How do people feel about Single Player shareplay sessions?

[SimmondsR]

From time to time I browse through the Gaming Sessions tabs to see if I can maybe help someone or possibly find a session that I can join to wrap up an old game I played in the past. And whilst browsing I always come across quite a few sessions where people are asking others to use Shareplay to complete certain single-player trophies for the individual.

 

This has always seemed really unusual to me because trophies really hold no value other than a personal accomplishment and really I think there is no shame in admitting that you can't or don't want to do a trophy due to how stressful or annoying it might be or even time consuming and that has left a few games on my account just shy of 100% completion (fucking Yakuza games...) and that does bother me but I'd never ask anyone else to do them for me otherwise what would be the point?

 

Just to clarify this isn't a post to mock or argue with the people that make these sessions but it's just a curiosity seeing as I can personally say that sometimes Trophy Hunting really can suck the joy out of some games but I do feel a great sense of accomplishment from doing them because I did it (Monster Hunter comes to mind with my Plat list). So if you're someone who is comfortable with having someone else achieve something that you couldn't (which again there is no shame in admitting that you have a personal limit of what you can do or are willing to do) then why are you bothering to trophy hunt in the first place?

[HuntingFever]

I have no issue with it whatsoever, because how people play their games is no business of mine so I couldn't care less what they do.

[PalaceOfLove706]

A lot of people on this thread will equate SharePlay with trophy cheating.

 

Is it my business what others do? No. But does that mean it is still cheating? Maybe.

 

A lot of people on this thread will say it is no different than couch coop and passing the controller to a friend in your house.

 

But then I predict a lot of people will say that's different than cross-geographical screen-sharing. The same tensions unfolded in the debate about account sharing.

 

But who knows, maybe someone will say something even more interesting than that...

Edited March 2, 2021 by PalaceOfLove706

[AgentSmiz]

When you think about it, it's no different than boosting sessions. The person is setting up a situation in which they get trophies for a game they find tricky or lack the skill/ability. If the person who's going to be getting the trophy is fine with doing so, then that's between those two people - not really anyone else's business. The steps or actions needed to get the trophy are still being performed by someone. 

Hell, even the Playstation guide on Share Play mentions that it can be used if you're stuck on a game and want someone else to do it.

Personally, it's not something I would probably do on here but I've nothing against anyone that does. Not cheating in the slightest.

[StraightVege]

It wouldn't be satisfying for me, personally, but I fail to see how that's really different from asking a friend or family member to sit down and help you finish something. I used to beat hard bosses and sections for my brother many years ago.

[AJ_Radio]

In my opinion, if they don't have the skill to do it themselves, they should just give up on the trophy they were aiming for and move on.

 

Brutality 101 in Batman: Arkham Knight and ....Becomes the Master in Titanfall 2 are two examples of trophies that get a lot of shareplay sessions. They are hard, no doubt about that, but they are completely doable.

 

The only time I would shareplay a single player trophy is if it was designed around couch co-op, or at least designed it to where you have to play what is now called local multiplayer. It's what us kids did way back in the day on the Nintendo 64 or PS1. The local co-op trophy in Resogun is one I can see myself doing a Shareplay session on. Unfortunately I live in an area with slow and somewhat poor internet, so I can't do any Shareplay session.

[Shaun1094]

I can understand why people think it’s cheating because I suppose it is in a way but I won’t judge anyone who does it. Each to their own! 

[Gnorizon]

Truthfully...I had no idea this was a thing. It's for PS5 only I presume?

 

I will admit, I can see where it would be tempted for last 'last' trophy that maybe your gaming skillset just makes almost impossible? At the end of the day though, I'd probably say *if* trophy hunting was a truly competitive thing, of course it would be 'cheating' to a degree: you're not earning your own trophies.

 

With that being said, that's not the case, so at the end of the day I wouldn't necessarily 'shame' someone for doing it (though I might judge them just a tiny bit silently in the back of my mind.

[DrBloodmoney]

On 02/03/2021 at 10:22 PM, PalaceOfLove706 said:

 

A lot of people on this thread will say it is no different than couch coop and passing the controller to a friend in your house.

The difference between putting out a public call on the internet to find someone to shareplay a trophy for you and passing the controller to a friend on your couch, is the difference between asking your wife for help with a tricky crossword clue and just looking up the answer online.

 

Remember that old gameshow ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’
 

They let you phone a friend, once, as one of your lifelines.

That was a fair concept for a clue.

 

What they didn’t let you do, was post the question on a public forum, with a request for people who already know the answer to call you....

[PalaceOfLove706]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

The difference between putting out a public call on the internet to find someone to shareplay a trophy for you and passing the controller to a friend on your couch, is the difference between asking your wife for help with a tricky crossword clue and just looking up the answer online.

 

Remember that old gameshow ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’
 

They let you phone a friend, once, as one of your lifelines.

That was a fair concept for a clue.

 

What they didn’t let you do, was post the question on a public forum, with a request for people who already know the answer to call you....

I like your analysis. I lean to the cheat side of it, personally. But that is complex. 

[its_ArchroniX]

I don't see anything wrong with shareplaying to get a certain trophy.

 

In some way we all cheat by even looking up what to do to get trophies on PSN in the first place or looking up guides to find collectibles or methods in order to achieve them. Why would share playing be an exception to that?I can get behind the whole 'it's not rewarding if you don't do it yourself' but it's nearly impossible in any game to get ALL the trophies without having to look up what the trophies are in the first place.

 

Compare it to a test in school. You could persuade your classmate to make the test for you, getting a straight A. Or you can look up the answers to the test beforehand and get a straight A. It's both cheating in some way and one isn't better or worse than the other.

 

Besides, how many games have trophies were you need to beat a certain level on the hardest game mode or get to a certain rank in multiplayer, and players let others carry them to the win? Isn't that the same principle? And what do most players do in a game like this when they get stuck? Putting the game down for a year or so, hoping to return after that year with the solution magically appearing? No. People will look up the solution for it so they can move on.

 

Funny example: Literally every trophy in The Witness (a pretty cool puzzle game) is a hidden trophy so nobody would even know about the Challenge trophy, or any of the trophies for that matter, if we didn't all look up the trophy list in the first place. Sure you could play to find out but you would NEVER reach the location of the final trophy challenge without looking it up in the first place since you need to complete the entire game, watch the final scripted scene then restart the game (or else you'll start a new game thus erasing all your progress) and load up your just completed game. Then you can head over to the final location, solve a puzzle (that wasn't there in your first playthrough) to open up a secret door and THEN you can access the last trophy location.

 

So my conclusion: I get why people dislike the idea of share-played trophies but people that call it cheating but meanwhile have 200+ platinum trophies on their name are just fooling themselves by stating it since I highly doubt they figured out every single hidden trophy in all those games by themselves. Again, just my idea, I'm not pointing certain people out here but I just find it funny how something like share-playing is considered cheating while methods like player carrying in ranked games (like Rainbow Six Siege for example) or having multiple accounts to get you trophies (like the Guild Card trophy in Monster Hunter World) aren't considered cheating despite being perhaps worse since it completely neglects the point of the whole trophy/ game.

 

And the reason a lot of people state: 'If they don't have the skill to do it themselves, they should just give up on what they were aiming for and move on' is in my opinion just a load of nonsense. If you can't finish college without teachers guiding you through all the classes, parents supporting you for all those years and friends to study with you should just quit school because you can't do it on your own, right? ?

Edited March 5, 2021 by its_ArchroniX

[PIECREAM-4-U]

I thought share play had a heap of input delay and was generally not very good for intense or timed play? I'm surprised it's even a thing.

Trophy hunting became mostly pointless they started releasing multi-religion 10-minute platinum games en masse so I have no problem if people use a service that was created by PlayStation to get a trophy.

If you're against shareplay you should also be against console commands or any kind of boosting.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Dan-lives-here

[DrBloodmoney]

38 minutes ago, Dan-lives-here said:

If you're against shareplay you should also be against console commands or any kind of boosting.

 

”If you accept this, you need to accept this other thing that is just a smidge worse”

 

That’s never a great argument, because it can be taken too far by following it’s logic to an extreme.

 

“If you accept viewing Hidden Trophies, you must accept using guides.”

 

“If you accept using guides, you must accept using walkthroughs.”

 

”If you accept using walkthroughs, you must accept using boosting.”

 

”If you accept using boosting, you must accept using shareplay.”

 

“If you accept using shareplay, you must accept using pay-to-platinum trophy services.”

 

”If you accept using pay-to-platinum trophy services, you must accept using CFW and hacking.” 
 

....

 

 

The fact is, almost everything in life is a matter of degrees, and a ‘just the tip’ arguments can be made by comparison arguments for pretty much anything.

 

“If you accept birth control, you must accept abortion”

 

”if you accept the sale of knives, you must accept the sale of guns”

 

”if you accept a 20% tax, you must accept a 40% one”

 

It doesn’t make them true though.

 

People have a line that they feel gets crossed somewhere.
The nuance is in where that line lies - and this discussion is about that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PIECREAM-4-U]

Well to some people if you believe in birth control you must also believe in abortion.  That's how everyone's different. Obviously there's a line and my line and your line is totally different. For some people it's all or nothing.

 

To me, all forms of cheating are equal. If you play a game without using any hints, tips,exploits or guides then good for you. But most people are getting assistance in some some form. I would put using an in game exploit to get unlimited money on the same level as save file editing even though one is legal and one is not in the eyes of psnprofiles, but that's just my opinion.

 

I also don't believe that share play for trophies is profolific in the slightest simply because I know the kind of trophies that people would be inclined use it for and the latency in share play is apparently bad enough to make it useless in those scenarios.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Dan-lives-here

[SimmondsR]

20 hours ago, Gnorizon said:

Truthfully...I had no idea this was a thing. It's for PS5 only I presume?

 Nah it is available for PS4 too, I just don't think Sony advertised it too much so not many people knew about it. 

 

8 hours ago, its_ArchroniX said:

In some way we all cheat by even looking up what to do to get trophies on PSN in the first place or looking up guides to find collectibles or methods in order to achieve them. Why would share playing be an exception to that?I can get behind the whole 'it's not rewarding if you don't do it yourself' but it's nearly impossible in any game to get ALL the trophies without having to look up what the trophies are in the first place.

 

Besides, how many games have trophies were you need to beat a certain level on the hardest game mode or get to a certain rank in multiplayer, and players let others carry them to the win? Isn't that the same principle? And what do most players do in a game like this when they get stuck? Putting the game down for a year or so, hoping to return after that year with the solution magically appearing? No. People will look up the solution for it so they can move on.

 

So my conclusion: I get why people dislike the idea of share-played trophies but people that call it cheating but meanwhile have 200+ platinum trophies on their name are just fooling themselves by stating it since I highly doubt they figured out every single hidden trophy in all those games by themselves. Again, just my idea, I'm not pointing certain people out here but I just find it funny how something like share-playing is considered cheating while methods like player carrying in ranked games (like Rainbow Six Siege for example) or having multiple accounts to get you trophies (like the Guild Card trophy in Monster Hunter World) aren't considered cheating despite being perhaps worse since it completely neglects the point of the whole trophy/ game.

 

This is a compelling argument but I would have to say that looking up a guide doesn't actually help you perform the act necessarily. I believe someone above mentioned the Batman trophies where you absolutely can look up a guide/video to get tips and advice but the bottom line is that if you don't have the talent or the patience/time to practise your skills then the guide hasn't really done much. Whereas if you pass the controller to someone else who is more skilled at the game and then they unlock the trophy, you then really didn't do anything to contribute to actually getting the trophy. It's like if I ran a relay race with Mo Farah (personally I am not a runner in any sense) passed the baton to him and then when he achieves a ridiculous finish time and I then start claiming that we were both the fastest runners in the race.

 

I understand that a LOT of people do host boosting sessions to get them through a hard campaign or a multiplayer but I can honestly say I've never done this. Having someone drag your ass through a campaign I would say is a little forgivable because at the very least even the least skilled player can contribute something even if it's just a distraction target. But then there are circumstances where you could abuse this I guess (Halo on Legendary comes to mind). Personally, I admit multiplayer rank trophies suck but I've always opted to just not do those trophies and I've always felt like if I did boost them it'd be boring as fuck the only game I've done a rank up a trophy is the Bioshock 2 multiplayer of all things and I can proudly say I did that all legit but then I'm the minority that thought it was really fun.

 

I can say no I did not discover every single Hidden Trophy by myself and I do refer to guides quite often to minimalize the number of playthroughs I'd have to do and to find all collectibles in games because unfortunately, it doesn't look like redundant collectibles are going to be dying off anytime soon. But if you were an absolute Trophy Hunting purist I can see your point on this. But being in a full-time job I really don't have the time to be prodding every corner of a game to find out some obscure trophy, there are many out there however that do this and create collectible and easter egg guides and my absolute highest thanks and praise goes out to every single one of them. ( A side note as you mentioned it. I did everything in Monster Hunter World and Iceborne legit)

 

8 hours ago, its_ArchroniX said:

And the reason a lot of people state: 'If they don't have the skill to do it themselves, they should just give up on what they were aiming for and move on' is in my opinion just a load of nonsense. If you can't finish college without teachers guiding you through all the classes, parents supporting you for all those years and friends to study with you should just quit school because you can't do it on your own, right? 

 

This is the only part I can't get behind.

One is an education that is crucial (debated sometimes) to better a future for yourself and as such, all help should be provided if you find yourself lacking behind.

The other is basically a meaningless Trophy system that doesn't really do anything of consequence other than self-satisfaction and maybe competitive attributes.

 

 

Just to mention this is just a forum of discussion. Personally, I don't care what everyone else does I do Platinum Trophy hunting for myself and I draw my own lines on how I tackle games to unlock Platinum Trophies. I don't really think there is a wrong or right answer here it was just a mere curiosity on my part.

Personally, I would never boost a session and I would never shareplay as I don't personally don't get any self-satisfaction out of it. However, I am absolutely guilty of doing things like save-scumming or as mentioned above looking up a PSN guide before I play and even using the occasional glitch for skill points/money/exp, etc.... which if you're Trophy Hunting purist then you might have an issue with those things

 

The bottom line is, we all play games in our own way and make our own fun and shouldn't let other people dictate how we play.

 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by SimmondsR

[Dreakon13]

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

”If you accept this, you need to accept this other thing that is just a smidge worse”

 

That’s never a great argument, because it can be taken too far by following it’s logic to an extreme.

 

“If you accept viewing Hidden Trophies, you must accept using guides.”

 

“If you accept using guides, you must accept using walkthroughs.”

 

”If you accept using walkthroughs, you must accept using boosting.”

 

”If you accept using boosting, you must accept using shareplay.”

 

“If you accept using shareplay, you must accept using pay-to-platinum trophy services.”

 

”If you accept using pay-to-platinum trophy services, you must accept using CFW and hacking.” 
 

....

 

 

The fact is, almost everything in life is a matter of degrees, and a ‘just the tip’ arguments can be made by comparison arguments for pretty much anything.

 

“If you accept birth control, you must accept abortion”

 

”if you accept the sale of knives, you must accept the sale of guns”

 

”if you accept a 20% tax, you must accept a 40% one”

 

It doesn’t make them true though.

 

People have a line that they feel gets crossed somewhere.
The nuance is in where that line lies - and this discussion is about that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glass houses, throwing stones, etc.  Everyone has their lines, but there's a certain hypocrisy that should be acknowledged in speaking publicly against something similar to what they do.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Dreakon13

[Darling Baphomet]

On 3/4/2021 at 11:50 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

They let you phone a friend, once, as one of your lifelines.

That was a fair concept for a clue.

 

What they didn’t let you do, was post the question on a public forum, with a request for people who already know the answer to call you....

 

Well, I mean, then it's just a question of how lucky you are in terms of friends. Posting online would really just be evening the odds.

[DrBloodmoney]

9 minutes ago, Darling Baphomet said:

 

Well, I mean, then it's just a question of how lucky you are in terms of friends. Posting online would really just be evening the odds.

well, yeah...

 

but only in the same sense that looking up the answers to a final school exam online would even the odds of getting a passing grade...

 

I mean, if the person who wrote the test is able to answer all the questions perfectly, then surely the only way of ‘evening the odds’ on a worldwide scale, would be for him to tell all the answers to everyone.... 

 

 

Surely the ‘odds’ of getting a trophy are even already for everyone.

Shareplay - on a grand scale - is not really a case of evening any odds...

...It’s just the smartest kid in the class taking the test over and over, with a long series of fake moustaches and false noses and wigs, putting the entire classes’ names on the papers one by one ?

 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Darling Baphomet]

2 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

the ‘odds’ of getting a trophy are even already for everyone. Shareplay on a geand scale is not really a case of evening any odds, it’s just one person taking the test over and over, with a long series of fake moustaches and putting the entire classes’ names on the papers

 

We're specifically comparing asking a friend for help versus asking a stranger for help, though. In the case of asking a friend it's supposedly more fair because of the limited quantity of friends, but that really just means it's a toss up. Do you have friends that are better at games than you or not?

 

In the case of asking friends for help, a very small minority of people would be able to find someone able to help them platinum, say, Super Meat Boy. Most people just wouldn't have that opportunity. Asking online, on the other hand, would give everyone the advantage that those lucky few could get.

[DrBloodmoney]

Just now, Darling Baphomet said:

 

In the case of asking friends for help, a very small minority of people would be able to find someone able to help them platinum, say, Super Meat Boy. Most people just wouldn't have that opportunity. Asking online, on the other hand, would give everyone the advantage that those lucky few could get.

yeah... I suppose....

 

your logic is sound....

but...

 

I don’t know.

 

There’s something not right in the sentiment of it. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I’m sure it’s there. 
 

 

To me, it just feels different.

 

...

 

Okay - so, let me try and work this out here-

 

Let’s say I have a friend (in real life), and she’s awesome at a really tough game.

 

I could get her to do a trophy for me. That’s a massive advantage I have. It’s not good sportsmanship etc.... but yeah - I could.

She’s round at my house, we’re playing some games, having some fun, and she does the trophy for me on my profile.
 

That isn’t great, but all it makes me is someone who has exploited a personal advantage.

 

If another trophy hunter, who doesn’t know her goes online, and finds her through, say, this site, and asks her to do it for them, the argument could be made that that person is just evening the odds...

 

...but that is someone seeking out someone specifically to do the challenge.

It has nothing to do with kismet. It isn’t happenstance nor fate. 
It’s not happening upon an easy path, it’s seeking it out.

 

In this scenario, when it comes to the next hard game - one my awesome friend is not the champion at - I no longer have any advantage, and am back to struggling away at the game on my lonesome.
 

The other guy though? The Shareplayer? He will be off seeking out some other champion player, to beat that game.

 

Y’know what I mean?

 

 

To me, the argument that it is the same smacks a little of the justification I’ve heard hackers use on occasion - “I’ve done other hard games legit. I have skills. I could beat this one, I only hacked it to save time...”

 

except here it’s:

 

”I’m a nice guy. I could have had a friend who could do it for me, so it’s okay that I went online and found someone who can.”

 

That is really just a short run along a narrow path to:

 

”I’m smart. I could have written this essay, so it’s okay that I plagiarised it”

[Darling Baphomet]

18 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

[shortening for the sake of convenience]

 

Well, I mean, you're still seeking her help out, it's just much, much easier for you to do so, and it is most certainly an unfair advantage over trophy hunters who have to do everything by themselves on that game. It's like asking a smart friend to cheat on your essay for you versus looking up the answers online. I don't think one is inherently better or worse than the other - if it's unfair to have other people earn trophies for you by playing in your stead, I think that should apply regardless of the circumstances. My argument isn't that share playing is good so much as that I don't think it's worse than having a friend play for you. The only upside to having a friend play for you is the fact that most people don't have skilled trophy hunters dropping by their house on the regular.

 

If anything, I guess they're both unfair, really.

[DrBloodmoney]

1 minute ago, Darling Baphomet said:

 

Well, I mean, you're still seeking her help out, it's just much, much easier for you to do so, and it is most certainly an unfair advantage over trophy hunters who have to do everything by themselves on that game. It's like asking a smart friend to cheat on your essay for you versus looking up the answers online. I don't think one is inherently better or worse than the other - if it's unfair to have other people earn trophies for you by playing in your stead, I think that should apply regardless of the circumstances. My argument isn't that share playing is good so much as that I don't think it's worse than having a friend play for you. The only upside to having a friend play for you is the fact that most people don't have skilled trophy hunters dropping by their house on the regular.

 

If anything, I guess they're both unfair, really.

lol - yeah, I think in essence we are making roughly the same point - we both agree that neither is fair or right, the only difference is I personally think one is a little sleazier than the other...

... it’s all really just varying shades of the same murky brown though! 

[plafix68]

On the one hand, I feel like it kind of defeats the point of the trophy. I've seen some analogies here to scenarios where you're relying on the support of others to achieve something. However, shareplay for a trophy that you cannot get and are solely relying on another player to get for you seems different. It's not the same as playing co-op to beat a game on a high difficulty since everyone is contributing. To me it's analogous to having a friend do your homework because it's too difficult for you (i.e., cheating). You shouldn't get the A if you don't deserve the A.

 

On the other hand, in many ways boosting is no different. I know a lot of us can't stand multiplayer trophies but do what we can to unlock them without necessarily playing the game "legitimately" to unlock them. Now some games just have dead online communities and that's a little different. But we're going out of our way a little to unlock something that either we were unable to unlock the way the developers intended or are not willing to put in the full time commitment to unlock it naturally.

 

I personally would never use shareplay, or have someone in person for that matter, to unlock a trophy for me. Either I hang it up and move on to something else or I persist until I'm able to accomplish the task on my own. Otherwise it sours any sense of accomplishment which is the whole point of trophies. To each their own I suppose.

[TrafalgarWarGrey]

If i can help people via shareplay i will do it.Sometimes it can' be possible because of lag issue.The thing is i have not problem with it.Have trophies doesn't mean you always are good at games and unless you show how you play you can't prove it.To make no ones offended i share my exeperience with Hitman.I got 100% completition but i am not good at that game.I helped a bunch of people on Nioh for example with share but instead of being disappointed of having the same trophies i was proud to have helped them even if i have lag issue sometise.It proved also i am good at that game.It's up to players to prove how good they are and with challenge are they willing to do.For example platinum or trophies can't be the highest achievement.I have watched people deal at level one on Abyss on Nioh.I am not that good but it shows you can create your own tier or legacy doing great stuffs.,

[its_ArchroniX]

On 5-3-2021 at 6:39 PM, SimmondsR said:

This is a compelling argument but I would have to say that looking up a guide doesn't actually help you perform the act necessarily. I believe someone above mentioned the Batman trophies where you absolutely can look up a guide/video to get tips and advice but the bottom line is that if you don't have the talent or the patience/time to practise your skills then the guide hasn't really done much. Whereas if you pass the controller to someone else who is more skilled at the game and then they unlock the trophy, you then really didn't do anything to contribute to actually getting the trophy. It's like if I ran a relay race with Mo Farah (personally I am not a runner in any sense) passed the baton to him and then when he achieves a ridiculous finish time and I then start claiming that we were both the fastest runners in the race.

 

I understand that a LOT of people do host boosting sessions to get them through a hard campaign or a multiplayer but I can honestly say I've never done this. Having someone drag your ass through a campaign I would say is a little forgivable because at the very least even the least skilled player can contribute something even if it's just a distraction target. But then there are circumstances where you could abuse this I guess (Halo on Legendary comes to mind). Personally, I admit multiplayer rank trophies suck but I've always opted to just not do those trophies and I've always felt like if I did boost them it'd be boring as fuck the only game I've done a rank up a trophy is the Bioshock 2 multiplayer of all things and I can proudly say I did that all legit but then I'm the minority that thought it was really fun.

 

I can say no I did not discover every single Hidden Trophy by myself and I do refer to guides quite often to minimalize the number of playthroughs I'd have to do and to find all collectibles in games because unfortunately, it doesn't look like redundant collectibles are going to be dying off anytime soon. But if you were an absolute Trophy Hunting purist I can see your point on this. But being in a full-time job I really don't have the time to be prodding every corner of a game to find out some obscure trophy, there are many out there however that do this and create collectible and easter egg guides and my absolute highest thanks and praise goes out to every single one of them. ( A side note as you mentioned it. I did everything in Monster Hunter World and Iceborne legit)

 

I can see your point and I do agree that a guide doesn't help you perform the action itself but it makes it considerably easier to perform it in the first place. Looking up the trophy list for games like Dark Souls or Bloodborne (just to name an example) doesn't give you any benefit in game. You're either better than the boss(es) or you're not. It does, however, give you tips and tricks on how to defeat the boss and make life easier for you. I have some friends in my list that have defeated bosses in said games only with the help of another friend that joined them and has the power to OHKO the bosses. Which of these methods is better and who is to judge which method is better? Again, a guide doesn't let you perform the act but looking up a guide/ playthrough/ walkthrough on how to defeat a boss (either through legit skill or cheesing it) doesn't differ from share-playing in my opinion.

 

I personally let someone play for me once. I na game called 'The Witness' (which I named in my previous post as well). The last trophy requires you to complete an extremely hard puzzle in a certain amount of time. You either have the skill to beat the timer and all the puzzles or you don't. It's as simple as that. So after trying this myself for over half a year I just plainly gave up on the game. Half a year later I found someone willing to do it for me and I got the platinum for that game. I completed 99% of the game on my own and let someone help me (or do it for me) get the last challenge. I personally don't see anything wrong with that. Comparing it to my previous example Dark Souls where friends/ players can join you and OHKO the boss or games like Destiny, Diablo or Borderlands where your overpowered friends can join you to just pave a way through the campaign for you is in my opinion worse than what I (and many other gamers) did.

 

I also have a full-time job and with some of the platinums I have I couldn't imagine finding out what every single (hidden) trophy used to be let alone the collectibles in many games. Guides are there for gamers to make life easier and I am at peace with that since I use them myself all the time. But is there really a difference between a guide (supposedly written by someone who played the game before you) or letting someone who played the before you do it for you or helping you with it?

 

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This is the only part I can't get behind.

One is an education that is crucial (debated sometimes) to better a future for yourself and as such, all help should be provided if you find yourself lacking behind.

The other is basically a meaningless Trophy system that doesn't really do anything of consequence other than self-satisfaction and maybe competitive attributes.

 

Just to mention this is just a forum of discussion. Personally, I don't care what everyone else does I do Platinum Trophy hunting for myself and I draw my own lines on how I tackle games to unlock Platinum Trophies. I don't really think there is a wrong or right answer here it was just a mere curiosity on my part.

Personally, I would never boost a session and I would never shareplay as I don't personally don't get any self-satisfaction out of it. However, I am absolutely guilty of doing things like save-scumming or as mentioned above looking up a PSN guide before I play and even using the occasional glitch for skill points/money/exp, etc.... which if you're Trophy Hunting purist then you might have an issue with those things

 

The bottom line is, we all play games in our own way and make our own fun and shouldn't let other people dictate how we play.

 

I just used this as an example so please don't take it that seriously. But in my point I just want to say that a lot of things in life (like school or a job) come with support of other people so why should we, as fellow gamers, make a difference when it comes down to completing our favourite games?

 

I personally don't care how people get their trophies either unless it's by cheating with downloaded/ hacked saves or something (where's the actual fun in that....?).  How people decide to get their trophies is entirely up to them. As I stated in my original post I still find it funny that there are gamers (not pointing fingers here) that have 200+ platinum trophies on their name and still try to tell other hunters on how to get their trophies the 'right' way. Let everyone hunt on their own way is what I say.