Achievments - isn't it time for change?

[Firefru]

Steam Achievments = virtually useless

we need a new system, just like ps3/xbox.
maybe a points system tied to a level so a leaderboard could be put into place. certain achievments would be equal to a point value based on their difficulty.

http://wonders.mine.nu/astats/index.php
this site does it almost perfectly.

support, i'd love to see this happen

[GusTheCrocodile]

"Useless"? So what's the "use" of appearing on a leaderboard? Hell, what's the use of beating the last boss in a game - the thing that might earn you that achievement in the first place?

I've nothing against achievements, but that's a really weird (and yet very common) criticism of them. If you're playing videogames hoping for it to be useful, instead of entertaining, you're doing it wrong.

[Zerias]

please see this thread: http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=1748769

There have been multiple requests for Valve to copy Sony and Microsoft with an achievement system.

The response from the vast majority of the player base can be summed up in two words:

HELL NO

Valve's relatively hands off approach to achievements and "points" is one of the driving factors of Valve's SUCCESS with Steam... and one of the BIG FAT REASONS GAMES FOR WINDOWS LIVE IS A FAILURE

So no. Valve doesn't need to do anything. At all.

[amnesiasoft]

Originally Posted by Zerias

Valve's relatively hands off approach to achievements and "points" is one of the driving factors of Valve's SUCCESS with Steam... and one of the BIG FAT REASONS GAMES FOR WINDOWS LIVE IS A FAILURE

That... isn't even close to true, at all.

[Phycozz]

That would be terrible, the top 1,000 people would be people that used Steam Achievment Manager. Pointless, really

[rmartinezdl]

NOPE, CHUCK TESTA!

achievements are just fine as they are, i love them, they are more personal thing, they are not a OMG LOOK WHAT I DID IM BETTER THAN YOU, its more a WELL YOU DID CERTAIN THING, HERES YOUR REWARD "ACHIVEMENT POPS UP"

[Protoss]

Originally Posted by Firefru

(fullquote)

There is a lot of maintenance necessary for this to ensure SAM users are banned, broken achievements are marked etc.

I think there are more important areas where Valve should invest. For example security, service, sermon.

[zherok]

Originally Posted by Zerias

and one of the BIG FAT REASONS GAMES FOR WINDOWS LIVE IS A FAILURE

Fairly sure it had more to do with it being a clunky addition to a format that had no need for the extra overhead.

On XBox it's part of the entire experience, you're always on Live. On PC, it's that annoying gateway every time you start a game.

I know with games like GTAIV it meant something like a fourth layer of DRM. Achievements don't even factor into the annoyance.

[Microshocky]

Originally Posted by amnesiasoft

That... isn't even close to true, at all.

Agree. One of GFWL's biggest wins is actually the achievement system and how its linked to your Xbox achievements and gamerscore.

That's awesome, the rest of GFW isn't so awesome.

I see nothing wrong with doing a point system. At least something to emphasize achievements more on your profile page. Do something with it Valve.

No leaderboards, the system is way too easy to manipulate as people said.

[Penguin1992]

I prefer Steam's achievement system to XBL. You can cleanly compare your achievement to your friends in the same game. You can see the percentage of players that have which achievements, a little feature that I think is great. Adding a points system would add many threads complaining about how some achievement is worth too much/too little and might limit the number of achievements in a game too. (Xbox Live Arcade titles have to have 12 and only 12)

The achievement system works great here, I don't see the need to add points.

[Mimonome]

Say no to achievements. A GFWL type of system is trash.

[Sjeng]

I like em just the way they are.
The steam gift pile rewards for certain achievements is a fun addition, but that's where it should stop. They could add more games though, I had like 3 of the XX games from the achievement pile.

[DarthPsymon]

I don't want a value assigned to acheievements. They should not become something to help boost a meaningless score.

[guhcampos]

I don't think a leaderboard based on achievement making would be a good or bad idea. For the ones who like it, should be fun, for the ones that do not, or those who don't care... well, just ignore it =)

What I believe would be really cool is a reward system for achievements. Today, the only reward for achievements is a selfish notion of success. It's even difficult to see the achievements of your friends, so you can't even say your achievements are some kind of trophy showcase.

A permanent reward system for achievements, however, would be really cool. Something like the Summer Camp: each achievement in any game gives you a ticket, and you could trade those tickets into DLC's, for example. It could be a huge amount of tickets, like 100 tickets for a 2 dollar DLC, I don't care. at least they would get a point.

BUT this is not the time for doing so. Just as we have seem to happen with the Holiday Coals, Steam's achievement system is severly broken, so anything based on the merits of achievements will be exploited over and over again. So, first Valve needs to fix the achievements system, blocking stuff like SAM, and then we could talk of leaderboards or rewards.

[cylon]

so its a leaderboard that says "i can afford more games than you and i can use SAM to unlock all my achivements in one go" then?

That's useful.