Steam Achievement Rewarding System

[zombiechest]

Big hello to steam users and valve workers. I hope you're doing well! I want to apologize in advance for my English.

I want to talk about steam achievements. I love them so much. I really like to complete achievements in different games (sometimes to 100% completion) and that brings me a great joy. And I am not the only one who likes achievements. Hundreds achievement guides in steam community and thousands players which want to unlock them. It means that steam achievements are important part of steam platform.

But what steam achievements in a nutshell? Achievements give players small colored picture and feeling that they have achieved something. I think it’s not that much. But what if we can upgrade steam achievement system and make it and steam platform itself even cooler! I suggest to upgrade achievement system.

What players possibly could earn for completing achievements? Here my examples.

1) Additional steam game cards
2) Steam points for point’s store
3) Unique avatars/stickers/profile wallpapers (It’s the best way to reward players for my opinion)
4) Add special achievement points which will indicate user achievements progression

How players could be rewarded? Examples.

You can divide rewards for each milestone. First reward for 30/100 % of achievements, second for 60/100 % and etc. You can reward players only for 100% completion. You can reward players for every achievement they earned. It’s all up to you, valve team.

Also I know that long time ago here was a hacking program which allows to unlock all achievements in any game in a second. I don’t know this hacking existing nowadays. But I hope this is the only problem with my suggestion. Valve programmers will need to do something with this vulnerability if it still exist. Also players which using this hacking programs should be blocked out for steam achievement rewarding system. That would be fair.

This is only concept of this system. I believe that this is a great idea and most of you will like it. Dont be shy and let me know what you think about that! Also I would be glad to read your ideas on this topic.

[Start_Running]

So you want to be rearded for getting rewards?
Then I suppose you'll want rewards for getting the rewards you got for getting the rewards.

Look if the publisher/dev wants to rewards players for getting achievements then can already do so. But Valve really doesn't care two licks if you get any achievements

[Wolf Knight]

the "hacking" program is call SAM - steam achievement manager. its not a hacking program, there is no hacking required to unlock achievements on steam.

to make the achievements harder to unlock with a simple program, you would need to do a major overhaul of how achievements are done, and that overhaul cost is highly unlikely to worth the time nor effort. then you have to deal with games that are already on steam before the change is made possibly having to be updated for the new system, and some game developers are done updating the game, so all the achievements that are on that game may no longer be unlockable without a 3rd party program.

how would the system tell the difference between me using SAM vs me getting a copy of a save game from Start_Running that already has all the achievements unlocked vs me playing the game offline and getting the achievements then going online? the system currently cannot tell the difference and the time/dates shown on the achievements would all be the same. the updated system may require ONLINE ONLY achievements, not something everyone wants

as stated already, if the game developer wants achievements to award items, they can do that already

[Start_Running]

You'd basically have to switch all achievements to server based and once you do that you basically create a failure point. What happens when the devs shhut their servers down?

[zombiechest]

Originally posted by Wolf Knight:

the "hacking" program is call SAM - steam achievement manager. its not a hacking program, there is no hacking required to unlock achievements on steam.

to make the achievements harder to unlock with a simple program, you would need to do a major overhaul of how achievements are done, and that overhaul cost is highly unlikely to worth the time nor effort. then you have to deal with games that are already on steam before the change is made possibly having to be updated for the new system, and some game developers are done updating the game, so all the achievements that are on that game may no longer be unlockable without a 3rd party program.

how would the system tell the difference between me using SAM vs me getting a copy of a save game from Start_Running that already has all the achievements unlocked vs me playing the game offline and getting the achievements then going online? the system currently cannot tell the difference and the time/dates shown on the achievements would all be the same. the updated system may require ONLINE ONLY achievements, not something everyone wants

as stated already, if the game developer wants achievements to award items, they can do that already

I thought about that. But I hope there are still ways to make this.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by zombiechest:

Originally posted by Wolf Knight:

the "hacking" program is call SAM - steam achievement manager. its not a hacking program, there is no hacking required to unlock achievements on steam.

to make the achievements harder to unlock with a simple program, you would need to do a major overhaul of how achievements are done, and that overhaul cost is highly unlikely to worth the time nor effort. then you have to deal with games that are already on steam before the change is made possibly having to be updated for the new system, and some game developers are done updating the game, so all the achievements that are on that game may no longer be unlockable without a 3rd party program.

how would the system tell the difference between me using SAM vs me getting a copy of a save game from Start_Running that already has all the achievements unlocked vs me playing the game offline and getting the achievements then going online? the system currently cannot tell the difference and the time/dates shown on the achievements would all be the same. the updated system may require ONLINE ONLY achievements, not something everyone wants

as stated already, if the game developer wants achievements to award items, they can do that already

I thought about that. But I hope there are still ways to make this.

Well you'd be bertter off convincing the dev/pub of a game that they should do this. After all it's their achievements for their game, and you want Valve to give away the swag for their game.

[zombiechest]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Originally posted by zombiechest:

I thought about that. But I hope there are still ways to make this.

Well you'd be bertter off convincing the dev/pub of a game that they should do this. After all it's their achievements for their game, and you want Valve to give away the swag for their game.

Steam stickers, game cards, avatars belong to game developers? What are you talking about? I believe valve own them. Your comment is pointless because they already "giving the swag of their games" as you said. I am not sure, but I think devs only participating in systems like that, not rule them (systems like game cards, steam point's store) Even steam achivement because long time ago some games didnt have achievements if you bought them on dvd without steam authorization, but when they came out on steam, what a surprise. achievements came out along with them. Achievements in most of the games existing only in steam, not in the game. So I think valve at least have some rights on them

[Ilinay8]

I agree that achievements should do more that just show "challenge complete" text. I like the idea of receiving some small rewards, like profile cosmetics.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Ilinay8:

I agree that achievements should do more that just show "challenge complete" text. I like the idea of receiving some small rewards, like profile cosmetics.

Speak to the game devs then. It's their stuff.

[Ilinay8]

Originally posted by nullable:

This idea comes up fairly frequently: Jazz up the achievement system, make achievements "worth something". Why? Why does current achievement system need to be more than it is? Why do gamers need to be rewarded for playing a game?

I mean there's nothing wrong with it, if that's what Valve wants to do. But they didn't want to when they added achievements. What's changed that makes it something they should want to do now?

Half-baked wishful thinking is all this sort of idea ever amounts to.

Well i'm not asking for them to pay me a million dollars in crypto when i get the achievement, just saying that it would be cool to get something small for it. And that would encourage more people to invest their time in achievements, wich is good for Valve and developers. Dont get it why this idea can be so frustrating for someone. I understand that its not that simple to implement, but i think thats a worthy feature

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by Ilinay8:

Originally posted by nullable:

This idea comes up fairly frequently: Jazz up the achievement system, make achievements "worth something". Why? Why does current achievement system need to be more than it is? Why do gamers need to be rewarded for playing a game?

I mean there's nothing wrong with it, if that's what Valve wants to do. But they didn't want to when they added achievements. What's changed that makes it something they should want to do now?

Half-baked wishful thinking is all this sort of idea ever amounts to.

Well i'm not asking for them to pay me a million dollars in crypto when i get the achievement, just saying that it would be cool to get something small for it. And that would encourage more people to invest their time in achievements, wich is good for Valve and developers. Dont get it why this idea can be so frustrating for someone. I understand that its not that simple to implement, but i think thats a worthy feature

Valve has actually determined that achievements are not a selling point of a game.

This is why the implemented the whole "limited profile features" system. They determined it was the best way to curb asset flips or achievement farming games without hurting the sale of games that had actual work out in.

[Nx Machina]

SAM > Click > All achievements which negates, nullifies your suggestion.

[zombiechest]

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

SAM > Click > All achievements which negates, nullifies your suggestion.

I already mentioned this teaching way to earn achievements

[KalGimpa]

Originally posted by zombiechest:

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

SAM > Click > All achievements which negates, nullifies your suggestion.

I already mentioned this teaching way to earn achievements

while i do not think having sam is a good reason to not do anything with achievements, i am going to ask what was posted earlier

aren't the achievements supposed to be the awards/reward?

wouldn't this be getting a reward for getting a reward?

where would it stop?

personally, as long as they add a way to turn it off and nothing given gives an advantage (more friends and the like) i do not care.

i am just curious

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by zombiechest:

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

SAM > Click > All achievements which negates, nullifies your suggestion.

I already mentioned this teaching way to earn achievements

Then you should know that Valve can't do anything to stop it since achievements are handled by the game itself, not Valve. Steam literally can't tell the difference between sharing save files or using SAM to unlock the achievements.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by nullable:

This idea comes up fairly frequently: Jazz up the achievement system, make achievements "worth something". Why? Why does current achievement system need to be more than it is? Why do gamers need to be rewarded for playing a game?

Some people seek external validation and a measuring stick to determine their standing in a community.

The problem is that in the PC space people give less care abount achievements because quite frankly pc gamers are more apt to make up their own crazy achievements just for fun. So those used to the copnsole system basically are looking for more ways to say "I'm specia!". WIthout that external validation all they're left with is a dopamine hit that din't even last half a minute and the feeling that they may have wasted their time p bunny hopping 100K times.