Achievements (and the fact that new weapons are unlocked by achievements) rendered TF2 almost unplayable for a couple of days, and has left the Medic as the class with generally the most critically low-quality players (where previously it was Engineer).

I love achievements that add a layer to a game. SO not the main story achievements most games have, but the quirky side stuff that gives me a bunch of stuff to do, like Dead Rising.

My favorite thing still achievement-wise is that I have 54 hours on blue dragon and like 30 achievement points.

Achievements if done correctly are great. The biggest failing is the number will be nothing more then a e-penis thing because the one attempt by Microsoft to give rewards on it seems to have ended up a aborted effort.

Achievements done wrong can cripple a game or be so easy as to be pointless.

I love the pop up on the 360 going Achievement unlocked! lol so addictive.

I love how we gamers take ourselves seriously.

@TechnoDestructo:
I'll agree to that.
No heals when you call medic
to half of the team.

Achievements can be awesome, when they are quirky i.e.

Orange Box

Submissive
Put the can in the trash.

Defiant
Hit the trashcan cop with the can.

Flushed
Kill an enemy with a toilet.

Targetted Advertising
Pin a soldier to the billboard in chapter Highway 17.

OSHA Violation
Kill 3 enemies using the crane.

Terrible achievements include:

Any beat this level/game on easy,medium,hard.

Win # of Ranked games.

Kill # of enemies in a ranked match.

Find all pigeons, flags, weapons etc.

Be #1 ranked player in the world.

Beat the game again as another player.

@Foxstar Sixtail:
Yeah, I was part of the XBOX Live Rewards program...that lasted, what, a month? Two months, tops? Total waste of time.

At least I got a free copy of Contra out of it...I guess...

Personally, I think achievements are kinda silly. I don't need a game telling me how to be creative for playing it. Instead of rewarding me with a "blink" sound effect, and an arbitrary number, the games should be rewarding me with actual playable in-game content. Very few games on 360 seem to do this, and I don't know why.

In fact, Dead Rising is pretty much the only game where the achievements unlocked actual in-game stuff that mattered...at least, that I can think of.

If achievements were tied into something else other than bragging rights,it would be great.That's why I'm looking forward to Sony to doing something different with accomplishments.I have 6775 in achievements points,and it really doesn't get me anything other than some competition with my friends(which they all beat me!)

@enewtabie: then you should of course buy more games, or pay a neighborhood kid to get some for you(a la penny arcade).

A conversation I have far too often:

Friend: I have 500 gamer points already from Game X! I'm up to 7300 gamerpoints!

Me: Did you catch that funny side mission where Main Character falls into a sewer?

Friend: No. Is there an achievement for that?

Me: No, it was just funny.

Friend: Well, maybe I'll check it out once I finish getting the points.

I don't even bother checking game achievements before I start playing, its a little pleasure to get one without expecting it like when I got that one in GTA IV for doing a huge wheelie!
its a surprising pleasure but of course slighty perverse as I don't care about gamerscores
@Archaotic: Lost planet was absolutly bollox for that, what did you get for collecting all those secret coins? achievements, no extras at all, no nothing, even worse in the PS3 version they couldn't have been bothered any anything in for getting all the coins so the coins basically did nothing

@Archaotic:The Rewards program made me sad because it's the only attempt, I wager that you'll see Microsoft make on it till the next system.

As for unlocking stuff, I agree that Dead Rising and a few others have been the only ones to do it well.

@excel_excel:
Exactly. Developers are getting lazy and making the achievement the prize rather than making the achievement the unlock condition for a prize.

Then again, apparently the vast majority 360 fanboys could care less...bleh. I'm still utterly dumbfounded by the people who cite achievements as their key selling point for the 360 version of multiplatform games. Are they that shallow?

I rather like Achievements.

Personally, I could do away with points and gamerscore. But the achievements are nice.

For example, I like going to my friends games and going 'neat, they beat such and such a game, or managed to do this thing'.

This is why I really enjoy when the achievements get creative. Bioshock and Dead Rising are probably the best examples of this.

Plus, I've noticed I tend to keep my attention span to a title for longer now, if only for the achivements. I'll beat it, than rather put it down and never touch it again, try for some of the trickier things to do in the game. Beat GTA IV on tuesday, and I've been trying to do that stupid five car roll thing since then.

The points just mean people end up renting Avatar, or playing through the horrid King Kong.

@Archaotic:

See, Dead Rising actually gave rewards for the achivements, which was neat. Zombie Genocider, one of the hardest ones to get, gave you the Megaman Mega Buster for use in game. A lot of the other achivements would unlock extra costumes, etc.

And the Bioshock ones, they just had those humorous little pictures beside them that were worth it alone. When I got the 'Irony' achivement, I giggled. Because the achievement was 'Secret' so I had no idea I was going to get it, and unless you looked at a faq (which I didnt) the method in which you get it was rather surprising and made me guffaw quite a bit.

@Grumps:
I play pretty much every game MS releases.;)

@Komrade_Kayce:
I know, dude, I mentioned that in my first post, heh. I'm one of the few people on this site who HAS Zombie Genocider. But the only reason I did that achievement was to get the Mega Buster. I could care less about the incremental score increase.

The problem is, Dead Rising is pretty much the ONLY game to do that.

I like Achievements when they tell me other ways to enjoy the game. To me, they are the vessel for the developer's voice saying, "This was the way we meant you to play it." That's when I think they work best.

...also, Mass Effect gives bonuses on the next playthrough for earned achievements. Bonuses include more experience, start out with different abilities, etc.

Achievements are the worst thing to happen to gaming in a long time. Less e-peening, please.

@Archaotic: I must get Dead Rising soon, but one thing that get me about achievements....you can't use them as your gamerpic, its absolutly ridiculous

well said, agreed about devs being lazy with them, achievements should be there as the extra reward not the reward, OR they should entice you into doing something cool or something you normally wouldn't do in a game, like exploding 10 cars in 10 seconds in GTA IV (sorry can't get enough of that bloody game!)

Great idea achievements, but id much rather developers use that time improving the game further. Am I the only one who sees time spent on developing achievements better spent elsewhere?

The achievements in Dead Rising certainly worked. The only other game I can think of where they were worthwhile is the original Condemned, where earning certain achievements unlocked police reports which delved further into the story prior to the beginning of the game.

Personally I think the majority of games featuring achievemnts,accomplishments,rewards or e-penis viagra suck at including them.

When their is an actual point or motivation to getting them,then i will bother.So far the only games which iv actually went out of my way to do this were Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank Future (and Resistance to a lesser extent).

Id probly place uncharted as the best for it,unlocking achievments would give you concept art,making of videos,cheats,new character models,filters (lol at nex gen filter,turning uncharteds beautifull colours nex gen brown).

Developers need to give me an actual reason to go after them,because a big number beside my name just doesnt cut it for me.

They can add to the replayability of a game.

Example: driving with the gnome in Half-life.

Yea Dead rising had fun achievements for the most part, except for transmissionary and crap, but fun stuff you wouldn't have thought of to try like, bowl a strike with zombies and stuff like that.

My Gamerscore is weak and every acheivement I unlock is accomplished purely by accident. Still, everytime I see that little green circle pop-up in the corner of my screen I get some Tiger-Woods-like-fist-pumping action going on like I meant to do it.

@Tom Clancy's Samuraidino:

I like the way you think..

I don't mind achievements, but would rather have it give me something in the game, not just some points that I don't care about.

They're alright, but I remember being kicked from some online games because I didn't have enough GamerPoints. I don't have my 360 anymore. I kind of miss the layer it added to games, but some of them were plain retarded. Like for just booting up a game you get an achievement; I felt like a fool. Like it was saying to me in a patronizing voice 'Well done, you're special.'

Single player achievements are great, but multiplayer achievements can ruin online play :( COD4 got it right.

@Tom Clancy's Samuraidino: I'm glad someone made this point. Thought it was kinda funny that the 'Achievement' system is touted as a console-seller, but most practical accomplishment-related goals are on the PlayStation 3 or PSP. (Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Resistance et cetera)

I would say I like achievements in games even though I have so many games where I only get a few of them done.

I think of it like this, if I enjoy the game I will get more re-play out of a game with achievements and if I dont like the game then Im not going to bother with getting them just for points.

I also agree with the Dead Rising comments. So much fun.

@Tom Clancy's Samuraidino: Good point actually. Who can forget Rachet & Clank's achievements, they unlock Big Head Mode!

I like the idea of achievements, but I hate the points. Causes people to buy shit like Avatar just to pad their score.

I despise online achievements, especially those that force gamers into playing a certain way (for those achievement whores)

I tend to like when a majority of gamerpoints can be obtained by playing through the story, plus some cool side tasks that require a little thought to get.

ahh achievements. theyve been around for many a generation, yet people never really made a fuss about them till the 360 came along. why? games of the past have been doing this and offered a lot of replayability

Achievements don't matter to me. I mean, sure, sometimes I'll do sometimes, but normally only if it's fun or funny. Like in Spider-Man 3, the achievement to ride cars around the city for either 5 or 10 miles. Other than the funny ones, I don't care at all. I play games for fun, not bragging rights. And before anyone says anything, if you find the bragging part fun, you're just a sad person.

@bigman88zz: Because you can prove you did something with the 360, some games did it too but eh, 360 just brought it to the public in a grander way.

Good achievements are simply those that add to the enjoyment of the game. Tying achievements to gamerscore was a silly idea though. Well, perhaps it's more that gamerscore is a silly idea outright. Achievements on their own can be a bit of fun, but I don't really see them as a big deal on the scale of things.

Achievements (could care less about achievement points) are all well and fine. I just wish MS would keep that stuff in the background -- I hate it when the little notice pops up during gameplay and tells you you've just achievement-ed something.

@2SBs:

Yeah, this is how I feel too. The exemplary achievement, IMO, is in Half-Life: Episode 2, when you have to shoot the gnome into space, simply because it's harder and more random than anything else, and you're rewarded for doing it.

Achievements for doing something that you can't finish the game without doing are pretty terrible, although insane feats like passing TTFAF on Expert in GHIII are worthy.

@I am ERROR: I know it works for notifications like friends online and messages recieved but I'm not sure about achievements.....you can turn off the sound to notices or the pop up all together in your profile preferences.

Now I going to look up the reason for "I am ERROR" in Zelda 2. Was is that guy's name or an error in programming?

As a big lover of multiplayer games, I have to say I am not a huge fan of acheivements. To some extent, they have really been a detriment to multiplayer. You always have people who are playing for acheivements, rather than trying to be an effective teammate; for example that guy who won't swap out his sniper for the SMG that he is carrying on his back when he has an enemy 15 ft in front of him because he is "going for his sniper acheivement."

achievements are so awsesome their the reason i actually bothered going back to replay a game.

they add a sense of accomplishment. and a fun way to track progress with other friends.

what you or they were able to do.

it challenges you to do things a certain way

love the Achievement unlocked logo

Said nicely Dakobah.
I agree, achievements help make a game more fun. A lot of games have a lot of content you wouldn't know about unless you looked at the achievements, so they are a good way to ensure players know when they have 'played it all'. It's nice to know that after you get all 1000gp, you can put down the game with satisfaction that you 'mastered' the game and that you played all that there is to be played.
I'll never forget my first major achievement, clearing Contra with 1 credit. It had me practicing for quite some time and it really felt great when I got it and that my friends noticed I got it without me needing to tell them.

I do agree that achievements in multiplayer are not so good though, just like robinandtami said above.

@SAKY: I can't be too sure either. My 360 died a few months ago, so now I'm waiting till Fall to upgrade to an Elite.

As for my name, it may have been a miss-translation, I'm not sure. I just think it sounds cool.