What challenge from a game isn't worth completing and what challenge from a game is worth completing?
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My first full Factorio playthrough was a Lazy Bastard run. The game is a lot more chill when turning off biter expansions & turning up trees slightly in the map gen.
Granted I think I racked up like 200hrs in that run, largely because I could leave the game running in the background whilst going off to study or do other stuff. Once you're past the intial stage & have a mall set up, hand-crafting really doesn't matter much.
There is no spoon was alright as a goal, but it also ends up being a definitive end to that playthrough (which, arguably, can be both good and bad).
I also play with no biters. I just dont see the point in having them enabled since i get past the rocket stag quickly and then end up working on a megabase for a few hundred hours and biters are just annoying.
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Either one or both works.
Mine is completing the Pokedex in the original Pokemon games. All you get is just Professor Oak giving you a wink and a small few second cut scene. And a congratulations text. Imagine spending all of your time then, getting all 151 and even 252 pokemon just for that? Yeah no thanks, I never completed the pokedex.
Going the Joja-Route in Stardew Valley. I say this mainly because, it is what you make of it. You forfeit being able to complete the Community Center by earning things, when you sign your soul away to Joja. What I would've liked is seeing Pierre go out of business completely. I just think that would add a route of depth in the game where you have to make ends meet through Joja because Pierre is permanently closed.
But, that doesn't happen, he'll still be in business despite his depression about Joja running things. Kindof ruins the whole concept of doing it for the achievements even.
Challenges in action games are worth completing most of the time because they're typically designed to either drive home the intended purpose of individual combat mechanics, or outright reveal mechanics too advanced to cover by basic tutorials—e.g. dodge counter in Hi-Fi Rush.
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Beg to differ on the Pokemon example, but then again I am a completionist so that type of challenge gives me lots of self satisfaction (plus now I have achievements through RetroAchevements so a little bragging rights). Frankly, things like that should have internal motivation, so literally no reward is fine by me. I'm literally doing a professor oak challenge right now, which is significantly worse, lol.
Where I draw the line is mostly challenges that I just don't see myself being able to accomplish in a given lifetime. Like the Balatro golden chip on every joker is way too RNG and time consuming for me. I also generally prefer not to have to do a speed run, but that's mostly because I have kids now and setting something down without worrying about time is ideal.
The professor oak challenge is rough lol. I tried it out on Pokemon Silver and must have spent well over 10 hours grinding to get my Feraligatr.
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I was going to say Soul Level 1 playthrough of Dark Souls is one of my favorite gaming experiences. Absolutely worth it for me. Helped me through some depression. Do not recommend to anyone however.
Dark Souls 3 is a great game to play at SL1. You've got quite a selection of weapons and armour that you can equip, plus one spell, so it's a bit of a puzzler to find optimum combinations of stuff to beat all the bosses.
Dark Souls 1 is okay to play at SL1. You're limited to being a pyromancer and have a good selection of flame spells that you can cast, but you're limited to weapons with fairly boring movesets, and you'll be doing a lot of running back to Blightown to get pyromancies and level up your flame.
Dark Souls 2 is goddamned brutal to play at SL1. Your dodging is tied to your agility, which means you're a sitting duck until you get some stat boosting gear. Start the game by murdering Cale for his hat of +3 dexterity, grab the work hook and the ladle to swap out in your off-hand for their small stat boosts, and get yourself to Tseldora to grind the peasant set for its small adaptability bonus. I hope you're good at beating end-game bosses with a rapier, no shield, and bad rolls - maximum four in a row due to your low stamina, which makes throne watcher / defender hellish.
Scholar obviously has all of the pain of 2, plus you can't rush into the DLC areas for their high-powered rings. By the time you get the ring of the embedded for its massive SL1 stat boost, you'll have most certainly earned it.
Yes, I did play through all four at SL1 in preparation for the release of Elden Ring. DS3 is fun at SL1, but I also do not recommend the others to anyone. Elden Ring is quite good at RL1 - it still allows some quite varied builds, and it forces you to learn the bosses rather than just "DPS race" them like you do normally.
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On the whole, achievements encourage players to do stuff that isn't fun. Sometimes they're funny or encourage good gameplay, but too often they're just busywork, mindless random drops, or insane investments in time/skill.
Action games, for the most part, have well-thought achievements, TBH. If designed well, they can nudge you towards the intended way to play the game and by the time you're done, you will have mastered the gameplay or got really close.
In Hi-Fi Rush, for example, some achievements encourage you to parry, parry counter, air juggle… etc.
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Trophies can be very fun when they incentivize the player to interact with the game in ways that you normally don’t do during a regular play through.
Most games have trophies designed by some corporate drone and consist of a handful of trophies giving for completing the storyline and the rest for token actions that you’ll inevitably do while playing. They fucking suck!
Ratchet and Clank did it right back in the day before trophies with their Skill Point system. Little fun challenges that you wouldn’t normally do. Gave you points to unlock some skins and cheats.
Is that really so much to ask for… yeah I already know the answer.
Most games have trophies designed by some corporate drone and consist of a handful of trophies giving for completing the storyline and the rest for token actions that you’ll inevitably do while playing.
Those are basically just publicly accessible analytics for how far people typically get in a game.
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Either one or both works.
Mine is completing the Pokedex in the original Pokemon games. All you get is just Professor Oak giving you a wink and a small few second cut scene. And a congratulations text. Imagine spending all of your time then, getting all 151 and even 252 pokemon just for that? Yeah no thanks, I never completed the pokedex.
Going the Joja-Route in Stardew Valley. I say this mainly because, it is what you make of it. You forfeit being able to complete the Community Center by earning things, when you sign your soul away to Joja. What I would've liked is seeing Pierre go out of business completely. I just think that would add a route of depth in the game where you have to make ends meet through Joja because Pierre is permanently closed.
But, that doesn't happen, he'll still be in business despite his depression about Joja running things. Kindof ruins the whole concept of doing it for the achievements even.
I enjoy seeing the little achievement pop-ups, especially when it's a rare one, but I almost never go out of my way to get any. Don't see the point, tbh. I'm not interested in playing the game in a way that's less fun for me, just to check an utterly meaningless box. I guess you could reasonably argue that every goal in a game (quests, completion, exploration, what-have-you) is meaningless, but achievements have always struck me as particularly hollow.
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The professor oak challenge is rough lol. I tried it out on Pokemon Silver and must have spent well over 10 hours grinding to get my Feraligatr.
It's mostly awful for the first two badges, but playing with fast forward I beat my first badge in White 2 with in game time around 65 hours (so probably around 15 hours). It's insanely tedious, but I enjoy it late game.
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Either one or both works.
Mine is completing the Pokedex in the original Pokemon games. All you get is just Professor Oak giving you a wink and a small few second cut scene. And a congratulations text. Imagine spending all of your time then, getting all 151 and even 252 pokemon just for that? Yeah no thanks, I never completed the pokedex.
Going the Joja-Route in Stardew Valley. I say this mainly because, it is what you make of it. You forfeit being able to complete the Community Center by earning things, when you sign your soul away to Joja. What I would've liked is seeing Pierre go out of business completely. I just think that would add a route of depth in the game where you have to make ends meet through Joja because Pierre is permanently closed.
But, that doesn't happen, he'll still be in business despite his depression about Joja running things. Kindof ruins the whole concept of doing it for the achievements even.
Collecting every item in Rabbids Go Home.
Stupid game made me think there was a secret moon level. I feel like the devs actually forgot to put in at least a trophy or something because it unlocks nothing.
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Either one or both works.
Mine is completing the Pokedex in the original Pokemon games. All you get is just Professor Oak giving you a wink and a small few second cut scene. And a congratulations text. Imagine spending all of your time then, getting all 151 and even 252 pokemon just for that? Yeah no thanks, I never completed the pokedex.
Going the Joja-Route in Stardew Valley. I say this mainly because, it is what you make of it. You forfeit being able to complete the Community Center by earning things, when you sign your soul away to Joja. What I would've liked is seeing Pierre go out of business completely. I just think that would add a route of depth in the game where you have to make ends meet through Joja because Pierre is permanently closed.
But, that doesn't happen, he'll still be in business despite his depression about Joja running things. Kindof ruins the whole concept of doing it for the achievements even.
I mean, it‘s videogames so any challenge that gives you the satisfaction of clearing it is worth it, any that doesn‘t isn‘t worth it. Could mean all of them are, could mean none of them are, and could mean anything inbetween. I‘m an achievement hunter so I go for those, but I‘m not super purist about it; if the challenge is to walk 40000km, I rubberband the controller lol
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You killed the ultimate boss; now with their drop you are the setting's ultimate boss. You just need to wait for another plucky young upstart to rise and take you down.
Rarely even happens in-universe.
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You killed the ultimate boss; now with their drop you are the setting's ultimate boss. You just need to wait for another plucky young upstart to rise and take you down.
Diablo spoiler?
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I cleared all the question marks in Skellige in Witcher 3. I expected...something...anything?
The payoff is in Cyberpunk.
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Either one or both works.
Mine is completing the Pokedex in the original Pokemon games. All you get is just Professor Oak giving you a wink and a small few second cut scene. And a congratulations text. Imagine spending all of your time then, getting all 151 and even 252 pokemon just for that? Yeah no thanks, I never completed the pokedex.
Going the Joja-Route in Stardew Valley. I say this mainly because, it is what you make of it. You forfeit being able to complete the Community Center by earning things, when you sign your soul away to Joja. What I would've liked is seeing Pierre go out of business completely. I just think that would add a route of depth in the game where you have to make ends meet through Joja because Pierre is permanently closed.
But, that doesn't happen, he'll still be in business despite his depression about Joja running things. Kindof ruins the whole concept of doing it for the achievements even.
Hey, that's not fair. If you complete the original 150 Pokedex, you also get a little diploma you can print on your GameBoy Printer.
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Either one or both works.
Mine is completing the Pokedex in the original Pokemon games. All you get is just Professor Oak giving you a wink and a small few second cut scene. And a congratulations text. Imagine spending all of your time then, getting all 151 and even 252 pokemon just for that? Yeah no thanks, I never completed the pokedex.
Going the Joja-Route in Stardew Valley. I say this mainly because, it is what you make of it. You forfeit being able to complete the Community Center by earning things, when you sign your soul away to Joja. What I would've liked is seeing Pierre go out of business completely. I just think that would add a route of depth in the game where you have to make ends meet through Joja because Pierre is permanently closed.
But, that doesn't happen, he'll still be in business despite his depression about Joja running things. Kindof ruins the whole concept of doing it for the achievements even.
Not worth it getting all the Korok seeds in BotW
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Or many of the Soulsborne games.
::: spoiler Tap for spoiler
Replacing Gehrman in one of the Bloodborne endings being the most direct example.
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Either one or both works.
Mine is completing the Pokedex in the original Pokemon games. All you get is just Professor Oak giving you a wink and a small few second cut scene. And a congratulations text. Imagine spending all of your time then, getting all 151 and even 252 pokemon just for that? Yeah no thanks, I never completed the pokedex.
Going the Joja-Route in Stardew Valley. I say this mainly because, it is what you make of it. You forfeit being able to complete the Community Center by earning things, when you sign your soul away to Joja. What I would've liked is seeing Pierre go out of business completely. I just think that would add a route of depth in the game where you have to make ends meet through Joja because Pierre is permanently closed.
But, that doesn't happen, he'll still be in business despite his depression about Joja running things. Kindof ruins the whole concept of doing it for the achievements even.
Anything involving multi-player is just completely ignorable.
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Either one or both works.
Mine is completing the Pokedex in the original Pokemon games. All you get is just Professor Oak giving you a wink and a small few second cut scene. And a congratulations text. Imagine spending all of your time then, getting all 151 and even 252 pokemon just for that? Yeah no thanks, I never completed the pokedex.
Going the Joja-Route in Stardew Valley. I say this mainly because, it is what you make of it. You forfeit being able to complete the Community Center by earning things, when you sign your soul away to Joja. What I would've liked is seeing Pierre go out of business completely. I just think that would add a route of depth in the game where you have to make ends meet through Joja because Pierre is permanently closed.
But, that doesn't happen, he'll still be in business despite his depression about Joja running things. Kindof ruins the whole concept of doing it for the achievements even.
I have the "Completionist" achievement for Half-Life2 cause it was a fun challenge to get them all (yes even the gnome one), but gave up on Osmos: fun and relaxing game, but the last levels were too much hassle.
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Either one or both works.
Mine is completing the Pokedex in the original Pokemon games. All you get is just Professor Oak giving you a wink and a small few second cut scene. And a congratulations text. Imagine spending all of your time then, getting all 151 and even 252 pokemon just for that? Yeah no thanks, I never completed the pokedex.
Going the Joja-Route in Stardew Valley. I say this mainly because, it is what you make of it. You forfeit being able to complete the Community Center by earning things, when you sign your soul away to Joja. What I would've liked is seeing Pierre go out of business completely. I just think that would add a route of depth in the game where you have to make ends meet through Joja because Pierre is permanently closed.
But, that doesn't happen, he'll still be in business despite his depression about Joja running things. Kindof ruins the whole concept of doing it for the achievements even.
Breath of the Wild: getting all 900 or whatever Korok seeds. The reward is a golden Korok seed whose shape makes it very obvious that you've been cleaning up Korok poop this whole time. Pretty funny prank for Nintendo to pull tbh.
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Either one or both works.
Mine is completing the Pokedex in the original Pokemon games. All you get is just Professor Oak giving you a wink and a small few second cut scene. And a congratulations text. Imagine spending all of your time then, getting all 151 and even 252 pokemon just for that? Yeah no thanks, I never completed the pokedex.
Going the Joja-Route in Stardew Valley. I say this mainly because, it is what you make of it. You forfeit being able to complete the Community Center by earning things, when you sign your soul away to Joja. What I would've liked is seeing Pierre go out of business completely. I just think that would add a route of depth in the game where you have to make ends meet through Joja because Pierre is permanently closed.
But, that doesn't happen, he'll still be in business despite his depression about Joja running things. Kindof ruins the whole concept of doing it for the achievements even.
Megabonk has some "fun" challenges that probably counts towards both. I did the "AFK gaming" one, where your character isn't allowed to be moved by the player ( a huge handicap). It was kind of fun figuring out which character would be best, what pickups to prioritize etc.
