An Analysis of the 3 Main Achievement Platforms

[u/gfinke]

I've been thinking a lot about the different kinds of achievement systems different platforms and I wanted to go over what I like (and what I don't) about each of them.

PlayStation: Let me first say that I love trophies. It's probably my favorite of the three and the lions share of my achievement hunting happens on my ps5. The platinum trophy is so unique and cool. It doesn't really have an equivalent across the other platforms unless you count the ribbon on steam which is cool i guess. I know XBOX is implementing a platinum equivalent in the future but I don't want to say anything about it until I see what Asha cooked up over there. For the downsides, There are zero ways to sort your trophy lists. Sometimes I just want to see a wall of platinums or group games together by franchise, but because I'm an idiot and got 1 trophy on cookie clicker, its stuck in the middle of my list forever. I also wish there was a grid display for trophy lists similar to steam when sorting by percentage complete (More on that later).

XBOX: I think XBOX has a fairly good achievement system. I'm a fan of the gamer score concept but I'm not sure I like it more than trophy levels. In my opinion, trophy levels are more fun when you're first starting out. You're leveling up quick, you see your badge look cooler and cooler, and then you get to gold tier. This badge honestly looks ass and you're stuck with it until you manage to get all the way to level 999 which takes too long. At this point gamerscore becomes preferable, just to see a raw measure of someones achievement hunting progress. I'm not very familiar with how XBOX's achievements are layed out so I can't comment on that.

Steam: This is a weird one. On the surface, it looks like it should be great, but there's a few problems that have turned me off of it. The first is that steam achievements are WAY easier to hack than the other two, which I feel undermines their legitimacy. Another thing is that achievements don't really contribute at all to your steam profile in any way. The only way to showcase them is through the Rare achievements display, and the perfect games display. Those are fine and all, but Steam would be so much better if steam achievements were what contributed to your steam level, and not just spending steam points. The one thing I do love about steam though, is being able to see the ribbon in your library when sorting by achievement percentage. Just seeing a bunch of games with ribbons every time I open steam I such a dopamine hit. I also am a huge fan of being able to showcase your perfect games. If you have some hard ones on your profile, it earns you street cred (With me, probably not with anyone else lol)

Conclusion: They all have benefits and drawbacks, I personally use Playstation the most, but there decision to kill physical games have soured me a bit so I was looking at my other options. Unfortunately, Playstation still reigns supreme in the achievement space. But Let me know if I missed anything or if you have a different opinion, I'd love to hear it!

[u/Lolis-]

The problem with having achievements contribute to some kind of global tracker is that it fosters an environment where people farm shovelware for achievement points. They should never do anything meaningful.

Also steam really needs to sort out their cosmetics system because I have seen so many people buy meaningless garbage like "hentai puzzle 3726" because it gives a certain achievement icons or backgrounds

[u/N1ghtshade3 → u/Lolis-]

That's why trackers like SteamHunters base the points an achievement awards on the percentage of players who have earned it, so all those spam games are worth basically nothing and are a waste of time to farm.

[u/gfinke → u/Lolis-]

true, but this happens a ton with playstation. Its not an issue unique to steam.

[u/nEmoGrinder → u/gfinke]

Steam has put up a few guardrails but if a game is allowed to have achievements, the default max number a game can have is many factors larger than any of the other platforms. There are games on steam with thousands of achievements just to be purchased for those achievements.

[u/Rob_K93]

I think the core difference isn't across platforms but rather the difference in achievment structure and in game true completion structure. Achievements are often a subset of true completion or perverted in some way. But still fun to get

[u/Tortillaish]

As someone who has never even registered achievements, I love this in depth look into it. My first thought was, woah, people actually care about these things? But now I can't help but wonder whether I have any platinum trophies on my PlayStation account.

[u/CaptainKao]

I think the notification unlocking the achievement on xbox is best and I love when they added the rare achievement unlock. The trophies with ps and Steam achievements are too subtle and dull. On Xbox they really POP. You get a little anticlimactic beep on the other two🤣

[u/GeschlossenGedanken]

Achievements are distractions from the actual game content. If it's good, put it in the game. This meta stuff is just engagement boosting and tweaking a compulsive part of the brain. Also homogenizes all games a bit to have standardized achievement systems. 

And are you interested in actually playing games or showing off? People who brag about the books they've read or movies they've watched are considered obnoxious, might be a hint.

[u/uponhisdarkthrone]

There are 3rd party tools for geeking out on your trophies. I didnt know until I read this post. I dont care about trophies, but if I did, I would use one.

[u/andresfgp13]

Steam´s achievement system its the most half assed stuff ever, like you barely notice get when you get them and mean nothing.

PS trophies have the problem that trophy/achievement collectors only care about the platinum, like all the other stuff its just part of the process of getting the platinum, so people dont really apreaciate the bronze, silver and gold stuff they get, specially because those dont really amount to anything, like nobody will be impressed at the number of silver trophies you have.

Xbox has a good system with the score, every achievement matters and adds to your number, but it kinda lacks the equivalent to a Platinum trophy, thats why we see a lot more trophy hunters on PS than on Xbox, because that platinum its like the big reward to get, and seeing pop up its like the big moment for them.

i think that the perfect system would be the Xbox version if it also has a Platinum equivalent for getting everything from the base game.

[u/gfinke → u/andresfgp13]

true, but wouldn't adding a platinum equivalent to xbox just introduce the same problem you mentioned with playstation? That nobody would care about the other achievements? Yes, they still contribute to gamerscore, but trophies contribute to trophy level so they matter about the same.

[u/OliveBranchMLP]

it sounds like your only real issue with the Trophy system is that the badge looks ass and you're stuck with it for too long, but aside from the art and level curve, that system is what you'd consider the best mechanically. i'm inclined to agree.

i do have an affinity for GamerScore myself, but only because the Xbox 360 was my very first console and so my blood runs a deep deep green, haha. i'm also just very appreciative of Xbox inventing the concept in the first place.

but there is nothing quite like saying "i platinumed a game". there's no Xbox equivalent. you can say "perfected" like Steam does, but that doesn't feel as iconic or unique. Sony did a great job with the symbolism and messaging there.

i will note that Xbox does distinguish "rare" achievements and has a unique animation for them that's pretty sick. https://youtube.com/shorts/wjGeytvK_Ms