Achievement Burnout: How to cope with never being Complete

Gray_howling_parrot · October 2023

ghastley wrote: »

Achievements were only ever a means of tracking what a character had done. With AWA, even that went away.

I’ve always personally preferred account progress personally and was/still am greatly excited about AWA. Even though I mainly play one character it didn’t make me feel so unmotivated to start a new character after so much time spent on one. But to each their own!

I think being able to have a toggle to see account wide versus character earned would be a fantastic solution for both sides of this.

Gray_howling_parrot · October 2023

Dojohoda wrote: »

To me, achievements in ESO are a list of possible things to do in the game. The achievements I get merely reflect my gameplay and what I have decided to do in the game. While some achievements can give me a big sense of accomplishment, it's a personal experience but it is meaningless to my life in any positive way.

I agree with this. For me personally, if achievements weren’t in the game I don’t know if I’d really have played this long. Achievements guide my gameplay - I set a list of achievements that I need to achieve and I work at them each day until that list is done, and then form another list. GREATLY enjoy them and get a dopamine hit whenever I see “achievement unlocked” pop up on screen.

I do 100% wish that the achievement points we earned could be applied as prerequisites for some rewards like mounts or cosmetics at 5k, 10k, 15k etc

Destai · October 2023

I've personally found very little value in chasing achievements in this game. It's a prime aspect of the game that should be overhauled for better rewards. Achievements should be giving us cool stuff like mounts and houses. Outside of the few dyes, skins, and costumes, there haven't been worthwhile achievements for me in years. I think Elsweyr is where that was last seen; most them are base game or Guilds-and-Glory.

Right now the only achievement-esque thing I've been chasing is stickerbook. And even then, I'm questioning why I'm even bothering. Most of the sets aren't viable and I have to grind to get the transmutes stones just experiment with them. Really, though, do what's fun. Don't chase a bar moving, unless that's fun for you too.

Necrotech_Master · October 2023

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

Tenthirty2 wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

Hi. Welcome to an impromptu Ted Talk I guess.
...
BUT, it's okay though in the end right? It's just a game, none of these achievements actually amount to your real world worth, they don't speak to your ability to persevere and overcome seemingly unobtainable goals, they don't give you a real sense of accomplishment, a feeling of competence, of completion. Right?

TBH I can't remember the last time I looked at my progress bars for achievements.
And you are right, they don't mater.

Do you have FUN playing? That matters.

But achievements? Meh.

The ones I may decide to earn are the ones with a reward attached (I know, so shallow of me lol)
So if there is a nice dye I'd like, title, cosmetic or pet, that kind of stuff.
But even hunting those is an occasional thing.

I do make achievements for myself, just to see if I can do them. Like solo a hard dungeon, etc. But even then when I finish it the achievement for me is having DONE it, it's THAT feeling that is the reward. I could care less if a progress bar somewhere gets more filled in or not.

Some people do get enjoyment out of filling the meters and ticking all the boxes, nothing wrong with that. That's fun for them.

But for those that wrestle with the subject tho it's probably adulting that gives some the mindset of "MUST COMPLETE <things>! "
It feels similar to job tasks and projects, (Gotta fill those meters, complete projects, don't leave work half-done! )

And for a job\career, sure those things matter.

A game? Not so much.

Games are supposed to be fun, not a job.

One day ZoS will shut down the servers for good, or I'll drop dead, or the Sun will explode, whatever and my accounts and characters will all still have unfilled progress meters, even my main.

I don't care, I've already raised and trained a small legion of immortal badasses. I've already done things that I previously thought "I couldn't do that."

Those are my achievements.

Doing all the things just to do them won't make you happy.
Just enjoy doing the things that do and you will achieve happiness.

You know, now that you mention it, it's also possible the reason achievements exist is for those who want goals but don't want to have to come up with ideas for what those goals should be. The achievements act as a sort of "ready made" goal that you can pursue (or not) at your leisure without having to brainstorm anything up.

thats kind of how i view achievements

goals/todo list that give me something to work on when im not sure what i want to do that day

Brakkish · October 2023

Look at it like eating ice cream:

I don't even bother to look at the list of available unearned achievements. I treat them as pleansant surprises. When I get one at random for doing something I was going to be doing anyway; it's like adding whip cream to ice cream... would of enjoyed it anyhow; but the added flavor was a nice touch.

CGPsaint · October 2023

My main is currently sitting around 53K achievement points, with the remaining points mainly being in trials of which I have little to no interest in running. I am still working on mopping up some of the 4-man content achievements, but it's really hard to find people who are actually interested in doing them. Will I ever complete all of them? Probably not. Will I lose sleep over it? Absolutely not.