Suggestion: Improved milestones

[Cassylvania]

I think milestones are one of the most interesting features this site has to offer. I know not everybody cares about them, but they're the main reason I got into trophy hunting. Like a platinum (or any trophy, really), milestones are more than just virtual trinkets -- they're the culmination of hours of gaming and fun, a kind of bookmark that chronicles a user's journey through the Playstation library. More than anything else, though, milestones are what makes a profile unique. Take the Bloodborne platinum, for example. Over 80,000 users have that trophy. By itself, it isn't that unique, but it was the first platinum I obtained. That makes it special to me, and I'm glad that it's reflected on my profile in such a way. Likewise, it makes sense to celebrate other great milestones, such a user's 1000th trophy or 100th platinum. I don't know about you guys, but I'm really glad something like this exists.

 

That said, I think there are several improvements that could be made to milestones. I pitched a few ideas earlier (you can see my original post below), but I have decided to revise these based on the conversations that took place. Please let me know what you think.

 

1. Milestones should be listed as separate categories to make them easier to read. At the very least, there should be one category for individual trophies and a separate category for platinums. This is an example of how it might look (thanks to @Se7en for the image):

 

 

2. Users should have the option to show/hide milestones. Some users like the milestones they have, while others don't. Some people want more milestones, while others want less. The fairest solution would be to allow everybody the option of choosing which milestones they want to display. Again, @Se7en put together an image to show what this might look like:

 

 

3. Original milestones should be milestones again. I like to plan out my milestones. I know others do too. However, some milestones no longer exist, such as platinum 25 or every 1000th trophy. Those of us who planned out our milestones before the change was made last year should have those milestones restored. The argument against this is newer users might like to plan out their milestones and be unaware of the old system. Giving users the option to show/hide milestones would circumvent this.

 

4. Personal milestones should be implemented. As evidenced by the posts in this topic: there is no consensus over what should and should not be a milestone. But really, why should everybody be stuck with the same milestones anyway? If the point of milestones is to chronicle a user's journey, then shouldn't they be given something more than an arbitrary purpose? For example, I get why trophy 1337 was made into a milestone. It's funny (to some people, I guess), but to others it's just a random number, with no real significance or meaning. I can think of much better milestones -- numbers that mean something special to me, or trophies that have some significance because of when I obtained them or what I went through to get them. I'm sure others have the same. I don't know exactly how something like this might be implemented, but I think it would be kinda neat if users were restricted to a certain number of personal milestones and could unlock more through some means (e.g. obtaining x amount of trophies, posting enough content to the site, participating in community events, etc.). I don't think it has to be very complex, but I think it would provide profiles with a more personalized touch, which I think was the original purpose of milestones.

Edited February 17, 2018 by Cassylvania

[AlphaTrash]

First of all, speak for yourself. I have 29 platinums and absolutely have been planning my 30th and my other milestones since day one. 

Secondly, 20,30,40 and 50 make much more sense as most hunters will likely hit those numbers but then no go on to hit 75 and 100. 

So it's a few more images for the majority of hunters. Sacrificing 25 for 20, 30 and 40 was more than a fair trade. 

I can understand your issue however if you did plan for 25 and not 20 or 30; however the way new is better imo. 

 

Custom Milestones should be a thing. Maybe you don't want 20, 30 and 40 but you want trophy #13 for whatever reason, #666 and platinum 25. 

The # of milstones stay the same and you unlock more milestones (more customization options) as your profile gets bigger. 

So you'd sacrifice trophy 3000 and platinum 75 for trophy 3333 and platinum 69 because you're 12, single and ready to mingle.

With people your own age I should hope. 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2017 by AlphaTrash

[Terra]

I do like the idea of having Personal milestones separate from Platinum and Trophy # milestones. I would have loved to have a milestone for my #1997 trophy ?

[Cassylvania]

1 hour ago, AlphaTrash said:

First of all, speak for yourself. I have 29 platinums and absolutely have been planning my 30th and my other milestones since day one. 

Secondly, 20,30,40 and 50 make much more sense as most hunters will likely hit those numbers but then no go on to hit 75 and 100. 

So it's a few more images for the majority of hunters. Sacrificing 25 for 20, 30 and 40 was more than a fair trade. 

I can understand your issue however if you did plan for 25 and not 20 or 30; however the way new is better imo.

 

Well, I'm not just speaking for myself, since this was the general consensus after the changes were made. For me personally, I did plan out platinum 20 and 30, but I cared a lot less about 40 because I knew it'd be gone within a few months.

 

I don't disagree that multiples of 10 make sense (at least when you're just starting out), but that's not how it used to be, so it affects the people who have been here the longest. The only real fair way to handle this now is to give users the option of displaying 25 or 20/30/40, because some people planned it out the original way and others planned it out the newer way. But with the customized milestones approach, you could still make 30 a personal milestone, without forcing three unplanned milestones on older users at the cost of one planned milestone. That's why this isn't a fair trade at all.

[AlphaTrash]

4 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

 

Well, I'm not just speaking for myself, since this was the general consensus after the changes were made. For me personally, I did plan out platinum 20 and 30, but I cared a lot less about 40 because I knew it'd be gone within a few months.

 

I don't disagree that multiples of 10 make sense (at least when you're just starting out), but that's not how it used to be, so it affects the people who have been here the longest. The only real fair way to handle this now is to give users the option of displaying 25 or 20/30/40, because some people planned it out the original way and others planned it out the newer way. But with the customized milestones approach, you could still make 30 a personal milestone, without forcing three unplanned milestones on older users at the cost of one planned milestone. That's why this isn't a fair trade at all.

 

Everyone moans after a change. Wonder how they'd feel now, now that they've had time to get used to it. 

You knew it would be gone? What gave you that idea?

 

Honestly, customizable milestones make the most sense. 

So Sly is intent of changing it to anything, it should be the way of personalization and not the old model. 

[Cassylvania]

11 minutes ago, AlphaTrash said:

Everyone moans after a change. Wonder how they'd feel now, now that they've had time to get used to it. 

You knew it would be gone? What gave you that idea?

 

Because that's how it was done. Once you reached platinum 50 or 51, 20/30/40 were gone in favor of 25. I don't know *why* temporary milestones were a thing, but that doesn't change the fact that some people planned them out that way.

 

Also, you could just as easily flip around your first statement and say that maybe *you'd* get used to 25 instead of 20/30/40, given enough time. You even have the advantage of having not earned 30 yet, whereas I'm way past 25.

 

I agree that customizable milestones are the best solution, but I was under the impression that Sly was in favor of everybody having the same milestones displayed.

[AlphaTrash]

1 hour ago, Cassylvania said:

 

Because that's how it was done. Once you reached platinum 50 or 51, 20/30/40 were gone in favor of 25. I don't know *why* temporary milestones were a thing, but that doesn't change the fact that some people planned them out that way.

 

Also, you could just as easily flip around your first statement and say that maybe *you'd* get used to 25 instead of 20/30/40, given enough time. You even have the advantage of having not earned 30 yet, whereas I'm way past 25.

 

I agree that customizable milestones are the best solution, but I was under the impression that Sly was in favor of everybody having the same milestones displayed.

 

Well no, you couldn't easily flip it around as I was already use to that. 

The things changed and I got used to that instead. I came back to this account and started earning trophies here. 

I've been on this site for over 4 years. The new way is better, if your revert back to the old system you fuck over everyone who has planned for these milestones now. 

So either way someone is getting fucked over, probably just best to leave it at this point and let people have more milestones. 

[FilmFanatic]

I had thought about making a post such as this earlier this week as I don't like the current trophy milestones but well, I couldn't be bothered so I didn't. Personally I'd like to see the trophy milestones as follows.

 

Every 10th platinum, up to and including 100 is a milestone. Once you earn your 101st your platinum milestones then revert to every 25th plat. Once you reach 250 or maybe 300 plats, your multiple of 25 plat milestones remain but then every 50th plat is displayed (25,50,75,100,125,150,175,200,225,250,300,350,400 and so on).

 

For trophy milestones, every 500th trophy up to and including 5000th trophy is a milestone. Once you earn your 5001st trophy this then reverts to every 1000th trophy being a milestone. Once you reach say 20,000 then your multiple of 1000 trophy milestones stay but every 5000th trophy is displayed (1000,2000,3000,4000,5000,6000,7000,8000,9000,10000,11000,12000,

13000,14000,15000,16000,17000,18000,19000,20000,25000,30000,35000 and so on).

 

Also get rid of the 1337 milestone. It's pointless and I've seen many status updates and threads asking what it means.

[Cassylvania]

On 8/23/2017 at 1:31 PM, AlphaTrash said:

 

Well no, you couldn't easily flip it around as I was already use to that. 

The things changed and I got used to that instead. I came back to this account and started earning trophies here. 

I've been on this site for over 4 years. The new way is better, if your revert back to the old system you fuck over everyone who has planned for these milestones now. 

So either way someone is getting fucked over, probably just best to leave it at this point and let people have more milestones. 

 

Well, if you're going to agree that somebody gets fucked over either way, then it doesn't really make sense to just say leave it alone because that's the way you'd prefer. That's how *I* felt last year. I could just as easily say change it back because that's what the community has asked for and it's what's currently listed on the changes to make to the site (see below). In fact, I assumed this was already going to happen, whether I proposed it or not.

 

 

If all the ideas I proposed here are implemented, the only people who really get "fucked over" are the ones who didn't plan out platinum 25, as customizable milestones would still allow you to do whatever you want with 20/30/40. Since the change was made very late last year, this would really only include people who started trophy hunting within the past eight months and already reached platinum 25, which shouldn't be a huge group of individuals.

 

@FilmFanatic The problem with this is that it still affects people who originally planned out milestones and were affected by the change. That's why I think it might be useful for users to have an option to display a full list or a limited one.

Edited August 24, 2017 by Cassylvania

[GlennRhee]

I've only planned for plat #50, because it was "special", but I don't like the idea of any of my current milestones being removed. Especially 1337, because it just so happened that that trophy was from LiS, a game that has personal significance to me. I think being given the option of choosing between 25 and 20/30/40 would be a good idea, or maybe even just add in #25 in addition to 20/30/40?

 

The problem with having the community vote on milestones comes back to planning. Someone might have planned #1337, or plat #20 (especially new users who are used to it being 20/30/40), and then they end up negatively affected by this change.

[AlphaTrash]

50 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

Well, if you're going to agree that somebody gets fucked over either way, then it doesn't really make sense to just say leave it alone because that's the way you'd prefer. That's how *I* felt last year. I could just as easily say change it back because that's what the community has asked for and it's what's currently listed on the changes to make to the site (see below). In fact, I assumed this was already going to happen, whether I proposed it or not.

 

Well it absolutely makes sense that I'd want the current system to stay as it doesn't fuck me over. 

Why would I choose to have less milestones and a shit plat for #25? Why would I choose to be fucked over because a stranger who made the same mistake as me but lost, can't handle the change? 

Yes I'm acting in self interest, so is everybody else, so are you. I thought that was obvious, but for some unbeknownst reason you're expecting me to work against my own interest and accept what I perceive to be an inferior system; just because I should just want to appease the self interests of other people? 

 

That list seems like it's an amalgamation of issue's that some people have that Sly will consider, not definite changes. 

if Sly changes it, then I'll accept it and plan for the different milestones going forward. 

Not sure why he'd go back on an objectively better innovation, merely to please the small minority who would absolutely accept it's better if they hadn't got plats before the innovation happened. 

 

@Sly Ripper

Can we a final clarification on this? Any plans to revert back to the old system, stick with the new or possibly trying to implement a system that allows for personalized/customizable milestones?

Edited August 23, 2017 by AlphaTrash

[Cassylvania]

On 8/23/2017 at 3:18 PM, AlphaTrash said:

 

Well it absolutely makes sense that I'd want the current system to stay as it doesn't fuck me over. 

Why would I choose to have less milestones and a shit plat for #25? Why would I choose to be fucked over because a stranger who made the same mistake as me but lost, can't handle the change? 

Yes I'm acting in self interest, so is everybody else, so are you. I thought that was obvious, but for some unbeknownst reason you're expecting me to work against my own interest and accept what I perceive to be an inferior system; just because I should just want to appease the self interests of other people? 

 

That list seems like it's an amalgamation of issue's that some people have that Sly will consider, not definite changes. 

if Sly changes it, then I'll accept it and plan for the different milestones going forward. 

Not sure why he'd go back on an objectively better innovation, merely to please the small minority who would absolutely accept it's better if they hadn't got plats before the innovation happened. 

 

I understand your frustration. You don't want changes to happen that affect what you've been working towards. I've been there many times before.

 

I joined this site in 2011. At the time, I already had a PSN account with several trophies, so I didn't get to plan out any milestones. I didn't really care about trophy hunting at the time, though, so it never bothered me. In 2013, I decided to make a new account where I'd be able to plan out everything from the start, and I had a lot of fun with that. Unfortunately, I ran other into issues on that account (namely, unobtainable trophies), so I made this account in 2015 to try to clean things up. At that time, 20/30/40 were temporary milestones and 25 was permanent, so that's what I planned for. When the changes were made last year, enough people complained that it sounded like we were going back to the old way, but I haven't heard anything in a few months.

 

Don't get me wrong, though. The only thing that affects me personally is that I'd like to be rid of platinum 40, as that was originally a temporary milestone. If the only change that comes of this is that users have the option of displaying 20/30/40 or 25, I'd be okay with that. But that's not the only problem.

 

It doesn't affect me personally, but the more trophies you have, the longer time it takes in between milestones. I know not everybody cares about them, but I end up with a milestone every few months, just playing a few hours each day. That seems like a good amount. If I started needing 5000 trophies in between milestones, though...well, that doesn't seem like much fun at all. Why should people with more trophies be "punished" by having to wait longer in between each milestone?

 

@GlennRhee I also like my 1337! I don't think that one should go away, but I understand why some people don't like it. That's why I think the most fair solution is to make all controversial milestones (plat 20/30/40, plat 25, 1337, and any others that might eventually get added) optional. You could even just have an "old way" and "new way" display, if you wanted to keep things simple.

Edited August 24, 2017 by Cassylvania

[Rally-Vincent---]

3 hours ago, FilmFanatic said:

Also get rid of the 1337 milestone. It's pointless and I've seen many status updates and threads asking what it means.

 

 

To this I agree. That milestone looks out of place, and what is it good for? It's not really a milestone but rather a silly joke. I also could live without "fastest Platinum" since it doesn't display actual gametime.

[Gr4de_04]

Personally, I'd really like a 1-slot trophy cabinet (kinda like a badge displayer on steam) where you can choose any trophy you want that has a lot of meaning to you, or fits well with your profile.

[AlphaTrash]

16 minutes ago, gamesfourever said:

Personally, I'd really like a 1-slot trophy cabinet (kinda like a badge displayer on steam) where you can choose any trophy you want that has a lot of meaning to you, or fits well with your profile.

That's literally a trophy cabinet though. 

Rather than 1337th trophy, there's just "Trophy of extra meaning" lmao.

1 hour ago, Cassylvania said:

I understand your frustration. You don't want changes to happen that affect what you've been working towards. I've been there many times before.

 

I joined this site in 2011. At the time, I already had a PSN account with several trophies, so I didn't get to plan out any milestones. I didn't really care about trophy hunting at the time, though, so it never bothered me. In 2013, I decided to make a new account where I'd be able to plan out everything from the start, and I had a lot of fun with that. Unfortunately, I ran other into issues on that account (namely, unobtainable trophies), so I made this account in 2015 to try to clean things up. At that time, 20/30/40 were temporary milestones and 25 was permanent, so that's what I planned for. When the changes were made last year, enough people complained that it sounded like we were going back to the old way, but I haven't heard anything in a few months.

 

Sly hasn't responded either, so who knows what's going on. 

It is what it is, in the end it's just us caring about things that really shouldn't be cared about. 

Edited August 23, 2017 by AlphaTrash

[Gr4de_04]

53 minutes ago, AlphaTrash said:

That's literally a trophy cabinet though. 

Rather than 1337th trophy, there's just "Trophy of extra meaning" lmao.

1

Yes but trophy cabinet is tucked away on the side and you can choose upt0 3-10 trophies depending on premium. What i mean is like its actually hovering above your banner picture

[Nitro]

8 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

I've been reading over some comments on this site and there were a lot of great ideas that were brought up on how to improve milestones. I’ve decided to compile a few of these ideas and propose the following changes to the current system.

 

First, I think we should go back to the original milestones. That means platinum 25 should be a milestone, not 20/30/40. I know some people are like me and enjoy planning out milestones, so it's upsetting to lose that 25th milestone in favor of ones that were originally known to be temporary. Also, I don’t think there's much reason to have so many early milestones, when many trophy hunters didn’t get started until later.

 

Second, milestones should be separated into three categories: platinum milestones, trophy milestones, and personal milestones. These categories should be listed as separate entries in the right margin.

 

• Platinum milestones can include the first platinum and then every multiple of 25 (e.g. 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, etc.). You could optionally include 10, if you want new trophy hunters to get an early rush. Fastest/latest platinum could also be included here, as well as anything else that might be interesting (longest platinum? rarest platinum?).
• Trophy milestones can include the first trophy and then every multiple of 500 (e.g. 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, etc.). Yes, the list will grow as you gain more trophies, but so will the amount of games you have on your profile. This allows the milestones to fill that empty white space to the right of your games, while also giving trophy hunters with more trophies the same amount of time between milestones as somebody just starting out.
• Personal milestones can be done in a few ways. One idea would be to have the community vote on numbers that are “meaningful” in some way (e.g. 666, 1337, 8008, etc.). If you’re going to do this, though, I think these should have a show/hide function, as not everybody is going to agree or want these. For example, the numbers 666 and 8008 might be funny to some people, but they could be offensive to somebody else. (Personally, I think 1337 is just as immature, but I get why it’s used on a gaming site.) The alternative to this might be to combine the trophy cabinet with the personal milestones. If the trophy cabinet displayed the trophy/platinum number, you could allow people who want to show off their 69th platinum or 1134th trophy to do so, without forcing everybody to do the same. This allows for more creativity and personalization. For example, the number 214 has a special significance to me (but probably nobody else), so I might want to plan out something special for platinum 214 and show that off. Someone else might enjoy coming up with personal milestones for 1111, 2222, and 3333, while another person might think it’s totally hilarious for trophy 1886 to be the platinum for The Order: 1886 and they want others to marvel at their originality.

 

Third, some people want more milestones, while others want less. I understand the arguments both ways, so why not provide an option to display more or less milestones? This might only become unlocked as you gain more trophies. For example, once you reach the 500 platinum threshold, maybe you’re given the option to only show every 50th platinum instead of every 25th. Similarly, once you reach 10k trophies, you can be given the option to only show every 1000th trophy instead of every 500th. This doesn’t ADD any new milestones, but it does allow you to clean up your list, if you so desire.

 

I think these changes would (a) make milestones cleaner and easier to read, (b) please the people who originally planned out their earlier milestones and are upset with the changes, (c) give players more freedom on customizing their profile, and (d) allow avid trophy hunters to have roughly the same gap in between milestones as new trophy hunters.

 

Please let me know what you think.

I agree with you here bud.

I too believe that the Milestones should be what they originally were (1st, 10th, 25th, 50th....) for example, I believe I have a visual novel platinum milestone due to the changes

But I have no reason to hide my milestones, so I wouldn't be for that.

However, giving us a personal milestone every 100 or so plats would be kinda cool, I think.

[Satoshi Ookami]

#BRINGCUSTOMMILESTONES

 

We've been there, with nothing really moving towards, I don't see this coming unfortunately :/

[Sicho]

16 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

 

Third, some people want more milestones, while others want less. I understand the arguments both ways, so why not provide an option to display more or less milestones? This might only become unlocked as you gain more trophies. For example, once you reach the 500 platinum threshold, maybe you’re given the option to only show every 50th platinum instead of every 25th. Similarly, once you reach 10k trophies, you can be given the option to only show every 1000th trophy instead of every 500th. This doesn’t ADD any new milestones, but it does allow you to clean up your list, if you so desire.

2

 

It could be way simpler: every milestone should have a Show/Hide option. If I only want to show my 1000th Trophy as a milestone and nothing else, I could simply hide all the others. If I want to show every milestone but not my 1000th trophy because it is one from a shitty game I don't anymore or something like that, I could hide that and show all the others etc.

It would make a lot of the stuff easier. Those that don't like the 1337 Milestone could simply hide it. Those that like it could show it.
 

[PliskinCobra]

Custom milestone will just be another trophy cabinet, not really necessary.
Keeping the current one and add the ability to hide some milestones would be nice. Reverting back to the old system will screw up a lot of people.
I personally think the 1337th trophy is nice because it different from the generic tenth or hundredth trophy.

[Cassylvania]

6 hours ago, Sicho said:

 

It could be way simpler: every milestone should have a Show/Hide option. If I only want to show my 1000th Trophy as a milestone and nothing else, I could simply hide all the others. If I want to show every milestone but not my 1000th trophy because it is one from a shitty game I don't anymore or something like that, I could hide that and show all the others etc.

It would make a lot of the stuff easier. Those that don't like the 1337 Milestone could simply hide it. Those that like it could show it.
 

 

I don't know why anybody would be against this idea. This essentially combines my first and third suggestion, and should make both sides happy. If you want to show more milestones, you can show more. If you want to show less, you can do so. If you like 1337, show it. If not, it's gone.

 

I noticed nobody has commented on the idea of separating platinum milestones from trophy milestones.

Edited August 24, 2017 by Cassylvania

[Carol]

I already said this, but I don't mind saying it again. I also don't like how the milestones are currently organized. There are just too many of them. Milestones should be a record of the important steps that you gave in your gaming profile. The old system was fine, because, as you progressed, the amount of milestones was reduced. This way, that place in your profile always seemed important. Now, all we have is a mess and a bunch of (almost) meaningless trophies. In my case, I lost my 25th plat, that I liked (it was my TR plat), and instead of that, now I have a bunch of platinums (10th, 20th, 30th, 40th...) that I earned a long time ago and that don't hold any special meaning to me right now. Maybe they did at the time, but I think that removing them when we hit our 51st plat was the right thing to do, because it helped keeping things cleaner.

For me, the solution should be one of these three things:

 

1) Going back to the old system; or

2) Giving the players the possibility of hiding undesired milestones; or

3) Implementing custom milestones.

 

Probably no one will care, but it's my opinion.

Edited August 24, 2017 by GoldenSurprise

[Se7en]

20 hours ago, Sicho said:

It could be way simpler: every milestone should have a Show/Hide option.

 

Good idea. Made quick mock-up for selectable milestones:

 

[Cassylvania]

@Se7en Now that's a sexy list. That should please everybody, because nothing is being forced on anyone.

 

Could you also make a quick mock-up if trophy milestones and platinum milestones were in separate categories?

 

[Se7en]

15 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

Could you also make a quick mock-up if trophy milestones and platinum milestones were in separate categories?

 

Something like that:

 

Spoiler