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"Remember what used to be unlockable stages and items in gaming? That sweet feeling of what you accomplished paved the way for more content and fun? Yea, that content is now trophies/achievements."
I disagree with this. There are PLENTY of games that still reward (not award) players with unlockable content. I don't see this trend dying out AT ALL, and certainly not due to the popularity of achievements and trophies.
I disagree with this. There are PLENTY of games that still reward (not award) players with unlockable content. I don't see this trend dying out AT ALL, and certainly not due to the popularity of achievements and trophies.
I'm not crazy about trophies but i like getting them. They are a way for a game to acknowledge things you accomplished that may otherwise go ignored. That trophy or that achievement is the game acknowledging the time and work you put in. Not to mention it allows the developer to say more and challenge the player to play differently.
"I feel having trophies slapped on to the re-releases shows where many gamers' focus has been lost."
This I disagree with. You make some decent arguments, but adding trophies to a re-release doesn't misprioritize gamer's focus. Rather, like the unlockables you mentioned, it functions as a nice perk for some players. Those that like them, will like them. For others, it's irrelevant.
Regarding trophies/achivements, I like them. They are interesting "badges" for different things, which entice some players to try different things. And some are quite entertaining in their own right - for example, check the list for Eat Lead (not everyone`s a winner, but many gave me chuckles).
If a designer is doing well, then all of a game`s content will be designed to improve the experience. True, some do simply add in collect-a-thons for padding, but many games still have numerous varied sidequests that tie into the main game. If anything, I expect they would pad the multiplayer aspect over the single-player campaign.
AFAIK, most systems allow ou to turn notifications off. So if you do dislike them, you can pretty much cut them out of your experience.
And if someone passes on Valkyria Chronicles or the like due to a lack of trophies, they`ve really only hurt themselves.
This I disagree with. You make some decent arguments, but adding trophies to a re-release doesn't misprioritize gamer's focus. Rather, like the unlockables you mentioned, it functions as a nice perk for some players. Those that like them, will like them. For others, it's irrelevant.
Regarding trophies/achivements, I like them. They are interesting "badges" for different things, which entice some players to try different things. And some are quite entertaining in their own right - for example, check the list for Eat Lead (not everyone`s a winner, but many gave me chuckles).
If a designer is doing well, then all of a game`s content will be designed to improve the experience. True, some do simply add in collect-a-thons for padding, but many games still have numerous varied sidequests that tie into the main game. If anything, I expect they would pad the multiplayer aspect over the single-player campaign.
AFAIK, most systems allow ou to turn notifications off. So if you do dislike them, you can pretty much cut them out of your experience.
And if someone passes on Valkyria Chronicles or the like due to a lack of trophies, they`ve really only hurt themselves.
I say you have to be stupid to do the Seriously achievements in Gears Of War, but then I just racked up 1,000,000 heal points in TF2 not to long ago, and it took me 400 hours to do it.
Different strokes and all that jazz.
Different strokes and all that jazz.
I like games with or without achievements. I'm planning to buy the ICO/Shadow of the Colossus Collection when it comes out even though I already own both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus on PS2, because of the added content. It's just something more to do in the game. I don't see how it could be a bad thing.
I agree with a lot of this. I hate pointless achievements that reward busywork or normal gameplay rather than skill and tenacity. I still like trophies/achievements. I just don't obsess over them. They're this cool meta-game that allows me to go back and try to achieve things I might not normally do. They also act as visual proof/bragging rights for achieving a tough goal. The arcade comparison is a good one, but the difference here is that gamers feel how many platinums or how high their gamerscore is is reason to brag instead of how many good they are at difficult games. Every friend with a lot of trophies on my PSN has platinumed Terminator: Salvation and that makes me sad.
I ignore trophies on the first playthrough. Getting them can be distracting because it triggers this compulsive desire to collect them all simply because they are there, but I choose to ignore and focus on the game first. The important thing is that I never feel motivated to 100% a game because I want to hoard all the trophies. I only do it if I really love the game and feel like crushing it inside out anyway. A good example is Dead Space. I love that game. Playing it is a thing I just do when I bored. I've beat it at least 6-7 times on 2 systems. Getting all the trophies/achievements kinda came naturally. There were a few I had to try to get, but screw it, it's nice to have something else to do once I've beat it on all difficulties a few times. Conversely, I refuse to play a shitty game like Dante's Inferno again even though the trophies were easy as hell to get. It's not worth the effort and I wouldn't enjoy myself. What would be the point.
I ignore trophies on the first playthrough. Getting them can be distracting because it triggers this compulsive desire to collect them all simply because they are there, but I choose to ignore and focus on the game first. The important thing is that I never feel motivated to 100% a game because I want to hoard all the trophies. I only do it if I really love the game and feel like crushing it inside out anyway. A good example is Dead Space. I love that game. Playing it is a thing I just do when I bored. I've beat it at least 6-7 times on 2 systems. Getting all the trophies/achievements kinda came naturally. There were a few I had to try to get, but screw it, it's nice to have something else to do once I've beat it on all difficulties a few times. Conversely, I refuse to play a shitty game like Dante's Inferno again even though the trophies were easy as hell to get. It's not worth the effort and I wouldn't enjoy myself. What would be the point.
I will agree that there are an awful lot of achievements based purely on collecting a million items, or playing a 1000 online matches, so perhaps a little more creativity could go into those. But I don't think achievements are detractors from the core experience, they're just a bit tacked on to get those inclined to chase them more excited. If they were elements that actually came as a sacrifice to significantly more game design time, then I would definitely be asking questions. Good blog.
I'm not crazy about trophies and rather wish there was a way to turn off that option because I find it sometimes ruins certain games for me. It really depends on the game though... I think a lot of trophies are really well designed to encourage players to learn more about the game, optional ways of doing things, or are just skill based. In online play though, I think that often the trophies are poorly designed and have unintended consequences. In MAG there is a trophy for taking down the anti air... so people on the same team were teamkilling each other to be the one to do it - for the trophy. I don't think that the devs forsaw how frustrating it would be to be teamkilled by people on your own team... in a game where teamwork is the main focus.
MAG is the only platinum I have (and likely the last). I hated having to change my game style to get certain trophies, especially as it detracted from teamwork and made me a liability to my team (especially the sniping and pistol trophies).
I think it all comes down to trophy design. Bad design can ruin the experience (I hate the trophy plot spoilers!), good design adds to the game for those that want to pursue trophies.
... but I would still prefer the option to simply turn it off!
MAG is the only platinum I have (and likely the last). I hated having to change my game style to get certain trophies, especially as it detracted from teamwork and made me a liability to my team (especially the sniping and pistol trophies).
I think it all comes down to trophy design. Bad design can ruin the experience (I hate the trophy plot spoilers!), good design adds to the game for those that want to pursue trophies.
... but I would still prefer the option to simply turn it off!
Here's a shocker: Games can be good and have cheevophies.
Don't like them? Turn off the notifications like I do whenever I'm playing a creepy type game like Alan Wake or FEAR. It's just a fun addition that, many times, causes you to play the game in a way you may not have thought of before for an extra challenge.
I wouldn't have really considered beating Dead Space using only the plasma cutter, but it was actually a rewarding experience. Hell, most of the time achievements in games are linked directly to bonus stages and hidden content. So this argument doesn't really hold up.
I like my small collection of 1000's, Eat Lead and CoD 4 being the most challenging of the bunch.
Don't like them? Turn off the notifications like I do whenever I'm playing a creepy type game like Alan Wake or FEAR. It's just a fun addition that, many times, causes you to play the game in a way you may not have thought of before for an extra challenge.
I wouldn't have really considered beating Dead Space using only the plasma cutter, but it was actually a rewarding experience. Hell, most of the time achievements in games are linked directly to bonus stages and hidden content. So this argument doesn't really hold up.
I like my small collection of 1000's, Eat Lead and CoD 4 being the most challenging of the bunch.
@Elsas: Doesn't turning off all notifications (in the System menu) disable Trophy notifications? I thought it did, although I've never tried it.
@Gnarly... I have notifications turned off because it always covers the minimap in online games and I still get the pop up notifications on trophies. There are a few games that don't have trophy notifications (I think Heavy Rain did it so that it wouldn't ruin the immersion... though I can't remember all that well), but most seem to interrupt the gameplay with the trophy notifications... which leads me to often wonder what trophy I got... so I check and there I go - spoilers!
Trophies and Achievements bother me in 3 main ways:
1) Developers using them as a replacement for unlockables
2) People achievement whoring in online play
3) The notifications are annoying.
I was going to say "oh, they are not all that bad", but now that I think about it I can't find a single redeeming quality to achievements. It doesn't effect me much, though, because I try turning notifications off when I get the chance.
1) Developers using them as a replacement for unlockables
2) People achievement whoring in online play
3) The notifications are annoying.
I was going to say "oh, they are not all that bad", but now that I think about it I can't find a single redeeming quality to achievements. It doesn't effect me much, though, because I try turning notifications off when I get the chance.
