Do Achievements & Trophies affect your gameplay?

Meaning, does your interest in a game depend mostly on whether or not there are achievements and trophies to earn?

I'll admit, since the 360 and PS3/Vita were introduced it does make it a lot more appealing for me to play games. Maybe it's just something to show off to those on my "friends list", but if a game is void of any achievements or trophies, or if I've obtained them all I do lose interest in wanting to play it anymore. This is true especially of PS1/Mini games on the Vita. I won't even play them since there's no trophies to get. Seems stupid, I know. I'm probably missing out on a lot of great games by feeling this way. I guess PC games would be out of the question for me then too.

Anyone else feel the way I do?

Steam has achievements now for PC gaming.

I like getting achievements, and it gives me things to be aware of while playing that I might otherwise ignore, but I'm definitely not a completionist. My neighbor, on the other hand, tries to get every achievement in his games so I guess it adds a lot more play time for him.

Steam is smart. It definitely adds replay value to a game.

Leaderboards will keep me coming back too. Depends on the type of game, really.

I'm the same way. I like a visual representation of my gaming experiences. It also gives me more incentive to replay a game, play it on the harder difficulties and explore and do everything.

I find it really hard to play a game I've already gotten all the achievements for. It almost feels pointless unless it's a mp.

This is where I'm at so far. This is my second gamertag. My first had roughly 7k gamerscore.

http://www.trueachievements.com/b0wchickawowwow.htm

Not even Alittle. I don't even need Achievements to Challenge myself.

This one Time in Portal 2, I wondered if it was possible to place a cube on a button without Touching it, I eventually did it, and Bam ! I got an achievement for it, I didn't even know there was one. :D

I also solved one of the co-op Puzzles by myself... Just to see if it was possible, there was no achievement for it. I did it anyway because it was fun.

I've been noticing a trend lately, people have become rather complacent, nobody does stuff anything just to do it. They always want some kind of incentive or a reward. And in Rare cases, they want to be forced to do it instead of it being optional.

Video Games are suppose to be fun.... But Lately people are treating them like chores, I'm still trying to pin point when this all started and why its happening.

@Lulu_Lulu: PSN and XBL's social maneuver,I don't pay attention to either one of them as well,because what exact logic would be in the middle? To show off..I think so. Remember the days of N64,SNES,NES,Gamecube,GBA,PSX/2,Xbox,or other retro consoles?Those are the real fun,now it's tarnished by this unnecessariness

@Lulu_Lulu: It's all about the rewards. People will grind and do crazy stuff for rewards. RPGs are a good example. Sit there and grind something so repetitive just to maximize your skill and whatnot. I don't think it's anything new. It's just how we're wired. We crave rewards and will do silly things to achieve said rewards.

@ Smashbrossive50

I think trophies and Achievements and Bragging rights in general are a controllable evil, kinda like Alcohol. For me the biggest issue lately is what developers have been doing, they make games with mediocre gameplay and use rewards to make it seem as if it was more than mediocre, the rewards can be anything from story (Final Fantasy) to in game figurines (President Evil 5 and 6) . Theres an extremely thin line Between Fun and Rewards and gamers and developers alike are playing fast and loose with it, so much so they can't tell a good game from a bad game with exciting rewards. Fun is Dying mr. Brossive, and I wana know why :( !

@ SoNin360

Exactly !

I call it the Virtual SkinnerBox. You know why I don't like it ? Because fun is not a requirement for this process to be successfull. All you need is to get them hooked on the 1st try and the rest is easy. You can't get people to keep playing even when they don't want to anymore.

I wonder then if they removed achievements/trophies altogether, if a lot of people would lose interest and abandon console gaming for good?I've gamed with people that are hardcore achievement whores and will game specifically to get as many as they can, even subjecting themselves to titles they wouldn't normally play just because there's a few easy achievements up for grabs. Those people are a little extreme - working up their gaming rep to have the highest overall score possible. But, I guess that's their idea of "fun". People play for all sorts of reasons.

^100% not sure that abandoning these icings on the cake could impact the real fun,but I do have a feel that you don't have to stick with it for a long time,you can still play the game like the time before all of these ever happen. Achievements/trophies are there as a diversion,nothing more or less

They're great when they show you other ways to play a game or easter eggs or optional segments of a story.

That's the whole point,I'm aware in the social experiment's result of some games which hid these on certain occasions. To the topic's question: nope..and never will,it's not that hard to differentiate between a game that uses it to the one that doesn't

While I do love achievements/trophies I won't play a game that I'm not interested in to get them nor will I not play a game just because it doesn't have them. However I do miss them when they aren't there.

Back when I first got my Xbox 360, achievements were the only thing I cared about and I also attempted to get over 1000 gamerscore in every game that allowed it. (You can get 1000 gamerscore by buying DLC that has achievements)

By those days are long gone, when I got my PS3, I didn't care at all about the trophies because I had already had my achievement fix in the past.

So nowadays, I couldn't care less about achievements.

It is still a cool/great concept though.

They are just "there" for me. Im not a trophy hunter but its cool to have them pop up when you achieve something. It gives you a sense of accomplishment I guess and you can look back and see what you have achieved.

The only time I pay attention to achievements is for the challenge in games I really like. Like in NiGHTS, for example, there was one for beating the first boss in one para-loop (which was something I never knew you could do), and I thought it'd be fun to try and get. With that said, I'm never going to buy or play a game for achievements alone. That's just stupid.

Trophies/Achievements are a nice way of building a reputation or showing your gaming history, but I certainly don't play a game to earn them. It's just a bonus.

Not at all, I play the game they way I want. If I happen to get an achievement in the process, then it's just a bonus.

Sadly, yes. I'm a slave to those stupid and pointless things.

Hey I have a new lead ! :D

its Called Gamification.

www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AndrzejMarczewski/20140422/215939/Gamification_Design_vs_Game_Design.php

I notice this is simular to what we're talking about here. Lets get on it.

i play through the story mode the same way, but after the main story is done, i might do some trophy hunting

Okay.... So I followed up on that lead..... And I have a couple theories, namely.... To gauge the Quality of a game or the loyalty of a gamer, don't get rid of Achievements and Trophies.... Simply make all of them Secret Achievements. this should effectively cut down the number of achievement hunters drastically but shouldn't affect casual a achievement enthusiasts, infact they may truly and actually feel like they've achieved something if its a surprize. It might also stop developers from implimenting ridiculous achievements like "kill 2 billion people in team death match" or "collect an infinite number of collectables". If the developers can't bait you into repeating a mundane task over and over again then they might aswell drop the feature or find ways of actually making it much more fun to do for longer periods. So... Did I fix it...... ?

They never used to influence my gaming but now I try to get as many of them as I can, and actually think they add to the games longevity. If I really love a game and have finished it, I can then go back and try and get the achievements. Having said that I have yet to get all the achievements in one game. :)

And another thing. If you're wondering how achievements are going to evolve in the future then I have pretty good Idea how its gona happen.

They are going to Fracture the Achievements into Mile Stones. If you've played Gears Of War 3 then you're already familar with the concept. In Gears 3 theres medals... And almost every medal is divided by 3 Miles Stones (Bronze, Silver, Then Gold) before you can claim the full Medal (Onyx). Lets say theres a medal for for Headshots (actually there is medal for that in Gears 3) you reach the Bronze Mile Stone by nailing 50 head shots, the Silver Mile Stone at 200, The Gold at 500 and the Onyx at 1000 headshots, granting you the title of "lobotomizer". Thats just for one single medal.

And believe me, its more effective than the standard achievements and Trophies.

See, the achievements the way they are now lack proper progession, theres no mini-victories that push you to keep trying so if the task is too demanding or absurd you will most likely lose interest, but if they divided it into milestones they can keep you hooked for longer and ever so slightly raise the absurdity of the task. If you've played RPGs then you already know what its like and how well level up mechanics work if done right.

I pretty much guarentee this will be the next step for achievements, if Sony and Microsoft can just alter the the Console's coding ever so slightly then developers will get right on it. Infact I'm surprized that hasn't happened already... They wasted all their time on graphics... Morons ! This is the real cash cow ! :D this is another reason why I belien 8th Gen is feels so premature.

Not at all. Most trophies are nothing more than data mining, bragging rights for things you would accomplish through normal gameplay anyway. Sure they add replay value for platinum seekers but they force you to play the game in an unnatural way. I'd rather play the way I want.

I mentioned data mining because I'm sure devs use trophy statistics to determine how to make better games and what portions of a game interest players the most.

Assassin's Creed is a good example of how in-game trophies can be annoying in a 'Simon says' kind of way. Ever since Brotherhood, Ubi thought it would be fun to force you to play the way they want you to play in order to unlock certain bonuses which I think is bullshit.

@ HipHopBeats

I definately agree about Data Mining... But developers aren't using it to make games better. Let me see if I can articulate it properly: just because they are no longer using it make games better does not correlate to the games not ending up being better. Developers are now designing video games not to have fun but to fufill a certain objective, which could be anything from the obvious point of making more money to getting players to play the game for longer. Once they have that Object... They design every single aspect of the game around that objective, and I mean everything, from the Achievements down to the game's Mechanics. Everything is desined towards making that objective easier to achieve, anything that doesn't contribute to that objective or is against that objective is treated as a barrier that must be removed.

But this doesn't mean a game won't be more fun.... It just means that if it is.... It was either a secondary objective or completely coincidental.

MMO's mastered this along time ago... Zynga is also applied this a while back and I've also seen it in some mobile gaming. But my biggest concern is that its already seeped into the types of games we play and we just haven't noticed.

Oh , simulation games are not part of this phenomenom, even though they coinside with what I mentioned before.

I also think its the other way around. Devs are not using data mining to find out what players find interesting. I think they're applying that data differently now. Their using it to ever so slightly manipulate your behavior.

I don't give a gosh darn about achievements!! Sorry to use such foul language but it makes me mad lol if I unknowingly get one cool if I get points just for cool gameplay or for completing a level that's cool, but I don't care enough about them to jump through burning hoops naked with my eyes closed to get them figuratively speaking of course. That is all

@ Ariabed

You'l find Achievements like that in games with a Multiplayer component. Requiring you to do a repititive task since multiplayer is a reptitive endeavor.

Beware of The "OverJustification Effect" ! This is when the motivation for doing a certain task no longer exceeds the Reward for completing said task. Theres a breaking point where you'l just say "screw it, it was worhtless anyway"