Just because the author knows this article is petty doesn’t make it any less petty. God, his tone is so obnoxious and is just creating a strawman that people who like achievements are brainrotted and love it for some kind of tiktok style engagement - they just can’t stop themselves!!!

No. I love achievements (and RA) for a number of reasons. The biggest one is that it’s a very effective progress tracker, telling you exactly how much of the game you finished and what you missed. I often take a look at my RA profile to know which games I finished and which I might want to go back to later. RA also provides game suggestions based on what you finished. Maybe OP doesn’t care, but 10 years down the line when you’re reminiscing over older games you’ve played, browsing your cheevo list is a very nice experience.

The other reason is that achievements often let you engage with a game in ways you never would have. Many achievements give you a challenge to do something creative or push you to find a secret you never would’ve found otherwise.

And obviously, bragging rights. Doing something really hard in a game should be recorded so you can show others or compare to the community. I wouldn’t have spent a lot of time beating Hollow Knight on Steel Soul mode if I can’t have it on my profile and show it to friends. This isn’t weird, it’s part of the reason they exist - comparing achievements with friends.

The blog also completely missed that this isn’t some newfangled phenomenon that was forced upon gamers. People have been recording high scores of games since the '80s. People have been building leaderboards in arcades or taking pictures to show others how far they pushed themselves on a game. It’s not new. Achievements and online leaderboards just made it more convenient and universal so everyone can get involved.

And if you dislike achievements, it’s really not hard to ignore them. Sorry that getting a tiny notification in the corner of your screen every few hours is ruining the immersion or whatever.