What Would You Do Just For Achievements?

Someone made a comment in a post about achievements being a motivator for some of the things he does in game and it got me to thinking how much of what I do would I do if there were no achievements tied to it.

Archaeology is the one thing that really made me think about it.  I have it on only one character and it really is boring.  Sometimes I did while waiting in queue for my dungeon when it first came out, as a timer waster sort of thing, but still not something I would ever do on another character.  Once skilling one character up I see no reason to get another up.

As a secondary profession it fits neatly where it should I guess.  You can live without it.  I personally did it for the goodies but this expansion I did it for the achievements more so.  I was lucky and got the goodies in the first few finds, even before I managed to get to max level.  Even when they added the klaxxi ones I got the goodies there really quick. But I still kept at it.  Why?  Achievements.

The 20 of each achievements, the one of each pristine achievement and of course the seeker of knowledge title.  If it where not for the achievements once I maxed archaeology and got my goodies I would have never done it again.  Achievements drove me to do it.

It got me thinking about some of the other things I do.  Like right now I still solo old dungeons and raids trying to get mounts.  I have the mount I use and I like it.  Been using the same mount for years and even if I got other nice ones and checked them out, like ashes, I still went back to my mount.  Sure, I collect mounts, but it is sort of something of a byproduct.

When I go back and solo this old stuff looking for mounts it is because I need 5 more for the 200 achievement.  I could easily live without the mounts and there is so much to do in the game as is so it is not like I am bored and looking for something to do, which is how I got into collecting them to begin with.  So each time I step into stonecore to do my 5 before I am locked I am doing it for the 200 mount achievement, not for the mount itself.

I don't PvP really but when I do it is always in the back of my head that I can get achievements at it.  When I enter a battle ground the first thing that pops into my mind is what achievements should  I work toward while I am here, not about winning the battle.  The battle is secondary.  I am going to end up with my 100 wins anyway sooner or later just doing them, might as well get the achievements like capping a node, returning a flag, getting honor kills, etc.

I think the first bullshit achievement, and by that I mean something I did just to get an achievement, was shave and a haircut.  I did it not because I wanted to change my hair, I don't give a crap about my hair, but I wanted to get the achievement.

I went around the world to read books for an achievement, I loved squirrels to get an achievement, I did a ton of things that I would have never done most likely if it were not for the sake of getting achievements.  It is not so much that I am an achievement whore, it is just that when I see something there on the achievement list it becomes a todo list.  I need to go read these books, I need to love these squirrels, I need to get a haircut.

I wonder if there are certain aspects of the game you would never have done if it were not for the achievements associated to them.  I know there are some things I never would have done and the archaeology thing is first and foremost.  I would never have went on to find 20 of each thing and one of each pristine thing after I reached max level and got my goodies I wanted.  There really is no motivation to do it when you have everything.  And that is where achievements come in.  They are the added motivation to keep us doing something that we would never do otherwise.

I do find some achievements to be quite odd.  I mean do we really need an achievement for level 10?  It is something you just bump into.  You were leveling anyway.  It was bound to happen if you kept leveling.  But other things that add up numbers do seem to make sense.  To some extent.  Looting 1000 gold, while just like reaching level 10 is something that will happen sooner or later anyway, makes sense to keep track of.  Maybe because it is not a number we see on the screen all the time.

Then they have all those new achievements they added being they tied achievements together.  Makes me wonder, why stop?  We have an achievement for having 2 90s, 3 90s, 5 90s, one 90 on each side, but why not have one for have 1 90 of each class, or 2 90s on each side, or, well, you get the idea.

Sometimes, even for the achievement hunter that I have become, it seems like it is really getting out of hand.  They are adding so many achievement to hunt, so much so that it almost seems like it eats a lot of time for a limit period of excitement for achieving it.   When on the other hand, there are achievement they could have added and they didn't.  We have an achievement for killing all the rares on the island or killing a certain amount of warbringers and warscouts but why not have one for killing all the commanders in the barrens?

While I am asking the players what do you do just for achievements I could ask blizzard what is the reasoning behind some achievements? 

Or what are the reasonings why some other things that scream achievement don't have one?  With the achievement happy blizzard lately, one that wants you to grind (20 of each artifact) and ones that want you to camp (kill all the rares) why are some things that seem perfect for achievements absent.  Like killing all the commanders or killing all the named hozen in the valley.  Those would both fit neatly into the kill all the rares sort of thing.

More importantly, for this post at least, is if they did add those achievements, would you go and slaughter all those named hozen to get it?  Would you make groups to hunt down commanders to do it?

I know I would, because I do a lot of things in game I would never do, or want to do, if it were not for the achievements associated with it.  What would you do just for the achievements?