Game Achievements...Like them? Pursue them? Ever surprised by them? Proud of any?

[ZedClampet]

There was a weekend question on embarrassing achievements, and @Brian Boru has a topic on completionists going now, so I thought we could look at achievements a little more.

Like Them/Pursue Them?

I don't specifically try to get achievements, but I actually love looking at them and seeing what I did and how many other players did it too.

Proud of Them?

I looked up my rarest achievement on Steam so I could brag about it. It was called "Stay Frosty" (Warframe) and was completed by less than 1 percent of players, but then I looked it up and it was for falling for over 275 meters into a vat of coolant, so I'm not sure how proud of that I should be My other less than 1 percent achievement was for Super Mega Baseball 3 and was totally RNG luck. My next one, under 2 percent, was for Hunter: Call of the Wild, but I had self-modded the game so that there would be animals all over the place. My computer could barely run and I was getting about 3 frames per second, getting run over by animals, etc. But I had a mean kill streak...

I know I've been proud of an achievement before, but glancing through them just now, I didn't find anything particularly good.

Surprised by Them?

Sometimes it's shocking to me how few players play the games they buy and start when you get achievements like "Completed the Introduction!" and find out only 30 percent of players managed to do that. It's kind of interesting to track those kinds of achievements. By the time you get to Chapter 2, it's down to about 20 percent. But the numbers that surprised me the most were for Warframe, one of the most played games on Steam. Only about 4 percent of the players built a ship and only 2 percent had a pet Moa. What are the rest of you doing? Granted, those are kind of later in the game, but still...

 

[Brian Boru]

my rarest achievement on Steam

Where did you find that?

Like Them/Pursue Them?

No, as you can probably gather from the question above, I know very little about them.

 

[Ryzengang]

I like that achievements exist and they are good additions to games but I rarely care about them. If I am even considering achievement hunting then that's a sign that I really love the game. I don't think there are any achievements that I'm proud of but I suppose "surprised by" can happen. As you said I think it is interesting to see the percentage of players that have done something. For longer games, the completion rate is almost always under 50%.

 

[Pifanjr]

My rarest achievement is:

Pyramid Scheme
Playing as France, get the Louvre to the maximum theming bonus of 16.

I got it when my wife proposed a multiplayer Civilization V game where we each chose a couple of different achievements and see who could get the most. Only 1.1% of all players have it.

From the top 6 rarest achievements, three are from Civilization V, the other three are from some relatively unknown games.

I don't really care about hunting achievements. At most achievements can give a good suggestion for a challenge or a different way of playing a game I've already played a lot of.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I don't hunt them consciously, but I do enjoy a little endorphin rush whenever one pops off. If I'm playing a game through for a second time or more I'll check through the achievement list and hunt a few of them if they're reasonably gettable. I dont usually find fun in grinding for loot/gold or collectables so I don't go out of my way for those types.

Its does make me think twice about playing a game if I can't get any achievements. To this day I havent played Stellaris again because Steam seems to think my game is modded and disables achievements. It's done this over two full system rebuilds and multiple Windows installations, I have no idea why.

I only have 100% in The Walking Dead Season 2 and To the Moon. The only longer game (15+ hours) I have more than 70% is Dark Souls 3. It does annoy me a little when I've played a game and DLC comes out and knocks my % down. I kind of wish they kept the DLC's and base games separate.

Annoying Steam doesn't have a tool for looking at your achievements outside of the individual game list. I wonder why they haven't done it. Are you all using a third party app/site to track yours?

 

[ZedClampet]

Where did you find that?

It's one of those displays you can put on your profile.

 

[Johnway]

i think it boils down on how difficult or easy to get the achievements and how much i like the game and/or how long i've played a game. if its obtainable sure, just another box to tick and something tangible to determine i've played the game to completion.

if i like a game a lot i'll play the game to collect achievements (again depends on how difficult it is) if its to collect unlockables/story stuff then its something i'll probably work towards.

If i complete a game really quickly. I sometimes go back and play it to get achievements. Typically indie games.

No particular achievements standout as crowning achievements. maybe Duke nukem forever. I was so ashamed at getting that game i got all the achievements to justify getting it.

Typically i play between 50-85% of the achievements. RTS games and multiplayer based challenges are frequently ignored.

 

[Alm]

I do really like achievements. I tend not to go for 100% completion or anything like that but it's a nice thing to check now and again.

I think my favourite achievement was for a long distance snipe on Ghost Recon Wildlands on PS4. Playstation actually take a screenshot to go along side every achievement (at least on that game), which I like.

I might have had some good ones years back on FIFA on xbox but I'm not sure. Will check steam tomorrow.

 

[Zloth]

I like them, but I never really try to get 100%. I look at them more like suggested goals: some I'll take, some I won't. I'm definitely more likely to play on hard difficulty if there's an achievement for doing so, too.

I've got an achievement showcase on my Steam profile!

• Battletech: Bug Stomper for stepping on 50 vehicles. (I'm a programmer, so bug stomping is a big part of my life.)
• Dead or Alive 5: Say Cheese! for taking a photograph in game. (Because I like taking screenshots.)
• X Rebirth: Cartographer for Cold Star. (Because I made a mod to fix some pathing in Cold Star.)
• The Stanley Parable: 430 for knocking on door 430 five times. (Because it was such a funny achievement.)
• Saints Row 3: Your Backseat Smells Funny for doing all the escort missions. (Because it's the only game that ever did fun escort missions and because the name is funny.)
• Divinity Original Sin: Disciples of the Watch for... something, I don't remember what. (Because the achievement was made for RPGWatch, another forum that I hang around in a lot.)
• South Park Stick of Truth for farting on animals 25 times. (Because the look on the dogs face makes me laugh every time!)

If you want to see your rarest achievements, edit your Steam Profile and select the option to display your rarest achievements. (You can cancel when you're done if you don't want others to see. Must be Steam level 10 (?) to edit your profile.)

My rarest is AdBlock in X4: Foundations with only 0.4% of players getting it. (It's not a hard one, either.) Then Deadliest Catch in BattleTech, then Out of the Deep and Into the Stars for Gal Civ 3, then Cold Feet in X4: Foundations, then Professional Scavenger in BattleTech, then AdBlock again but in X:Rebirth, which is at 0.8% of players.

 

[Colif]

I have Trash Magnate, sell 50000 items in Torchlight 2, only .5% of players lasted that long. Only achievements I didn't get in that were related to Hardcore or Friends list, and 6 unknowns. And have 10 million gold was one I never quite managed.

I don't play games for achievements, but I have known people who do. Playing games after you long since liked playing it just to get an achievement is a waste of time to me

maybe need lvl 10 to access that option, I am only lvl 8. I don't see it.

 

[Brian Boru]

It's one of those displays you can put on your profile.

Ah, that's what the Edit Profile button is for!

Quickly followed by Featured Showcase section and the dropdown list—got it, thanks
"You've earned a slot for a showcase on your profile. Select one from the drop down menu."
Looks like I can only have one list at a time. OK.

Rarest Achievement Showcase

All 6 showing are from C&C Remastered:

Tiberian Historian 1%
"Unlock all Bonus Gallery content in Tiberian Dawn"

Red Alert Historian 1%
"Unlock all Bonus Gallery content in Red Alert"

Time is only a concept 2%
"Complete the Aftermath missions"

Cloak and Daggers 2%
"Complete all Covert Operations missions in Tiberian Dawn"

Electrotherapy 2%
"Complete the Counterstrike Missions"

Console Madness
"Complete all Spec Ops bonus missions in Tiberian Dawn"

So these are all from simply completing the games in the collection. Harrumph… I see I have 73% [24/33] of achievements. Looks like I could easily get that to 32/33, not going to do multi-player for the last.

Motivation: Apart from 2 for winning campaigns on Hardest, I don't see much to brag about there, so won't be high on my priority list. I was expecting more interesting stuff like "Win X mission without building any static defenses" or "Complete Y mission without armored units". Harrumph…

Okay, so how do I find the same info for another game? I looked at the Far Cry 5 game page in Steam console, and don't see anything about Achievements.

achievements can give a good suggestion for a challenge or a different way of playing a game I've already played a lot of

I could get on board with this. Apart from using mods, I always customize how I play, especially on replays. Eg I avoid the OP weapons like 'Rippers' and 'Shredders' etc, like to carry a bow, play without companions like GFH, etc.

 

[ZedClampet]

Okay, so how do I find the same info for another game? I looked at the Far Cry 5 game page in Steam console, and don't see anything about Achievements.

Don't look too hard in Far Cry. Ubisoft doesn't do achievements the same way. They sort of do them, and you get Uplay points (or whatever they are called), but they don't show up in Steam.

 

[Pifanjr]

I just checked and my highest achievement completion percentage is 67% for Skyrim.

 

[Zloth]

Playing games after you long since liked playing it just to get an achievement is a waste of time to me

Quite so! But sometimes games end while you're still having fun, and achievements can give you a little more to go after. When the campaign ended, I was still really enjoying BattleTech, so I went after the achievement for collecting one of every variant in the game.

 

[mainer]

I don't actively pursue them, like many others have stated, but I do like them (and like to see that little popup in the lower right hand corner when you get one in game), and I enjoy actually seeing what I do achieve. The ones I really like on Steam are the ones with the glowing gold border that show an achievement that very few players had gotten (I thinks it's under 10%?). But I'll never achieve a 100% for a game's available achievements, and I'll never replay a game to get them. I replay a lot of games because I love them, not to get the achievements I've missed.

Those I'm proudest of, I don't really have any idea. I guess the "No One left Behind" achievement from Baldur's Gate 2 EE (where no party members die) would be up there, but that's only 9%. There are other achievements for other games that are in the 2-3% range, and while I love getting those kind, nothing stands out as being something I'd brag about.

One of my favorites though, is from DOS1 which I mentioned in an older post: Memory Hotel, where you pick up and keep some smelly panties. I still laugh about that one.

 

[Zloth]

Hmmm, Memory Hotel.... oh, it's only in the Enhanced version.

 

[mainer]

Hmmm, Memory Hotel.... oh, it's only in the Enhanced version.

It was from the Enhanced version of DOS1, sorry, I didn't realize that the achievements changed between the different versions.

 

[Zloth]

You and me both, until I tried to look that up!

 

[Pr0udCh0sen1]

I love achievements on xbox and trophies on ps4 but on Steam, not as much. Less meaningful, percentages are bs as too many cheat or use SAM etc. Atleast MS and Sony try to keep it clean, Valve doesn't care, neither do i.

I love achievements on xbox and trophies on ps4 but on Steam, not as much. Less meaningful, percentages are bs as too many cheat or use SAM etc. Atleast MS and Sony try to keep it clean, Valve doesn't care, neither do i.

A few years ago, I finished mk9 on xbox, was very time consuming, one achievement required playing 24 hours with every fighter and that was just part of Mastery achievement. I could never have done that on Steam, I would bet 99 percent of accounts on Steam with all mk9 achievements aren't legit.. that's just one example out of many...

 

[Sarafan]

I like when achievements pop up, but I was never a guy who gives much attention to them. From time to time I check how many people unlocked a certain achievement, but that's basically it. Can't say what's the rarest achievement in my collection. I have my library divided on half between Steam and GOG, so it's hard for me to say what achievement is the rarest. Also I don't feel proud of them. It's more like a standard feature for me. It's nice, but not something that focuses my attention too much.

 

[Zloth]

I love achievements on xbox and trophies on ps4 but on Steam, not as much. Less meaningful, percentages are bs as too many cheat or use SAM etc. Atleast MS and Sony try to keep it clean, Valve doesn't care, neither do i.

Very few people cheat that way - at least in the games I play. For instance, only 2.1% of players beat Wasteland 3 on the highest difficulty and many more achievements are well below 1%. If people are hacking in their achievements, those numbers would be far higher. (You can tell looking at an individual's achievements, too. They'll get most of the achievements all on one day!)

Mods can mess with achievements, though. Some games block achievements if the game is modded but, if they don't, it can lead to extra achievements. For instance, there's one in Mechwarrior 5 for doing 5 missions while 50 or more tons under the weight limit. I got a mod that allows me to go over weight limits by paying extra drop fees, but the way it works caused that achievement to show up even though I didn't earn it.