I play games because they're fun and engage my mind with various situational complexities. I play video games primarily because they're games I can play on demand, without necessarily worrying if I do or don't have a partner. If the story is good, that's a nice bonus, but I'm in it primarily for the game.
As to why other people might like some of these curious things, perhaps I can
give a little bit of insight help:
"Achievements" may be arbitrary but they can fulfill that purpose. They're essentially miniature unlockable content side-quests, except without unlockable content and plot integration. The concept is somewhat novel, in that it can add some extra play time to a good game where there otherwise might be none. If the game is indeed fun and interesting, then almost no matter how tedious the task, the continued experience of it should be enjoyable. At least, so long as it adheres to the basic rules. This is more or less the entirety anybody would play a game like Tetris more than a handful of times despite its repetitiveness: The game continues to be just as amusing as when you started playing, despite the repetition, meaninglessness and futility of the puzzle.
For people who take pride in achievements, is that they're essentially designed as dueling gauntlets by the game's creators. This leads to excessive pride over otherwise meaningless tasks like "Spin around so many times until you feel dizzy and fall down." I'd suppose that for people who brag about "Achievements" it's the small feeling of victory they feel after accomplishing the relevant task.
An additional factor to consider is that the notion of superiority over others is highly appealing to the ego. These "Achievements" serve as a tangible marker of the supposed superiority, much like the high score boards you'll find in just about any arcade styled game. Unlike points though, "Achievements" have definition in what was actually achieved, so the accomplishment are more visible to those who'd behold them. This adds a minutely tangible after-effect and could theoretically add more to the legend, if any is to be had.
To this point, I can understand why others might enjoy it. My only problems with it, much like that of the original quandry of the thread, is that it's all quite superficial and frivolous when viewed objectively. "Achievements" don't actually achieve anything substantial: nothing in a game does really. Outside of the context of the game, nothing you do in the act of playing doesn't matter. This isn't necessarily bad in and of itself, until people become delude themselves enough to think otherwise and begin to exhibit signs of obsessiveness and poor sportsmanship as a result. It is true that poor sportsmanship can be the end result of any game, the addition of rating systems seem to especially promote it.
As for performing grinding tasks to reap rewards, it's partially about how heavily you value the item. Just like one kid might get a job mowing lawns to save for a pair of skates while another kid would rather spend the time their favorite show, one player may want to save up for that powerful new toy, while the other just want to cut to the chase and play.
With MMORPGs in particular, one also has to remember that if the developers don't regulate the flow of the stronger items, the playerbase may grow to be overpowered. To combat this they may introduce an economic system via item where various people perform various roles in creating the item, and allow the market to settle itself out. The people collecting the materials for the Scorpion Tails might not get all the parts individually, but might try sell what parts they randomly find while scavenger hunting to a forger buying raw materials from a handful of sources. The forger may in turn want to sell the completed item, the
Scorpion o' Nine Tails, to an end user for a tidy profit. The end user might see this as a good deal, as the item may be a good bargain compared to the other items he could buy from NPCs and doesn't necessarily want to spend the time to get all of the parts and learn all of the skills required to build it himself. In this way, the individual burden is alleviated by spreading it across multiple individuals and the whole farming scorpion tails for an hour and a half issue never does pop up. (That is, except for people who particularly covet the final product for competitive purposes and believe that the going rate is beyond their budget. Although in this case, it could be argued that it's the ulterior motive that drives them to do it, as opposed to the actual reward of the item itself.)
As for the killing aspect, well... I can't really cover that. I see no reason to enjoy that aspect of a game over any other, or any reason why a game that has it would necessarily be more enjoyable than a game without. Perhaps it's a predatory and/or defensive instinct; perhaps it's because it's hard to have an adventure without busting up some heads; perhaps it's that the sheer prevalence of such games means that the gameplay mechanics behind it are just so much more developed. Who knows? I dunno but I can certainly tell you this much: It certainly isn't me.
At any rate, here are some insightful, if not funny little games I think you guys might enjoy:
Achievement Unlocked and
Upgrade Complete.
