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submitted 2 months ago by Coleman@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

Playing Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition on PC and I hit one of those classic “Bugthesda” moments: last time this level crashed to desktop with no warning, and today my screen randomly auto‑adjusted mid‑game and threw my aim and immersion completely off.

I did the usual ritual: check for updates → Microsoft Store updates → verify game files → repair the library. You know the drill.

But honestly, that’s not the part that’s really stuck in my head.

What’s been gnawing at me is this: in 2026, are achievements still relevant in the way platforms treat them—especially when mods disable them anyway?

A few things bother me:

Mods disable achievements (even on consoles now in some cases), so for a lot of players they’re already meaningless mechanically.

There’s no way to opt out. If I don’t want a permanent public record of what I did or didn’t do in a game, tough luck.

Even if I uninstall or refund a game, the partial achievement list just sits there on my profile forever like a half‑finished diary I never agreed to publish.

What I wish existed is something like:

a “no achievements” mode where I can play purely for the experience, and my achievement list just shows as “inaccessible/opted out” to others

or at least the ability to hide or erase achievements for specific games if I decide I don’t want that history attached to me anymore

I’m not pretending I can change the minds of big companies who still design like it’s 2005, but I am genuinely curious what different types of players think:

Achievement hunters: Do you care if others can opt out, or does that not affect you at all?

Mod users (PC and console): Since mods often disable achievements, do they still matter to you in any way?

Everyone else: Do you ever think about the permanence of your achievement history, or is it just background noise?

Is it time for platforms to give us a real opt‑out or ephemeral play option, or am I overthinking something that most people are fine with?

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[-] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago

You can usually reenable achievements with another mod, if they matter to you.

[-] snooggums@piefed.world 3 points 2 months ago

Achievements are background noise for me, I only chase them if they sound fun to chase. I have done all the achievements for a few games intentionally, but only if there are like a dozen or less that don't just happen naturally by playing.

[-] dil@piefed.zip 1 points 2 months ago

I save scummed for elden ring to get all endings because I don't like replaying games and wanted to see all endings with my playerc think I got all acheivements but 1 without trying to get them all. I was trying to get every piece of equipment and every spell/incantation/summon in the game.

[-] anakin78z@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I think they're relevant for people who like them. Most games I don't care, but for games I really like I'll use achievements to see of there are things I haven't yet discovered.

Sometimes it's fun to compare to friends.

I don't really know why they disable them with mods installed. If a person cheats and gets them all, who cares? It's not like there's actual value. If it makes them happy, let them be happy.

And yea, an opt out feature for people who don't want them would be good, too.

[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Sometimes it's fun to compare to friends.

Unless...

a person cheats and gets them all

[-] anakin78z@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

If I'm actually friends with them, it's a trait I've accepted, and at worst roll my eyes at. If you somehow feel less because a friend of yours has more achievements, that seems like a different issue altogether.

[-] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I really like seeing the breakdown of what percentage of players have done X, Y, or Z compared to me. When achievements were first implemented, it was the first time developers had real data about how people played their games, and it influenced how games would change after that. I don't think many people are circumventing them via mods percentage-wise, so they're mostly a good representation of the sample size's behavior. I rarely go for all of them, averaging about 35% of achievements per game, but I did just 100% Escape from Ever After not long ago, and part of that was getting all of the achievements in it, which was a fun little extra activity to do in a game I really enjoyed.

If you really don't want that record attached to you, you could prioritize playing games from GOG via offline installer, I suppose.

[-] Ryanmiller70@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago

I love achievements to the point I've been replaying a ton of old games just cause of retroachievements. As for what I'd think of others not wanting them, I don't really care what you do. I do see a lot of pushback against achievements, especially whenever the topic of Nintendo adding them comes up since they're the only platform without it, so a way to just permanently system or game wide disable them would be nice for those people. Something easy to access so you wouldn't have to dig in menus for it.

[-] commander@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Could be an age thing. 20 years ago on the 360, achievements I cared about. By the middle of the PS4 generation, I stopped caring about PS trophies. On Steam, never cared about Steam achievements. 20 years ago being a completionist was an interest of mine which included achievements. Today, I'm fine not finishing games

[-] Coleman@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Definitely an age thing, I remember a time video games didn't have achievements, you played the game 'cause you liked the game, game companies kept track by virtue of their sails, now these days it's how long a player plays, what achievements have been unlocked etc. I keep thinking that it's OCD, the permanence of the thing, something I can't change, but maybe you're right, maybe it's old age.

[-] CodenameDarlen@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm kind of achievement hunter, my Steam profile has 33 perfect games and 70% avg. completion.

I always saw achievements as a way to enjoy 100% of the game, I see it as path that developers build to make sure you experienced everything that was made to be experienced.

You can just play a game on normal, finish the game, see the story once and done, goodbye.

But then you decide to look the achievements list and see things like:

  • See the ending B, C and D
  • Unlock X weapon and kill 500 enemies with it
  • Discover all areas of the game
  • Etc...

Isn't it cool? I think it's pretty cool to be honest.

Hunting achievement has add like a few dozens of hours to my games, which make my money worth more per hour.

$40 a game -> finish main story in 20h -> $2/h
$40 a game -> finish main story and all achievements in 40h -> $1/h

This has literally nothing to do with marketing, pretty the opposite, it's hard to see good made achievements because it's kind of an extra thing which doesn't add much value to the game as a whole.

I like when developers make good achievements: challenging but not too hardcore, motivating you to explore everything and find easter eggs for example.

[-] Overspark@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

On PC there are almost always mods to turn achievements back on, regardless of how many mods you have installed.

I like achievements because they give me an idea how much of the game I've already experienced, and because they sometimes encourage me to change up my play style. And getting a very rare achievement is always nice. They're not super important though, so if you don't want them I'm totally OK with that.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 months ago

I just want to say thanks for reminding me to play The Stanley Parable to get the Go Outside achievement. I beat it by 6 years! I hadn't played it in 11 years!

[-] CZwolf@pawb.social 1 points 1 month ago

Say what you will I love my cheevos

[-] mrfriki@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

They are marketing shenanigans, they always have been. Those who care about them are the people who are sensible to such marketing tactics.

[-] Canconda@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

They used to have value for single player games like Final Fantasy series. Achievements were hints to the hidden parts of the game.

100%ing a game doesn't mean as much when games are released in beta and get seasonal content updates.

[-] Klear@quokk.au -1 points 2 months ago

Hate to break it to you but 100%ing a game means jack shit in every context.

[-] Canconda@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

It's called personal satisfaction my dude.

[-] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

They are for marketing but not in the obvious way. Achievements really exist to tell game developers what parts of their game people are actually playing. Sure, some obscure achievements may be very hard to get and thus not tell them anything useful, but a lot of games have super basic checkpoint “achievements” like “start the game for the first time” or “play through the first level.”

With enough of these, a game developer can tell what parts of their game were entertaining and engaging and what parts were not. Sometimes this information can be used to decide how to improve the game. Other times it may only be useful as a lesson for future games (by that developer) to learn from.

[-] P00ptart@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I only achievement hunt for certain games. Granted, I'm not a hardcore gamer or anything. I'm probably the guy that most hardcore gamers hate. I'm old school, in my day, you could just pick up a game and go. You'd peruse the manual a bit on the ride home from the store and you'd have a pretty good idea of how to play it once you got home. Some games today are still that way, hell some are so intuitive that you just pick it up and you already know how to play(spiderman), some haven't changed enough in decades to be a problem. (Gran Turismo, call of duty, Madden). However even if you understood HOW to play a game, some were just hard AF. Everyone understood how to play the stampede level on lion king, very few could beat it.

The point of that previous paragraph is to put a perspective to my response. There weren't achievements growing up. In fact, many games were so hard, or so badly designed that it was nearly impossible to beat unless you were so ridiculously dedicated that you wouldn't have enough time to get into other games. I played the original command and conquer games and absolutely loved them but tropico has like 45 fucking menus and I just can't remember or be bothered to learn every single minute detail. However, Gran Turismo only got more detailed gradually enough that it came naturally, even if I skipped several iterations. My point is, I try a lot of games, especially the free stuff on PS+, that I like the idea of, but when I play it I'm just like nah, fuck this like tropico, I even made my guy look like trump lol. Or games that are too big that I'm just not gonna try to 100% but I love all the same like cyberpunk. I really like DayZ but I never played the arma games and have no idea really what I'm doing. It's fun but I know getting platinum just isn't happening but I have fun.

So I guess my point is, I don't blame anyone for not getting platinum. Currently I only have 4. All the insomniac spiderman games and fallout 4. I want to play a game for the game. Hunting trophies feels like a job, unless I realize I'm pretty close just by playing the game. So if someone wants to play a game without achievements being shown I wouldn't judge. I like fighting games but won't play DOA because I dont want to catch shit from my friends for being thirsty.

Also sorry if my post is a little disjointed and rambling. I've been writing this during commercials while also getting progressively more buzzed.

[-] Coleman@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm not asking to get rid of achievements, I'm asking for a compromise, I'm just questioning the importance of achievements, there are devices and or cheats to unlock all achievements and those who use mods and don't care for what achievements they have, that's not reliable developer data. Like my post states I see many sides of this discussion, pro achievements, neutral to achievements, and I guess in my case questioning of achievements. One's either pro or neutral two game achievements, in truth I have yet to hear anyone who wants achievements GONE, or at the very least an option to clear or delete one's achievement history, it's the permanency of the thing for me you see.

[-] Nelots@piefed.zip 1 points 2 months ago

I like achievements. I don't compare them to anybody else, they just give me a goal and personal sense of accomplishment. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth would have been a lot less satisfying to complete if I didn't get to see 641/641 achievements on my profile.

In 99% of games I've played that disable achievements with mods, there's a way around that on PC. In the aforementioned The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, as long as you beat the first "final" boss a single time, you can use mods freely. In Fallout 4 as you've mentioned... there's a mod that re-enables achievements. So this is an irrelevant issue to me.

As far as your other question goes, I'd be more than happy to see achievements be opt-out. On Steam you can always hide your library or use SAM to get rid of them all when you're done playing, but that's obviously not ideal.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 2 months ago

'Chievos are a very personal thing, they were never important unless you personally thought they were. If you don't think they're important anymore, then great. If you want to chievo hunt, also great. Gaming is what you make of it.

[-] mschae@discuss.mschae23.de 1 points 2 months ago

I like the different approach some games take, like Minecraft's “advancements”. They're per save, so mods don't disable them (in fact, many mods add their own), and a nice indicator of how much progress you've made in a world already.

And people who care about “completing” a game can still do that in a single save and show off the advancement progress window there (although it can be cheated just like in any game).

There's just no global statistics anymore.

[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago

I was never really into them that much on modern games but I do get a kick out of retroachievements.org adding them to older games

[-] octobob@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

Side note but I really don't know that drill. I've used Linux since 2010 and only begrudgingly dual booted in the years before proton was a thing, but now have used it as my only OS since Valve started developing it.

Highly recommend trying it out if you like to tinker. Modding things like Bethesda games is possible, but it's been a while since I played one so I can't remember all the specifics.

Achievements are cool sometimes. I did some challenge runs on Factorio like "there is no spoon" which is launching a rocket in under 8 hours. There is almost always a mod that turns achievements back on for most games fwiw

[-] Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

As you can see, I care about achievements: https://sh.itjust.works/post/56525516

As others have said, it’s a great incentive to go deeper in a game. It should just not become a grind and that’s why I don’t 100% a lot of games.

It can also make you remember what branch of a story you went for in a story driven game.

If it gives data to developer about how a game is played, it ain’t something I mind as the way I play isn’t a important privacy wise as other data.

What’s stupid is when people buy a game just because it has easy achievements though..

[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I'd say you're definitely overthinking it. I'll look at the high end achievements if I've finished a game I like, as that could point me towards things I may have missed during my initial playthrough, but other than that, I don't think about them at all.

If I actually do 100% a major game (Like I did for Fallout New Vegas) I'm proud to have accomplished it, but I'm not losing sleep over the other 3000 unfinished titles I've played.

[-] gibmiser@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago

Guys, many of you fail to realize this but achievements, and the system surveillance required to validate them are valuable data to game publishers.

They arent going away without a fight.

[-] Overspark@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

Developers really don't need achievements for telemetry purposes, there are far better ways to accomplish that. At worst you can see them as a form of marketing, when you see people in your friends list getting them, but that's about it.

[-] mercano@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago

This is exactly why games have achievements for things like making it through the tutorial, completing Act II, or beating the final boss. It lets devs know how far players get through their games before loosing interest.

[-] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip -1 points 2 months ago

They were never relevant. It's a Skinner box mechanic that really triggers certain people's dopamine production in an addictive manner.

[-] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

We have very different understandings of what a Skinner box is, and I don't think achievements count.

[-] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip -1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Variably timed "rewards" which trick your brain into performing repetitive tasks for longer than you normally would? Achievements definitely count.

[-] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

They tell you exactly what rewards you with them in most cases. They're finite and not random. They're hard coded and easily searchable. The point of a Skinner box is that the mouse doesn't know when the next reward comes. I'm not prepared to say "most" definitively, but at least many achievements don't require any repetition and are given out for one bespoke action exactly one time, often just as checkpoints for how far you made it into a story.

this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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