The Psychology of Achievements

From humble beginnings as high-score lists in arcades, videogame achievements have grown to become a vital aspect of the modern gaming experience - but have you ever stopped to wonder why?

"Unlocking the Psychology of Achievements," a new report on GameCyte, examines the importance of achievements, asking questions about what merits achievement rewards, how games can be designed to take advantage of them and what their true worth really is. GameCyte spoke with Rene Weber and Patrick Shaw of Michigan State University as part of its investigation, both of whom have significant experience with the videogame industry and recently co-authored a paper entitled "Player types and Game Qualities: A Model to Predict Video Game Playing".

"For players driven by social motivations, achievements are a public display of fame or infamy," Shaw wrote, describing the "most traditional" motivation for seeking game achievements. But there are many other reasons for the pursuit of achievements, including measuring personal skill or desire for a sense of closure. He also touched on "completionists," gamers who instinctively attempt to complete every task in a game. The pair claim that completionists need to accomplish specific goals in order to fully enjoy a game, and that as such, the addition of achievements to open-ended games and MMOGs makes perfect sense.

But Shaw also said that completionism is variable and depends on numerous external factors. "The frequency of the completionist gamer is unknown, especially given the diversity of potential motivations," he said. "When working with archetypes, however, it's important to remember that no one is exclusively one archetype or another. Rather, as individuals, we all fall into multiple archetypes to differing degrees."

Asked about his own completionist leanings, Shaw said, "Depends on the game and my mood. I tend towards amassing goals and achievements when my life is more relaxed. I do so for a personal sense of accomplishment and a feeling that I've completely explored the game's design space. However, when I am more busy, I tend to focus on only finishing the game and ignore my 'completionist' tendencies."

Shaw said that achievements represent "an extra layer of interest and value to the player," but added that "achievements themselves cannot make up for a poor game or service." Achievements at their core are nothing new, but neither is the need for quality gameplay to make them worthwhile. GameCyte's complete analysis of the significance of achievements can be read here.

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That's a great read. Highly recommend it to people looking for a thoughtful analysis on the appeal of achievements.

Honestly, the higher visibility of achievements is a direct response to what's already been there for gamers. The need to show off the achievement of your gaming skill has been around ever since people recorded their game footage off of TV to their VCR's to show to friends. Having actual achievement systems in many games just creates a guided path for gamers to follow to show that they have completed tasks that are generally considered to be noteworthy.

One genre that isn't mentioned is FPS's. There's a reason for stats packages for games like Counterstrike, TF2, and Battlefield, among others, and it isn't for satisfying scientific curiosity. Seeing how many times you've done one thing or another, or how much damage you did - even as simple as how many times you've died and killed someone - the appeal of that in twitch games is huge.

I remember back when I thought Achievement Points and Microsoft Points were the same thing. It made sense to me at the time...reward players for playing games so they could download bonus stuff based on their leetness. I was massively bummed when I learned that Achievement Points were supposed to be satisfying on their own merits. Yeah, like I need a number to quantify my hunger for self-actualization.

Zerbye:
I remember back when I thought Achievement Points and Microsoft Points were the same thing. It made sense to me at the time...reward players for playing games so they could download bonus stuff based on their leetness. I was massively bummed when I learned that Achievement Points were supposed to be satisfying on their own merits. Yeah, like I need a number to quantify my hunger for self-actualization.

I do....just a little though. I'm not one of those achievement whores, and i was so happy when i broke 125,000 on Ms. Pacman at my local movie theater. I took a picture and i think i lost it...lol it was 4 years ago, i was 12 and i suck at Ms. Pacman now..my max score i can get now is 89,970...

point being its human nature to look for fame, whatever outlet is chosen (videogames in this case)

I feel pathetic, i've been getting achievements on Spore of all things.

I got Aluminum Cell- complete the cell stage on hard.
and Devourer- Eat fifty different species in one game.

and a bunch of others, I didn't even know spore was going to have achievements.

If Achievement points improve your sense of self-worth, that's cool. It just doesn't work that way for me.

Actually, I just thought of another useful thing about Achievement Points: if I have kids, I can tell them that they can't buy another videogame until they've earned all their achievements for the games they own. Those guys at Microsoft must be parents.

I actually had to give up my gamertag becasue I was getting a bit obsessed with my gamerscore, it was about 40,000 and it was just a reminder of all the crap games I played.

So I canceled the account and started a new one, currently at about 4000GS in about 5 months, now I dont play a game unless its fun :)

I still prefer high score lists. My play is rewarded more by knowing I'm #6 in the world on PS3 singing "Truckin'".

This reminds me of a scene from Caddyshack:

Judge Smails: Ty, what did you shoot today?
Ty Webb: Oh, Judge, I don't keep score.
Judge Smails: Then how do you measure yourself with other golfers?
Ty Webb: By height.

Achievements seem to me to be a way of measuring gameplay via height.

I remember one particular douchebag from all those years ago who had a real thing about having his initials at the top of the high score list on Astro Fighter. If he saw a high score on the board he knew he couldn't beat, he'd unplug the system, plug it back in and then play the game.

That guy really pissed me off.

Since it got Trophies I can't stop playing Super Stardust HD, and it's not my normal type of game at all. They just add an extra challenge to the game, and I appreciate that.

I think achievements, trophies, etc are an excellent idea. Since I don't play online, they add something for me to do after the main storyline.