Continuing the discussion from Achievement ideas and from Achievements, trading cards, profile backgrounds:
We know the game will offer quests that have multiple solutions (say stealthy solution, chatty solution, fighty solution). Achievements might be a good way to track progress on those quests over multíple playthroughs (solved quest by stealth, chatting, killing them all).
I like achivements for praying at every cross or for playing backamon “fair play”.
But achivements for style in which you carry out the quest are something I would not like to see here.
If you just completed the quest you know exactly how you did it, why devalue your achivement by putting a tag on it. Whats more the same tag can even get someone who completed the quest in another manner than you did.
My Achievement Idea:
NO ACHIEVEMENTS. It’s time to get rid of gaming’s version of the gold star given to the kid who sits in the back of the room eating paste, just for showing up to class with their shoes tied.
I LONG for the days when just completing the game’s story and subplots was an achievement in and of itself.
Achievements add re-playability to the game. I don’t think anyone can say they haven’t at least once gone back through the game to get certain achievements.
I’m probably more interested in In-Game rewards than gamer tag achievements…
The achievement for doing something significant within the game world, should translate to rewards within the game first and foremost. If as an off shoot to that, there’s a gamer achievement attached to the In-Game event or action… then yea that’s cool too 
But I think in terms of priorities, for me at least… In-Game acknowledgement in the form of rewards, money, items, knowledge etc interests me far more than a trophy or achievement for my online gaming profile. 
I agree with @ProkyBrambora make the achievements some what hard to get. I don’t like it when you get achievements for simply playing the main story. Some ideas for achievements could be like fight 4 guys at once and live. Get 100 head shots with a bow. Kill 10 chickens. Stuff like that.
I would be ok with no achivements.
This was discussed in one of the previous threads. It is nearly impossible to tag on additional in-game bonuses and rewards without screwing up the balance of the game. Since this kind of development work happens usually rather soon before release, messing with anything that can break the RPG system or something is out of questions. Achievements are self contained and therefore easy to add. (It is not my idea. I brought up an idea similar to yours and somebody told me this.)
The reason above is why games have “meaningless” achievements. They add (some) value to (some) players and are still fairly easy to implement.
I think you misunderstand my meaning mate. When I’m referring to in-game achievements, I mean simply at various milestones or progress points within the story where Henry completes a certain quest, and resultantly is rewarded for his efforts.
I’m quite adverse to bringing any false economy into the game… And as I said previously;
My comments weren’t around additional bonuses, but simply highlighting the fact that in my mind the standard RPG quest / reward structured mechanic is more than enough.
Looking forward to the quest where the lord rewards you by not chopping off your head.
Achievements can provide for interesting metagame, like self imposed (and storywise completely meaningless) challenges. In Portal there is this achievement for always entering the orange and exiting the blue hoop of the portal. If the developers had to incorporate it into the main game story, it would take much more time to develop it properly and it would not be that much better for it.
I agree that “standard RPG quest / reward structured mechanic” can accommodate almost everything that achievements do (everything except perhaps achievements that track through multiple playthroughs). But. Creating a quest takes several people several weeks and the quest needs voiceovers, it needs to be tested and so on. Creating an achievement could be an one persons job few weeks before the release date.
The choice is not quest/achievement, but achievement/nothing.
I think that @Earl_Thorn is well aware of the fact that “choice” is achivement or nothing.
And from what he posted it seems that he chooses nothing,
standard RPG quest / reward structured mechanic is more than enough.
In-Game acknowledgement in the form of rewards, money, items, knowledge etc interests me far more
If encouraging replay and keeping players entertained relies on giving meaningless badges for inanity like killing twenty wolves with a herring, or other such random criteria, there’s a serious flaw in the game from its foundation.
What about
Achievements can add a new challenge to the game. Even if the game has great replay value achievements will add even more to that.
