The only thing remotely close to a USER-CREATED ACHIEVEMENT I've ever done was with Shining Force. There were a million characters, probably about 30 or so, and I got them all to level 20, promoted them (which resets their level to 1 but gives them higher stats), and got them all to level 20 again. I think I did this when I was 14 or 15 and it was the most intense GAMING ACHIEVEMENT I have ever done. I guess I did it because I wanted to see who the best characters were. I didn't do it because it represented some GAMING HURDLE, but more because I was sort of curious.

I always thought achievements would be more fun if they were called dares instead.

My favourite achievement is...

Pointless Endeavour: Earn/Unlock An Achievement

My favourite achievement is...

Pointless Endeavour: Earn/Unlock An Achievement

dont be a dick

dont be a dick

i am 100% serious in that if you've actually gone for achievements and not because it made you curious to see how but because you wanted an achievement you're thinking very wrong.

its like becoming a cop to shoot people.

nethack

ascend (all the gold in the world): actually beat the game

I got that one marcus man I used to paly that game a lot

dont be a dick

I'm not being a dick. That wasn't directed towards anyone, that's just how I feel about achievements/trophies. They're just very useless features to me.

Another potential reason people like them is it gives them a few more goals to achieve other then "beat the game" and can make the game last longer.

This is THE reason for achievements.  Not only does it give you a clearer sense of things you might want to try to do (they're almost hints sometimes, or clues to what's available to unlock), but it gives you ideas for things to try you might not have thought of.  Also, when it comes to thinks like "find every ___ in the game", it may be a goal you thought of but not one you were willing to keep track of yourself.  When the system can tell you if you've done it or not (at least in games where you don't know how many of whatever event are available), you're more likely to go through with finishing that goal.  It's the same thing with points, there are games I wouldn't have kept track of points in that I now will because I know what numbers to aim for and when I've reached them.  I hate when you've essentially beaten the main part of the game and then still keep trying to play it, because it's just aimless and useless.  But, achievements give you more things to complete, and make playing games you've otherwise "finished" more interesting.  Hell, they were about the only thing that made Beautiful Katamari worth playing a little longer, because you can only COMPLETE A STAGE about twice before you have no reason to ever again.  But, if it gives you a different way of looking at that stage, it can be fun again to do things differently.

Sort of like Sarevok said though, I don't get winning achievements for basic parts of the game.  Finishing something you have to do isn't worth having an achievement for, but doing something you might otherwise not is more legitimate.  It convinces you to play the game a little more instead of rushing through it.

I don't know anyone that really gives a shit about gamerscores though, it's more interesting to say "I got all the achievements in this game" than "My gamerscore is this" because it could just mean you got all the easiest achievements in a shitload of games.

The only thing remotely close to a USER-CREATED ACHIEVEMENT I've ever done was with Shining Force. There were a million characters, probably about 30 or so, and I got them all to level 20, promoted them (which resets their level to 1 but gives them higher stats), and got them all to level 20 again. I think I did this when I was 14 or 15 and it was the most intense GAMING ACHIEVEMENT I have ever done. I guess I did it because I wanted to see who the best characters were. I didn't do it because it represented some GAMING HURDLE, but more because I was sort of curious.

In Shining force 1 you only have to level them to level 10 to promote them. Shining force is one of the few games that I actual played through multiple times. How did you get them to such high levels? I thought there were only a certain amount of battles in the game so you couldn't grind.

Ballz in a knot (1G): Beat Ballz and replay as one of the boss characters.
Hyper sonic (0G): Get Hyper Sonic in the Ocean Level.
How...(120G): Play through the first 6 levels of Subterranium.

I don't even play games that have achievements. I remember hearing that the TMNT game for the 360 gave you like 200 points per level or something and that people would buy the game just to get thousands of easy points.

In Shining force 1 you only have to level them to level 10 to promote them. Shining force is one of the few games that I actual played through multiple times. How did you get them to such high levels? I thought there were only a certain amount of battles in the game so you couldn't grind.

Yeah, I know you only have to get to 10. The maximum level you can promote at is 20, though, and characters promoted at 20 are much better. For instance, Arthur is the worst character in the game if you promote him at 10, but the best if you promote him at 20. Also there are a lot of battles that have regenerating bosses that give really good experience just for hitting them. I think the first one is the pit battle in Chapter 3 where you fight that wizard. Since the wizard will never move no matter what and he runs out of magic eventually, you can have ranged units attack him from a distance and get them to level 20. That way you don't have to bother with them for like 10 more battles and it makes the whole thing a lot less tedious. Also you can use the Egress spell to go back to town and restart the battle.

I did it to use people I'd never used before and to see who was good. It turns out a lot of the people I never used were really good.