Trophy/achievement hunting explained?

Hope it hasn't been posted before (if so can this post please be merged into said topic?), but kinda over seeing so many people say this;

SimonK

I'll never understand those who play games just to get trophies or achievements. I mean taping your controller up for 3 days and buying 700 karts? Have you ever sat back and thought about what you're doing? This and every other game is meant for enjoyment and fun, where is there fun in either of those tasks? One of them you're not even playing the game!

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I'll never understand why so many people say this. Well i do actually. 💡

Before trophies and achievements came along, there were a number of people who aimed to get 100% completion in all/some games that they played.

Then came the achievements and trophies. They are pretty much 'rewards' for going the extra mile in a game (to increase longetivity/play time). Some people like to try for all of the trophies etc available. For the exact same reasons as when trophies and achievements weren't around - to fully complete the game and get a sense of achievement.

Simple really. 👍
It's also kind of a way to 'show off' your gaming ability/dedication, to others who look at your stats.

They are optional of course, as is finishing the game. So i really don't see why people feel the need to say its pointless, to some people it isn't!

Personally if a game seems like it should be not too hard to get a platinum/100% and i like playing that game (a big help...) then i try aim to get all the trophies (PS3) and achievements (Xbox) that i can.

Some games i get very close and then can go no more (like Forza 2 - have about two online ones to get but never will as would need to win too many online races and also have to have Live Gold).

So far;
100% Trophies (PS3)
- Infamous
- Gran Turismo 5

100% Achievements (Xbox)
- Lego Batman
- Lego Indiana Jones
- Forza 3

Anyone else care to help explain why people choose to try finish everything? To help others understand.

You've obviously misunderstood slightly. I think achievements and trophies are a good idea as they add something extra to do to complete games, I like getting them myself.

My confusion was with people who go to crazy lengths to complete them, like the guy in that thread who taped his controller up and left the console running for 2 days or those who go around 'boosting' just for trophies.

From reading his posts though, it sounds liked he'd already played the game through and wanted an extra challenge/to torture himself so opted to go hard and try finish everything as quick as possible.

In a way that's just another challenge/sense of achievement, even if only a mere few would attempt it i'd guess. I certainly wouldn't go that far!

I do see what you mean though.

For those wondering: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=237460

Gran Turismo is the only game I try to finish completely. It's been my favorite game since it first came out and I finished GT1 by hiring the game from a video shop lol. Everyone has their own reasons but mine is just the sense of achievement of finishing the game. I'm not in any hurry to do it but I will get there one day

Well just recently I've decided to start getting the trophy percentages up on a bunch of my games just as something to lengthen out he amount of time I'll spend with a game.

What I don't understand is the all out lengths people care about these things or when people go out and buy games just to get easy trophies. Just doesn't really make sense to me.

I would try to go for Platinum in every game I own but some games are just too difficult for me. I did Platinum Infamous (which may be saying the game is easy or I'm just good at it, I have no clue) and I want to get InFamous 2 but I doubt I will be getting platinum on many games because of the requirements. Doesn't mean I won't try though.

I think getting trophies in games you like is great - causing frustration to yourself in order to get them, however, is not.

I'm always playing Call of Duty games on Veteran, for example - because I like the challenge. I'm also getting the secrets and kill achievements (30 kills with X, 20 with X etc.) but I wouldn't start playing things that annoy me.

The issue arises because there's certain types of trophy, larger you can categorise them in to 2 or 3 groups.

There's 'Skill trophies', complete the game on the hardest setting, beat X time and so on, whether you need alot skill is another thing but you at least need some and as such these trophies are a sort of badge for yourself to prove you did it and as a reward for it. These trophies are ones which I think are perfectly acceptable and worth aiming for so long as the requirements are achievable and most importantly within your own control rather than randomised or out of control elements which may or may not ruin your attempt.

A great example of fair but hard may be Mile High Club on COD4, a poor example may be Flag Stealer on Dirt 3 which requires you to steal the flag from the opponents 5 times in a game but if you are first to the flag and capture it immediately or your team does you get no chance to do this by being 'too good' (Multiplayer trophies often do this and are often biased in this way where you need to be in such specific circumstances to really get it). Et Tue, Brute? on Bad Company 2 is an excellent example of a poorly designed trophy, knife 5 friends online when the main way you'd meet your friends is on the same team and if your friends are good players and get on the opposing team you may not get an opportunity to knife them anyway even as a good player yourself, these trophies I would deem as 'Luck trophies'. These ones are usually not worth aiming for and not satisfying to get and as such ruin the platinum's for the games they're in quite often.

'Time trophies' is the final main group to me, requiring you simply play for a long time or do something which requires alot of time e.g. using a certain weapon for ages to get X kills with it (Uncharted for example) and similarly these trophies aren't really worth having alot of the time. Collectibles fall in to this category as well where you often just have to run in to every corner of every map looking for some items and I personally think are a cheap and lazy way to try and extend a games like cycle, if there's something collectible they should involve some sort of challenge to get them such as a certain jump section or whatever, and shouldn't necessarily be hidden from view as happening to run in to the correct corner is hardly an achievement.

In other words I think the only trophies which should exist and are worth chasing or bragging about are the skill ones, where you have full control over your chances of getting it and require some level of finesse on the game in question. By definition this usually takes some time as it is, requiring you to get better at the game rather than just 'play the game until you get the trophy' you 'play the game until you get good enough to get the trophy'. Any form of challenge should be challenging of your ability, not of the amount of spare time you have or how many friends you have who have this game and so on. There is some overlap where multiplayer trophies may be fair such as be top scorer online in a match because if you're good it will happen sooner or later, much better than use X weapon in Y situation which actually mean, use X weapon until you get lucky and Y situation arises and hope for the best.

It has a lot to do with human psychology and needs. For my teaching qualification, I had to study Maslow and several other psychology theorys.



After the first 3 steps of the pyramid have been satisfied, the human psyche craves further fulfilment, these can come in many forms, a trophy or acheivement, also tick these boxes.

This article also briefly covers this relationship.

http://www.ps3informer.com/playstation-3/games/the-psychology-of-achievements-010148.php

Personally I do occasionally hunt for achievements or trophies, partially because I want to absolutely finish some games and leave nothing to come back to, but also sometimes because they encourage me to keep playing in ways I usually wouldn't or in modes I don't care about. I know I'll never platinum Wipeout HD and probably not GT5 either (simply because I don't want to gold all the special events), but I do strive to do what I think I can (reaching zone 20 with airbrakes and side shifting in Wipeout HD? No way!) because I love the games and just feel like the extra effort is worth it.

Then again if I don't really like the game I won't try too hard to get the trophies, but I know a few people on my PSN list who just do them anyway, and even one guy who has bought or rented some kids games just to boost the number of platinums he has. I mean last I checked he had platinums in Just Cause 2, Killzone 2 (got to respect that, I tried but couldn't (be bothered)), Burnout Paradise, Infamous, Prototype... Some horse riding game, Lego Batman and some other chaff.

Trophies would be great if designers put as much thought into them as the game itself, but because they're a requirement a lot of them are just tacked on at the last minute, so they either reward you for playing the game normally (which is dumb, the reward for that is progressing through the game) or they're rewarding you for something pointless that takes nothing more than too much free time.

They're far too easy to obtain as well. Trophies need to be something skill based, above and beyond the scope of the game that only a handful of players can get. In their current state, most of them are meaningless, because everyone who plays the game at all has one.

NFS Undercover had one incredibly difficult one, "Create of use an existing account to sign in to EA Nation" congrats to me for having the internet .

I think there's usually the one trophy in each game which is the one everyone wants, for their own satisfaction or otherwise, but as you say it's all the ridiculous ones either tedious or simple which dilute any reason to want the maximum number of trophies as it shows little more than how much spare time you have to waste. Time which to me could be spent on multiplayer or even another game completely.

Dragonistic

NFS Undercover had one incredibly difficult one, "Create of use an existing account to sign in to EA Nation" congrats to me for having the internet .

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SBKX had an even harder one:

"Money well spent
Thanks for purchasing SBK X."

This was awarded when starting the game for the first time.

Dragonistic

NFS Undercover had one incredibly difficult one, "Create of use an existing account to sign in to EA Nation" congrats to me for having the internet .

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The worst thing is that this is now standard practice. They want to force you to use your online pass (because they don't want you to sell it 2nd hand), because if you don't there's no way to get the Platinum trophy.

On-topic: I couldn't care less about trophies.

NLxAROSA

The worst thing is that this is now standard practice. They want to force you to use your online pass (because they don't want you to sell it 2nd hand), because if you don't there's no way to get the Platinum trophy.

On-topic: I couldn't care less about trophies.

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Actually they want to milk you for every penny you have. If you think about it logically, when purchasing a $60 dollar game you are either receiving the online pass for free or you are paying twice the price just to have online content.

Blitz24

Actually they want to milk you for every penny you have. If you think about it logically, when purchasing a $60 dollar game you are either receiving the online pass for free or you are paying twice the price just to have online content.

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Forza 4 has an achievement for using Kinect to control the car in a race. I'd expect most serious Forza players wouldn't have/want to have Kinect, however if they wanted all achievements they'd have to spend a large amount on a peripheral they'd most likely use once.