I Hate What Achievements Have Become
This column is a reprint from Unwinnable Monthly #195. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe and get all future magazines for half price.
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Here’s the Thing is where Rob dumps his random thoughts and strong opinions on all manner of nerdy subjects – from videogames and movies to board games and toys.
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It feels like those little incorporeal badges that indicate we did a particular thing in a videogame are everywhere, and they kind of are. Even when a platform doesn’t typically support account-based achievements (like the Switch), there are still plenty of games that provide them. They’re ultimately insubstantial and meaningless – literally just a digital badge on a digital checklist – but there are plenty of arguments to be made in support of their inclusion. Here’s the thing, though: What achievements have become over the years? Not a fan. Not a fan at all.
To be as clear as possible, because I don’t want anybody to misinterpret this as me hating achievements in general or advocating for their removal: I do see the value they can provide. Stuff like guiding players towards excuses to keep playing even after finishing a game, eking out fun tasks that might be outside of the typical gameplay loop and so on. What I take issue with is how some players view them as an absolute necessity. Like “the game is lesser without them” nonsense.
Pointing out the (imo depressing) subset of players who primarily care about attaining achievements, to the point that they don’t really engage with the games they’re playing beyond the superficial, is probably the easiest way to make this argument. It’s the gaming-as-a-concept equivalent of the kind of fun-dissolving min/max-ing that always annoyed me in discussions surrounding games like Diablo II and even tabletop RPGs. Particularly in how it would often bleed into the misguided (a.k.a. incorrect) idea that anyone who wasn’t maximizing their in-game efficiency was playing the game wrong.
Of course, the flip side to my gripe is that it’s just as acceptable for someone to play a game while focusing on “number go up” instead of the characters, story or overarching themes as it is for someone to play for those non-numerical elements. And that’s totally fair! It’s just that sometimes that numbers first ideal can feel like it’s being forced onto people who don’t want or like it in their games.
At best it makes me sad when I see someone that’s unable to enjoy a game on its own merits without the need for validation via the videogame equivalent of a gold star sticker.
Does the practice of developers making “nothing” games purely as quick achievement hits make things worse? I dunno, but it definitely doesn’t help. And again, it makes me very sad.
Looking back to the before times, there are loads of videogames that predate achievements and had zero problem becoming fan favorites or beloved pop culture icons. It wasn’t necessary to consult a developer-provided suggestion sheet in order to have fun back then, and it still isn’t now. Sometimes people would come up with their own challenges, even! Super Metroid isn’t suddenly less-than because it didn’t have achievements, is what I’m getting at.
Sometimes in-game achievements do serve a purpose (outside of the Gaming meta, I mean) – like when you can unlock perks or cosmetics or whatever by doing certain things – and I’d be lying if I said stuff like that didn’t entice me. But again, it comes back to the idea of necessity. Or the perception of it, anyway.
There is not and never will be anything wrong with getting enjoyment from achievements, or using them as a reason to stick with a game you enjoy beyond that first playthrough. But for the love of [insert deity here], don’t let their inclusion or lack thereof determine a game’s overall value for you. Videogames and our experiences playing them are worth so much more than a split-second “ding” and a pop-up badge.
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Rob Rich is a guy who’s loved nerdy stuff since the 80s, from videogames to Anime to Godzilla to Power Rangers toys to Transformers, and has had the good fortune of being able to write about them all. He’s also editor for the Games section of Exploits! You can still find him on Bluesky and Mastodon.
