I can feel my attitudes towards achievements and trophies mellowing somewhat. While I still think people who play games just to get the trophies/achievements are big pillocks — and people who refuse to buy a PS3 game if it doesn't have a Platinum trophy are even bigger pillocks — I have started to think about them a bit differently, particularly with regard to PSN's implementation of them.
The way I've started thinking of them now is as another means of showing my appreciation for a quality (or at least enjoyable) piece of entertainment to the people who make it. Trophy data is public and synced online, so it's not unreasonable to assume that developers and publishers are looking at the proportion of people who achieve particular milestones in their games. Thinking of it in that way, I'm happy to put in a bit of extra effort to attain a Platinum trophy in a game I especially enjoyed, as it shows that I liked the game enough to want to see everything it had to offer. That enjoyment is then recorded permanently — or as permanent as my PSN profile is, anyway — for all to see.
I've achieved Platinum trophies — or 100% completion, where a game doesn't have a Platinum — in relatively few games to date. One was Thatgamecompany's Flower, which remains one of the most beautiful, moving interactive experiences I've ever had — and yes, I think it's better than Journey. The second was Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, which ended up being way better than I thought it would be; the third was Ar Tonelico Qoga, which was the climax to a series of games that now ranks among my favourites of all time. At my present rate, the fourth will be Time and Eternity, which I want to give some recognition and love to purely because it's been so thoroughly (and slightly unfairly, in my opinion) panned by a lot of critics, and completely ignored by others. In the case of all these trophies, attaining the Platinum represented a good balance between being able to enjoy the game normally, and going out of my way to make a bit of effort; I wouldn't have bothered if achieving it required too much in the way of unenjoyable grindy bollocks. (On Xbox, incidentally, the only games I've achieved 100% of the, uh, achievements on are Oblivion and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX. In the case of Oblivion, chasing the achievements actually spoiled the experience significantly for me because it directed what should have been a freeform experience far too much, and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX had insultingly easy achievements that really didn't reflect whether or not you were actually good at the game.)
I think much more fondly of PSN trophies than I do of Xbox or Steam achievements for some reason. I think it's because the "value" of PSN trophies is more immediately obvious. Sure, Xbox achievements have Gamerscore values, but Gamerscore is fairly meaningless, particularly as it's applied inconsistently between games and, well, doesn't do anything. Trophies, meanwhile, have instantly recognisable values; bronze ones are "fodder" for the most part; silver ones require a little more effort; gold ones are generally either challenging or time-consuming; and platinum ones show true dedication to a game. To say you have "Platinumed" a game is a much simpler, more elegant way of saying that you've done everything on that game's arbitrary checklist than "I got all the achievements".
Also, the PSN "You have earned a trophy" noise is infinitely better than the Xbox's "plink", and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. The Xbox noise is the same sound as when someone comes online, for heaven's sake; the PSN one sounds like you've picked up a powerup in a retro game. See? BETTER.
Discover more from I'm Not Doctor Who
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
You mention you think that trophies are better than Steam achievements, but you never say how. I like how they don't have a "gamerscore" value, but due to the stat-tracking of all the users have a rarity. I also like that there's no sound. it just pops up in the corner and then goes away after a while.
Pretty much the same reason. PSN trophies have a clear "value" to me — Platinum > Gold > Silver > Bronze. I feel good about achieving a "Gold" trophy, even though it's ultimately meaningless. Steam's achievements are more just "eh, you did something. Neat." Which I guess is fine too. I just don't get the same feeling of being able to use trophies to show my appreciation to a developer on anything other than PSN. Perhaps that's more to do with the fact that titles I really want to show that appreciation to are PS3 titles, though.
If anything, though, Steam achievements have even less obvious "value" than Xbox ones, because there's no restrictions on how many that can be crammed into a single game, and no real perception of how "valuable" or "difficult" each one is. How many does Team Fortress 2 have now? That said, I do like the whole "percentage of people who have achieved this" thing that Steam's got going on. You can use Raptr to do much the same with Xbox/PSN, though that's obviously dependent on people using Raptr for an accurate comparison.
I think Steam doesn't really make enough of its social/competitive/metagame component, even with the addition of trading cards. Or perhaps it's just the way I use Steam; I just don't feel an urge to use groups and the other stuff it offers, because none the individual aspects feel particularly well-integrated with each other — they all feel like cool things Valve felt like adding, but none of them really seem to interact with each other. Why aren't cards more integrated with achievements, for example? Why don't groups have an automatic feed of what people have been doing/achieving?
I agree with you. I think they need to tie their social stuff together a little better. This most recent update with the profile pages was a good step forward. I agree with you that I don't know why the cards aren't tied to achievements instead of simply play time in a game. They could set it up so that certain achievements drop cards and you can then make a badge from that. Or something similar.
I kind of agree with you on the number of achievements some games have. I like that they're allowed as many as they feel is necessary, but I agree it can sometimes get a little crazy.