Trophy Hunting is not fun anymore!

[TheMentor27]

I've been tempering with these thoughts for a year and a half now. It doesn't feel right anymore. Let me explain.

 

I really enjoy getting the platinum trophy of a good, favorite or just fun game. It adds value, makes the game bigger and adds more challenge. To be honest the challenge is not there anymore due to accessibility options that lets you get the platinum quick and easy. Yes i'm the kind of person that will play on easy, if the trophy list doesn't have any difficulty trophies. 

 

Back in 2014 i started caring about the leaderboard, here on PSNP, when i created the account. I was already on a good country position (22th) and i tried to earn more and more trophies to climb. Back then the easiest trophies where from Telltale's Games and most of the time you would get mocked if you played them. This is so funny for me now, because these games are actually very good. Then, i remember, around 2017 it was the begging of some short, easy but still fun platinums, which gave you a boost. Until then, everything was okay.

 

Then, in 2018, started the cross region thing, or at least, i found out about it. I still remember trying to get all the Vita stacks in one session so it would synchronize correctly. Even then, when the games where pretty much garbage, i can see now that they had some value. At least they had some kind of gameplay and you actually had to pay attention. It was then, that i managed to climb 7th in my country and around 1000th in the world. It felt good, because, even if it was most from easy platinums, the stress of getting banned, due to the tedious Vita stacking trick, was there. I remember when they stopped producing Vita stacks i was relived. I didn't know what waited in the corner.

 

And this brings us to 2020, when i realized that the ratio between gold, silver and bronze trophies mattered. I remember posting my 500th platinum in Valhalla and getting roasted because i had more gold than silver. I honestly didn't really care about the opinion of others, but i cared about my trophy count. I hadn't realized that i had destroy my trophy list. The next year i tried reversing these numbers, i stopped playing games with only gold trophies and i searched for games with many silver, like Lego games for example. It was at this time period that one button games started to appear. I didn't care much then, as i though that there would be few of them. As i managed to reverse my gold and silver numbers i was very careful to play the right games at the right time so i could get good games for milestones, while retaining a good ration. And this is the point where this became very bad.

 

I would just pay lots of money (for me anyway), that i could spend on other good games or collectibles, to get many easy one button games, so i can reach the milestone fast and put the good game, that i played on that period, in that milestone position. For a time i was okay with it, but when i updated my gaming setup with a PS5 and an OLED tv, i really started questioning my day to day gaming experience. I was literarily stopping playing a game i really enjoyed to spend 2 to 3 days playing garbage so i could put it on a milestone position. I really felt that with The Last of Us PART I Remake, which i wanted to make my 1000th platinum trophy. Then i said that i would stop the hardcore trophy hunting and that i would just enjoy the games i like. After obtaining my 1000th platinum i stopped for about half a year and OMG it was heaven! 

 

Months had past and i decided to give it a go once again, due to some ps store sales. Then i truly understood the condition of the trophy hunting community. There where so many one button turds with so many stacks that i couldn't even comprehend the money that was needed to keep been "competitive" and i'm using this word laughing. Then i noticed that in the leaderboard i had lost 5 positions to some 2 or 3 year old accounts, even a 8month old one. So i decided that it doesn't matter anymore. Something that was a feeling of accomplishment, feels like a chore now that just asks for more and more money. And some people doesn't even hesitate.

 

And with that story comes my point. The creation of needs. Trophy hunting begun as a way of enjoy the games at their fullest. Then came the need of more platinums, so some developers created easier trophy lists to make them more friendly. Then the ratio kicked in and everyone wanted to have good silver and gold ratios, thus developers created one button games with only silver, bronze etc. It's all about created needs that don't matter. I refuse to maintain the need of being in the top 10 of my country when i have to play junk just to be there, i refuse to keep playing junk and then calculate how much money i have to spend to fix my ratio. I decided, once again to stop, after i maximize the official trophy level at 999. I don't know if i will maintain this stance, but, for now, i need to focus on just enjoying my gaming sessions and not caring about being top at a leaderboard full of people that are willing to spend lots of money just to on the top. Maybe now and then, when there is a sale, i don't know. 

 

It was about skill and will. Now its about money and created needs.

 

Thanks to anyone that stayed until now, i really appreciate it. I would like to read your opinions and your trophy experience. Take care!

[CelestialRequiem]

All you had to do was not play shovelware and played the games that you liked. No wonder you're burned out after 1,000 platinums, lol.

[ThatMuttGuy]

6 minutes ago, CelestialRequiem said:

All you had to do was not play shovelware and played the games that you liked. No wonder you're burned out after 1,000 platinums, lol.

 

Yeah.

 

OP played a bunch of shitty games for the sole purpose of getting a plat and then wonders why they hate trophy hunting. 

 

Sorry man, you created your own problem. 

[mad-man-matty-22]

too much shovelware will always start to kill your love towards it, i had the exact same thing happen back in 2020 and have swapped through like 3 different accounts since then 

[LukeTheGooner]

pretty much just play games that you want to play and if you plat it then even better play the games you reckon look fun and enjoyable, it's honestly as simple as that

 

the leaderboard chase is pointless and can get addictive (in a bad way) because you will never reach the top with people always spending and spending on easy games

[TheMentor27]

I am playing the games that i like. I just have the bad habit of wanting to place them in milestone positions. Sometimes there are so many easy games that you think "why not". I'm talking about hardcore trophy hunting. That means staying high in the leaderboards. When i get 10 platinums a year it's not trophy hunting, it's just completed the games i like.

 

[JCP3953]

You burn't yourself out, you need regular breaks and comfort games otherwise burn out happens, go take a month of barely any videogames and then come back refreshed, stop worrying about leaderboard ranks and just enjoy what you play, there's no reason to financially and mentally break yourself over and rank that truly has no meaning in life other than a small dopamine hit

[Helyx]

My dude burnt himself out. Nothing to see here, just self-inflicted wounds.

[TheMentor27]

11 minutes ago, ThatMuttGuy said:

 

Yeah.

 

OP played a bunch of shitty games for the sole purpose of getting a plat and then wonders why they hate trophy hunting. 

 

Sorry man, you created your own problem. 

I am playing the games that i like. I just have the bad habit of wanting to place them in milestone positions. Sometimes there are so many easy games that you think "why not". I'm talking about hardcore trophy hunting. That means staying high in the leaderboards. When i get 10 platinums a year it's not trophy hunting, it's just completed the games i like.

[Hitman_Spinksy1]

Yea I would hate trophy hunting as well if I mainly played crap. Even on games I love I sometimes question why I'm doing it when it has me driving around in a circle for hours or maxing out my chars or some other tedious post game task but when that plat pops I feel accomplishment that I persevered and stuck at it. Finished something I've struggled on or found a hidden gem I've fallen in love with. That's what trophy hunting is all about in my opinion. 

 

Comparing numbers is just pointless as no one really cares anyway. I never see who's top or think damn they have a lot of plats. I think wow that managed to plat that game that I couldn't, they have a lot of games I like etc. That's what is impressive  

[TheMentor27]

1 minute ago, Helyx said:

My dude burnt himself out. Nothing to see here, just self-inflicted wounds.

Yeah i know just sharing my trauma 🤣

[Hitman_Spinksy1]

1 minute ago, TheMentor27 said:

I am playing the games that i like. I just have the bad habit of wanting to place them in milestone positions. Sometimes there are so many easy games that you think "why not". I'm talking about hardcore trophy hunting. That means staying high in the leaderboards. When i get 10 platinums a year it's not trophy hunting, it's just completed the games i like.

If you only have the time to be able to plat 10 proper games a year why waste what little time you have towards gaming playing crap

[TheMentor27]

Just now, Hitman_Spinksy1 said:

If you only have the time to be able to plat 10 proper games a year why waste what little time you have towards gaming playing crap

It's not so much about time. How many good games get released each year. And then, you can't like them all!

[ThatMuttGuy]

5 minutes ago, TheMentor27 said:

It's not so much about time. How many good games get released each year. And then, you can't like them all!

 

More than 10, that's for sure. And there's no way to ever get around to the entire backlog. 

[mega-tallica]

The root of your problem is 90% of the games you play is shovelware.

 

Of course it's not going to be fun then. Play games you want to play, don't worry about the pointless leaderboards. 

 

Plenty of new game trophy lists still require skill to get, you're just choosing not to play them and the few you do play are the easier ones. Again, probably because you're prioritizing leaderboard rank over enjoyment so you don't want to put in any time or effort to get a platinum that actually does require effort and skill because that means you'd fall too far on the leaderboards. Seems extremely contradictory to say games require no skill anymore when you only play the easy ones and are actively avoiding the more difficult ones because of some superficial leaderboard rank.

 

This whole post epitomizes the toxicity of trophy hunting when you take the addiction too far. All the money you wasted playing shit games for pointless trophies you could've spent on good games you actually liked and then you wouldn't be burnt out right now. You brought this all on yourself. 

Edited November 25, 2023 by mega-tallica

[Deadly_Ha_Ha]

15 minutes ago, TheMentor27 said:

I'm talking about hardcore trophy hunting. That means staying high in the leaderboards.

This is an awful concept of trophy hunting, my God. You are a cautionary tale for what someone should not do in this hobby

[Nauticus87]

10 minutes ago, TheMentor27 said:

I'm talking about hardcore trophy hunting. That means staying high in the leaderboards.

Funny thing about the leaderboards is how arbitrary they are. Take for example here vs PSN100. Here you're ~400 places higher than me, neither of us really making much dent in the leaderboards, might as well be invisible. At PSN100 you're 1,413th in the main leaderboard and ~10,000th in the rarity leaderboard whereas I'm 666th in the main and 12th in the rarity.

Does that mean I'm better? Nope. Does that make you better here? Nope. Because it's all based on the whim of an algorithm that different people view differently from website to website.

Trophies are what you make of them. Trying to compete in a manufactured environment is a dangerous practice and, as you've seen, can lead to addiction. Best to try to find your own value in what you do.

[ruexnimbus]

Playing hardcore and competitively is fun and rewarding but it's better to just play your best and see where you land in the rankings instead of stressing and straining over it to be the best. 

[sepheroithisgod]

I could never imagine paying for shovelware titles. They are not games, they are just apps to unlock trophies and have killed the leaderboard since this site refuses to address the problem. Yet, they were willing to admit that it was basically spam on the front of the site and stopped them from appearing in the new games section.

 

I've talked to so many people who have just given up because they feel like shovelware is the only way to trophy hunt anymore, and it's just sad. It's not impressive to look at a profile and see five stacks of the same unlocked in 20 seconds a piece. It's sad because they actually spent money to do it. Yet, people who just jump into the hobby are going to immediately notice this trend and think that is the way trophy hunting is supposed to be. It's not.

 

There needs to be a leaderboard that doesn't have shovelware so people don't ruin the hobby for themselves with this crap.

[Vern3r0z]

1 hour ago, Nauticus87 said:

Funny thing about the leaderboards is how arbitrary they are. Take for example here vs PSN100. Here you're ~400 places higher than me, neither of us really making much dent in the leaderboards, might as well be invisible. At PSN100 you're 1,413th in the main leaderboard and ~10,000th in the rarity leaderboard whereas I'm 666th in the main and 12th in the rarity.

Does that mean I'm better? Nope. Does that make you better here? Nope. Because it's all based on the whim of an algorithm that different people view differently from website to website.

Trophies are what you make of them. Trying to compete in a manufactured environment is a dangerous practice and, as you've seen, can lead to addiction. Best to try to find your own value in what you do.

Kinda off topic, but how the heck does psn100 leaderboard work? It shows me having 522 games at 100% when in reality im at 548 unique entries.

EDIT: nevermind, looks like it delists "obsolete" lists.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Vern3r0z

[Dauersack]

You do not have to follow every stupid trend you know. I did not start eating tide pods with the zoomers, I did not inhale a big bunch of cinnamon with the social media attention whores, I did not get stomach ulcers by eating reaper chilis or the one chip challenge with the dimwitted, and I did not hide all my proud completions by cluttering my profile with a massive garbage pile of shovelware software like the trophy whores.

 

We all here obviously care enough about other peoples opinion to go out of our way to register and started interacting with the community at some point, it is useless to deny that. I am selective about whos opinion I respect, if someone has a clear garbage profile that resulted from supporting shovelware a lot, I do not value his opinion highly, but there are plenty of people whos opinion will have at least some effect on me, even if its only a little, and the general feedback you get does have an impact that can improve or worsen the overall experience.

Whats more important than getting some positive instead of negative feedback from the community you are a part of however is that you are happy with your own profile, that you can look at it, go through the completions and be proud about the whole of it as well as a good number of individual ones, to get and keep the desire to add to it in a way that does not make you want to hit yourself.

From the way you write about it all its easy to see that you aren't really proud or happy about it anymore (and yes I know thats not exactly a big discovery given that you openly stated it too), you paid a lot of money and spent a lot of time playing unfun garbage mainly designed to cash in on peoples trophy and leaderboard addiction, you replayed games you already had your fill of for stacks, and then even though your pushed through something you didn't like with just your willpower (been there) you still only see a for you unsatisfying end result with many shovelware games cluttering the profile instead of a proud completion to reward your tenacity.

 

It must suck to come to the conclusion that you partook in enough questionable activities that it perverted the hobby for you to the point that you don't even get much or any enjoyment out of it anymore, even though you used to. All I can recommend to you is that you do what others who could only look at the top leaderboard positions with pity and or disgust did, get yourself a small to medium sized community of somewhat like minded individuals, open a discord channel or a similar space and compete or cooperate with them as you see fit, do small events or tournaments, make your own little monthly leaderboard. The whole process of trophy hunting can still be the same it was ten years ago, you just need to stop trying to compete with trophy whores by copying their style of trophy hunting, giving yourself a fighting chance to relive the better days, hell you can even hide all the shovelware crap if it really bothers you to look at it.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Dauersack

[colia100]

'Competing' on a leaderboard  for how many times you can press X per minute, better yet, paying for the privilege to do so, yeah... stupid is as stupid does...

 

Gotta give it to the devs though, it's like shooting fish in a barrel, why wouldn't they... and damn, there sure are a lot of fish around from what I can see

 

Anyhow, in your case glad you realized it though, and hope you don't get caught up in it again, now you know better

[BlindMango]

The leaderboards were originally built during a time when shovelware didn't exist, and when it required effort to get a platinum trophy. People's profiles at the top were impressive to look at and it was really fascinating to see what they were playing. Now everyone at the top plays garbage, and there's definitely no fun in sifting through trash every day, nor is it fun to look at any of their profiles because they just play trash. It makes the main leaderboard rank not even really matter anymore, and it's a pointless statistic now. The leaderboards were originally built for a different time and have failed to adapt.

 

That's why it would be nice to see a rarity leaderboard just be made the main leaderboard, or a leaderboard that excluded all shovelware towards your rank. The current leaderboard could still be viewable, but really shouldn't be the main one in my opinion

 

Anyway, as already said the reason you should take time out of your day to sit down to play video games is to have fun, otherwise you are just wasting valuable time in your life you could have spent doing something better. In the words of a great man: "If it's not fun, why bother?"

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by BlindMango

[DrBloodmoney]

What you were doing wasn’t “Trophy Hunting”, m’dude.

 

[imminent-file5]

 

All this money & time spent on shovelware only to be ranked 1,526th on the world leaderboards lol.