I like having nice, well balanced takes on things, sometimes getting lost in nuance in ways that muddle my point. But anyone who follows me knows that some days I just to give in. I just have to be a hater. Anyone who follows me knows I have a deep seated hatred of Achievements. Not so much the vague concept of little extrinsic goals, which have been in gaming for decades. No, what I hate is the institution of Achievements. That these are a standardized thing that must exist, on the s...

Sharing because Kayin’s talk about achievements made me think about why do I even accept them in games at all so I disabled them in Steam (the only way to do this is by disabling the whole overlay =_=) and found that I don’t miss them at all.

What’s you opinion on RetroAchievements, and achievements in general?

  • CamelCityCalamity@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    13 hours ago

    I like the extra challenges. Some of the achievements for The Legend of Zelda are hard, and I got all of them. It’s one of the few games where I got all of the achievements. “Mastered it” in RA’s lingo. And I did so in Hardcore Mode where you can’t use save states or rewinding.

    Achievements like “Get to Ganon without having a sword.” That’s an old school challenge that existed way before RA did, and the existence of the achievement in the list motivated me to actually try it. Not because I’m an achievement hunter normally, but because the achievement reminded me it was possible.

    The achievement is a badge of honor. It represents an extreme struggle where I suceeded. It’s an artificial struggle, to be sure, but so is most of gaming. Except for cozy games and story games, games are an artificial struggle to feed your need to challenge yourself, to get better, and to win. Games that are obscenely hard are just not fun. There’s this sweet spot where a game is challenging, but you are up to the challenge, and that makes the game fun.

    Getting an achievement for beating the game is not the point. It’s just a record that you did so. A reminder of the struggle. It feels good to look at my profile on RA and see the four games I’ve mastered. I remember how hard they were, and yet I succeeded.

    Here’s the list. It’s only 4 games. Four of my all-time favorite games. Games I adore.

    The hardest one in the list was Solomon’s Key. It’s an action puzzle game and it gets very difficult later in the game. I had been trying to beat it off and on since 1986. There are no saves or passwords. You have to beat the game in one sitting or else leave your console powered on while you’re away.

    There are continues, but they’re secret. There are 50 levels, and if you continue past level 41, you restart at level 41, and the rooms past 41 are haaaaaard. It’s pretty grindy to get to the end, and you end up getting so good at levels 41 and up, that it’s like you become a speedrunner. You just want to try to beat level 46 again or whatever, so you speed your way through 41-45.

    Simply beating the game is such a major achievement, but there’s also a secret ending! I didn’t even know there was one until I saw the achievement for it. I’d been playing the game for 40 years, and I didn’t even know it existed until RA told me.

    So, when I finally beat the game, for the very first time in my life, I did so while getting every achievement and the good ending. It felt great! I will always remember that moment. And if I forget, I have the badge on my RA profile to remind me.