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I look at these as a kind of mini-game within the main game. They're for those hardcore gamers who really love the games that have these achievements.
I think WoW is a perfect example. Once you max out your character, there's not much left to do but raids and old quests. The achievements give you little things to try and accomplish. If you like the game, the world, the environment, the mechanics, etc., then it can be fun.
I never really got that far in WoW, but in the back of my head, I always thought that it would be fun to take a maxed character around Azeroth and do all the gathering, fishing, exploring achievements like some kind of checklist. You know, just for fun, rather than using the game simply as a looting, killing good time. You know, many of these I'd view as something to do on a lazy afternoon—some pretty low-key and relaxing gameplay.
And let's face it, getting an achievement makes you feel pretty heroic in WoW, even if it's a pretty lame one. Fanfare'd!
I don't get it as much in other games, such as L4D or Team Fortress 2. A lot of those achievements seem exercises in acrobatics or uncanny patience and would just frustrate me.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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