What could the future of PPS3 trophies hold? From ARS Technica:
Sony’s catch-up strategy with the trophy system had a slow start, but developers are quickly adopting what has long been one of the main differentiating features of the Xbox 360. The latest rumor? Sony may hand out rewards for players who collect the trophies in the form of content and access to games.
CVG is reporting that the latest issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine has word on this new trophy rewards system. “We’ve heard that SCEA is mulling over some sort of Trophy reward system,” the staff OPM wrote. “We doubt it’ll be cash (or the equivalent), but we suspect it might be exclusive access to early betas and the like.”
One of the most common complaints about the gamerscore system on the Xbox 360 is that the points are useless; they don’t actually do anything. If Sony was the first to act on this front, it would be a quick win for the company that seemed to otherwise be catching up on the concept. It’s a neat idea, but we’ll have to wait and see how—or even if—it’s implemented. (ARS Technica)
I’m not entire sure what to think of this. One one hand, I like the idea of getting rewards for getting these achievements, but on the other hand I can’t help but think this will subliminally force people into buying games that use trophies.
I personally really like the trophy system. I think they’re nice little addons that are attached to your PSN tag. And it’s one of those ways of finally settling the very common debate of arguing that you did achieve something that is normally very difficult. I mean, can you remember when you were younger arguing that you were able to clear a level without dying once only to be hit with criticism? And then when you try to do with with your friends around you can’t do it and lose any credibility you once had?
The nice thing about the trophy feature is that now you can argue points like that without having to prove yourself, because you already did it. For example, in Uncharted I didn’t die fighting the first 100 enemies. If someone else played and had a hard time and I would have said, “I’ve done that,” when they said they don’t believe me, just compare trophies and there it is … the trophy saying you survived 100 enemies without dying.
Now, some people – like my blogging friend - don’t necessarily see a big draw for the trophy system. He wants to clear the game just to clear it and not feel pressured into having to get all the trophies. And I understand that, which is why I kind of have a problem with the possibility of Sony offering rewards for getting trophies.
So what does Sony plan on doing? Actual cash? Doubt it. Free games? Doubt it. Invites to Betas? Maybe. Additional content in Home? Probably. Maybe a free download of a premium skin? Maybe getting a platinum trophy in a game will give you a small discount on an announced sequel? It’ll give more of an incentive to earn those trophies outside of bragging rights.
But the downfall to this is that people will be pressured into playing game with trophies and it will pressure publishers into establishing a trophy system. If they do implement this feature, publishers will now have to worry that not using trophies will hurt sales – and I’ve read comments … trophies seem to make or break a purchase. Stupid? Very.
But that’s not the case anymore – Sony announced that trophies are going to be a mandatory thing for PS3 games starting in 2009. (Source) I think this is a big clue that they are planning on giving additional rewards to the trophies you earn in the game.
And honestly, I like that Sony is forcing it. Like I said, I love the trophy system. I think it’s just a really nice, additional, free feature that games can utilize that will help your PSN online presence and eventually will also be something you can show off in Home. Sure, it may be kind of a cheap way to get people to play games that have trophies, but because I like it, I’m fine with it.
What I do think Sony needs to do, though, is revamp how your trophies are displayed. If EVERY game is going to offer trophies, than sooner or later your collection is going to get huge! Plus, your PSN “card” only shows the last eight to ten trophies. I think that somehow will need to be revamped because around this time next year, after the mandatory trophies are in place, I think it’s going to get a very cluttered feel to it.
December 2, 2008 at 7:18 am |
This is interesting because I first noticed the significance of trophies after clearing Sypro on the PS3. I beat the game and yet I didn’t get ANYTHING. Then, I read about PSN downloadable games that feature tons of trophies and I’m like, “Whu-!?!”
So yeah, I like the idea that Sony is forcing some sort of trophies in games. Although the idea of trophies in and of itself is a bit uneven, you’ll to admit. What I mean is that who dictates whether surviving 100 enemies in Uncharted is as or more difficult than say beating Mega Man 9 without dying? Should those two trophies even be worth the same? (I’m just using those games as examples so don’t take it literally) Also, if Sony is going to incentivize trophies, a system needs to be put in place where a core team of gamers accurately rates each and every trophy that gets put into a game otherwise Joe Schmoe will be ranked the same as Master Gamer Guy even though Joe Schmoe earned all his trophies on easy movie-based games and casual games.
I also still stand by my point that trophies do more harm than good. We’ve seen what happens when developers en masse jump onto a new thing (in this case, being forced to incorporate trophies) – what will happen is new games will feature all sorts of crazy challenges to get trophies and developers will spend more time trying to make their games PSN friendly than, say, fine-tuning gameplay. Trust me, it’ll happen. I’m just using this as an example, so don’t bite my head off – but when the Wii came out every game company in existence incorporated motion controls just for the hell of it (many times with mixed/disastrous results) and instead of spending more time on gameplay or graphics, developers spent all their time fixated on one thing everybody was craving at the moment.
With Xbox 360, the perfect way to incentivize trophies would be to allow players to have free XBox Live memberships if they earn X-amount of trophies per month. That will encourage players to play (and hopefully BUY) more games and it wouldn’t punish gamers who don’t play as often or don’t care to do all that work for savings of ~$14.99 a month. On the PSN…I don’t know…I don’t like the idea of demos and betas being exclusive to people who are trophy happy. That seems unfair because trophies doesn’t mean you’re a better game player – it just means you like trophies. I seriously hope demos and betas won’t be exclusive to trophy whores because live and breath certain games when 90% of the time I’m more about try a game, finish it if I can and move on.
Point of this rant? Don’t really have one. I’m up in the air on the whole trophy issue at this point. I’d like to see it be more engaging or worthwhile but at the same time, seeing a pathetic trophy score when I go online and compare it to the legions of zit-faced virgin players out there will not make me feel better as a gamer (although a bit better as a person
December 2, 2008 at 1:57 pm |
I personally am fine with what they’re doing but I can see how someone may have a problem with it.
I actually think a majority of the rewards are going to be used towards Sony’s Home application, which is going to be free anyways. I also don’t mind the option of open betas for getting – say – all the trophies in a game. Apparently the only way to get into a lot of betas right now is to either pay for a subscription to Qore or to have paid a certain amount of money on the PSN.
I also don’t think we’re going to see numerous trophy possibilities in each game. Some companies may not want an extensive amount of trophies so they offer one for each difficulty level played. Say – bronze for easy, silver for medium, gold for hard, and platinum for very hard. Just because Sony says games has to have trophies doesn’t mean there will be 20 to 30 trophies in each game.
Who knows … we’ll see in 2009.