Is steam playtime boosting bad?

[JcJet]

Hello. I'm new to achievement hunting community. I've heard a couple of times that playtime boosting is something bad.
Is that really so? And if it is, why?
I mean, I like to idle hours in some games, I have 60k in one just for some weird fun...

 

[Garrett 4K]

Very few people are going to be upset about boosting playtime hours and only if you're trying to climb the leaderboard for overall playtime on a steam profile or something. But it's not like people who just use SAM to unlock achievements without actually earning them, that will typically get people angry.

 

[nikolombo]

Honestly, I don't really see the problem with people leaving games running to boost their Steam hours. Some collect achievements, others just enjoy seeing ridiculous numbers on their profiles. As long as they're not manipulating competitive leaderboards, I don't think it's a huge deal lol.

It's a different kind of gaming from online casino platforms like betandplay, where playtime can involve actual financial risk. For Steam, I'd personally rather have my hours reflect what I've genuinely played, but I wouldn't judge someone for doing things differently.