"Date and time are placeholder" has ruined gaming sessions

[HuntingFever]

3 hours ago, JD-D2 said:

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.

 

2 hours ago, HusKy said:

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.

These^
 

I use placeholders to get a group together, then set a definitive date and time once there are sufficient players for what I want to boost + some spares in case of no-shows. I've held many boosting sessions over the years but the most successful ones have been for small groups for quick trophies. If a lot of people are needed for either a single complicated trophy or a long term grind, then the odds of failure go much higher in my experience, which is why I avoid even buying such games in the first place these days since the agro isn't worth it.

Edited July 25, 2022 by HuntingFever
Fixed typo.

[BestUsername----]

I guess this more depends on the amount of people you require to boost. I’ve never been in or have managed a group of more than 3 people (4, if you include myself). I figure having groups of 8 or more gets really complicated. 
 

I ALWAYS put the “time and date placeholder message front and center in my sessions for 2 reasons. Boosting sessions aren’t just about you, it’s also about your partners. So having a set date and time that works for everyone is imperative if you want everyone to be on time and attending.

 

Secondly, the world is huge with a plethora of regions and time zones. When someone joins my gaming session I immediately try to add them to a PSN party. Then I ask 2 questions when I have everyone. “What time works for everyone?” and “What time zone are you in?” After everyone says there time I put in one message the persons name and what time they should show up in their time zone so no one is confused. Saying ”I’ll show up at 8pm” with no information can lead to a lot of confusion. 

 

Will there be people who unfortunately can’t make it for any reason, yes. Some people will say have one or two more slots open for subs but I usually get PSN messages when I make it the specific amount I need. But as session host, management and responsibility are in your hands. You can’t half-ass the planning phase if you want to move onto the gaming phase. 
 

So in short, no I don’t think the phrase hurts sessions. I think it greatly broadens the ability for players to create and join sessions outside their region. 

Edited July 25, 2022 by BestUsername----

[Rebourne07]

Absolutely agree with this. Instead of forcing users to do something they don't want to do by requiring users to set a time and day, the site should allow an option to not include a time or date and just have have those expire after a set amount of time.

[Otonio_Bruno]

I understand TC's issue even though I don't run into it that myself. I learned years ago that if I want a boosting experience to go smoothly as possible, I need to be the host and clearly state the rules among while also being proactive on communication before the session starts. This way, whenever I set up a boosting session, be it placeholder for time/date or actually a set time/date, it always ends up working very well.

 

I manage to achieve this just by reinforcing to everyone who joins my session that we will either coordinate a time and day that is good for us or if the time and day is set, I keep repeating this piece of info so it's very clear.

 

[Vulpine9Tails]

From my perspective, there's too many people who rely on the people joining to figure it out. If it's your session, you lead. Don't expect the people joining to be the ones setting times, sending friend requests, sending out invites, etc; do it yourself. Maybe you'll get someone who is willing to be more of the leader role but if you aren't following through as the session creator, imo, you can't really complain about the others ignoring your date and time. 

[Guest]

As mentioned, the only use of sessions is to find people with this common interest in boosting. communication and organization needs to be done externally. only in very niche games i have had no luck finding anyone, but in triple a /well known games you will have no problem finding anyone.

 

Even so, I have the opinion that for every game there should be a megathread for boosting. I think it would be much more practical to post a time in a sticky post making your interest in boosting clear, and also avoid multiple spam threads from people asking for help. games like Rocket league and Littlebigplanet have threads of this type, which can be controlled by moderators.

[tonkie18]

2 hours ago, Milktastrophe said:

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."

Um and then the host may be there on his Todd with no trophies for the rest of time ???‍♀️ 
 

oh wait didn’t see the comment message part ?

Edited July 25, 2022 by tonkie18

[Vern3r0z]

10 minutes ago, kevao97 said:

As mentioned, the only use of sessions is to find people with this common interest in boosting. communication and organization needs to be done externally. only in very niche games i have had no luck finding anyone, but in triple a /well known games you will have no problem finding anyone.

 

Even so, I have the opinion that for every game there should be a megathread for boosting. I think it would be much more practical to post a time in a sticky post making your interest in boosting clear, and also avoid multiple spam threads from people asking for help. games like Rocket league and Littlebigplanet have threads of this type, which can be controlled by moderators.

why aren't the boosting threads a thing on this site? they are super useful on the other site back when it used to be good.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Vern3r0z said:

why aren't the boosting threads a thing on this site? they are super useful on the other site back when it used to be good.

I have no idea. the stupid rule of not being able to create a boosting thread just makes life harder for everyone lol it just doesn't make sense. it would be much easier to have a hub for each game, where everyone interested would leave their schedules and set up their groups. the sessions function wouldn't have to go away for anyone who still wants to use it.

[Vern3r0z]

4 minutes ago, kevao97 said:

I have no idea. the stupid rule of not being able to create a boosting thread just makes life harder for everyone lol it just doesn't make sense. it would be much easier to have a hub for each game, where everyone interested would leave their schedules and set up their groups. the sessions function wouldn't have to go away for anyone who still wants to use it.

my thoughts exactly

[BlindMango]

I agree 100% with this - almost every session that says "ignore time and date" goes nowhere because everyone who joins has no set date in their mind and forgets about it and the host usually does a terrible job at organizing it from there. Whenever I've had to find people in a session, I've always ignored all the useless sessions that say "ignore time and date" and create my own real session with an actual time and date. It's an annoying trend but it's one of the things that clearly shows that gaming sessions badly needs a few updates here and there.

 

Basically sessions need an "Any Time" option and those sessions can all be bundled together somewhere like the bottom of the page where they belong lol

 

... Along with other updates that are needed like not allowing sessions to be pushed back more than a month because kids keep pushing their sessions back again and again for months on in (and they'd do it for years if we didn't go in and shut them down). Stuff like that

 

Would love to see Sly make tweaks like that someday

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by BlindMango

[EqualityEarth]

2 minutes ago, kevao97 said:

I have no idea. the stupid rule of not being able to create a boosting thread just makes life harder for everyone lol it just doesn't make sense. it would be much easier to have a hub for each game, where everyone interested would leave their schedules and set up their groups. the sessions function wouldn't have to go away for anyone who still wants to use it.

Everyone probably already knows this, but for those who don’t, each game with a dedicated thread is the way of things on PST.org. You may wonder why PSNP doesn’t do this. I think the site creator has his reasons, and I can make my best guess.

 

The boosting thread is like a bulletin board, everyone can post what they aim for and when they can do so. You can leave your post there for whoever else views and hopefully they might contact you. The catch is that not everyone goes back to edit/delete their posts after they’re finished. This is where I suppose I see some foresight on the part of the creator here. The date/time setting on game sessions works as it translates time for everyone just like the Friend Time bot on discord. I’d even say that game sessions are no different from the discord event function. It is a luxury after all to be able to use a page preprogrammed to display relevant trophies (which you can check to make sure you’re all green before the session is over). What some people including me really want to do is to just fish (for however long it takes) for another likeminded player. The more undesirable and possibly frowned upon alternative is to contact the most recent achiever(s), after all their interest is clearly established by their own successful pursuit.

 

The game session page is obviously very good at “cleaning itself up.” Whether anything gets accomplished or not, a neglected session (time/date doesn’t get adjusted) just fizzles so the whole page doesn’t get irreparably cluttered, as boosting threads inevitably do.

 

@Floorkiller74 I’m glad you eventually got the Jimmie Johnson’s AWAE trophy. I checked every once in a blue moon. Sorry about what happened back then. I recall being totally offline for a week or more after some life happened (I’m usually skittish about details but for the sake of gravity, someone almost drank himself to death). I strive to always be on good terms with others online so it pretty much eats me when things turn way sour. Other players with common interests are indeed just too valuable to waste.

[MRR---OFFICIAL]

I have set up Sessions in the past and put "Date & Time Placeholder" if anything because people are shit when it comes to being on Time... I'm always Early/ON THE DOT so I never try to stick with the exact time set when putting the Session up because people won't be there at the time usually regardless ?‍♂️

 

I personally think Sony should implement the Community/Multiplayer tabs of "Game Cards" for Xbox One/Series on PS5 (it's basically what PS4 Communities were but on Xbox) and you can create Groups for boosting etc. directly through Xbox Live under the Multiplayer section and it's GREAT, you can tag the Achievements you're aiming for, write up a Description, set Dates and Times. It's just awesome ?

Edited July 26, 2022 by MRR---OFFICIAL

[ResiGamer_28]

No it hasn't. Expecting people to be around for a set time does. Being able to discuss and rearrange is by no means a bad thing. This is a ridiculous post

[Letenko]

21 minutes ago, BlindMango said:

I agree 100% with this - almost every session that says "ignore time and date" goes nowhere because everyone who joins has no set date in their mind and forgets about it and the host usually does a terrible job at organizing it from there. Whenever I've had to find people in a session, I've always ignored all the useless sessions that say "ignore time and date" and create my own real session with an actual time and date. It's an annoying trend but it's one of the things that clearly shows that gaming sessions badly needs a few updates here and there.

 

Basically sessions need an "Any Time" option and those sessions can all be bundled together somewhere like the bottom of the page where they belong lol

 

... Along with other updates that are needed like not allowing sessions to be pushed back more than a month because kids keep pushing their sessions back again and again for months on in (and they'd do it for years if we didn't go in and shut them down). Stuff like that

 

Would love to see Sly make tweaks like that someday

 

I would disagree with you on 2 fronts here.

1. Every single sesison I hosted has had a "placeholder" time to gather people. Everybody who joined and communicated got their trophies, I can say this with 100% certainty. I don't browse sessions others make, since I prefer to lead, but I think ignoring all the sessions like mine limits your scope quite a bit and I honestly believe that if somebody forgets they had a session going, they're a moron so I'd agree with staying away from those hosts.

2. Not allowing sessions to be pushed back more than a month sounds like a swell idea on paper, but I have a counterpoint. For the past several weeks I have hosted sessions for Bomberman R Online. The game is shutting down at the end of the year and the fastest way to get the trophies is to have someone with the "Premium" DLC host a custom match for you, since you can't do that just without the DLC (Konami's greed). I had a PSNP Boositng session up that anyone could join and I'd host for them since I had that DLC, I helped over 55 people total and the only way they knew I wasn't a bullshitter is because I kept pushing that session back to leave it open, so that everyone could see how many people already joined and were done.

What I would strongly agree with is some sort of an update for the session system, mainly making the feedback matter. If your rep from feedbacks was shown just like your rep on the forums, that would make choosing a sesison much easier. The hosts rep would go a long way, but I understand that would surely open another can of worms that would have to be adressed. As it stand the feedback after sessions is useless and you're lef tin the dark if the host is someone who will ensure a smooth sessions or some moron like you described.

[Yuber6969]

6 hours ago, JunkSkelington said:

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. 

 

Like you, I get annoyed when people flake on a boosting session, or on any sort of plans really. However, I personally don't think that the "time and date are placeholder" thing is the reason for their flakiness. A lot of people nowadays are flaky in general, and I suspect that a lot of people don't think of a boosting session as "firm plans" because it involves playing a video game. I once took a day off work for a boosting session and was flaked on, and was given some wishy-washy excuse.

 

To be clear, I don't support flakiness in or out of video game sessions; I'm just reporting what I've noticed. My suggestion is to never accept any type of "maybe" response to a boosting session, or any other sort of plan really.

 

I really don't like how people don't respect each other's time nowadays, so I'm really sorry you're having these issues. But again, I don't think the placeholder is an issue. Generally speaking, I respect the time of others, and I pretty much always use the placeholder line as I don't know what my future boosting partner's schedule is like, especially when different timezones are a factor.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Yuber6969

[You]

I do the same, what other option do you have though except use a gaming session, make the session as long as possible and try to find people. You're basically advertising/recruiting members and having it there for a long time is going to give you more chance of finding somebody, especially on a rare game that maybe very few people have.

 

If I make one I put a long description in, saying I'm living in Japan, got a family, have honestly no idea when I can play but sometime next week when I am free, but I am in a difficult time zone, so what times are good for you? Just seeing a time and date is in my opinion not enough information.

 

Nobody can make perfect plans immediately, for when to start a game with random people in the Internet all living in different time zones, sometimes you need as many as 4 to 8 people.

Let's I want to boost in like 5 hours and need 2 people, there's probably no way anyone would ever see that in time.

 

I mean it's not like you can make friends, discuss or make arrangements anywhere else on the forums where most people are actually looking, because DaivRules will fly down his fireman's pole and lock the topic immediately within minutes and advise you to make a gaming session.

 

I think gaming sessions are better this way. One thing that does annoy me though is that as soon as the game session ends, all evidence completely vanishes. So if you join someone elses session and for whatever reason they close the sessions early (presumably they got the trophies already) there's absolutely noway of finding out what happened. (As far as I am aware anyway)

 

I am sure many people just hook up on this site and then move to PSN chat / discord anyway.

 

36 minutes ago, BlindMango said:

Basically sessions need an "Any Time" option and those sessions can all be bundled together somewhere like the bottom of the page where they belong lol

This!

 

 

[AJ_Radio]

When I create a boosting session I ALWAYS put down an unlimited number of boosters who can join. 
 

I’ve had too many instances of people not showing up for the session when it was full, so it was a complete waste of time. 
 

For some people, the “time and date are placeholders” mentality ruined boosting sessions. I disagree completely. 
 

You guys may want to look into Discord or PS App because that’s where most of the actual boosting happens. It’s far easier to communicate and if it weren’t for those, I wouldn’t be able to obtain those Max Payne 3 online trophies. 
 

There are assholes. There are griefers. There are morons who ditch the session as soon as they get their trophies. 
 

But since when was this not the case? I think most people claiming that trophy boosting was far better in circa 2010 - 2014ish are just dwelling in nostalgia, especially when they were only teenagers at the time. 

[audiopile]

Its a shame that joiners don’t respect the sessions as they are laid out by the organizer but im not surprised at being disappointed by others anymore.   Eventually you will find reliable people. 
 

Not much you can do, the rating system as it was didnt fix the issue, and as said, sometimes you just need to add a few folks to your friend list that have the same gaming times ad you and also like the same game.  
 

I have used both methods, fixed time, and negotiable time and see a valid use for both. 

[MarkItZeroSmoky]

I created my account here specifically for boosting sessions over boosting threads at the other sites. I found that I could never get anybody together though the threads.  

 

The session page is so much easier to find games than going into every single game forum and running through tons of posts where half of them never answer messages or have already boosted and didn't edit their posts. Old games never gather enough players, and newer/popular games gets you buried in a couple days. Here you open up the sessions page and there's a list of what everyone is currently boosting. Very convenient. 

 

As an example, I posted in a boosting thread for IL-2 Sturmovik and recieved no messages. I created a session here and had 4 players within two days. I posted in a RDR thread once and recieved no replies because I got buried 5 pages back within a day. 

 

As for the open times or placeholders, well I'm with the mindset that not everyone can always guarantee a specific time, and I find it better to get a group together and work it out amongst the group to see what's best for everyone. I haven't had any problems getting everyone to agree to a specific time when joining those sessions, but I understand that may not always be the case either. But you can always create a session with the specific time you want and hopefully those that join will adhere to it. 

 

[jninja79]

Ive had both good and bad experiences with boost sessions on this site. I tend to find that for sessions needing less than 4 people they work perfectly fine. For larger sessions they just become a mess and as a result most of the time I just end up ignoring the group chat and giving up or searching for another group. Over the past 6 years ive been trophy hunting ive probably joined atleast 30 different Assassins Creed Brotherhood sessions and every single one has been reduced to a chaotic disorganised mess.

Recently ive taken to self-boosting a lot of my trophies. I did both the Monopoly and Risk trophies by self boosting using my ps4 and ps5, and honestly found it way better. Im also in the process of buying another 3 PS3s to be able to finally get them AC Brotherhood MP trophies. After 6 long years of trophy hunting and joining boost sessions, its become clear to me that self-boosting is 100% the way to go for Me.

[dmsleight]

People joining/starting sessions and not participating are what really ruin the sessions. Behind that, is all the varying time zones and schedules to accommodate.  I find it hard enough (near impossible) to get people to communicate, let alone meet up.

[AJ_Radio]

2 hours ago, MarkItZeroSmoky said:

The session page is so much easier to find games than going into every single game forum and running through tons of posts where half of them never answer messages or have already boosted and didn't edit their posts. Old games never gather enough players, and newer/popular games gets you buried in a couple days. Here you open up the sessions page and there's a list of what everyone is currently boosting. Very convenient. 

This is nothing new. You literally have no chance to boost old PS3 games that have fallen into obscurity because nobody really cares about them anymore outside of that odd player who wants those trophies. 
 

RDR 1 on the other hand is still active after all these years. I hopped on not too long ago after I earned my 100% trophy wise and I still run into sessions with several people playing, even with its sequel RDR 2 having been out a few years. 
 

52 minutes ago, jninja79 said:

Ive had both good and bad experiences with boost sessions on this site. I tend to find that for sessions needing less than 4 people they work perfectly fine. For larger sessions they just become a mess and as a result most of the time I just end up ignoring the group chat and giving up or searching for another group. Over the past 6 years ive been trophy hunting ive probably joined atleast 30 different Assassins Creed Brotherhood sessions and every single one has been reduced to a chaotic disorganised mess.

Recently ive taken to self-boosting a lot of my trophies. I did both the Monopoly and Risk trophies by self boosting using my ps4 and ps5, and honestly found it way better. Im also in the process of buying another 3 PS3s to be able to finally get them AC Brotherhood MP trophies. After 6 long years of trophy hunting and joining boost sessions, its become clear to me that self-boosting is 100% the way to go for Me.

It takes six fucking people to boost properly. That’s my biggest issue with AC Brotherhood. 
 

With AC Revelations you need at most four players and it’s for one specific DLC trophy, so you don’t even need it for the platinum. 

 

Unfortunately having multiple consoles isn’t an option for most of us.

[Sendai-Horatio]

I've used date and time are a place holder sessions a few times myself. People log in at different times and sometimes we get them done earlier, sometimes we get them done later. But everyone who signs up gets their trophies and for the people who don't log on, I try to contact them again to make sure they're at least still interested.

[Kcrack_Km]

Placeholder is fine. A lot of us are in our 30's with kids and other commitments that can ruin a strict boosting session time due to unforeseen priorities. Not to mention timezones etc.

 

But with that said, the person organising the session should add everybody on PSN into a chat group to monitor who's online and get some coordination going. I've only had a few boosting sessions on this site, all of them have been fine.