I dont understand certain people...

Achievements are a pretty nice idea, cause everyone like to be challenged.
But what I dont understand is the achievement 360 overall score or steam overall score(dont know if steam has an overall score although Im using steam alot... see how little I care for it ?)...
 
People ask questions about if a game has GFWL or Steam achievements cause they are afraid that the points wont get added to their 360 overall points.
 
 
Do you get any awesome rewards for having alot points or why are people so eager to get a high achievement score? Are these little pre-teens who wanna show off with their 360 score or am I missing something crucial about the awesomeness of achievements?

Numbers going up pushes people's happy button.  
Seeing their number is bigger than someone else's pushes people's happy button. 
That's about it. And I love achievements.

I don't see the point in buying a game only for the points, but I don't see them as a bad thing. They add more value to the game if you ask me.

" Numbers going up pushes people's happy button.  Seeing their number is bigger than someone else's pushes people's happy button. That's about it. And I love achievements. "

I hear ya. I don't get it either.

" I don't see the point in buying a game only for the points, but I don't see them as a bad thing. They add more value to the game if you ask me. "

I think it's just the feeling of Achievement. It makes the games re-playable to see your score rising, and when you S-Rank a game you actually feel great. :)

" Numbers going up pushes people's happy button.  Seeing their number is bigger than someone else's pushes people's happy button. That's about it. And I love achievements. "

it's just pretty much saying my E-penis is bigger than yours. i don't get achievements either. i get them but still.

I like looking back at all the games that I played and how well I did with them. My PS3 died a while back and I lost all the save data I had on it but I still had the trophies because they're stored online. Achievements are a good way of solidifying your progress through games.

What I don't get is people who say they don't really care about achievements making threads about them....

" @supermike6 said:

" Numbers going up pushes people's happy button.  Seeing their number is bigger than someone else's pushes people's happy button. That's about it. And I love achievements. "

on the contrary, having a job and loads of work makes me NOT want to waste time getting some stupid "kill 1000 bear babies" achievement my other friend has. "

It is apparent that the people who don't "get achievements" were likely born later than the ones who do. Likely, they've never played arcade games in an arcade setting. What was the point of having the highest Pac-Man score? What was the point of being the best Street Fighter 2 player and having your initials on the top list? 
 
The point is fun. Achievements have taken the old arcade concept of having a tangible score to the next level. If someone thinks it is enjoyable to have an overarching metascore for their gaming life, why do you feel the need to shit on it? I myself have a hard time picking out PS3 games to buy because I will get no points and trophies are a half ass attempt at what MS did right. Why do I even care? I like the points and think they make gaming even more fun. They give an enjoyable medium new possibilities. When I finish a game, there is replay value in achievements. How does my gamerscore affect your life?  
 
Obviously it does not.

" @supermike6 said:

" Numbers going up pushes people's happy button.  Seeing their number is bigger than someone else's pushes people's happy button. That's about it. And I love achievements. "

 But why? Are there any rewards for having high numbers or why is it happy making to have a high number?  So if there arent any rewards the numbers basically mean how much you spend on your gaming hobby and so people like knowing that they spend a lot of money/time on/with games? I mean Im not saying its bad to play a lot of games or own every game that gets released but why do I need to have a number that resembles this doing?  Im confused. "

" What I don't get is people who say they don't really care about achievements making threads about them.... "

" @FluxWaveZ:  Maybe you have to be a "I wanna get rich and famous and blablabla" human being to be able to enjoy the achievement point system.  "

" It is apparent that the people who don't "get achievements" were likely born later than the ones who do. Likely, they've never played arcade games in an arcade setting. What was the point of having the highest Pac-Man score? What was the point of being the best Street Fighter 2 player and having your initials on the top list?  The point is fun. Achievements have taken the old arcade concept of having a tangible score to the next level. If someone thinks it is enjoyable to have an overarching metascore for their gaming life, why do you feel the need to shit on it? I myself have a hard time picking out PS3 games to buy because I will get no points and trophies are a half ass attempt at what MS did right. Why do I even care? I like the points and think they make gaming even more fun. They give an enjoyable medium new possibilities. When I finish a game, there is replay value in achievements. How does my gamerscore affect your life?   Obviously it does not. "

" @hondorondo said:

" @FluxWaveZ:  Maybe you have to be a "I wanna get rich and famous and blablabla" human being to be able to enjoy the achievement point system.  "

Um... no.  I think you just have to be a human being who wants to strive for something. "

After arguing and debating on these forums about Achievements/Trophies I have come to a conclusion-
 
Just play games how you have always had.  If you see other people playing games that baffle you (such as playing Ice Age 3 or Hanah Montana just for the points/trophies) then that is just their way of having "fun".  If they have enough time in their life to spend it on increasing their e-penis then more power to them.
 
You just keep on doing what you are doing and don't worry about them.  Maybe later in their life they will look back and see that they might have been a fool for spending that much time on hunting down achievement/trophies.

  But the achievements doesnt reflect the actual skill of the player.. having the highest pac-man score says that you have awesome pac-man skills.. but having millions of xbox 360 achievements just say that you are spending a lot on games.   Its like gathering all the nuts in the forest (xbox overall points) dont say that you are the best nut opener.   Maybe its the same thing as collecting useless stuff... like stamps... never understood this either. "

I just like the sound. For the trophies and achievements. But seriously, real gamers can do without it. Maybe it's something to prove to the next chic they meet. 

I hate to admit that on the games I'm more competitive on, I care about the trophys. Mainly SF4, Pixeljunk Monsters and Demons Souls.

" @hondorondo said: 

  But the achievements doesnt reflect the actual skill of the player.. having the highest pac-man score says that you have awesome pac-man skills.. but having millions of xbox 360 achievements just say that you are spending a lot on games.   Its like gathering all the nuts in the forest (xbox overall points) dont say that you are the best nut opener.   Maybe its the same thing as collecting useless stuff... like stamps... never understood this either. "

Yes and no. Right and wrong. Some achievements are quite difficult. Collecting easy ones (a la the avatar game) is even lame to me. Mostly the competition in the case of achievements is more with yourself. "Can I do this?" It gives you a reason to play a game in a way you ordinarily wouldn't have sometimes.  "

No, there's no reward for getting more achievement points.  Nothing to unlock or anything. 
 
Look, you're over thinking it. It's just fun to get more points. There doesn't have to be a real reward. For some people it's a fun way to say "look how many games I've played", for others it's just a score that's fun to make go up. It's about as simple as it gets.

" @tranquilchaos said:

" @hondorondo said: 

  But the achievements doesnt reflect the actual skill of the player.. having the highest pac-man score says that you have awesome pac-man skills.. but having millions of xbox 360 achievements just say that you are spending a lot on games.   Its like gathering all the nuts in the forest (xbox overall points) dont say that you are the best nut opener.   Maybe its the same thing as collecting useless stuff... like stamps... never understood this either. "

Yes and no. Right and wrong. Some achievements are quite difficult. Collecting easy ones (a la the avatar game) is even lame to me. Mostly the competition in the case of achievements is more with yourself. "Can I do this?" It gives you a reason to play a game in a way you ordinarily wouldn't have sometimes.  "

  But the actual challenge has nothing to do with the overall score... Like I said.. I understand if you have a purpose and then are trying to hunt down it till you finished it and can move on to the next one. But what I dont understand is to collect points without any purpose.. Is there a overall xbox live achievement system where you unlock things with higher scores ?   "

" What I don't get is people who say they don't really care about achievements making threads about them.... "

I dont get them either, at first I thought achievement points on 360 was the same as MS points and it made alot of sense, being able to buy stuff from XBLA with your points you earned for completeing everything in games you bought, but when I found out they are used for nothing that logic became flawed. 
 
I mean points are not even used for anything in games either. Say if you had high points you might get some bonus costume in some game or something, that I could understand.

"Okay now I know that there is no purpose to the score and I now know that I understood that system right... thanks for the help! "

Tranquilchaos is right, hammering one button for 20 seconds to get 1000G on Avatar sucks. Working hard and putting effort into getting all 1250 points in Crackdown, or getting a Platinum trophy in Demon's Souls takes skill, time, effort and more, some are rewarding to achieve, others are e-peen fulfilling and most just pop up as you play. That's all there is to it.

When you get every achievement in a game, it gives you a sense of accomplishment and completion.  It lets you say to yourself, "Yeah.  I goddamn finished the shit out of this game.  I met every challenge that was thrown at me and now i can happily retire this game to my collection shelf."

" @hondorondo said:

"Okay now I know that there is no purpose to the score and I now know that I understood that system right... thanks for the help! "

I don't think you're listening. When you unlock achievements, you unlock achievements.
 
That's the purpose. The achievement system seems superficial, sure, but then again so much of everything else is, too. Why do you play video games? Does beating a video game get you a special coupon in the mail? No? Then video games are useless, right? "

" When you get every achievement in a game, it gives you a sense of accomplishment and completion.  It lets you say to yourself, "Yeah.  I goddamn finished the shit out of this game.  I met every challenge that was thrown at me and now i can happily retire this game to my collection shelf." "

" @100_Hertz said:

" When you get every achievement in a game, it gives you a sense of accomplishment and completion.  It lets you say to yourself, "Yeah.  I goddamn finished the shit out of this game.  I met every challenge that was thrown at me and now i can happily retire this game to my collection shelf." "

Here you are talking just about the achievements by itself and like I already said... I understand what makes a challenge interesting.  But you are not explaining the collection of a random sum of points called xbox 360 achievement points. "

@100_Hertz said:

" When you get every achievement in a game, it gives you a sense of accomplishment and completion.  It lets you say to yourself, "Yeah.  I goddamn finished the shit out of this game.  I met every challenge that was thrown at me and now i can happily retire this game to my collection shelf." "

Here you are talking just about the achievements by itself and like I already said... I understand what makes a challenge interesting.  But you are not explaining the collection of a random sum of points called xbox 360 achievement points. "

Getting to the end of a game is enough sense of achievement to satisfy me. 

Oh yeah one more thing I'd like to add to this thread.... how sweet does it feel when you S rank one of your fav. games!!!! very sweet!

" Oh yeah one more thing I'd like to add to this thread.... how sweet does it feel when you S rank one of your fav. games!!!! very sweet! "

Why having the biggest achievement score is important is the same as to why some people want the fastest car or to jump the highest or really anything else that drives people.  I see people running in a competition and think to myself that is the dumbest thing anybody could ever do with their time but thousands of people do it all the time.   I guarantee whatever you enjoy doing there are people somewhere that think it is stupid to care about it but as long as you enjoy it then there is nothing wrong with it.

" Why having the biggest achievement score is important is the same as to why some people want the fastest car or to jump the highest or really anything else that drives people.  I see people running in a competition and think to myself that is the dumbest thing anybody could ever do with their time but thousands of people do it all the time.   I guarantee whatever you enjoy doing there are people somewhere that think it is stupid to care about it but as long as you enjoy it then there is nothing wrong with it. "

" It is apparent that the people who don't "get achievements" were likely born later than the ones who do. Likely, they've never played arcade games in an arcade setting. What was the point of having the highest Pac-Man score?"

The same reason someone would complete a game 100%, because they like having the number there to represent what they've done.

It's the same reason you used to feel good when you used to get stickers on assignments you did well on in elementary school. Utterly useless but still coveted and proud of how awesome you are.
 
Note: high achievement scores does not accurately represent how awesome you are, and in many cases shows just how lame you are.

" It's the same reason you used to feel good when you used to get stickers on assignments you did well on in elementary school. Utterly useless but still coveted and proud of how awesome you are.  Note: high achievement scores does not accurately represent how awesome you are, and in many cases shows just how lame you are. "
 

" What I don't get is people who say they don't really care about achievements making threads about them.... "