Achievement systems in games blog - SaxonSwine

A lot of games now have achievement systems in them - but what the hell is the point in them?  Nearly all of these achievement systems offer no actual reward to the player, just some shitty little button which says "achievement unlocked".  Big whoop.  It isn't like players use these achievement systems to compare cock size with other players*.  So what the hell are they there for?

Most of the time when I'm playing I'll accidentally see some little achievement button pop up to say I've done XYZ... umm yay?  Since I was planning on doing XYZ anyway it seems a bit arbitrary.

The only time an achievement system is necessary is when it offers some tangeable reward to the player, as far as I know COD4 is the only game to have this. 
Why would I want to carry a gnome all the way through HL2EP2, given that the task is pointless and the achievement achieves NOTHING?  What kind of moron goes through hours of tedium to get an achievement button?

Pretty much every new game has awards in nowadays, but since thats happened the entire system has only made itself evermore worthless - particularly since I doubt anyone will even remember the "achievements" they unlock in any given game.  Unless they happen to be a massive nerd who feels the need to boast about their achievements in a game (to make up for the the fact that they're massive failures at everything else in life).

* that would be the nerdiest conversation ever.  "Nuyahh, I've got the award for killing a jillion zombies in Left for dead, nuyarr" "well I have unlocked the door award in resident stupid 10, beat that nuhyaar"