We need a achievement system to itch.io
I'm going to disagree with this sentiment. There are far more important things that itch.io NEEDS compared to other online marketplaces.
If game devs want all the features of Steam then they'd just go to Steam.
Considering itch.io has a lower barrier of entry to get games published, it should be reasonable to NOT expect the same feature-set as Steam.
Also consider that something like achievement-spammer games became an issue because of Steam having achievements. Very few gamers care because very few game developers bother to implement unique, challenging, interesting, and useful achievements to their games. It has been a race to the bare bones bottom with them ever since they were on consoles and WoW and then everything else.
I do support the idea. Also remind about flawed arguments based on NIH
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_invented_here
Such as @DaedalusMachina does have strongly reliance. Is a friend-to-friend advice: constantly resorting on "if people want to steam, go to steam" makes your arguments weaker.
Achievements is an industry-wide feature given from biggest seller to smallest indie marketplace.
When you link to fucking Wikipedia to support your comments, that just makes me feel you are nothing but a helpless fool instead. If you're willing to do some actual research and link to some proper/verified sources then by all means feel free.
What I'm saying is that people seem to want all the features of Steam over here on itch (available DRM, social features, achievements, etc) but literally the reason itch.io can be cheaper is they have lower costs of operation and that means not having all those superfluous 'features' over on this site. They aren't necessary.
Speaking of logical fallacies, trying to say that "achievements is an industry-wide feature" is completely false.
While they are present in a handful of non-Steam games; the ones on Steam are token achievements that have no value/worth whatsoever.
Xbox Live and PSN are both console-specific services and the console market isn't the same as the PC/mobile markets. There are no achievements on mobile (which is by far the largest gaming market right now). PC has achievements with WoW and on Steam. Outside of a tiny handful of games from Spiderweb Software and KupoGames (indie devs), there are very few other games with 'achievements' that I can think of.
Itch doesn't need achievements; we don't need achievement-spammer games and we don't need the achievement-hunter dorks that care more about meaningless popups than actually achieving anything in a game or otherwise.
As someone who played games well before 'achievements' were a thing, there are already things far better than that. Speedrunning is already a popular gaming pasttime often used to help charity (most notably the annual runs for Awesome Games Done Quick). Gamers don't need achievements to make a difference in the world. If game devs want to put in speedrun-friendly game design (like skippable cutscenes) then that would be much more useful.
Please try to keep the discussion civil. This isn't the first time you're being hostile to the person you're disagreeing with, despite previous warnings. I argued against taking mod action on your behalf in the past - I thought that you could use a second chance, but this will be your last warning. It's good to disagree, but please refrain from such hostile behavior.
In additional support of the achievement feature.
From the developer standpoint, how much people is playing your game do actually matter; its not just about the single copy sold, but how much memorable as developer you are. Overwatch's success came from people remembering Blizzard, Apex Legend from undercover love people had for the team of the unfortunate Titanfall.
With AAA grade games given for free each year, the average gamer already own a quite big library (of often never played games): the time people will spent with your game is getting scarce as each day. On console things old up because each new generation force a "library reset": by library reset I mean when the gamer got their shiny new hardware but the true potential comes only with absolutely/from day one games (every new PC has potential to run all the library as brand new generation).
Even if you sell copies, be memorable is what really pushes you back: even your customer will forget to be your customer at all!
Achievements were made for this exact propose: make your game more memorable outside the gaming time. Completionist takes extra time to play your game even they are fed up with some slight flaws. After a gamer abandon your game for long period, when they return back they are freshly meet with their former experience (past experience find easy link through memory).
Really difficult to read through your post. I'll presume English is not your native language and/or you're using a machine translation.
There actually aren't all that many 'AAA grade' games being given for free each year. Console is irrelevant to the itch.io platform unless you're selling console games.
If indie devs want to make memorable/amazing games, it takes a bit of a combination of factors to make it work. The factors vary from person to person but for me it tends to be pretty simple.
-Strong well-written narrative.
-Fun gameplay with some kind of progression system (powerups like Metroid/Zelda or leveling systems like in most RPGs).
-Some kind of thinking/tactics involved in the combat that isn't just 'mash a single button to win'.
-Multiplayer is optional but a bonus; I prefer drop in/out multiplayer when possible.
-CUTSCENES AND STORY SEQUENCES SHOULD ALWAYS BE SKIPPABLE with a brief summary in a 'quest log' or equivalent.
The main reason that playtimes are going down is because IRL is becoming increasingly harsher while most people have to work longer hours and often multiple jobs just to pay their bills. The younger generation with less disposable income tends to spend their time on free to play games because there are so many of them and many of the mobile ones are popular and free as well.
I feel that indie devs need to realize that they cannot demand attention because attention is a precious and ever-dwindling resource. Between movies, anime, and other mediums, gaming tends to require a bit more activity and sometimes after a long day at work a person just wants to sit with a bowl of dessert and just watch some anime. ^_^
Let me tell you why the old-school Blizzard Entertainment is so beloved/memorable. They make great-quality games that work on a wide-variety of hardware and go out of their way to provide the BEST gaming stability & performance in the entire industry without equal.
Back in the days of Diablo 1 way back in 1996 the DirectX standard was still janky and not entirely reliable on a wide variety of hardware; even games like FreeLancer back in 2003 had an entire INI file dedicated to specific workarounds for hundreds of video card models!
So when I hear indie devs complaining about having to support a half-dozen AMD/Nvidia GPUs I kinda laugh a bit. Suck it up and be thankful that the market has consolidated to only three major manufacturers (AMD/Intel/Nvidia) rather than the multiple types that used to be around in the early 2000s.
The unfortunate problem with the games market today is so many of these 'free to pay' games end up being nothing more than manipulative and exploitative skinner-boxes that utilize pavlovian conditioning to coerce minors & children into playing and paying compulsively rather than because they are having fun. It is even worse in Korea/China/Japan where China's govt had to step in and force game developers to reveal the % droprates of every item in every single gamblebox they sell.
Now if only we'd get some govt intervention to force full source-code access to the RNG being used both client-side and server-side similar to the existing regulations present in actual real-money gambling machines in physical casinos.