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It's a simple psychological trick: it's using the `reward response' which is vital for learning-for-your-own-existence through play, and using it to try and sell more stuff with empty rewards for non-useful learning. And it adds an element of competition which some people seem to thrive on; e.g. the culture in the USA (in particular) seems to be founded upon extreme competition.
Fortunately it's one of the more inoffensive examples of the practice; and one can always turn it off. Compared to say farmvile[sic] or world of warcraft or even facebook, whose entire revenue models are built around it. At least xbox 'achievements' are an aside to the main game, although some people seem to get obsessed by them.
I think it's a load of tosh and such a dot point wouldn't even register when buying anything, but I still get a little twinge when one pops up - but not as much as when I brought up my own software on the machine. Which is the type of milestone I would consider an 'achievement'.
Each to their own I suppose - but I don't think one does harm to society when pointing out that people are being silly, even if it offends them a little bit! Nor does it make one a Luddite!
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