"Date and time are placeholder" has ruined gaming sessions

[JunkSkelington]

The evolution of gaming sessions towards mega groups with "date and time are placeholder" has ruined the ability to schedule gaming sessions. It doesnt matter if you try to spell out "please be available at the scheduled time or dont join", because of the meta shift of sessions its pretty much impossible to schedule a session and have people actually show up. It would be great if there was some kind of visual indicator or flag to discern placeholder gaming session vs actual scheduled time gaming session. Or perhaps have the make people as no show feedback be meaningful.   Love the site but its become increasingly frustrating for limited time gamers trying to actually schedule boosting sessions, thanks for reading. 

[Helyx]

If you have issues with the way someone runs their session, perhaps you should create your own boosting session with a set time.

[BlackSquirrell1]

I agree with @Helyx's suggestion.  If sessions didn't work for my time zone, I just set up my own sessions.  As far as the placeholder sessions, I found out that if you do sign up for those, usually the person who posted them might send you a PM with a set time once he sees how many people are actually interested.

[NMErickson]

I agree to an extent. Have created my own sessions saying not placeholder time but people still don’t show up at the scheduled time. Maybe they assume it’s placeholder and they’ll get added to a message group to work on it at their leisure. I remember it different even just a couple years ago. Getting big groups together at the session’s start time was easier for sure. It’s certainly changed but I don’t know what, if anything, could be done about it. Your idea of an icon or visual indicator ain’t bad but doubt anything will change tbh.

[JunkSkelington]

I am the one creating sessions, and regardless if i put the time is not a placeholder people still no show because of the site wide shift towards session times not being meaningful. 

[langdon]

I love placeholders!

 

I can't imagine how else we'd find other players as desperate as we are to complete trophies for some rare game that nobody plays anymore.

 

If the site were more actively developed, there'd be a separate feature that just shows the pool of people interested in boosting whatever game/trophy.  For now, placeholders are king.

[sweeping-lamp3]

I have created some past sessions.  I somewhat agree.  It would be nice instead if a set date and time wasn't mandatory to create the session and have an option like "Flexible hours - willing to work out a date and time comfortable for both of us".  However, I think the set date and time also acts as an expiration date for the session.

[TheBlaskar]

Agreed. My issue with "time and date are placeholders" is that it never turns into a gaming session. It's more of a PSA. I create these non-sessions, mainly to attract people who are interested and bring them over to discord where we can actually plan around work and time zones. Other than that, I know I don't take it seriously, even if I join somebody else's session. The session leader sort of leaves the planning up to the participants and that never works. They're going to forget, lose interest, or make other plans, and the gaming session will lead to nothing.

 

The only real thing to combat this is to take the conversation elsewhere like PS messaging or discord- or simply make a planned and scheduled session

[sepheroithisgod]

I think the issue is that these gaming sessions have an actual timer attached to them. That gives a lot of people the wrong impression. A solution would be to make it so the session won't be time-limited since it's essentially just an Ad to find a boosting partner.

[wajbsb]

I respectfully disagree, although I've not scheduled any gaming sessions, so I've not experienced it from that side. I have joined a fair few gaming sessions and I've found it quite helpful when people have some flexibility and times to suit all participants can be worked out together. Just my personal tuppence worth.

[Xylobe]

Just now, JunkSkelington said:

I am the one creating sessions, and regardless if i put the time is not a placeholder people still no show because of the site wide shift towards session times not being meaningful. 

 

I've had the exact same experience and it's put me off of using the sessions feature completely. I've even had situations where people join the session, do manage to show up on time, and then get rude and leave because they didn't bother reading what trophies the session was for. At this point I'd point the blame at a broader culture of entitlement rather than just at placeholders as a new default, but in either case "just make your own session" is a uselessly smarmy refusal to understand the issue.

[DaivRules]

15 minutes ago, JunkSkelington said:

if i put the time is not a placeholder people still no show because of the site wide shift towards session times not being meaningful. 

 

Correlation is not causation. People have complained about no-shows since Sly implemented sessions and was the motivator for a lot of them advocating for a session feedback function.
 

[JD-D2]

Getting a group of people from around the globe to agree on a scheduled time here is difficult, especially for games that are not especially popular at a given point in time. (Ex: A couple months back I got a group together for Killzone Mercenary, a 9 year old Vita game, and all 6 of us were located in different time zones/countries.) 

 

I love PSNProfiles and use it daily, but the site just isn't built for that kind of instant messaging and communication.

 

When I've put "date and time are placeholders" down, it's usually to get a (finite, not massive) group of like-minded trophy hunters together, get their PSN information, then create a group chat with those same players on PSN/Discord/etc. where we can communicate more quickly and directly. Then, if I'm the session creator, I'll update the PSNP listing with that time and ensure everyone sticks to it.

 

Ultimately, it comes down to the session creator to be proactive, vigilant, and on top of their group like that. If someone is being a moron, you have to boot them and try again, as aggravating as it is.

 

The gaming sessions tool here is still extremely useful — way, waayyyy more than posting on forums like PlayStationTrophies, TrueTrophies, etc. and praying someone responds within a month — but using outside chat tools is borderline necessary to make the experience go smoothly. People will just not respond unless you go at them directly, for better or worse.

Edited July 25, 2022 by JD-D2

[Speling_Expirt]

If the description says 'date and time are placeholders' - I don't see an issue. It's still putting people together for the same cause and communication is key to find the right time and date. 

 

I have been in many groups, some with rigid times to stick to, and others that are flexible to accomodate the needs of everyone in the group. I don't see the issue if you communicate with the host anyway. 

 

 

[MidnightDragon]

It’s helpful when you have people in multiple timezones. If you want a fixed time, you can do so.

Edited July 25, 2022 by MidnightDragon

[LastMinuteSavior]

Dunno if I'm alone here, but I've used the expression "date and time are placeholders" in sessions I created, but it's usually followed by "wanna do this asap", meaning "if you're online, and I'm online, lets get this done already".

 

The real problem is that 9,5 outta 10 people are absolutely unreliable.

 

Dunno what I hate the most: if it's the ones who show up as offline for 257 days on their profiles, and don't show any signs of life; or those mofos who ARE online but decide to spend all afternoon playing every game they own except the game they've said they wanted to boost.

 

[HusKy]

If you set specific date and time, then you are greatly limiting your options in what people may join your session.

 

I for one prefer to arrange specific date and time once we have everyone on board.

[snakebit10]

I've always put placeholder when creating a session and never had a issue. Always have been able to complete the trophies that were intended to boost.

[Floorkiller74]

I think placeholders work when you have plenty of open time. During the summer months that works fine enough for me. Other times of the year my time is very limited, so I tend to only look at sessions that fit times I'm available. 

[Beyondthegrave07]

I rarely use sessions, but I learned pretty quickly that if you want it to work out as planned with multiple people, you have to be extremely organized. Create PSN chat groups, add them on PSN, add them on Discord and try to be in constant communication with them in some way, shape, or form.

 

Whether you plan it for a certain time or if it's a placeholder, it's important to be communicating with them before the session goes off so they understand how it's going to go and to ensure that they will be there. Otherwise, it's not going to go well no matter how simple the trophy is.

[Xugoshi]

I use "date and time is a placeholder" in gaming sessions as a means to be flexible. Due to time zones it's difficult to know who gets on at what time. If I'm the host I always message the people that joined in order to find a solution through communication. Worked well so far!  Always do the online trophies first kiddies!

[DeepEyes7]

For sessions to work (with or without placeholders) you need to be extremely proactive and direct everything via PSN chat or discord, you need to keep everyone on line and notified even if you looks like a control freak, because most (not all) of people that join this sessions are lazy af and if you don't do all the planning yourself it will surely crash and burn, if people leave for all the participants to get to a concensus between them and by themsleves, it will never happen.

[GUDGER666]

I can't remember the last time i was in a session where the time and date was organised on this site. This site from my experience is only ever used as a way to find people who are then added to a group on the PS. You're gonna need to communicate and that is 99% of the time done through messages so organising a session on here is just pointless imo. 

 

Imo the whole time and date thing on here should be scrapped. 

[Milktastrophe]

Placeholder time sessions shouldn't be allowed. What should be done instead is the host picks a time that works for them and says: "if another time works better for you, comment/message me and we can try to work out a better time. But until then, this is when the session is happening."

[EDGES]

that's why I gave up on boosting online trophies, you have to become a multilingual agent/manager and handle your group's schedule and make sure they can make it, manage, work around, no thanks, I'd rather not earn those trophies than start a new job