Achievements/Trophies...

When I first received my Playstation 3, I immediately discovered something new and frightening, almost threatening to tear apart the very fabric upon which I had previously valued my accomplishments within video games. I am of course referring to Trophies (achievements for an XBox).

When the first trophy appeared for simply completing a small collection of levels in LittleBigPlanet I was slightly bemused, why reward me for doing something a 2 year old could reasonably achieve? Why replace the previously meaningful rewards systems already present in many games? Or simply craft a game of such worth that provides such an experience that it is through simply the joy of playing this masterpiece that the gamer is justly rewarded. This trend obviously couldn't continue, as soon as companies realised that our desire for instant gratification and rewards could be targeted and exploited, trophies or achievements of some form have become almost expected of developers for this generation.

In the simple act of beating a game, something you would generally do anyway, you will generally receive (not really earned for me, as when you buy a game you should at the very least feel compelled to finish it, if not also find some replay value) at least 30-40% of all of the achievements there. It is the perfect hook, naturally when you see the pop-up sneaks into the corner of your screen and the satisfying noise indicating that you have achieved something, you will check out what exactly you have done to deserve this. Once on this trophies menu, even though trophies have never been a motivator to buy a game (I hope I never sink to the level of achievement-whoring that requires me to buy terrible games with ridiculously easy trophies, purely for the sake of adding to the horde), upon seeing the trophies available, it will invariably change the way you play, or maybe even how you think about the game. Say for example you avoided using melee attacks because they were slow, left your defense wide open, and there was less satisfaction in it for you than achieving a perfect head shot. But upon seeing this achievement for 20 melee kills, your natural gaming style suddenly changes. Arguably it could be seen as a positive, you see more sides of the game, it will change up the action, and of course you get the feeling that you have actually "achieved" something. But surely this breaks immersion, encouraging people to adopt different methods of gameplay then what their nature dictates could weaken the experience, not to mention the noise and pop-up when the achievement is obtained, as well as the compulsion to find out what has been achieved and what else can be achieved, purely to achieve that slight elevation in pleasure. It simply felt as if it was cheapening the whole experience, and merely providing a form of this across all my games to make me buy even more. Far from older systems of achievements where there are legitimately interesting unlocks and bonuses.

While I do make out for trophies being a negative on gaming, which at times they are, I guess they do have their uses. The perfect example for me is the game Mirror's Edge, which is the first and only game I have a platinum trophy for. After playing through the reasonably short story I was left feeling a little bit flat by ME, sure it contained some sections of free running/parcour bliss, but so much of that was ruined by what pretty much everyone who has played this game invariably brings up, unnecessary combat and jumping "puzzles" in small enclosed spaces. Sadly, it felt like a game I might never really have any other reason to play again. However seeing the achievement for a run through the game without firing at an enemy, for no reason other than there being an achievement for it, I thought why not, I put the difficulty down to easy mode and ran through.

The game had changed now. No longer were the levels confusing labyrinths that required annoyingly precise jumping as well as the need to handle weapons and stop your speed and flow. In this playthrough I could just relax and run, having gained a basic grasp of the controls so that a wallrun, turn, wallclimb was not even a threat anymore to my previously tentative fingers. It almost came naturally. Finally it felt as if the game was being played how it was originally intended and I loved it. It won me over enough that I felt compelled to complete all the speed runs and time trials, in turn resulting in me obtaining all of the trophies; and it felt like an actual accomplishment, considering their difficulty and the feeling of joy I felt whilst playing the game. So maybe they are not really such a bad thing, if they encourage you to go back to a game, or put more time into it, after all, it means we as gamers might get more for our money.

Onto something else, not entirely unrelated, I am about to continue a file in Pokemon Gold, purely for the sake of capturing all 250 Pokemon and having a good nostalgia trip, without even the enticement of an achievement! (sorry but Celebi doesn't count, I can't/don't want to glitch the game and there are never going to be any events for it). Wish me luck!