Topic: The Trophy Discussion Thread

@colonelkilgore @Sorteddan @RogerRoger Thanks guys !!

@colonelkilgore I've been doing this for years, just take your time and have fun ! Right now I'm playing F1 2020, Borderlands 3 and Sekiro. I'm not sure which one will come first. We'll see !

@Sorteddan My first platinum was DIRT 2, all the way back to 2010 !

Platinum number 65 for me with A Plague Tale: Innocence, a great little game. I missed some collectibles and some chapter specific trophies from the first time I played it and despite there being chapter select afterwards I had missed something in almost every chapter so I just started again with a guide. I hope Asobo studios is doing another of their own games in-between helping other studios as they seem to have lots of potential.
That's 4 platinums in as many weeks with Walking Dead 3&4 and Space Crew also done (yeah easy ones). I'm trying to clear up a few games I've been meaning to go back and mop up the remaining trophies so I can delete them and get my backlog down. Oxenfree mean and silent runs next I think.

@Cornaboyzzz That's an impressive amount even for a decade.

@BearsEatBeets well done bud, 4 in a month is a good return.

So, for hours a day, multiple days a week for the last year or two, I've been obsessively playing Woah Dave! on my Vita in pursuit of the last trophy I needed, "Call Me Aaron Burr," which requires the player to collect 1000 pennies. This goal is especially hard on the "bonkers" difficulty, which is the only one where enemies spawn fast enough to make obtaining this trophy feasible. I've died countless times going for this trophy, as it requires a frankly absurd amount of focus and razor sharp reflexes over a long period of time to accumulate this many.

Finally, FINALLY. I got it this morning. And I didn't just get to that 1000 pennies threshold: I actually managed to collect more than 1500 pennies! It was, frankly, a unprecedented run for me.

I'm free! Free!

@Ralizah impressive dedication there... some plats just mean more than others in ones collection. I imagine that when you look back in around a years time this one will be one such plat.

@colonelkilgore Sadly, there's no platinum trophy. It's a tiny, forgettable download-only game that I got hung up on.

@Ralizah Wow that's dedication ! I just checked and this one is really rare, 0.48% on PSNProfiles ! Congrats.

@Ralizah wow... so, I honestly don’t know what to say 🤯

@Ralizah
I kinda remember playing it a few years back. Old school arcade stuff as I recall. Didn't really stick with it so admire your dedication. And I know your feeling of now being free from it but do you think that part of you will miss the routine of putting the regular hours in? Kind of like giving up a hobby.

@Sorteddan Oh, totally. There were so many times I picked that stupid game up while watching a podcast, or listening to music, or what have you. It very much became a routine, and it'll leave a bit of a hole in my day for a while.

Apparently it has been six years since I earned my first trophy in it, lmao.

@Cornaboyzzz Ah, thanks. I completely forgot PSProfiles was a thing. I went back and updated my profile.

It's too bad I'm not primarily a Playstation gamer. My trophy numbers wouldn't be quite so piddly otherwise.

@Ralizah Yes, how dare you dedicate so much to a game without a platinum trophy! It is almost it can't be fun without one lol. 😂

@JohnnyShoulder the fact @Ralizah ended her post with “I’m free! Free!’ suggests that even if it was fun once... it hasn’t been that for a hot minute 🤔

@JohnnyShoulder @colonelkilgore There does seem to be a generalized devaluation of other trophy types compared to the platinum, doesn't there? I guess that's what happens when Sony makes one trophy type more valuable than the others to your cumulative score. Never bothered me, though: there are mindlessly easy platinums to achieve and brutally difficult gold and silver trophies. I attach value to the experience itself, not the digital trinket.

I don't dislike the game (I usually just stop playing games I dislike), but I can't say beating my head against the same rock for so many months was particularly fun, either. To be honest, I feel less of a sense of achievement than one of relief, but, all the same, there is a small part of me that will miss the grind.

The one really crucial factor is that it was on the Vita, though. Having that console sitting close by, ready to pick up for one more go while I was doing something else, was the only reason I didn't abandon my quest long ago. It's a pity remote play doesn't work well for me. If I could play the PS4 version of Rayman Legends on my Vita, I'd likely already have that one horrible trophy that requires grinding the special challenges for months to boost your level of awesomeness.

@Ralizah A fair way of looking at it... to be honest whatever way any one person chooses to look at it is perfectly fair in my book as it is simply an adjunct to playing the games themselves. I tend to play the games I want to... but to go for the plats on those games, never really played a game as it would mean getting an easy/quick plat (though 1 or 2 of mine would be considered ‘those’ kinds of plats).

I do tend to ‘value’ the memories more of the ones that took some genuine skill or graft though.

@colonelkilgore That's the way to do it. Trophies should reflect the fun you've had and challenges you've overcome when engaging with the medium, like a digital scrapbook of sorts. I can't imagine being one of those people who "collects" platinums and regularly plays complete dreck as a result. Although I do think it's hilarious that a minor cottage industry has developed for games that people buy for easy plats.

@Ralizah oh I’ve started ‘collecting’ plats... but only plats that I want. And the grange thing is since starting to hunt down plats I am enjoying my gaming more than ever. I think I’ve mentioned it before but I think I would previously kinda play games in my own personal comfort-zone (not necessarily a difficulty level thing... more of a gameplay-style choice). Plat hunting has pushed me out of my comfort-zone, forcing me to at least temporarily (until the trophy pops that is) play in differing manners.

It’s definitely a very personal thing though, most of my mates who are gamers just can’t take the ‘pressure’ of that kind of goal-setting when partaking in a leisure activity... works for me though.

@colonelkilgore ...right, but "plats that you want" are for games you basically enjoy and would want to play anyway, right? Would you buy and play a worthless game that is only designed to give players easy access to its platinum trophy? Because that's a thing, and I don't understand it.

But yeah, when designed well, trophies can push you to fully experience a game. I'm not sure I would have played something like Detroit: Become Human as many times as I did if I wasn't going for trophies. I didn't end up getting the platinum for that (yet), but I can absolutely say it led to me appreciating the game design more, even if playing it over and over got a bit tedious.

@Ralizah exactly that, I only try and plat games I want to play as the game appeals to my wants... ie I bought The Evil Within 1 & 2 yesterday both of which are considered difficult Platinums to obtain. I also have the Metal Gear Solid games on the docket for this year and the Devil May Cry series planned for the year after. All of those are considered difficult plats also. That’s not to say either that I only go for difficult platinums exclusively... these are games which I just really want to play.

@Ralizah @colonelkilgore I don't think that i have or will ever play a game just to get a platinum. All my platinum trophies are either games you get by completing the story, like the Telltale Games, or when I gave finished the story/campaign there are only a few obtainable trophies left. If there are any that i feel are obnoxious (replaying the game on a harder difficulty for instance), I move on. God of War and Ghost of Tsushima I could have played for a lot longer. Assassin's Creed Origins I tried to mop the last few trophies, but could feel my enjoyment of the game begin to fall away. I just don't feel it is worth it.

@JohnnyShoulder totally fair bud... and I used to see things exactly the same way. I only went after my first Platinum on Bloodborne as I loved the game so much and when I was discussing it with a mate, he asked if I was gonna ‘go for the plat’. Going for a plat had never even occurred to me before but I thought what the hell, the game was gonna be over shortly and I really wanted to keep playing it so I did.

I had no real intention of going for any others but bit by bit I’ve gone from ‘trophies not figuring in my gaming at all’ to ‘I’ll just Plat Bloodborne’ to ‘If when playing a game, I just really like it I’ll try for the plat’ to ‘I’ll try and plat things I play that only require one playthru and no hard playthru’ to ‘I’ll try and plat every game on the docket’. And in fairness, I’ve gained more and more enjoyment from gaming as I’ve ‘gone through the gears’ as it were.