlc/microtransactions. They are worthless to me.

But I guess some people are obsessed with them. To each their own.

kinda, only if done good though. They might give you ways to play that add to your experience. Like, in Borderlands, I had no idea you can damage enemies by jumping on them. With the funny Mario trophy I went off my way to do it.

However, the metagame between the games is totally screwed if you consider how easy you can get some of them.

Congratulations! You earned a trophy for using logic! HaHa! I do agree with you. My biggest pet-peeve when it comes to achievements are the ones you receive for literally doing what you are supposed to do. Congratulations, you just won a trophy for completing the introduction. Seriously? I didn't even do anything!? What are your thoughts about trophies that appear when you complete the game, but the final scene isn't finished?

@jackamomo: I have never bothered with them at all. They’re a joke, playing a video game an achievement? It’s just a game to pass the time!

With next gen coming up I’ve been wondering what will happen with achievements. They went a little overboard with them. All you really need is one completion achievement per game with maybe % on it or something. Not 50 for a single game. There are so many they’ve become meaningless. It really needs to be reimagined and refreshed for the next gen.

Yes, if the achievements are reasonable and I like the game, they act something like a guide to experience everything the game has to offer.

Imo they absolutely do, I think the experience is a lot better and it helps keep track of the progress in games.

It depends. When you put achievements in stuff that you would normally do while playing like sp Tomb Raider or even worse, broken sword 5, then it's crap. When you are forcing every combination of gameplay possible then it's crap, like Civ games, where you are asked to play with every single Civ in every single map size and difficulty, so there are 50 civs*10 sizes*10 difficulties, so 5000 achievements are fucking crap.

Now when achievements are true to the word, like kill 3 in a row with sniper or you have found this specific stuff to do that's not mandatory, like the different secret little rooms in Portal, or all the radios and cameras in portal, or win the race in hl2, then they are more than fine.

Trophies definitely add to the gameplay experience for me. On PS4, I bought the HD remaster of some old favorites: Twisted Metal Black, Cel Damage and GTA3. I've been playing these games for decades now, and in addition to having them now in HD, trophies are a very welcome addition. Trophies add extra challenge to the games, which makes them more challenging and I get more "bang for my buck". It's fun to have the added challenge of unlocking trophies, even if it's an old game you've played already. Sometimes I learn things about the games I didn't previously know!

Achievements, for me, is just more ways to play the game and gives the game more life. Not all achievements in a game have a real need for. For example getting an achievement for your first kill???? 🙄

Holishit people bump this thread all these years and its still not locked. Could be the new lounge.

Some are fun to unlock after you finished the game. Your first playthrough you are probably focusing on the story and not looking to get trophies but after finishing the game it can be fun going back and collecting some.

Not at all for me I play games for the gameplay achievements and trophies are just a nice extra. I never play a game solely for the achievements.