Are Steam Achievements Pointless?

unless i get paid for achievements, yes, they are pointless!

what if they were tradable? :3

I like to unlock achievements, but I'm not one of the guys who want to unlock all of them... I play the game, I see the achievements I unlock, I finish the game, I'm happy. Stop

There are two kinds of people - those who love collecting achievements and those who don't. For me doing 100% in some games is even more fun than just beating the game for the sake of beating it. But there are guys who don't give a damn about cheevos and they'll always criticize them. Just depends on what you're into. I saw some guy here saying it's only "for the bragging". Well, newsflash buddy - it's for your own pleasure. I don't think it impresses anyone but even if it did - what's wrong with that? Some people are impressed by speedruns, some are impressed by beating the game with no deaths and some are impressed by doing 100% in video games. And some 100%'s are really impressive, let me tell you that. Try doing 100% in Modern Warfare 2 or Boson X, I'll bow my head to you if you do it.

I have a love-hate relationship with Steam achievements.

Of course they're "worthless" in that they have no actual worth, and there's no ranking/scoreboard/etc. at least that is publicly accessible. But I'll be damned if I don't love seeing the little achievement pop-up after I've accomplished something, especially if it was difficult to achieve...you know-- a real "achievement."

So many games have too easy / too many / too silly / etc. achievements that the whole system really is basically rubbish. But I'm a completionist at heart, and for some reason I do get satisfaction at getting all (or most) achievements in a game. Sadly, it doesn't even matter if they're difficult to achieve. And I'm not above playing/preferring a game because it has easy achievements.

While some people won't play (or prefer not to play) games that don't have achievements, I will actually avoid games that DO have achievements if, say, there are 100 achievements, most of which I'll never get in my lifetime unless I do nothing else. Because for some reason, I like increasing the "Avg. Game Completion Rate" on my profile. Worse, because I know that that percentage is only based on games that you've acquired at least one achievement, I will go out of my way NOT to get that first achievement unless/until I'm ready to commit some time to the game so that it doesn't hurt my average too much for too long. It's really sad, I know. :-|

[Edit: but to address your question more directly, achievements do provide extra incentive for a subset of players to play the game more and/or differently than they otherwise would. To try new things, look for Easter eggs, etc. They do add game value to some players. And everybody else is welcome to ignore them.]

All achievements are pointless in games. I used to like the system that exists before. For example, in LOTR: The Return of The King (The Game), where completing the game you open extras like movies and characters. A phrase saying "you did this stupid task we asked you" is stupidity.

Yes.

Yeah, they should definitely revamp the achievement system. I get no where near the satisfaction from a steam achievement that i do from a playstation trophy :D.

As a former achivement hunter on the x360....are achievements pointless? yes
I was wasting my time grinding achievements for games that I didn't particulary enjoy, when I could have been playng games for the enjoyment of them rather than a statistic on my profile which no one cares about other than myself.
So when the xbone hit I decided not to bother with achievements and see them more of a bi-product of my gametime, if i unlock one then yay, but i certainly won't be hunting for 600 collectables in a sandbox game or other such time consuming achievements, same goes for my gametime on steam also.