Member Interviews: Temp-910724

[Charizarzar]

Hey PSNP! Welcome back to another (long-awaited) member interview. Our current interviewee is @temp-910724!

 

temp-910724

 

As a reminder:

Quote

Hi, I formerly went by midgetstrawdog but Sony deemed that too inappropriate so I now go by temp-910724. Im a semi retired trophy hunter who earns all of their trophies alone, my highest ranks being top 50 worldwide, top 2 UK. I’m also an RL sweat with 15k+ games played and run a 10k+ member discord server. I like to ramble about nonsense and this seems like the best way to go about doing that.

 

Stock Questions

How did you come up with your PSN name?

My original name got banned, so this is the result. The original name of midgetstrawdog was my childhood nickname of Midget mixed with my Dad’s childhood nickname of Strawdog.

 

What games convinced you to get your PlayStation 3, Playstation Vita, PlayStation 4 and Playstation 5?

No specific games convinced me to buy any of them. My dad got the PS3 mostly for Ratchet and Clank but we were already in the PlayStation family of consoles with the PS1, PSP and PS2 and have never had an Xbox so that was the most logical progression to the PS3. Then trophies hooked me so I was never going to leave after that.

 

What are your top 5 game series and why?

Not really ordered since I love all of these series equally:

 

• Little Big Planet: Really solid platforming games, you really only need the first one, but playing mobile on Vita is really nice. There is a bit of everything to do in these games, super hard levels that the community has made, make your character pretty close to whatever you want and creative mode to make your own levels. I spent so many hours messing around in creative mode with friends.
• Call of Duty: I know it’s cool to hate CoD, but the earlier games in the series were really solid online experiences. They don’t feel realistic at all but that’s what makes them fun in my opinion. The Modern Warfare series really was the peak of the series and I dropped 500 hours into the Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer alone. The zombies mode in World at War and Blacks Ops games is a must-play for those that love co-op.
• Infamous: Superpowers but done right. No overly complex system that makes super abilities feel like a chore, even some of the basic moves feel great to use. The first one is a must-play with all its grit and its amazing abilities.
• Ratchet and Clank: Honestly there isn’t a great deal to say about Ratchet and Clank, it doesn’t really do anything spectacularly they are just very solid games. I think nostalgia plays a huge part in my love for the series but they are still very very fun.
• Pokemon: A completionist's wet dream, an ever expanding collection of monsters to collect with your collection being able to transfer to each game (at least it was). Extremely rare variants to farm for and battle stats to breed for, extremely difficult end game sections and a very active competitive mode makes this series one of my favourites.

 

What are your top 5 game series and why?

 

Also not ordered and to keep things interesting not going to include anything from my favourite series:

 

• Rocket League: Car football with an absolutely insane skill ceiling. Pulling off crazy passing plays or aerials is the most fun I have playing a game ever. Beating a team that’s full try harding when you’re full try harding is so indescribably satisfying. There really isn’t many games that give you this much control and also make it competitive.
• Mario Kart DS: The only karting game I really truly learned. There isn’t much to say about this game because it’s really just a karting game with really good controls and pacing.
• Mirror's Edge: Exploits. This game would not be fun without exploits. It's really hard to explain the brilliance of this game because when I first played it I hated playing it and basically forced myself through the campaign. Then I tried the time trials and… I fell in love. The level of speed you can get through the use of well placed jumps and exploits is really unrivalled. The campaign is like this too if you know the paths and where to go, it's just a slog doing your first run where you’re finding the paths to go.
• LIMBO: A puzzle platformer that’s only black and white. All of the enemies in this game are really well designed and the game is just beautiful to me. Most of my love for this game does come from its aesthetic, the way the spider moves at the start of the game is just so well done. The puzzles are mostly fair and fun too. Your character controls nicely too.
• Trials Fusion: Simple mechanics that anyone can learn but somehow the most extreme skill ceiling in a single player game I have played. The limits people have taken this game to is pretty insane for something that is basically r2 for forward, l2 for back and left stick to rock back and forth.

 

Which unreleased game(s) are you looking forward to the most and why?

I don’t play games on release so can’t say anything unreleased I would be looking forward to, but I do really want to play the new Ratchet and Clank once I get a PS5.

 

Do you have any other hobbies outside of gaming?

No, all of my time goes here.

 

Top 5 TV shows, Movies, and/or anime, why, and would you recommend them to people?

I don’t watch many movies or TV shows so they aren’t as developed as my anime list and I can’t even think of a TV show I really liked.

 

Anime:

1. Code Geass - yes
2. From the New World - yes
3. Attack on Titan – yes
4. Phantom: Requiem for a Phantom - yes
5. Ping Pong the Animation - yes

 

Movies:

1. Old  Boy - yes
2. The Matrix - yes
3. Gone Girl - yes
4. Toy Story 2 – no
5. Green Street Elite - no

 

Top 5 favorite music bands/group/artists/composers/ost?

I don’t listen to music much so my list here isn’t very developed either.

 

1. Marina and the Diamonds
2. Takayan
3. S3RL
4. Cascada
5. Lollia

 

Your favorite platinum and why?

I really like my platinum for The Culling Two, servers are closed and the game was only open for a few weeks. So the list of people that platinumed it is tiny.

 

Your least favorite platinum and why?

I don’t really have one, I have loads of trash on my list that I can't really single one out as least favourite.

 

Have you ever been tempted to switch over to the Xbox/Nintendo/PC gaming ecosystems?

Yes, to all of them. In secondary most of my friends played Xbox and I wanted to play with them but never bought one. If the Switch had achievements and a leaderboard I might have made the (switch) to Nintendo to compete at the top of the leaderboard, they didn’t so I didn’t. I want to switch to PC already and will if I ever fully retire from trophies.

 

If you could have one game from any gaming generation be remade or re-released, which one would it be and why?

It would have been pokemon diamond but that’s being worked on already, even if it looks awful. Other than that Simpsons hit and run.

 

How far are you willing to go for a platinum?

I would say anything, but I want the elemental online card game platinum but I'm not willing to drop the insane amounts of money it needs to be done. So anything that isn’t excessive amounts of money. And if the servers live on maybe one day I’ll have the money to afford this platinum.

 

If you could give Sony direct feedback of business decisions in the last year, and the latest console generation, what would you tell them?

I haven’t really been keeping up with Sony’s business decisions, but I would be against their censorship practices. From both a moral and business lens, I don’t see how they make more money by censoring companies.

 

What is your favorite thing about PSNP?

The leaderboards and its speed. Updating my profile here is much faster than anywhere else on top of nicely displayed stats.

 

What is your least favorite thing about PSNP?

I think the CRT needs a switch up, getting more people more in to actually shift through all of the reports. The recent drama that is coming from the lack of moderation there is just evidence. The repeat incidents of loads of flags just being accepted and then people having to come and dispute just painfully wrong flags needs to stop. I think the general thoughts is that if it's wrong then someone can just dispute it. With how long trophy hunting has gone on though this will eventually hit someone that has passed away and they will forever be labelled a cheater.

 

Community Questions

How does it feel to have 1000 plats?

It doesn’t really feel any different than having 100. No matter how many I have there will always be people with more. I am happy with what I achieved but I think success is only relative to other people. 1000 plats now could be achieved never playing a game above like 5 hours, whereas when I started trophy hunting a 5 hour platinum every trophy hunter above like 50 platinum would have. The leaderboard positions are much meaningful to me than a static platinum count.

 

10k member Discord server? What could it be?

It's nothing special, but it’s something I do so I included it in my about me.

 

As someone who was in the top 50 in the world, what are your thoughts on the current meta in trophy hunting and how would you want to improve it?

I have hated the trophy hunting meta for a while, I just went with it mostly because of the sunk costs fallacy and a hope that Sony would go ahead and catch on and fix it eventually if too many companies hopped on the wagon of abusing easy platinums. They removed 5 star top rated so it wasn’t an impossibility but it's pretty clear with the state that the meta is now that they won't ever do something and even if they do unless it's something drastic like removing trophies it's already too far gone.

 

I don’t think the meta of playing easy games is bad or the meta of playing bad games is bad. But to me there’s a difference between playing Hannah Montana bad/easy and some janky asset flip that’s not even really a game. The trophy lists that release where you get the platinum before even beating the game are terrible. I think the thing that made me stop most of all and which ties into the meta now is the fact that now you could play easy games all day and still not got them all done. In PS3 days and early PS4 you had time to do both all of the easy games and the good. Then as the meta evolved my time to play good games shrunk and shrunk before I went enough is enough. Also region stacks are a mistake, I don’t mind console stacks, there is meaningful differences between those but 6 rata stacks without meaningful differences… no thank you.

 

I couldn’t improve it, it's too far gone. I think Sony would have to delete the trophies of like 90% of games released with a plat under an hour, but do that then the top may just quit and you’ve kinda just ruined trophy hunting. It punishes those playing the meta too much. We could have seen some sort of reset for the PS5 but we did not.

 

To truly fix it, I would delete all the trash currently on PS5 and then promote the PS5 only leaderboard.

 

What Nintendo IP would you like to see on PSN if any?

Pokemon, I bought a 3DS XL just to play Pokemon X.

 

Are there any tiny gems in your collection that you'd recommend to others?

I forget most of the games I play so I’m sure there’s more than this but this is what I remember as of now:

 

Just yesterday I played Unearthing Mars 2 and I'm really enjoying it. It has a lot of problems, but the models are really well done. Jumping around on giant robots in VR is a lot of fun. 

 

Memories Retold 11-11 is a really nice WW1 explore game thingie.

 

I remember really enjoying Hell Yeah! but I haven’t played it in a very long time so I don’t know if it holds up as well.

 

If you were stranded on an island and could only bring one item (not people or pets) from your room with you, what would you pick and why?

I have a solar powered chess game, I would take that to keep both my brain sort of in shape and something to do when bored because most everything survival based could be made on the island.

 

With such an impressive resume, does it bother you to have incomplete games on your profile?

No not at all, I would be miserable running a 100% only profile. I think a lot of those running those perfect profiles are miserable too, I notice those with 100% profiles seem to retire from trophy hunting more than those that don’t. Having games I can't complete because of closures annoys me, but the rest does not.

 

When you look for new games to play, what genre do you always check out first?

I don’t really, if something looks fun to me I’ll play it. I suppose platformers and shooters are my most go-to genres though.

 

What was it about your old username that was inappropriate for Sony?

I don’t know, I never contacted Sony about it so I can only theorise, but the current theories are either midget has become an offensive word, though I suppose it's always been somewhat offensive just with the world becoming more “politically correct” its deemed totally unacceptable or that having “rawdog” is enough to get it banned.

 

Are there any games you found to be impossible?

I’m a fairly strong believer that if you have the right mindset then most humans are capable of doing and people that use “impossible” to describe games that have already been completed by others to have a pretty horrible mindset (save for people with pretty severe disabilities, but even then with the right mindset you’d be surprised with what can be overcome). A few years ago people would say the rata games were impossible and that mindset made the games made it much harder for them to do, I think considering the more difficult games impossible is the same idea. So I don’t have any of these GaME is IMPOSSIBRU games but I have some interesting games that may count.

 

Dungeon Defenders: I have had this game at 98% for years and years. For my last trophy you have to survive to wave 20. Looking at the platinum percentage you might think this would be easy, and it actually is. It’s a long slog, which takes about 5-8 hours to complete. That’s all fine, but the problem that has made it impossible for me is that at around wave 18 due to the large amount of enemies on screen and it calculating and adding all of your kills the game loves to freeze. I have tried this on three different PS3s, tried leaving the game after every round to wait for the kill counter to go to 0, tried swapping characters after each round to remove the kill feed and have tried both offline and online and have frozen on every single attempt so for me, this trophy has been impossible.

 

What do you enjoy doing outside of the trophy hobby?

Well I don’t do a lot outside of trophy hunting hence why I have so many. I watch a tonne of Youtube, I think I would be top 100 or so if there was a leaderboard for watch time. I am currently trying to learn Chess (I'm at around 800/900 ELO). I play Rocket League a lot and have been getting back into shiny hunting in the pokemon games too. I also play discord bots like pokecord and now poketwo.

 

Is there anywhere that you would like to travel to? Why or why not?

I plan to travel to Japan in a year or so. I have wanted to go for years mostly to go shopping and other weeb reasons. It just seems like a very cool place to go to for electronics and video game-related stuff.

 

Is there anything you don’t understand that you wish you could?

Fighting games. They just don’t make sense to me, I never know when I'm actually supposed to block. I think eventually I will spend the effort to properly learn them, I have tried a lot but I always end up giving up.

 

What life advice would you give to others?

To have full belief in yourself and don’t believe what others tell you without fully checking. To create your own morals and not to be told what is right and what is wrong.

 

Do you have any pets? Who’s your favourite?

I only have one; a Jack Russell named Oreo.

 

What’s your favourite season and why?

Winter because Christmas and birthday and I quite like how it gets dark really early, it feels quite comfy. If you’re lucky you can also have snow to play in.

 

Do you believe in any superstitions?

No, I think there’s logic to all weird occurrences that happen, maybe one day I will experience something that I won’t be able to explain but until then the answer is no.  

 

In twenty years, what do you think the world might look like?

I think a world war with China is entirely possible so within 20 years we could be experiencing the aftermath of that. So either a world where everyone is recovering and rebuilding from all the destruction or we all have to bow to our new Chinese overlords.

 

Is there anything that scares you?

Death and just about everything that can kill me. I suppose I also fear not doing something exceptional with my life.

 

 

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Thank you to all who participated in asking questions in this interview! See you soon for the next one (Please use this new thread if you want to sign up).

Spoiler

@DesmaBR @ArmoredSnowman @Beyondthegrave07 @DJ__Beatroot @Dreggit

Edited January 18, 2023 by Charizarzar

[Beyondthegrave07]

Glad to see this coming back! Is it weird that I still remember the questions I asked? ?

 

It's funny though because I think a lot of top hunters hate the current trophy meta, but just deal with it anyways because someone will play the 6 minute games and their stacks, and it's the only way to compete and keep up. I should have followed up with the question about what new leaderboard should PSNP add? Oh well, guess I'll pocket that for another day...