How did you become a Trophy Hunter?

[olliebear66t]

I got a PS4 when it first came out for my 13th birthday and at the time I wasn't much of a gamer. Like most people I was playing a game and got a ping with a trophy popping up. I then thought to myself what is this? I then went to the home screen and navigated through the UI till I found the Trophy section; I then realised you had levels and that each game has It's own trophy list where you got trophies for completing challenges. When I first realised what a Platinum was I thought wow! That must be what all the proffesionals get and got really proud when I got my first Platinum, being Resogun, as I thought I wouldn't be good enough. I remember searching the Internet for trophies and finding out all about how many points each type of trophy got you and how all the levelling works as well as coming across sites such as psnprofiles and playstationtrophies.org that I still use to this day. While I still trophy hunt it won't be as special or as exciting as it was getting trophies to pop in the first two years or so as I've gotten more used to it as well as getting older with individual trophies meaning less overall. It was also a time when I was discovering brand new types of games I had never played before such as The Last of Us and Black Flag when I was more used to Lego games, Need for Speed and Mario.

[Asvinia]

Finding this website.

Found this site, had a look at my profile out of curiosity and saw all those unfilled progression bars and dulled out trophies.

So of course, I had to fill them. If this site closed down I probably wouldn't bother anymore. Sometimes I just like to look at my profile and plan out what I should play next, or I look at other profiles and compare.

[Winterkill-]

As a kid, I used to play Dead or Alive 2 on the ps2 a lot. DOA3 and 4 were only released on Xbox and I didn’t have one and didn’t want to buy an Xbox for just one game. Then finally they released DOA5 on the ps3. I wasn’t really into gaming and didn’t know ps3 had trophies. 
 

I earned some trophies while playing the game and heard that “pop” sound. I was curious what it was and saw a list of trophies you could earn. Then I wanted to earn all of them and that’s how it all started.

[Guest]

Starting from the beginning, I was always a kid who liked to "do 100% in games", things like completing all side missions and collecting all collectibles etc, I remember that in a game called drakan the ancients' gates, btw one of the best experiences I had with video games (this game really captivated my imagination) this game had a book that marked "✔️" everything you completed, and I loved to see that book neat and beautiful lol, like a toc. games like Crash Bandicoot, I needed to collect all the diamonds and all the boxes, reaching 105% in crash 3 was wonderful because I figured out for myself how to collect a blue diamond in a secret level, as well as a golden diamond that could be seen in the background of the scenario of one of the levels, when I discovered the "underworld", as I called it (a platform that appeared in the center of the scenario) I was extremely happy, I remember it as if it were today. gta vice city I was able to find 80 and something secret packages without any assistance, and I always tried to find out what was needed for 100% (I only managed to achieve 100% for the first time as an adult, it was my platinum #150). so, on Playstation 3, uncharted drakes fortune had an in-game medal system, of course I forced myself to collect them all, at the time I did that I had no internet connection so the trophies did not exist for me, so I created several users and collected all the medals again over and over, I loved that game. when I eventually had an internet connection at home, the games asked for updates and then I discovered the trophies, my first account got about 2 thousand trophies before creating this one in 2010 and even today I am a hostage to that hobby haha

[Baranov_925]

I got 2 platinums in 2016 (Witcher 3 and UFC3) but then I got bored with it. In April 2018.....tha real good will huntin began.

 

[DrBloodmoney]

The trophy system isn’t optional, there’s not way to ‘opt-out’ - except not to play on Sony consoles at all -  so really, the answer for everyone is “Because Sony made me one” ?

No one who plays on Playstation has the option of deciding to being a trophy hunter...

 

...the only decision is whether to be good at it or not ?

 

[Yukiko Miyamoto]

Randomly found a trophy hunter when playing a multiplayer game and noticed the trophies were little challenges. Then someone had this website in their bio, so I decided to check it out.

Edited September 12, 2023 by Kimura Takahashi

[AngelicaK92]

Honestly, I don't feel like I became one, but instead just see it as a way to play games in a different light. I achieved my first official platinum back in '09 with Uncharted 1. I was nearly out of high school at the time and didn't even know trophy hunting was a thing. I just remember playing the PS2 and other consoles with no achievement tracking and just enjoying the games for what they were. When I got the PS3 in '08 that's when I found out about trophies and thought it was a cool challenge to try and play the games differently. However, since I was in college/military during the PS4 era I didn't really get into achievement hunting like I did on the PS3. I tried but I was "adulting" as you could say so I completely forgot about it. Even when I bought my PS4 Pro in '17 I didn't even think about achievements that much which was sad considering I was doing it on the PS3. That is why the profile I have now shows '17 as the first year for any trophy because I fell off and didn't use my PS3 profile. But I just not too long ago got back into it because I like how trophy hunting challenges me. I believe it makes me a better gamer. Just my opinion. I'll continue to do it as I am now in my 30s and married with a family. 

Edited September 12, 2023 by AngelicaK92
typo

[Qjotr]

Prepare for an origin story lol

 

I've liked collecting trophies for longer than i owned PlayStation products.

 

I've always been a perfectionist and a collector, however i was also a bit slow to understand stuff as a child. In games it didn't matter because you can just start over and oh boy did i. It started in Pokémon FireRed where i started over again and again when i found out i made a mistake, i also loved collecting all the pokéballs laying in the overworld. In fact for the first few weeks i didn't know that you could save a game, so i started over every time i played the game. (I didn't understand English yet, was 8 years old at the time and Pokémon games weren't in Dutch, only the show). It didn't bother me at all and to this day the early stages of games are my favorite, i also made a new PSN when i bought a ps5 for this reason last month, i get to plat all my fav games again : )

 

This starting over and perfecting everything stayed with me. Years later i got a Wii, and a few years after that mw3 for the Wii. I discovered they had intel hidden in each mission and was obsessed with collecting all of them. I started using YouTube at this time and found out that there were trophies for doing specific stuff and i was in love, sadly after trying one that seemed easy i found out that Wii didn't have trophies, so I'd go for them and write down which ones i earned (and to be fair, I'm sure i went a bit easy on myself haha). At this time i also started saving up for a PS3 and Black Ops 2.

 

Now i could never save up enough for a console in one year, so when i finally got my PS3 Cod: Ghosts was almost around the corner. I got GTA V in my PS3 bundle and played both games religiously, going for the trophies but never the platinum, since i somehow convinced myself that i wouldn't be good enough for that, but i was hooked. Ever since then i went for trophies. First i just celebrated whenever i got one, then i went for all story/all coop mode trophies in games, such as the survival ones in Advanced Warfare. Later (2017 ish) i tried to get 60% (dunno why i decided that number) and then i decided to make a PSN where i could replay my favourite games. Think of it as a hall of fame for favourite games, however i'd have to 100% trophy completion every game i play there. Ive never had so much fun as i did on that PSN, it gave me reasons i saved up currency in game, to enjoy the post game of games with everything unlocked because i still had trophies to hunt and to play DLC, something which i never bought before because i didn't have a lot of money and preferred an all new experience over more of the same.

 

I noticed however that i was deciding what game to play depending on the trophy list. So, when i got my ps5 two months ago i decided i should have a normal PSN aswell, where i play however and whatever i want (i'd never ruin my hall of fame list with my kana learning games for instance, even though i really enjoyed learning kana's a few years ago). Now, in a year or 3 i'll go back to my hall of fame list, adding all games i found over the years. With my new PSN i also decided this should be the time to make an account here, since i've lurked on this website since 2018 or so, and has probably been my most visited website since i found it (wish i was kidding )

 

Tldr; Was always a little mental about collecting, found out about in game collectables, then trophies which i moved to ps3 for from Wii and been addicted ever since.

[Pray_4_the_End]

I kinda just fell into it around early 2020ish. I've always been an "at minimum beat the game I'm playing before moving on to something else" type of gamer for as long as I can remember, so trophy hunting was just a natural progression for me in a sense. I had around 17-20 plats before I went full Trophy Hunter mode, and those were mostly 1st party and Telltale games for the most part with a couple UFC games sprinkled in there cause I'm a big MMA fan. Once I started really earning plats, it fundamentally changed the way I play games on PS altogether though, mostly for the good, but sometimes for the bad. (I now get this weird almost obsessive feeling in my chest knowing a game I plan on platting has not yet been platted; probably not a good thing, but it is what it is I guess lol)

 

That's not to say I plat 100% of everything I play or anything cause there are some games that I just enjoying playing through once and just moving on from (Fromsoft and Resident Evil games) which I'm fine with. It's not like I'm trying to maintain a 100% profile or anything here, that shit sounds like way more of a pain in the ass than it's worth imo. I quite enjoy the grind of hunting trophies though, it gives me chance to spend more time enjoying this hobby I've been maintaining since I was a wee lad.

[JAK-KRIEG]

I always had to complete games to 100% when possible so it was only a natural transition.

[Sunny]

I don't consider myself one tbr, a casual one maybe idk.

[DiamondAN-94]

I was maybe 12isn. I was playing with a buddy on PlayStation allstars battle royale. We was competitive players back then. I got a nasty message saying I was trash from the other team. I messaged back and called him trash lol. He responded with something like “ I platinumed this game. You don’t have platinum so you’re bad” I knew of trophies but didn’t really care until I got the plat for PlayStation all stars. After that I casually trophy hunted for games that I really liked (sly, saints row, fallout) one day I came across this website and saw my completion rating. It was something like 35% around 2018 so that made me go back to games I played before I cared about trophies. Then I wanted to get every trophy for my favorite franchise kingdom hearts. now that I got a decent competition I use it as a reason to dip into another franchises like dmc, crash and FF and others are in the planning book. I also like to collect all the 100% for franchises now. Currently going for Star Wars, dmc and borderlands. Probably won’t ever stop trophy hunting until something makes me stop. Happy hunting everyone!

[Viper]

It was just a natural thing that happened honestly. I believe the first trophy I ever earned was in Resistance 2 like pretty soon after they were implemented, and took immediate notice of it. However, this was on a friends PS3 who I lived with at the time. I eventually moved out that year, moved back in with my parents for a short time, and in that time I played my brothers 360 and Achievements were something I went for without really thinking about it...eventually moved in with other friends for bit where we only had a communal PS2...so it wasn't until I got my own PS3 in Christmas of 2009 that I went back to focusing on trophies again. 

 

But I don't recall trophies ever being this thing where it was like "these are cool, think I'll start hunting them", they were just there one day and it felt like the natural thing to start going for them in every game. And it's felt that way ever since. Most trophy hunters don't seem to like to admit that they are trophy hunters...you see it here everyday where people just treat trophies like this side thing they just so happen to go for...for me trophies and gaming are one in the same, I enjoy the game and get the trophies at the same time...the task is not different from one another, and It was always just something that happened. Trophies became a thing and it just made sense to go for them. 

[bosstristan]

I've always been a completionist I guess.

 

Also, the very first game I bought on PS3 was Uncharted 2, and there were in game medals you could unlock, some were tied to the game's trophies, some were additional. The medal popping on top of the screen with that metallic sound was just orgasmic, coupled with one of the best games of all times... forever memories.

[Maxie_M0us3]

I always was a perfectionist, a completionist in nature, so it came natural that I wanted to collect trophies. When the system was announced, I was hyped. I joined the trophy hunting since day one of the system, the 2nd July 2008, with my first trophy from Super Stardust HD, the ever first game with trophies.

 

Then again, being a trophy hunter AND artist as well, lot of things I'm capable of. 😂

 

Edited September 12, 2023 by MaxieM0us3

[robiemuze]

14 minutes ago, bosstristan said:

I've always been a completionist I guess.

 

Also, the very first game I bought on PS3 was Uncharted 2, and there were in game medals you could unlock, some were tied to the game's trophies, some were additional. The medal popping on top of the screen with that metallic sound was just orgasmic, coupled with one of the best games of all times... forever memories.

ORGASMIC had me laughing, but I agree, Uncharted 2 was also my first platinum trophy, then after achieving around 20 plats I went full trophy hunter mode and platinumed next 90 games including RDR, Skyrim, Wipeouts and LittleBigPlanet. I loved the PS3 outlook and the sound was more addicting than the PS5 ones... I recently switched to this new account and I don't really care no more. I play only when I'm reeally bored. Yeah it was fun back then when I was a teenager.

[SHADOW-KILLER-S2]

The better question would be how does one quit being a trophy hunter 😝

[Vulpine9Tails]

I noticed the little thing in the corner pop up while I played my first PS3 game, which was James Cameron's Avatar. The rest is history. 

[ChiefMichigan]

Marvel's Spider-Man when I got a PS4.

I got the platinum and wanted more on PlayStation. 

[Galserik]

I always were kind a completionist, but I never gave a shit about any trophies (Idc about things like "kill 800 monsters", "open 300 chests", etc) until COVID19 lockdown, where I just decided to replay and get some trophies for games that I had at 70-80% after finish working at home. Then I just started to enjoy it, until today.

 

I remember my very first platinum: FF XV. The plat popped the very same moment I started to fly with the Regalia car and I said "wtf, really? Idc lol". It popped without me looking for it xD.

Nonetheless, I will probably make a stop at 200 plats for a while. But I will resume it one day for sure.