Playing Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition on PC and I hit one of those classic “Bugthesda” moments: last time this level crashed to desktop with no warning, and today my screen randomly auto‑adjusted mid‑game and threw my aim and immersion completely off.

I did the usual ritual: check for updates → Microsoft Store updates → verify game files → repair the library. You know the drill.

But honestly, that’s not the part that’s really stuck in my head.

What’s been gnawing at me is this: in 2026, are achievements still relevant in the way platforms treat them—especially when mods disable them anyway?

A few things bother me:

Mods disable achievements (even on consoles now in some cases), so for a lot of players they’re already meaningless mechanically.

There’s no way to opt out. If I don’t want a permanent public record of what I did or didn’t do in a game, tough luck.

Even if I uninstall or refund a game, the partial achievement list just sits there on my profile forever like a half‑finished diary I never agreed to publish.

What I wish existed is something like:

a “no achievements” mode where I can play purely for the experience, and my achievement list just shows as “inaccessible/opted out” to others

or at least the ability to hide or erase achievements for specific games if I decide I don’t want that history attached to me anymore

I’m not pretending I can change the minds of big companies who still design like it’s 2005, but I am genuinely curious what different types of players think:

Achievement hunters: Do you care if others can opt out, or does that not affect you at all?

Mod users (PC and console): Since mods often disable achievements, do they still matter to you in any way?

Everyone else: Do you ever think about the permanence of your achievement history, or is it just background noise?

Is it time for platforms to give us a real opt‑out or ephemeral play option, or am I overthinking something that most people are fine with?