PSN Trophies/XBox Achievements - Good or Bad?

[AJ-enova]

What is your opinion on PSN Trophies and XBox Achievements?

Do you think they're having a bad influence on some gamers or enhancing the experience?

I for one am unhappy with those who obsess over them, I've even gone as far as giving 'Speechs' on PSHome against them!

[Brushfire]

My Xbox Dick Hat is worth 46000+ points.

[Bahamut]

I don't care about them so much - it doesn't really detract from a game much if at all though so meh.

[Soma]

People still log into home? lol. Anyway, my gamerscores are both pretty low, I go after easy achievements usually.I almost always play on normal difficulties and never really go back unless it's a Halo game. I've never platinumed or unlocked all 1000 points in any game, closest I've ever gotten was Assassins Creed 2. Their charm doesn't really affect me, I'd like my score to be higher but at the same time I don't care enough to grind through things I don't find pleasant.

[Soul Splint]

The reason they get so overblown is because so many people actually think a gamerscore is a representation of skill. Given, some achievements (and I mean a few) do take skill, but the overwhelming majority take just playing through the game, luck, a moderate amount of perseverance, or some insider information.

I for one like them; when I get a game I'm genuinely passionate about, it's fun to go through and earn all the achievements. It's when people borrow games they really don't care about just to up their score that I get confused.

So, fun for the most part, but arguably unhealthy for those who obsess over it.

[PriZm]

i hate trophies with the burning passion of a million suns

i don't really feel like i have completed an rpg if i didn't do everything in it, and most rpg trophies are ridiculously long and stupid to obtain

see, disgaea 3, final fantasy 13, star ocean 4

[SoloGamer]

I for one am unhappy with those who obsess over them, I've even gone as far as giving 'Speechs' on PSHome against them!

So you obsess over those that obsess over them?

I think they're great. They've added more replay value to some games for me. I don't really care about the gamerscore aspect, I just see them as extra challenges the devs put in there for me to complete. Unless it's an online only or stupidly impossible achievement, I'll probably go out of my way to at least try to get it.

And really, so what if some people play only for the score. It's not my time or money they're wasting, so why should I care.

[Tex]

Honestly, they quite annoy me. I'll be playing a game, minding my own god damned business when all of a sudden an MTV-like pop-up (or VH1-like, I dunno) flashes on the screen to tell me that I have made some sort of achievement, as if I cared. I do not like little messages like that popping up on my screen when I am playing a game, especially when the messages and what they represent are so amazingly useless.

[SoloGamer]

You can turn the notifications off in the Settings menu if they bug you that much.

[Tex]

Fair enough. Thanks.

[Bigfoot]

If I really like a game, I'll try and get them all. Other than that, I don't care that much for them. A lot of them are fluff anyway.

[ocre]

For the most part, they definitely are incentive for some people to take on extra challenges within games, and I see nothing wrong with that. Some people take them too seriously and put too much emphasis on them but who cares.

That said, I think that Achievements and Trophies are a great idea, but at an immature state right now. I had an idea that may well have been the next evolution of Achievements and Trophies: virtual items. As you know, Sony created the PlayStation Home platform as it's a virtual world where you make your own avatar, collect different clothing items, decorate your own virtual apartment, and play minigames within different 'Spaces' owned by different companies and developers to earn themed items and exclusive items.

There was a personal space called 'The Trophy Room'(developed, never released) where your Trophies were represented as virtual 'tangible' trophies (for example, a trophy from Loco Roco was a group of rendered LocoRoco characters). I think this would've been an exciting way to go about Achievements and Trophies. Get an Achievement on Halo 3, get a Spartan Helmet for your avatar to wear. Only problem for Microsoft with that business model would be A) the items would be earned, not sold slightly more development time to make the virtual rewards.

Anyway, I'm thinking of a reward system like in Bully, if you've ever played that game. You do a mission about... you beat a mission about boxing, you get boxing gloves put up in your room. You win the bike races, you get a bike racing trophy. Et cetera. I honestly feel like Motion Controls distracted from this development. (You have to go back and think about what Sony and Microsoft were working on before the Wii really REALLY proved its popularity to be more than a fad.)

Now, I'm not saying PS Home is perfect. Far from it. I'm just saying that Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo could've taken these reward items to the next level, if they had further persued the "virtual world hub" for their platforms (and they all have one. Xbox Live has that thing similar to PS Home(I remember it was supposed to be based on an Arcade and made use of New XBL Experience Avatars), Sony has PS Home, obviously, and I think it's fair to count Nintendo with it's Miis and Animal Crossing.

Whew.

[Arcana]

I like them, they help suggest cool activities for people to do in games, and in turn suggest cool challenges that developers put in their games for the most determined and skilled of players.

I rarely ever do achievements myself, though.

[prophetik music]

i think achievements are fun to get, and it feels good to have proof of, say, that time that you played through Gears of War 2 on insane, despite all the game-breaking bugs. it doesn't really detract from the gameplay, and it often gets people to try stuff that they'd never have tried elsewise.

[ZealPath]

I speak only from a Steam perspective but I've had nothing but fun with Steam achievements for the most part. Braid's Speed Run achievement got me to see that game in a whole different way, Trine's achievements had me try things I probably never would have normally and increased the replay value significantly, and TF2 has so many fun and silly achievements (some of which lead to tangible in-game item rewards) that I don't know how you couldn't like them.

I guess there's always the other side of the fence that just wants to play the game and doesn't care about these meaningless accomplishments at the end of the day, and/or considers them a distraction, but I don't know, I've just really enjoyed them for the most part. I absolutely do not consider them representative of true skill in about 90% of the cases (especially since many can just be cheated to get), and just have fun trying to get them for me. That is probably the only attitude that will cause you to enjoy them, or you'll obsess over them and start hating the game you're playing, or you just won't care and will be annoyed by them. Some games' achievements are more creative than others, and there are plenty in various games that I know I'll just never try for, but when they're fun, for me anyway, it's a lot of fun.