150°

Comment: Why Trophies Have Lost Their Sparkle For Me

Trophies and Achievements have been one of the largest innovations to be implemented in this console generation. Aside from the obvious graphical leaps and vastly superior network capabilities the PS3 and Xbox 360 demonstrated over their predecessors, these machines effectively provide the same function as the earliest home consoles - which is to captivate and entertain their players. But those little to-do lists, those trophy cabinets we crave to fill, have fundamentally altered this; the previously individual single player experience many of us cut our gaming teeth on has now become, irrevocably, competitive. For better or worse, now your every action, choice or decision deemed worthy by developers has become visible to your friends. Moreover, they are used as bragging rights - the proof of hours and hours invested in a game, displayed on your Gamertag for all to see.

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lazyassgamer.com
Omnislash4152d ago

I have 15 platinums, and Im pretty much done collecting them since games have dumber and umber trophies to unlock. Some of them are just ridiculous and a total time waster. For instance, getting 100% sync on every single thing on AC3 that is just stupid. Plus not to mention online trophies..

sithsylar4152d ago

Online achievements should just die seriously especially when the community is dead for certain games...

JD_Shadow4152d ago

Not completely. They have extended the life of certain games that are actually good (would you even go play that higher difficulty setting if there wasn't a shiny for you upon completing it?). People enjoy going after them, and they aren't going to die anytime soon. We should just get used to them being there (and really, it's not always a bad thing to have them in there).

-MD-4152d ago

"would you even go play that higher difficulty setting if there wasn't a shiny for you upon completing it?"

Yes, hard modes existed long before trophies and achievements.

admiralvic4152d ago

@ Darkpower

For everything good thing they do, they do another 3 bad things.

Yes they add life to a dying game, but they also...

Turn off potential buyers, I mean who wants to know the platinum / 1,000 is impossible without even turning on the game?
It affects how people play. If there is a trophy for knifing 500 people or killing someone in a plane with a grenade, then you can EXPECT... someone will focus on these tasks throughout the match. This will result in useless team mates, pointless deaths, people who might not defend you with the flag, etc.
Win streaks ruin the community... Typically fighting games force you to go X games without losing online, which is a feat the AVERAGE user just CAN NOT accomplish. Instead of admitting defeat, moving on or getting better... plenty of people will resort to whatever works. Yes these people exist regardless, but trophies support this method of playing.

In the end, no trophy is going to completely save an online... it just becomes nothing more than a boost fest.

despair4152d ago

trophies and achievements are fine, but i have lost a lot of the zeal to platinum many games. That said I still do some crazy shit for trophies and its not like the games are ruined in any way whether i go for them or not.

LAZL0-Panaflex4152d ago

Correct. I hate online achievements. I got 14 platinums, but i hate having the pressure to get them, with achievement points its better imo because if u got a couple impossible or downright stupid ones troubling u u just skip it...no big deal i'll take a 980/1000 any day over busting my ass a couple extra hours for a bronze trophy to get a platinum no one can see unless they compare trophies with mine which takes for ever. I like gamer points because they allow me to be lazy, but i have and will platinum a great game like infamous 1 &2, mafia 2, uncharted 2.

morganfell4152d ago

Achievements and Trophies should outlive juvenile articles spouting bedroom rants. These pretend journalists and angry children are far more harmful to gaming than a mere acknowledgement of action.

guitarded774152d ago

Online trophies suck because you end up with some douches mining in the middle of a round and wonder why your team is getting their asses kicked.

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iamnsuperman4152d ago

I would like trophies to get a bit more obscure. Completing chapter one, two.... on any difficulty is not a challenge. They need to be challenging and also make you play the game differently (i.e. crawl for an entire level, do not kill anyone..... something different and off the beaten track)

Omnislash4152d ago

Trophies should be aimed to make you play through the entirety of the game while challenging you enough to push yourself in that game. I think Dark Souls did that amazingly, other games do too much to where you do pointless things that are usually more luck based than anything else.

KangarooSam4152d ago (Edited 4152d ago )

I agree; I just got my PS3 and decided to play inFamous. I've beaten the game twice; one time good, the other evil. Finished it on hard last night. I have almost every trophy except finding 350 Blast Shards. EFF THAT lol. Collectibles are way too much effort and that's just a grind once you've finished the game. I honestly don't think I'm gonna go for trophies unless I absolutely love the game or it just happens like with The Walking Dead and probably PSASBR, eventually.

youndamie4152d ago

Lol yea I got stuck at 347 shards :(

KangarooSam4152d ago

@youndamie:

lol exactly what I'm trying to avoid. As long as I finish the story, try out multiplayer, maybe try for some trophies if it means replay value then that's fine. Platinum's aren't gonna happen for me, though.

BlackTar1874152d ago

im stuck at 349. I thought i had found the one i was missing but when i got it i was basically jumping up and down and it read 349/350 i turned the game off right there.

Y_51504152d ago

I may never plat inFAMOUS...But I'm happy with my inFAMOUS 2 and festival of blood %100. I agree that you should only plat the games that you enjoyed the most because well if you got plat, you should have enjoyed the game atleast except if it was something like Hannah Montana haha.

LAZL0-Panaflex4152d ago

They got maps on youtube, not that bad.

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guitarded774152d ago (Edited 4152d ago )

I like trophies/achievements... I like what they offer in terms of replayability. I don't actively go for them on an initial playthrough of most games, but I often go back to good games and hunt for them. I've been gaming since the beginning of it all, and sure, we didn't have trophies/achievements back in the day, but there are a lot of things we didn't have back in the day which we have now, that are now standard and in some cases, essential. I don't want to go back to no trophies/achievements.

Also, if you haven't signed the Wii U Accomplishment petition, please take a second to do so. For those of us who want to platinum/100% a Zelda or Metroid game one day.

http://originalgamster.com/...

sithsylar4152d ago

Saints row 3 is the perfect example of me going for trophies. I spent like 40 hours on that game loved it. No way i would of spent 40 hours without trophies tbh...

Soldierone4152d ago

I was so sad when I finally got the plat. I was like "dangit, now I need more!" lol

sithsylar4152d ago

hahah. I was the same im really tempted to get the dlc but not sure which ones to get!

guitarded774152d ago

@ Soldierone

Play it again on Steam and/or XBOX 360. I do that with some games. Playing Saint's Row 3 on Steam right now. Over the top funny.

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50°

Ar Tonelico Qoga: Knell Of Ar Ciel Retro Review – Love Conquers All

Gary Green said: You’ll be forgiven if you haven’t heard of the Ar Tonelico trilogy. The previous two games arrived so late in the PS2’s life-cycle that they simply went unnoticed. While most were tinkering with their shiny new PS3s, Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia and Ar Tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica were being ‘returned to sender’ by your local Game stores. Luckily, you won’t need to have played them to understand and appreciate this third and final chapter, Qoga (pronounced k-yoga) tells the story of a racial war between humans and Reyvateils, a breed of biologically produced female cyborgs capable of reproduction, while still having a digital mind.

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pslegends.com
Giga_Gaia22m ago

Oh my god. I kinda wish this would get a remaster on PS5, it would be awesome. One of my favorite games on PS3.

That and 3D Dot Game Heroes. It's a shame that some stuff is stuck on PS3.

60°

Pacific Rim Pinball comes to Pinball FX

This could be fun as they make great tables. Go big or go extinct. Prime your senses for a neural handshake and step into the cockpit of a Jaeger. It is on you to cancel the apocalypse when Pacific Rim Pinball comes to Pinball FX on May 16.

270°

Microsoft’s Surface and Xbox hardware revenues take a big hit in Q3

Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.

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theverge.com
darthv721d 3h ago

Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.

solideagle14h ago

you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)

Sonic188112h ago

I thought darthv72 and Obscure_Observer already work for Microsoft 🤔

dveio11h ago

MS: "Xbox services and content without AB up 1%, with AB up 62%. Hardware down 31%. In total a loss of 350 mill."

darthv72: "Seems about right."

MS: "Excuse m ..."

darthv72: "I don't hardly play on my consoles directly."

MS:

Lightning776h ago

What he said was facts. How he plays games is no concern of you. Don't get too mad about it.

Cacabunga14h ago

I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..

If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.

darthv7228m ago

to you it may seem like the minority... but your bubble is shrinking because more and more are following suit. convenience is a hell of a drug and its also why physical sales only amount to 30% of overall game sales. times are changing, you either get with them or you get left behind.

shinoff218313h ago

But that's been ms for years. When things aren't going their way they try to change the way things are said. For instance console sales are down, they stop telling how many sold instead telling us how many hours spent in halo or headshots. So it makes sense console sales down just say people are playing on more devices then previous. What they won't say is how many xbox players jumped ship to ps5.

Cacabunga12h ago

Hardware sales are so bad that Sony and Nintendo are blowing the sales off the water with their hardware.

If Xbox are losers, others aren’t..
Xbox already tried everything with Xbox live then subscriptions went down so much that they had to find something else. Their fans subscribed then reached saturation rather quickly.

Hardware and exclusive games is where it’s at! Keep gamers excited, announce decent software and people will support you

itsmebryan8h ago

@shin
Well keep it simple Sony 's operating income is down 26% and Microsoft's is up 32%. No MS spin there, just facts. 😉
Cheers

S2Killinit1h ago

MS is after diminishing consoles as a medium. They want to destroy this market because they couldnt win. MS’s vision is to dissolve console gaming.

romulus237h ago

Odd that a company that touts you dont need the hardware to play is already touting another console in the works.

darthv726h ago

They are not reliant on the HW but still want to maintain a presence (no matter how small) is a good thing. It shows commitment to the craft. It reminds me of SNK and how they made games for their own hardware (Neo Geo) while also making them for others because they knew there was a market to do so. They knew they would sell more to others but also sell to their own niche fan base.

TheEroica45m ago(Edited 44m ago)

Perfectly reasonable post down voted by insecure corporation friendly folk.... But not gamers. Real gamer want accessibility and ease of acquisition for all.... Company shills are the only ones still telling us that hardware locking people from games is good for us.

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purple10117h ago

Xbox hardware revenue tanks to lowest point of Xbox Series generation

Profchaos16h ago

I'm not surprised surface is struggling they aren't relevant anymore

DOMination-6h ago

In the last two years they've started exiting the consumer market altogether. All of the newest Surface products are business models only. They can't seem to work out what they want to do with it.

XBManiac15h ago

Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.

SimpleDad15h ago(Edited 15h ago)

"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."

That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.

purple10115h ago

Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"

Microsoft: "why's that"

Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'

Profchaos14h ago(Edited 14h ago)

Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk

It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD

Kornholic13h ago

So basically PS and PC gamers' money is keeping Xbox on life support.

MrDead6h ago

The only growth MS will get out of the console industry is if it supports it's rivals platforms. Xbox is a pointless machine now. I can see them on a big push for live next, and they won't give up on trying to buy Steam.

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