Topic: The Trophy Discussion Thread

I have absolutely loads of games at like 2% on my list. I don't really care though - I like having a history of what games I've played. How else would I ever remember that I got the platinum in Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~?

I have tons of low and partials too.

Don't really care too much, the few plats and high %'s I have are from games I really enjoyed. Apart from Resistance: Burning Skies, that was almost impossible not to plat!

@Th3solution I can understand a low percentage on something without a story, something like WipEout (and need to issue a correction; I said that I had 18% trophies on Touch My Katamari but I actually have 25% because I got it confused with No Man's Sky, for which I have 18% and the intention of returning one day) but couldn't ever reconcile starting and then leaving a game heavily focused on narrative, like an Arkham game or Assassin's Creed. Wouldn't you just need to restart it from the beginning?

No criticism, it's your hobby and your time and effort. I'm just genuinely baffled and therefore curious as to the thought process behind buying and starting a story-driven game and then walking away after one session.

@Gremio108 I like your idea of displaying your five "proudest moments" on your PSN profile, that'd be really nifty. Although I wouldn't necessarily pick tricky trophies over picking ones with artwork I like, so that they look good all lined up together. Anything to replace the "YOU HAVEN'T DOWNLOADED SPOTIFY YET WHY HAVEN'T YOU DOWNLOADED SPOTIFY YET EVERYBODY MUST LIKE POPULAR MUSIC CONFORM CONFORM CONFORM" banner on my profile.

@RogerRoger Yeah that's the beauty of it, you could just pick whichever five you wanted. Your five rarest plats, or your five favourites or whatever.

Actually you've made me realise one of my pet hates - when developers put minimal effort into trophy artwork. So like when there's one with a 5 in a circle for reaching level 5, then a 10 for reaching level 10, and so on. Rubbish.

@RogerRoger You haven't downloaded Spotify yet?! =O

@Gremio108 Completely agree; whilst I don't mind a uniform art style when it comes to trophy art, such an approach doesn't mean "make them all look identical".

Not to keep banging on about my current obsession, but Hitman has the best examples of both lazy and awesome trophy art. The HD Trilogy on PS3 used the same franchise insignia for all the trophies in Silent Assassin and Contracts; the only difference was the colour, depending on the trophy type (gold, silver or bronze). It just made unlocking them kinda uninspiring, and I rarely went back to browse the list as a result.

Then skip over to Absolution and each thumbnail image is unique, offering some of the best, most striking designs I've ever seen on PSN. You could tell what you'd earned most of them for just by glancing at the picture. They're awesome.

I also remember a lot of the trophy artwork from Enslaved: Odyssey to the West being actual screenshots from the game, of the task you'd undertaken to earn them. I thought that was pretty neat back in the day. An early form of the PS4's auto-screenshot function for the moment you capture a trophy (but without filling up your HDD with black squares or loading screens).

@KALofKRYPTON I think I'd rather download, play and earn one single bronze trophy from Fallout 76 to forever tarnish my list than download Spotify. Ick, just... ick.

@RogerRoger I love Spotify.

Streaming certainly has its limitations - and I still prefer the sound of a CD through decent hardware, but it's just so damned convenient!

I hated the interface at first - I was a Music Unlimited user for quite a long time until Sony sacked it off. MU was great, integrated seamlessly with the Walkman app!

@KALofKRYPTON Not to drift too far off-topic, but I just can't stand music streaming services in general, because they'll always "recommend" popular stuff and I'm incredibly selective about what I listen to, and how I listen to it. My games consoles are for playing games and I can't and / or won't listen to music whilst playing games, because I'm listening to the game. It's fine to have a Spotify service on PS4 for those who want it, but Sony shouldn't have forcibly welded it to everybody's profile, especially above the profile's trophy overview.

In fact, putting a "my top five favourite trophies" rectangular window exactly where Spotify currently is would be the ideal place for the idea. I'd love that.

@RogerRoger Yeah those Absolution ones are ace. I like the old Fallout ones, they nailed the feel of the cheerful 1950s-style "don't play with radiocative waste, kids" cartoons perfectly

@RogerRoger I guess you never played Ridge Racer Revolution with a Black Crowes CD in the PS1 then 🤔😂

I rarely pay attention to the PS4 menus or profile truth be told.

Trophies are fine in the sub menu for me.

@RogerRoger "but couldn't ever reconcile starting and then leaving a game heavily focused on narrative, like an Arkham game or Assassin's Creed. Wouldn't you just need to restart it from the beginning?"

I do this more than I should and have basically sacked story driven games off for the time being. The reason you start them is you want to be hooked (for me HZD, MGS 5, spiderman) as these experiences once complete are more fulfilling than finishing most short burst arcade games. but either life circumstances or other factors stop you enjoying them. I have 3 games which will kind of explain that.

1 session - Nier Automata, it didn't grab me and played for around 6 hours. I knew it got better but had other things to do at the time and knew on advice that it would take a while to warm up. With that it's been on the shelf since.

3 sessions - God of War, amazing game I put a good 10-12 hours into it over a couple of days. Life got in the way and by the time I played it again had completely forgotten what I was doing, where I was going and how the menu screens worked for upgrades etc. It was pure frustration. I have never played it again.

Started twice - Witcher 3, started it up straight after MGS 5 and regardless of what anyone ever tells me the game was a chore to play compared to MGS 5. It was choppy and I just didn't like how Gerault controlled. I started it back up a few months later, got a bit further and for all the furore over how great the side stories were didn't enjoy the first few missions. I deleted the game.

So to summarise story driven games can be unwieldy during contradictory time poor sections of a gamers life regardless of the quality. Yet we still want to attempt a play through in order to reach the heady heights of a satisfying game story completion. Inevitably leading us to ditch said game and play Rocket League instead.

@RogerRoger The only time I listen to Spotify on my PS4 is whenever the game has licenced music, such as sports or driving games. At least that way i dont have to listen to some of the garbage from the game. And the recommendations have got a lot better of the last couple of years, they are less frequent and more accurate. I've had a couple of songs I personally would not have in some playlists, but you are gonna get that. I've also listened to music i wouldn't normally given the time to, where as if I was still mainly buying stuff I would be more likely to be sticking with the music I felt more comfortable listening to.

@themcnoisy It's weird that you couldn't get back into God of War, cos I started playing Resi Evil 7 again after over a year of not playing it and managed to pick things up pretty quickly. Admittedly GoW probs has more going on than RE7, but I thought I would struggle more than I did.

@JohnnyShoulder It's where I was when I saved (trying to find secrets) and the fact the buttons are slightly different to other games. Don't get me wrong I could have stuck with it but again something came up and I shut the Ps4 down. GoW has loads going on without you realising it and gradually builds up. The point I was at was about 3 hours after you meet the world serpent (that could be a lie as I actually can't remember) so everything was unlocked and available to use.

I think that's the problem with games and being an adult with loads of responsibilities. You do get distracted and immersion comes a sorry last to quick fire thrills. Maybe it's why the likes of Cod and Fifa are so popular as they barely change. More recently I have watched more films and books (well manga and marvel platinum series in my case) as you can literally carry on without having to re acclimatise. Im on a programming course on top of work and family stuff so it's all kerfuddled.

The opposite of that situation was Spiderman. I had one or two more lessons before Christmas break without any mandatory homework and had a few holidays days left over in work I had to take. So the planets aligned to let me enjoy it. And I did loads.

@RogerRoger As for the inquiry about how do I manage spending a couple sessions in a heavily narrative type game and end up abandoning it ... well, @themcnoisy kinda beat me to it but I would echo his sentiments. Although his life sounds significantly more complicated than mine, I just easily get distracted by the next thing vying for my attention. Often it’s another game.
So taking the example of those in my 1% trophy club, some had the misfortune of just being games right at the transition from one console generation to another and the game got overshadowed by the next big thing. And sometimes I just don’t know for sure why it happens and a game doesn’t stick.
But amazingly, there are times when one can spend many, many hours on a game and still have only earned 2-3 trophies and so it looks like I haven’t given it a chance, but I have. I think I played the entirety from beginning to end of The Last of Us and only earned like 9% completion. I’m at 10% on RDR2, after somewhere around 20-30 hours, and if I’m not careful, I run the risk of getting distracted before finishing that never ending opus. I could have platinum’d 2-3 simplier games in that time, at least.
And I think it is easier to drop in and out of less narrative games, like puzzle games, racing games, fighters, etc. That seems to help their longevity. But like Noisy says, if there is a slight distraction then a narrative game has the disadvantage of being hard to remember what was going on if a few weeks has passed.
Besides life being busy with work, friends, family, other hobbies — the other issue to me is just the sheer volume of options available now. The same thing applies to Netflix where I have started about a dozen series and never finished them because I get wooed away to try another one and forget about the other series I started and never completed. Apologies to The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Daredevil, and all the countless other shows I only made it a few episodes into.
Anyways, I have a lot of respect for those of you who can stay focused on a single game and complete it without distraction. I wish I knew your secret. Perhaps I just need to up my ADD meds. 😉

@themcnoisy @Th3solution I'm grateful for your responses; I definitely understand better than I did now, so thank you. Specifically those three different types of "narrative abandonment" were particularly useful in getting some perspective. And yeah, there's certainly a truckload of good stuff vying for our attention right now, especially when you add this new trend of limited-time events (next week, I don't have a choice to be playing anything other than Hitman 2 because of the next Elusive Target and a limited-time Snow Festival level, so it doesn't matter if I'm halfway through anything else, I'm gonna have to play that).

@JohnnyShoulder Appreciate the further thoughts on Spotify, but you highlighted the one thing I'd be terrified of when you said "I've had a couple of songs I personally would not have in some playlists, but you are gonna get that." That's one big "nope" from me, alas!

Like I said before, I'm glad it's there for folks who like it, I just wish it wasn't stuck on everybody's profiles. Just an option to hide or delete that banner would be perfect.

@RogerRoger Its not really a massive problem, you can choose not to play that track or artist again. Or simply just skip the track. The more you like stuff the more it will know what your tastes are. And you can create custom playlists with the song you choose to put in there.

I appreciate it is not for everyone, but I have over 500 cd's which the only thing I can play it on is my laptop which is not really ideal.

I downloaded one or two albums a year but the days of me purchasing of physical music have long gone now.

Anyway think Ive harrased you enough over this, I don't wanna derail this thread any more!

@JohnnyShoulder @RogerRoger Shall we talk MiniDiscs? I still have some of those... and two players - one of them is silver, like a trophy...

@JohnnyShoulder You're right, thread derailment imminent (or it was three posts ago) but I still appreciate your input. It seems inevitable that music will be exclusively streaming in a couple years, so I'll be forced to get in line eventually, I'm sure.

But I'll still do it from a separate device, because games consoles are for gaming.

@KALofKRYPTON Yeah, let's not. I feel old enough as it is!

I'm working my way toward the Assassin's Creed Origins platinum which is totally weird for me because I mocked the Assassin's Creed series for years - and I stand by it, those early games sucked - but I really like this one. It's buggy and broken and glitchy as all hell, and the combat is a bit rubbish, but there's something about riding around Egypt on a camel that I've named Colin that is really rad.

Also I love Spotify and have a ridiculously well organised playlist collection.