Why do people care about Achievements/Trophies?

Seriously, why do people care how many they have? In my opinion there meant to reward players for doing things. Problem is, people have abused them by playing FOR them instead of playing and getting them. 
 
Example 1: Guy plays uncharted on crushing and get the trophy. His friends see like damn you beat it on crushing. Nice
 
Example 2: guy looks at what he had to do to get the trophy,  and get the game just for that and brags about it.
 
What did the guy in example 2 prove? That he has no life and thinks trophies make him cooler than anyone else, when he didn't really play the game for enjoyment. 
 
I hate trophies/achievements, i think they have ruined gaming, people are just play games for them and then drop them. If a game comes out for cheap with easy achievements. People will buy it, which tells developers, all you have to do its make cool achievements. More and more people don't even care how the game plays anymore they just care about what they have to do for them.
 
How do you guys feel about it?

The way I have always felt, is that it makes you feel like you are achieving something and not just playing the game to play it.  It gives you something to shoot for
 
EDIT: why is it that when people get achievements they seem to have "No life"?

You're right, too many people care too much about achievements. But that's their fault for interpreting them that way, not the developers' fault for making them.
 
As for me,  I've always been a completionist (get or unlock almost all the stuff in a given game) so achievements are a standardized way of setting goals and proving that I did it, and that's great. I won't play bad games for achievements; I will sometimes do difficult tasks within the game, but that's the nature of the beast sometimes (I also speedran levels in Goldeneye and Perfect Dark for cheats, went knife/handgun only in RE4 for the heck of it, etc.)

I enjoy playing through a game the first time, and just randomly unlocking achievements. But for a game that has little replay value, achievements are a nice way to get the most out of a game. For example, the only reason I'm considering playing through DA:O for the third time is to finish up the list, otherwise I would've already sold it to EB Games.

I don't know why i like them so much i just do. Microsoft stumbled on something great when they created achievements. 

Too many people care too much about people caring too much about achievements/trophies.

It gives me an incentive to try/do more things than I would normally if I just played through the game.
 
Of course it also sates my sense of completionism, having a full 1000/1000 on a game makes me feel like I'm properly done with it.

It definetly would gives a game more replay value and an excuse to replay it over and over. I could be wrong, however I don't care about achievements at all.

they're a way of giving ppl incentives to replay the game. i think achievements are one of the best new things to gaming

Yup it's incentives that also capture the competitive spirit. It's also a great meta advertisement for games as achievements pop up on your friend's lists or whatever. It's really smart on the business side and kind of fun. It's like the same sort of busy work they put in games anyways like collecting things for a percentage of completion. This just makes it more universal for better e-penis waggering.

They're fun to get.

Achievements are life.

I understand why you wouldn't like it, and you really are right, but there is just something about them. Idk for some reason I just love getting achievements.

Typically I get whatever I can get easily doing one playthrough (ie, not an incredible amount of effort), and then go back and get the rest on a second playthrough, so as to extend replayability.

 
I think this is why there is no replay value in games anymore. Once all achievements are reached people put the game away and bitch about how short it was.  If I get the achievement cool, if not I'm fine with it.

Because people are dumb and a lot care about pointless things? I dont know. I never care, I would say, but if an achivement just sounds cool in general or involves something that sounds cool or fun like that, I may go for it just because I want to. More than anything I think the score is dumb. Thats why achivements on steam dont bother me, and I will go after them moreso than I would on the 360 if its something I feel good about.

"  I think this is why there is no replay value in games anymore. Once all achievements are reached people put the game away and bitch about how short it was.  If I get the achievement cool, if not I'm fine with it. "

Because of achievements, I have 82 logged hours in Plants vs. Zombies, a 10 dollar game. 

" @LiquidSwords said:

"  I think this is why there is no replay value in games anymore. Once all achievements are reached people put the game away and bitch about how short it was.  If I get the achievement cool, if not I'm fine with it. "

this is the main problem, once people get them there done with the games and don't even care about how good the game was. Some people would play crap just for them and thats what ticks me off.... "

I love achievements and trophies and anything of the sort. It is like a journal that I don't actually have to put any time into. I can look back and see that I beat this game on a certain day, or that I got this achievement with a friend on this day. It also extends the life of many games for me, that normally when complete I would be done with.

They're awesome and they help sell games. Who cares. 
 
Anyways, for me, it's not about how many points/trophies I have, it's about which ones I have.

" @DuhQbnSiLo said:

" @LiquidSwords said:

"  I think this is why there is no replay value in games anymore. Once all achievements are reached people put the game away and bitch about how short it was.  If I get the achievement cool, if not I'm fine with it. "

this is the main problem, once people get them there done with the games and don't even care about how good the game was. Some people would play crap just for them and thats what ticks me off.... "

What are you talking about ? If anything, the re-playability of games has increased dramatically over the last few years. There are more branching storylines and open-world decisions to be made now than ever before and its not just in RPGs anymore. Infact, most of the people I know go back and replay their favorite games again because they enjoyed the whole experience so much, and its not for the achievements either.  I think its only the younger generation of gamers who grew up with the achievement bug that might think that way. It stems from the failure to realize that achievements are not a way to justify your gaming time. Games are entertainment and don't carry any tangible value. If you're not having fun with it, stop playing and pick up something else. "

I like them WAY better when they also unlock something within the game. Give me anything I can use in the game along with the achievement and 99.9% of the time I'll go for it. I rarely go for an achievement solely for the achievement unless I'm in love with the game itself and love playing it repeatedly.
 
Hi Super Stardust HD!

It feels like it gives extra gameplay to the game. Its nice to have some extra goals to play towards. I don't really get the hate for Achievements, if you don't care about them just don't pay attention to them and play the game the way you would play the game if it was on a last gen game system.  I don't know if people are just buying games for easy achievements, but I do think people are getting better at games because there is more rewards to trying to do certain things in a game now.   
 
Have you ever played Sonic on the genesis?? Did you really care about getting all the Chaos Emeralds?? I found that they slowed down the game and I didn't really care about the reward so most of the time I just skipped the bonus stages. If there was a reward I might have tried a little bit harder to get all of them. You know bragging rights, just to say you did it. Sure you don't have to care about bragging rights but every once in a while its nice to be able to say you did something that not every gamer is doing. And I don't think there taking a way from the game, if anything there bringing more towards the game.

Why do people care about leveling up their characters in games? Or scoring points in pinball? Or collecting comic books? Or building the best stereo system out there?
 
The real question is, why are so many achievements so trivial and stupid? Beating a game or leveling up or having a great K:D ratio is one thing. But what's there to be proud of that you wasted an entire weekend hunting for fucking 500 flags in Assassin's Creed or fucking orbs in Crackdown?!

They add little mini goals that you usually might not have the incentive to do.

Pfft, only the people who have a small GS say that size doesn't matter.

I like them at least because they offer incentive and challenge to some games, that I may not have tried otherwise. However I do not play games just for their achievements.

" @DuhQbnSiLo: Dude, its fine to say that the new brand of games don't appeal to you personally but you can't objectify your opinion like its fact.I want you to explain how older games are "flat out fun to play" but the more recent titles are not ? What exactly has changed and taken the fun out of these games ? Why is Halo a sad example when games that didn't age well at all like Goldeneye are considered great classics ? You made a lot of bold statements there without any reasoning to back it up. If you think a lack of multiplayer is a good thing, then I'm sorry for you. Online multiplayer is the best thing thats happened to games since possibly 3D. Its the main reason why gaming is starting to gain some mainstream appeal. Social interaction is central to human nature and finally we have games that take advantage of that fact. "

It's all neurochemistry, man.  Dopamine is a mood elevator that is released through the reward center of the brain.  Getting an achievement/trophy releases dopamine.  Interesting enough, dopamine is also one of the chemical causes of addiction to hard drugs.

"They're fun to get. "

I kind of like them, since I can look at them once in a while and see how far some friends have gotten in games, and see if they've finished it yet. Actual rankings or number, though? I really don't care.

" @Killjoy:@Killjoy said:

" @DuhQbnSiLo said:

" @LiquidSwords said:

"  I think this is why there is no replay value in games anymore. Once all achievements are reached people put the game away and bitch about how short it was.  If I get the achievement cool, if not I'm fine with it. "

this is the main problem, once people get them there done with the games and don't even care about how good the game was. Some people would play crap just for them and thats what ticks me off.... "

What are you talking about ? If anything, the re-playability of games has increased dramatically over the last few years. There are more branching storylines and open-world decisions to be made now than ever before and its not just in RPGs anymore. Infact, most of the people I know go back and replay their favorite games again because they enjoyed the whole experience so much, and its not for the achievements either.  I think its only the younger generation of gamers who grew up with the achievement bug that might think that way. It stems from the failure to realize that achievements are not a way to justify your gaming time. Games are entertainment and don't carry any tangible value. If you're not having fun with it, stop playing and pick up something else. "

no its not the younger generation because they don't have the funding to buy all those games, I'm talking people who just play for achievements/trophies. And what current-gen is classic, other than uncharted and double agent I don't think any of these will be touched when the next generation of consoles comes. People still play PS2 games because they were great. and flat out fun to play. Current games are useless once you beat them.   I remember the old days when even non-gamers played the classics! There are no classics now thanks to achievements/trophies. I miss playing games just for fun, and I'm afraid that isn't in current games anymore. Me and my friend, a die-hard gamer, were talking about. I understand we got old but , you ever talked  to the current generation of gamers coming up. They have no classics, Halo is the biggest them to them and thats pretty sad. I guess you can also blame multiplater too. But games have been ruined and the good old days of FUn are over. Competition has driving it away and I don't see it coming back.   Its why at first I liked the Wii, it had no multiplayer and it was an example of what gaming used to be. But now even Nintendo has been forced to go online and reward people for playing games? Like before trophies came out people used to buy the 360 copies just for achievements(I worked at gamestop for well over a year and saw it day to day). What happen to plain old self-satisfaction? "

From an adults perspective... here are some of the reasons I enjoy trophies/achievements: 
 

• Sense of accomplishment. At work things are never just done and put away, when I complete a game and get the trophies I feel like it is *done*! and I can put it away if want. 
• They provide a record of the things I have done in gaming. It's rewarding to look back at my trophies and remember the fun I had getting certain ones. 
• Friendly competition with friends over who can get/do what.
• They provide incentive to more fully play a game and therefore getting your money's worth out of it if you like it.
• They are a nice added surprise to get when your not trying to get them.
• The ding noise. :)

Sounds like someone is bitter.

I never understood the need people seem to have for them. 
But as someone who is kinda addicted to gaming, I can see how someone can be addicted to playing through games to get achivements/trophies without enjoying the game itself. 
  
What is mindblowing to me is that I haven't gotten any platinum trophies at all. 
And I never went for any trophies in games, most of the games I own just throw them at me like "Oh you moved, trophy, you moved again, another trophy" 
And since I have a lot of games I now have over 1000 trophies for somer reason o.O 
 
And as someone who doesn't try to get trophies at all, I would really like to see what a Trophy Whores trophies would look like. 
It has to be in the 50k range or else I'm not gonna be impressed :P

how do you NOT care about them

Well, it's lame (IMO) to play crappy games just to rack up trophy points. I never buy games just to bump my score, I think that's really lame, and to rent a game that you don't even enjoy just to boost a gamer score? Well, that's basically gaming the system, it debases the meaning of the achievements if you're only playing for them.
 
On the other hand, if I buy a game, you can be damn sure I'm going to go for as many of them as I can. Not only is it a nice feeling of accomplishment when you get one that you didn't know existed, but it's also extremely fun to do things in the game that you'd never think to try unless there was a trophy for it, like in GTAIV for rolling your car over 5x or geting 10 melee counters in 4 minutes. It can even lead to some chill things that you just shold experience, again using GTAIV like taking all of the helicopter tours and listening to the pilot's banter as you take in the virtual sights. It's just a part of the game's overall experience.

" Pfft, only the people who have a small GS say that size doesn't matter. "

It makes me play the game more than I usually would.