PS5 accolades feature to be discontinued

[The Alchemist]

Article 

 

"Per Siliconera, PlayStation 5 users will soon be losing access to the Accolades system. For those unfamiliar with the feature, it was a function designed to award gamers who positively contributed to multiplayer experiences. Gamers could obtain three Accolades, which were Helpful, Welcoming, and Good Sport."

 

"The announcement that the PS5’s Accolades system is being abandoned comes from a post on the Japanese PlayStation Support site. While an exact date has not been shared for the feature’s removal, a Fall 2022 window was provided. It can be assumed that, when the feature is removed, gamers will lose access to any Accolades they have received thus far. According to Sony, gamers were not utilizing the feature nearly as much as the company had expected, pushing the company to stop supporting Accolades."

 

Not huge news, but interesting nonetheless. I can't say I'm surprised, though. In the handful of games I've played that utilize the feature, barely anyone used it. I only received a handful of accolades in all my time on PS5. Probably a mix of people not knowing it was there and not being bothered to give them out. Personally I think that if you're going to introduce a pointless feature like this one then you really need to tie it into something else to get people interested and engaged. Maybe tie it into a rewards program or something. Perhaps for every [insert arbitrary number] accolades received a player could redeem them for points. 

 

It wouldn't surprise me if the activity cards system is next to either get shelved completely (less likely) or dramatically altered, because in my experience it's a similar problem. They just aren't useful enough or don't serve a purpose. They're also incredibly inconsistent in what they do. 

 

 

[Titanomachy_75]

8 minutes ago, The Alchemist said:

Article 

 

"Per Siliconera, PlayStation 5 users will soon be losing access to the Accolades system. For those unfamiliar with the feature, it was a function designed to award gamers who positively contributed to multiplayer experiences. Gamers could obtain three Accolades, which were Helpful, Welcoming, and Good Sport."

 

"The announcement that the PS5’s Accolades system is being abandoned comes from a post on the Japanese PlayStation Support site. While an exact date has not been shared for the feature’s removal, a Fall 2022 window was provided. It can be assumed that, when the feature is removed, gamers will lose access to any Accolades they have received thus far. According to Sony, gamers were not utilizing the feature nearly as much as the company had expected, pushing the company to stop supporting Accolades."

 

Not huge news, but interesting nonetheless. I can't say I'm surprised, though. In the handful of games I've played that utilize the feature, barely anyone used it. I only received a handful of accolades in all my time on PS5. Probably a mix of people not knowing it was there and not being bothered to give them out. Personally I think that if you're going to introduce a pointless feature like this one then you really need to tie it into something else to get people interested and engaged. Maybe tie it into a rewards program or something. Perhaps for every [insert arbitrary number] accolades received a player could redeem them for points. 

 

It wouldn't surprise me if the activity cards system is next to either get shelved completely (less likely) or dramatically altered, because in my experience it's a similar problem. They just aren't useful enough or don't serve a purpose. They're also incredibly inconsistent in what they do. 

 

 

True!  Most people never used them ... I dont play much to any muti - player games anyways  It would be better used on Xbox I would think?

[dannyswfc9]

I thought they would improve on it instead of doing away completly. Be sad to see it go as i have a few accolades ?. I bet people thought same about the trophy system at first (i did) but its changed the way people game

 

I like the activity cards sometimes as its nice to know how long a mission is or its a quick way to get into a certain mission/activity

Edited July 31, 2022 by dannyswfc9

[Sikutai]

Not great if it's true, I collected these awards alongside my trophies and already have a good collection to be proud of. You get them quite often too, you just have to like playing multiplayer games like I do.

 

18 minutes ago, The Alchemist said:

 

It wouldn't surprise me if the activity cards system is next to either get shelved completely (less likely) or dramatically altered, because in my experience it's a similar problem. They just aren't useful enough or don't serve a purpose. They're also incredibly inconsistent in what they do. 

 

There are Activity Cards? Thats's new for me. Where can I find them?

Edited July 31, 2022 by Sikutai

[DaivRules]

I’m surprised there isn’t an Accolades leaderboard site out there somewhere calling people out for not getting their Accolades legitimately that is now losing their mind as their world is about to be destroyed. 
 

 

[Foxscribbles]

7 minutes ago, Titanomachy_75 said:

True!  Most people never used them ... I dont play much to any muti - player games anyways  It would be better used on Xbox I would think?

 

I kind of assumed they were planning on mimicking XBox's system when they released this on the PS5. But from what I heard (which is all based on Overwatch forums a couple years back - so I'm not an expert) XBox's  multiplayer reputation system had issues of its own. Because it was tied into matchmaking for its multiplayer games, playing a multiplayer game with a notoriously toxic fanbase could tank your XBox profile ranking so badly that it would affect your matchmaking in a completely different game.

 

Most of the threads I saw about it were recommendations for multiplayer games where people were generally nice and would give out positive accolades, so you could earn back enough reputation to keep getting matches more popular, but more toxic games.

 

 

[AJ_-_808]

In my experience, it didn't work well anyway.

 

I tried giving accolades to people in MK11 twice.

There's a limited amount of time to do so in between matches, and the first time, I was greeted by a wall of text that there wasn't enough time to read through.  The second time, I got a message saying "you cannot give accolades to anyone you aren't friends with"

 

Good riddance 

[Alos88]

Doesn't sound like a system with a lot of thought put into it tbh, I'm sure there are basic features folks are still waiting on they'd have much sooner had over this.

[Helyx]

23 minutes ago, Alos88 said:

Doesn't sound like a system with a lot of thought put into it

 

It really wasn't. You can only give accolades to players who aren't on your friends list. If someone is a good enough player for me to "congratulate" them, I will most likely send them a friend request anyway. This asinine feature won't be missed at all.

[GoonerLukeThe]

eh, didn't even know what this was

 

goodbye

[farradono]

Wow, that was fast.

[ZitMeatloaf]

I never used the accolades system, sounds like that was the case for the vast majority of people. It won't be missed by most.

 

I have found the activity cards to be occasionally useful, hopefully some more effort will be put into improving that system. But I think most people don't bother with those either.

 

Personally I'd like to see the Recent Activity/What's New feed from PS4 make a return. It seems like a decent number of PS4 users are still active on that feed, if for no other reason than to give likes to their friends' trophy progress, with occasional comments.

[Mr_Tenno777]

I forgot the feature was a thing.

[BlindMango]

The main issue is there are barely any games that supported it, and I think the only game I personally got any accolades in was Battlefield 2042 lol

[ArtMontef]

Yeah, that could probably be expected. I agree barely anyone used it 

 

1 hour ago, ZitMeatloaf said:

I never used the accolades system, sounds like that was the case for the vast majority of people. It won't be missed by most.

 

I have found the activity cards to be occasionally useful, hopefully some more effort will be put into improving that system. But I think most people don't bother with those either.

 

Personally I'd like to see the Recent Activity/What's New feed from PS4 make a return. It seems like a decent number of PS4 users are still active on that feed, if for no other reason than to give likes to their friends' trophy progress, with occasional comments.

I agree, I know not many people used it, but I loved social elements on PS4, it was nice to congratulate a friend when they got a hard trophy or shared cool clip. But I do know many people especially around here prefer more solitary experience

[Jounochi]

Hope they fill that space with a trophy cabinet or something.  I would love to display some of my favorite games on my profile for others to see.

[saiyanbloodstyle]

I've only ever got 1 accolade, i've never even figured out how to give other people accolades, maybe because i rarely play online but won't be feature missed, i'm sure a lot of others would agree.

[Bloodytears1666]

As Online player mostly, honestly first time hearing about it... This probably hidden somewhere in not very much comfortable menus on PS5, I guess.

[EDGES]

good, the less "social"/"community" "features" on my console, the better

[Kal-El457]

was a pointless feature, it did nothing that affected you as a player. Most games dont even have it. It'll be discontinued and most won't even notice it's gone lol. Sony can't get social features right, never have been able to..

[PondNewt]

I really like the accolade system so will be sad to see it go.  I have a small collection of them and it was always nice to receive one.  I regularly gave them out as well on the rare occasion I'd play a multiplayer game.  Hopefully Sony change their minds and keep it after all.  

[Infected Elite]

i just care about games being good, not random feautures i probably wont use.

- Trophy hints? ill look up a youtube video.

- Picture in Picture? Ill look up a video on my phone

- Game lists replacing folders? i dont install 100 games at once that i know are just going to sit there despite having an added ssd. I have maybe 30 games installed total.

- Trophy card system? meh used to it

- Accolades? i had a few but ultimately doesn't mean nothing.

 

 

[Deadly_Ha_Ha]

Maybe Sony could focus on QA instead of random pointless bullshit features on their console

[The Alchemist]

24 minutes ago, The Investigator said:

good, the less "social"/"community" "features" on my console, the better

 

I used to think like this before the PS5 launched, and still do to some degree, but even I think the PS5 can feel a little isolating at times. On PS4 things were different. You had the 'What's New' section, and even though it didn't work all that well (straight up broken at times), it was something. You also had the whole followers thing, where you could follow pretty much anyone, even official accounts. And yeah, that wasn't great either, but again, it was something. It went some small way to making you feel connected with other players.

 

On PS5 you have nothing of the sort. No central place to access all of the latest news from your friends. Their latest trophies, or games played, or whatever. I'm not saying having a similar feature on PS5 would solve this feeling of isolation entirely, but surely it would help. And I'm not saying this affects everyone, or that everyone should care about this stuff, but I've heard similar sentiments from enough people now that it's obviously an issue for some. I really think that at a minimum, there should've been a 'What's New' type section for PS5 upon launch. 

[Ozer928]

Ok, so there's no way to tell whether a random guy I play against in an online match is an ass or not after this thing is pulled out. Besides, this system doesn't have anything to rate down their behaviours or the way they play. Everthing I just said aside, why would they want to get rid of it? Is there a cost of it or what? Just let it be. So this thing sticks there for like, not even 2 years. That's how long it's alive? Great.