I believe no full official statement has been made, but the devs have at least hinted they do not want to force people to do achievements, they should be something fun to do in your spare time. They're also planning to include achievements in future Blizzard games, and make them linked to a global Blizzard account.

Extrapolating from that, there's two options:
1. The achievement points are Blizzard's equivalent of a Gamerscore or similar systems.
2. The achievement points will be usable to buy cosmetic items. Much like companion pets, tabards, shirt, outfits without stats and trinkets with funny effects you can get from the various in-game holidays already.

I'll add that 2. is somewhat less likely than 1., there are already achievements that give rewards. There's a few achievements that give titles, and there's also an achievement that gives a companion pet.

Achievements will be a part of the live 3.0 patch
I hope they do put the achievements in the next patch. Once the expansion comes out, everyone is focused on getting to 80 as fast as possible and raiding again. Having the achievements available pre-WotLK gives you a chance to finish up those lingering quests or explore a missed area and have a little fun.

EDIT: Here's another blue post related to achievements.

For Server Firsts Feats of Strength, they've added titles.

First to 80 - the Supreme
Class first to 80 - Arch Druid, Crusader, Prophet, the Malefic, Stalker, of the Ebon Blade, Archmage, Warbringer, Assassin, of the Ten Storms
Profession first to 450 - Grand Master Alchemist, Blacksmith, Enchanter, Engineer, Angler, Herbalist, Scribe, Jewelcrafter, Leatherworker, Miner, Skinner, Tailor. Also, Iron Chef and Doctor.
Race first to 80 - of Quel'Thalas, of Argus, of Khaz Modan, of Gnomeregan, the Lion Hearted, Champion of Elune, Hero of Ogrimmar, Plainsrunner, of the Darkspear, the Forsaken
Server Firsts - the Magic Seeker, Twilight Vanquisher, Conquerer of Naxxramas,
Reputation - Hero of Northrend (realm first exalted with Argent Crusade, Wyrmrest Accord, Kirin Tor and Knights of the Ebon Blade)


http://nooblar.com/images/server_firsts.jpg


Also added-

the Diplomat - exalted with Timbermaw Hold, Sporeggar and Mag'har/Kurenai
Seeker - Completed 3000 quests
Arena Master - Compelted Arena Achievements
Salty - Completed fishing achievements
Chef - Completed cooking achievements
the Hallowed - Completed Hallowed End Achievements

I know the new beta build is supposed to have new achievements/titles but does anyone actually have them in game? I don't know about the US client but the EU beta patch last night disabled achievements entirely, the button isn't even available.

There's a good discussion going on about whether the "First ______ to 80s" is a good idea or not. I'm inclined to agree with those who think it's not.. it's basically rewarding whoever has the best gear and plays 24/7 for the first few days after release, or who can rope their guildies into powerleveling them. Yes, this is an achievement of sorts, but... I don't think it's a very noble race, to say the least. Either only allow the achievements for new servers (yes, people will still poopsock their way to 80, but it probabl won't be as intense), give the title to the first 10 players instead of one, remove the achievement entirely, or prepare for the bad publicity that comes from the inevitable "person dies about playing WoW for 50 straight hours" news stories.

People are going to rush to be the first to 80 either way, though.

*shrug* there will always be someone who misses out. You can't round *all* the sharp corners off of life.

And a little drama would do some good. drama builds community.

The first pages of this thread actually discuss the server first kill achievements a great deal, and that was back when it was simply a Feat of Strength without the attached title.

I have to agree that server first to 80 and 450 in a profession are not good ideas for titles, there are problems with them if they go in as is.

People will always try to be first to 80, and I think just having the feat was a great idea, as it let them prove it. Adding the title makes it so many more are going to be trying, and doing so with every dirty trick in the book. I never liked things that promoted kill stealing and refusing to group up to kill a quest mob. And as Tanoshii said, many are going to account share to get it. That hardly seems like something that is worthy of a title.

Not to mention the fact that the very first person to reach 80 gets three titles, one for being first character, first class and first race. Seems like a waste of two titles.

Also with the reputation one, as I saw someone mention on the beta forums, most of the server first to those will go to humans, especially if any reputation is tied to dailies alone.

I also dislike what they put in as many of the titles. Something like Archmage or of the Ebon Blade has nothing to do with leveling. I don't mind someone being known as something more generic like "The Supreme", but when only one, maaaybe two gnomes per server can be known as "of Gnomeregan" somethings wrong.

The titles were starting to seem like a great way to further customize your character and show off an achievement. They still are to a degree but seems lame I wont be able to do anything to distinguish myself as a warlock/gnome/engineer.

On Tichondrius, drama over the AQ scepter (between Horde and Alliance) resulted in crashing the servers multiple times.

I suspect the titles won't be a big deal overall. But it's annoying to look at it and know that I'll never be from Gnomeregan. I'd set the timer to one week for server firsts (for leveling to 80) - keeps it a race, but lets people live during that race.

Players will race to 80 either way, true. But blizzard shouldn't encourage them to get 80 in 3-4 days by any means necessary to gain perhaps the best titles in the game by far.

It's bad, for the very same reason that the old honor system was bad. It has nothing to do with casual vs hardcore or anything like that. It just encourages things that shouldn't exist in a game.

I don't see what the problem with a little competition is. I don't see anything wrong with rewarding hardcore players for being hardcore. There will be some people that take a week off work, farm enough gold so they can flask and chain pot the whole time and they will be the ones to get the title. Not everybody can take a week off work but not everybody can be an olympic athlete either.