Success and trophies: what is it for?

Over the last 50 years, the game as a hobby has become a pillar of entertainment. It is vast and everyone can enjoy it. It is so great that there are subsections and communities for niche interests in the game. One of these interests that have arisen over the last 15 years are achievements and trophies.

In the 90s and most of the 2000s, when your friend asked you if you beat a game, the meaning was pretty standard. Have you played through the main solo campaign? Simple answer by yes or no. Nowadays, the language has evolved a lot. You can always beat a game, but there are other terms, like completing and 100%, which have very different meanings. These often refer to the optional objectives and the meta-completion that accompanies the achievement of all the successes or trophies of the game.

Success and trophies have changed the way to see the finished games. On their respective platforms, the games have goals that will be completed in the game and followed outside the game. You can beat a game without getting its successes and its trophies, so what people like so much about them ?

The Xbox method to follow the completion of a game goes through the successes. PlayStation has its system of trophies. The games that are on both consoles will almost always have the same goals for their respective platforms, but there are differences between them. In addition to a success, a player will also receive a Gamer score, which usually culminates at 1000 gamer score by basic game. The trophies, meanwhile, are classified in bronze, silver or gold. Obtaining all the trophies of a game will bring to the player a platinum trophy, the most coveted of its kind.

Then you have Steam Achieving, which, again, often shares its goals with Xbox and PlayStation if it is multiplatform games. The trick about Steam Achieves is that almost all developers, AAA studios to independent developers through some stupids doing a sci-fi project in high school, can download a game on Steam. Any Steam game can support success if the developer the program. To this end, someone can schedule a success for every enemy of his game. So when you have this kind of feat, as well as the kind of getting 100% in an Ubisoft game in open world, what is the value ?

This is where the hierarchy comes into play. The hierarchy of a player will be different depending on his personal preferences and platforms to which he has access. For example, your old Zane friend is really a successful guy. I have a game PC, but I prefer to get successes on Xbox. I like getting all the achievements in a game. Sometimes, if I know in advance that I will not be able to get them, I can even avoid the game or post the game.

When you look at your respective games library and trophies, you can basically watch your achievements in the modern era of video game. Xbox's players look at their Gamer score, PlayStation's owners count their platinum trophies, Steam users... Well, I do not really know how they evaluate their achievements, but I'm sure they do it in a way or 'another one.

I will inject a personal observation and criticism. I like watching my gamer score; It is a cumulative number that increases with each success. Furthermore, I do not collect PlayStation trophies, but I feel that none of them, except platinum trophies, is important. If you do not have the dish (as the children say), does the bronze count? What about those of silver or gold? This amounts to the perceived value of success / trophy.

On the other side of the coin, I can see a PlayStation player ask the same thing about achievements. If your Gamer score does not end with an X000 Pair, are the achievements important? You do not finish the game, so why is the Gamer score important? Just criticism. To that, I say that additional LCS often add more achievements and Gamer score that will push a game beyond its 1000g base, upsetting the perfect X000G on your gamer score.

I will also say this: achievements and trophies do not matter in the big scheme of things. They have no real and tangible value. You can use them to boast in your respective camp, but you can not pay your rent or invoice with them.

There are heroes in the players who have made a name and live by getting them, like Ray Cox Alias ​​Stallion83 and the Rooster Teeth Achievement Hunter Game Division, who does not play exclusively on Xbox games as their name could to suggest. There are also YouTubers and other content creators who create guides to show how to achieve or exploit the best strategies for successes / trophies, which are widely used by the hunter community.

Whatever your favorite game platform, there is often a way to track your global progression of a game. In addition to Xbox, Steam and PlayStation, many platforms have their own point of view on the Achievement / Trophy concept. Epic Games Launcher will add his own system, even iOS has a Gamekeeper application. Maybe one day, Nintendo will launch into action.

What do you think about the success / trophies debate? Collect yourself one or the other? The two? Or? Let us know in the comments below.