brandonh83
Banned
This thread comes to you from someone with severe OCD and I realize that not everyone will care or sympathize. But, I need to get it off my chest.
I rarely start, or even replay games on harder difficulties. I try to enjoy myself first and foremost when it comes to videogames, and typically, normal mode is fine for me. When it comes to action titles like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, they can be tough as nails without the proper mastery.
Metal Gear Rising was no different. Yet, when I finished on normal or easy, whichever one I did, I found that just a normal playthrough had gotten me a lot of the trophies. So I thought, hey, I may try and Platinum this, or give it a good run at least, and started a new game on hard. And man, that was fun. The bosses were absolutely exhilarating and opened my eyes to just how good the combat system was.
I never did Platinum it, and I don't think I finished that go, but the game/bosses up to where I did get was a lot of fun, and all because of... trophies. These trophies were actually tied to legitimate challenge and mastery of the game. Now, I don't recall if the game had any trophies/achievements like the ones I'm about to dig into, but it's an example of how going for trophies extended the playtime and even broadened my appreciation of a game.
I just started the remastered Bioshock and took a look at the trophy list. Yup. "Collect all 2,348 audio diaries." Okay, so not that many, but it may as well be. My problem with trophies like this is that the only skill it's tied to is your ability to tolerate pure, absolute tedium. What happens here is that, unless you have the locations of every audio diary memorized, you psychopath, and you want all the trophies-- you're probably gonna find yourself checking an online guide for each and every one which causes a stop-and-go effect while, when you're playing a game, you should always be going.
While there's not over 2,000, there are around 130 or something, and some are even locked to locations that after certain points of the game, you cannot return to them. So you find yourself checking and double-checking and not actually doing anything fun or skill-related, and to me this is absolutely the worst way to go about it. The game has pretty good trophies in general, but it's the ones like this that can lead to chore-like endeavors, and it totally sucks the fun out of actually playing a videogame.
And I'm not just singling Bioshock out. So many games do this. The Resident Evil remake has one attached to entering absolutely every room in the game and picking up every item. With limited inventory space and how much you have to backtrack between item chests just to store everything to free up more room to go grab more items, who's having fun with that? It's less tedious than the Bioshock audio diaries, but still not exactly a fun thing to go for.
Trophies/achievements can be utilized to open the player up to new gameplay possibilities, even inviting players to challenge themselves, play on harder modes, and get good. While going for skill-based trophies, you can find yourself discovering just how deep a gameplay system can be, ultimately heightening your appreciation and overall fun you're having with the game. And then you have trophies/achievements tied to fetch-quests and other tedious, chore-like endeavors that adds absolutely nothing to a game besides an utterly pointless replay, or constantly interrupting your gameplay by stopping to check where the next thingy is.
I wish developers would stop and think about this, and whether or not a certain trophy/achievement is demanding skill from a player, or their patience over something ultimately pointless.
I rarely start, or even replay games on harder difficulties. I try to enjoy myself first and foremost when it comes to videogames, and typically, normal mode is fine for me. When it comes to action titles like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, they can be tough as nails without the proper mastery.
Metal Gear Rising was no different. Yet, when I finished on normal or easy, whichever one I did, I found that just a normal playthrough had gotten me a lot of the trophies. So I thought, hey, I may try and Platinum this, or give it a good run at least, and started a new game on hard. And man, that was fun. The bosses were absolutely exhilarating and opened my eyes to just how good the combat system was.
I never did Platinum it, and I don't think I finished that go, but the game/bosses up to where I did get was a lot of fun, and all because of... trophies. These trophies were actually tied to legitimate challenge and mastery of the game. Now, I don't recall if the game had any trophies/achievements like the ones I'm about to dig into, but it's an example of how going for trophies extended the playtime and even broadened my appreciation of a game.
I just started the remastered Bioshock and took a look at the trophy list. Yup. "Collect all 2,348 audio diaries." Okay, so not that many, but it may as well be. My problem with trophies like this is that the only skill it's tied to is your ability to tolerate pure, absolute tedium. What happens here is that, unless you have the locations of every audio diary memorized, you psychopath, and you want all the trophies-- you're probably gonna find yourself checking an online guide for each and every one which causes a stop-and-go effect while, when you're playing a game, you should always be going.
While there's not over 2,000, there are around 130 or something, and some are even locked to locations that after certain points of the game, you cannot return to them. So you find yourself checking and double-checking and not actually doing anything fun or skill-related, and to me this is absolutely the worst way to go about it. The game has pretty good trophies in general, but it's the ones like this that can lead to chore-like endeavors, and it totally sucks the fun out of actually playing a videogame.
And I'm not just singling Bioshock out. So many games do this. The Resident Evil remake has one attached to entering absolutely every room in the game and picking up every item. With limited inventory space and how much you have to backtrack between item chests just to store everything to free up more room to go grab more items, who's having fun with that? It's less tedious than the Bioshock audio diaries, but still not exactly a fun thing to go for.
Trophies/achievements can be utilized to open the player up to new gameplay possibilities, even inviting players to challenge themselves, play on harder modes, and get good. While going for skill-based trophies, you can find yourself discovering just how deep a gameplay system can be, ultimately heightening your appreciation and overall fun you're having with the game. And then you have trophies/achievements tied to fetch-quests and other tedious, chore-like endeavors that adds absolutely nothing to a game besides an utterly pointless replay, or constantly interrupting your gameplay by stopping to check where the next thingy is.
I wish developers would stop and think about this, and whether or not a certain trophy/achievement is demanding skill from a player, or their patience over something ultimately pointless.
