Issues with Left 4 Dead Achievements

Like many of my friends and colleagues, I spend a fair amount of time playing games of all types. Lately, the object of my obsession has been surviving the zombie apocalypse in Valve's Left 4 Dead.

Now, I've never been much for grinding out achievements (or trophies, or whatever you call them) in games. I've always been of the mindset that if I get them, that's fine, but I won't go out of my way to earn them. For some reason, L4D has gotten me working harder for achievements than I ever have. I guess that's a testament to the game itself.

At any rate, as much as I am enjoying the game, I find myself getting overly frustrated at some of the bugs in the achievement system. One of the more difficult achievements is to beat a cooperative campaign on Expert difficulty, and the most difficult is likely beating all four campaigns on Expert. Together with some friends and coworkers, I've been playing L4D a few nights a week to try and obtain both of these achievements.

The first time we completed an expert campaign, no one in our group received the achievement. We had a player or two with connection issues, so we chalked it up to that and soldiered on. This scenario replayed itself several times over the next couple of weeks, at times with one of us receiving the achievement. Last night I finally received the achievement, even though no one else in our group did.

I often wonder what sort of restrictions are placed on these achievements, and if it times they aren't overly onerous. After all, even in these technologically advanced times, people will get disconnected mid-game. It's inevitable. Is it really fair to disqualify them because they dropped one too many packets, or their connection reset?

I guess it's a topic for debate; I just know that at times the elation of completing these difficult challenges is offset by the frustration of not receiving the achievement you worked so hard for. Hopefully this will be something that will be addressed in the future.