Now, as a disclaimer, this interest in the trophy/achievement scene I acknowledge is not very prevalent on NeoGAF. Even in the "Achieve Trophy" monthly threads, there is a very lax attitude with many users. But just take into consideration this is coming from a completionist, a completionist who also chases extremely challenging games, and thus rare completions. Seeing things torn apart really hits a nerve. If you have a lax attitude on it all, then don't patronize or downplay concerns of others with differing views.
Man, I totally hear you on this. I've been gaming for 20+ years, but it wasn't until the mid years of the original Playstation where I started to "Complete" games. Up until that point I played games but not with a completionist's mindset. 100%'ing games became somewhat of an addiction for myself, my brother, and a friend of ours. It was especially bad with RPGs back in the day. Personally, I never felt finished with a game until I collected everything there was to collect, saw and did everything there was to do, finished every difficulty, A/S Ranked everything, unlocked every unlockable, etc. We've gotten better over the years with this "problem" but it's still difficult for me to let go of or shelf a game until I complete it in its entirety. It's actually a terrible way to build a backlog! lol!
Anyway, I too hate the fact that there are legitimately difficult challenges/trophies/achievements out there that can and have been exploited. I honestly don't understand what these people are gaining by having a trophy/achievement archived on their profile without actually putting in the legitimate effort. I guess seeing these achievements pop up and having them archived on their profile fulfills some void in their life. Seriously, I don't want to get too judgmental or philosophical, but why else would someone HAVE to have a trophy no matter the cost? I'm no doctor, but it's gotta be some sort of mental issue or a complex of some nature. It would be like earning a college degree without attending any classes, taking zero tests, putting NO time into the degree, making zero sacrifices, etc. I know, we're talking video games here, but still. I think this kind of shit absolutely reflects on a person's core values and their behaviors.
But I reminisce to a time when Trophies meant something, back in 2008 when they came out...it was much more enjoyable than Achievements on 360. Then as the years went on, the cheating started...contained and only to select games, then in December 2011 it happened. The PS3 trophy system was worthless as we knew it.
I was an avid XBOX360 fan a few years back, got my Gamerscore to around 70K, and then just dropped it completely. My greatest memories from this time were the first couple years of the XBOX360. Getting 1K in the original Dead Rising, completing Extreme difficulty in Lost Planet, maxing out your classes and finding every treasure chest in Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, S-Ranking and completing the Bloody Palace in Devil May Cry 4, working towards 10,000 kills in Gears of War (until you realized the count was off and you didn't get the achievement until 15,000 kills or NEVER). The Golden 360 Era. I don't know exactly what happened, but a time came when I just lost interest in the whole scene. At some point in my 360 career I was buying cheap games I never would have played otherwise just for Achievements and I started to resent the fact that you couldn't delete Gamerscore from your profile. I looked at the games as tarnishes on my profile. It made me devalue the achievements I felt proud about. Playing on a 360 just felt so junky and trashy to me that I just ended up selling my entire system and games. I converted to PS3 years ago, but I've run into the same problem again by adding games to my profile that I wish I didn't. Now I realize that all these "Profile" consoles are just trashy and junky as a whole and I just gotta get over it and live with it. Oh well.
Anyway, back to another point I wanted to make. "Completing" games wasn't something I started doing with Achievements/Trophies. I did the kind of shit developers asked for these days all the time back in the day because I just loved playing games, talking about them, completing them to their fullest and seeing all that the game had to offer. I never needed a symbol or a points value to gauge my commitment or dedication to a single title. I had my save file to show that! Again, I don't want to generalize, but I know it's probably a high percentage, but most people today PLAY FOR PROFILE, NOT FOR COMPLETION. I posted about this once before in an old Trophies/Achievements debate thread here on GAF, but I'll say it again in case others feel the same way.
Most Achievements/Trophies these days don't even require you to fully COMPLETE the game. Bayonetta is a prime example of this. The Achievements/Trophies in that game comprise MAYBE 40% of what the game has to offer. There's no achievement for getting Pure Platinum on every stage, on every difficulty, with all characters. There's not even a trophy for beating the secret boss or completing angel slayer. Yet, people feel they have "Completed" the game when they get their Platinum or 1K. There's hundreds of hours of content beyond the trophy requirements that most people will never see and it's a shame. Now, I don't want to say that these people are "doing it wrong" nor do I want to tell people how to play their games, but I can't say that it doesn't tick me off to some degree.
This is what I like to call "Profile Completion", not "Game Completion". As I've mentioned earlier, I feel like most people are playing to profile completion, not save file (game) completion. I even think some people who used to complete games back in the day to their fullest are now resorting to just gaining the achievements/trophies and being done with it. Like I've said, it's not like you're a bad person by doing this, it's just a phenomenon I've noticed that ABSOLUTELY spawned during this generation. It really all began with the 360 and its Achievements system.
Now, you can play whatever mental gymnastics you want to play, but I've just been playing games how I've always played games. I still do like Achievements/Trophies because sometimes they do reflect the kinds of shit I used to do back in the day, but it's not what I'm playing for. If you're a true completionist, then play the games you enjoy to their fullest extent, beyond the 1K or Platinum Trophy. Forget sites like True Achievements or anything like that. Your save file, your progress from actually playing the game, and most importantly your memories of obtaining that 1K/Platinum or beyond are what truly matters. You don't need a website or an icon to show how passionate you are about gaming.
/end rant. Sorry if this post disrupted the purposes of this thread. I just had to respond to this issue.
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