Trophies / Achievements & Other Rewards

[Duke Dudeston]

I recently rented out Race Driver: Grid, for PS3 (a great game) and have only realised after playing it for an hour or 2 that it doesn't have any trophies. this didn't bother me, because if the game is good, I will play it. However it did get me thinking...

I am a trophy hunter, I try to get as many trophies / achivements I can get, but I won't go out of my way to get them, by that I won't rent / download games that have "easy to get" achievements, just to up my score (unless I was generally interested in it)

I find that having Achievements in games, gives you something to aim for, yes completing the game is a big achievment in its own right, but going back and finding all the hidden art-work, and all the other gimmicks the developers put in makes it more enjoyable.

So for me, Answer 2 is there, Achievements are there for replay value, I think it is great, if the game doesn't have achievements then you might complete the game with 70% of secrets found, and think well.. I already completed the game, why bother?

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Notes:

#1 - Litrally you get a game, find out what the achievements / trophies are as soon as you put the game in, and then even find out a guide in how to get achievements quickest and easiest. (or something along these lines)

#2 - Achievements and trophies are little rewards that go toward a thing called a Score, you will see my "Trophy Case" in my signature, that shows you how many trophies on the PS3 (and Vita) I have obtained. XBOX / Games for Windows uses achievements and have a gamerscore, which is the total of all the achievements added together.
Some other platforms like "Steam" use achievements, but the ones I am on about is for PS3 / Vita & XBOX 360 / Windows

[Lieutenant Fatman]

I do enjoy hunting trophies, but I'm always careful to make sure that they add to the experience and that they don't take away from it. I play a lot of PS3 games, and I like a good challenge, but I haven't attained a platinum trophy in over a year now.

That's because I'd rather look back on games and remember enjoying them rather than remembering the pain of grinding to a certain level or searching several square miles for that final collectible.
Some games will make these sorts of things fun, it depends on how well thought out they are.
I do have a few games I plan on getting a platinum trophy on but I usually take my time for a second playthrough, making sure I get the most out of it!
Think I may plat Mass Effect 2 & 3 eventually. Excellent games, well worth a second playthrough on hard.

[Pipliran]

Well as I have only just got my own PS3, I am very behind in the trophy case, compared to Duke, and I am assuming you too Lieutenant Fatman, I do enjoy just playing games, but I will maybe after playing the game for a long session, have a look at what trophies are available and then during the gameplay might try and go for them.

But I am not going to bust my balls trying to do it, or buy other equipment to do it (some games I heard that have "Move Capabilities" have "Move" only trophies, even if the game doesn't need move

[Casselle]

Achievements are a great way to get your money's worth of the game, but the thing I don't like are the ones that force you to use Online, I don't like playing all games online, and don't want to "cheat" to get them (as in finding a friend who will be willing to let me win a couple of games for the achievement)

But I wouldn't go out of my way to get one, unless it was a game I really enjoyed, there is a game called Stacking, that I completed 100% and got all the trophies, but now it says its only 70% complete or something due to the new DLC, I am not going to buy DLC for a game, that yes I enjoyed, but found really easy anyway, just to get the other achievements.

[Dave]

Bah! I still play on the classic consoles (as I know Dudeston does too) and they don't have achievements / trophies.. games rock, if they are worth playing once, they are worth playing again.
its like a good book or movie, you read / watch them once, if you like it, you might read / watch them again or even the sequels.

Could you imagine if they released Achievements for Kindle.. "5points you have just read 5% of War & Peace" would it spur you to read the book more? probably not, because if your reading it, your reading it.

[Lieutenant Fatman]

Good points.
The thing is with trophies and achievements is if they're really well thought out, they can add to the experience by pushing you to play the game in a certain way or on a certain difficulty. Something you may not have considered before. But of course there are so many that are poorly thought out so it can be more effort than fun. So it's best to ignore those ones.

They are nice rewards if you have done something that requires skill, because not everyone can attain the tough ones. I have over 2,800 trophies and 11 platinums at the moment. Pretty meaningless really though, they're just numbers on there own. It's the individual accomplishments which can mean something.

One of my favourites is one of the first trophies ever made. It's on Super Star Dust HD, and the trophy is called 'Late Bomber' You are tasked to play the game in a way you wouldn't think of doing, and it's hard as nails. Few people managed to attain the trophy as hard as they tried. But I was very determined. Got it eventually, a very proud moment, lol. That's one that definitely added to the games life for me.

[Duke Dudeston]

There are some insane trophies out there, and achievements, I am sure Nuke will come in and tell us all about the Achievement in Half-Life 2 (having to carry a garden gnome about the place while getting shot at)

Dave does have a point, there are many games out there that didn't have trophies or achievements that we all enjoyed, but thats the point in achievements, is that if you managed to complete a game, on any difficulty the game is like.. Well done, now try again, and if you do we will help you show it off to all your buddies by giving you this virtual trophy.

I enjoyed Guitar Hero 6, it was an expensive game with having to buy a new guitar (as funliy enough xbox controllers don't work) and just playing the game through once was great, but playing it through to get all stars, that was fun and challenging. and next to to 100% a song on hard or expert, which is worth a gold trophy, however I am not going to beat myself up to get it, yeah I will give it a try, better then just having the game sit around doing nothing.

Another great game where you might go back for more, is Heavy Rain, it encourages you to find the alternate endings by giving you trophies.

Now another question has to be asked, do you like "Hidden Trophies" I love Hidden ones, because it makes me feel really good when these unlock. you see it pop up in the corner of the screen and your like, kewl, I remember a friend asking me how I got that trophy, and all I said was...

"I don't know.. I was just playing and then it popped up"

Edit:
I was thinking about making a trophy / achievement shelf on the main votd.co.uk website at a later date, that you can link your games too.

All it will take is for every game that supports trophies someone can come along and find out what those trophies are, then people can say wether or not they have them. I know a lot of sites do this sort of thing anyway) We could even put a link up saying x amount of members have 100% completed this title.

Oh. and Welcome Back Dave

[Lieutenant Fatman]

I put together a nice little trophy profile on psnprofiles, took a while deciding on what background image to use, but I think you'll agree this one looks rather good.

[Duke Dudeston]

Haha, fits in to the new theme of the forum.