Is this method considered report-worthy by PSNP rules?

[NamoPh]

To begin with, does it work as I think it does? The method I'm talking about is playing through a game without syncing your trophies, uploading your save file to the cloud and redownloading it from a new local account connected to the same PSN account. If it works the way I imagine it to, you get to skip otherwise unmissable story-related trophies and go right for time-consuming ones as your first if you're looking to be on the speed leaderboard.

 

Not sure if this still counts as naming and shaming, but I'm gonna be slightly vague while still making it possible for someone to check what I'm talking about. As an example, you can look at the Prince of Persia trilogy. Difficulty does not stack there, so you have to run each game 3 times for each of the difficulty trophies. If it does work as I'm saying it does, it's the only thing that can explain how someone at the top in one of those games has the trophies for currency grinding and completing the game in 2 out of 3 difficulties first and very close to each other without any of the story-related ones, before running the game normally for the 3rd difficulty.

 

I would appreciate it if I could get concrete examples of precedent on this regard rather than opinions (unless the response is that it actually doesn't work), or alternatively a mod weighing in on this.

[Sergen]

Yes, that will get you flagged on any console now because the timestamps you achieve like that are identical to someone else who would be using someone else's save to exploit trophies. There's no point trying to speed run a game like that, it's cheap and unfair against people who play it naturally. Of course, if there's a legitimate way to keep a game at 0% for a long time and then unlock all the trophies in a way that any normal player can do, it is perfectly fine to do that. 

[Beyondthegrave07]

11 minutes ago, Sergen said:

Yes, that will get you flagged on any console now because the timestamps you achieve like that are identical to someone else who would be using someone else's save to exploit trophies. There's no point trying to speed run a game like that, it's cheap and unfair against people who play it naturally. Of course, if there's a legitimate way to keep a game at 0% for a long time and then unlock all the trophies in a way that any normal player can do, it is perfectly fine to do that. 

I'm pretty sure though that the Prince of Persia method he mentioned would work as long as the person played the game, in order, and stopped right before the final boss on 3 separate saves and then beat it on each difficulty one after another. Though you are 100% correct about his idea though. I don't think it would fly.

 

I guess the key here is that all the story-related trophies must be in order to be considered "legitimate." Just ask yourself, "if you played through it naturally, does the order of the trophies make any sense?"

[NamoPh]

3 hours ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

I'm pretty sure though that the Prince of Persia method he mentioned would work as long as the person played the game, in order, and stopped right before the final boss on 3 separate saves and then beat it on each difficulty one after another. Though you are 100% correct about his idea though. I don't think it would fly.

 

I guess the key here is that all the story-related trophies must be in order to be considered "legitimate." Just ask yourself, "if you played through it naturally, does the order of the trophies make any sense?"

 

In the example I'm referencing the first trophy is the end-game currency grind, then 2 out of 3 difficulties, with 0 story-related trophies so far. Then the story trophies and everything else starts popping like playing the game normally on the third difficulty. This is the only method I could think of that would make this possible, which led me to believe that it would be considered legit since it seems to have flown for 6 years so far.

[MMDE]

It's as simple as syncing your first earning of each trophy or restart the game.

 

What you will get flagged for is playing offline, earning a lot of trophies on a save, backing the save up to USB or something, delete your local account without syncing the trophies (so the earned trophies get deleted), then use that backed up save to earn trophies. This will just result in you earning trophies out of order and too fast etc. I don't care if you back it up with video evidence or tell us about it before you do it etc. You can document it all you want. It's not wanted on the leaderboards.

[kraven_15]

1 hour ago, MMDE said:

 

What you will get flagged for is playing offline, earning a lot of trophies on a save, backing the save up to USB or something, delete your local account without syncing the trophies (so the earned trophies get deleted), then use that backed up save to earn trophies. This will just result in you earning trophies out of order and too fast etc. I don't care if you back it up with video evidence or tell us about it before you do it etc. You can document it all you want. It's not wanted on the leaderboards.

Is this an official ruling or an opinion?

[SnowxSakura]

7 minutes ago, kraven_15 said:

Is this an official ruling or an opinion?

Considering he's one of the mods for the flagging process, I'd say so

[kraven_15]

35 minutes ago, SnowxSakura said:

Considering he's one of the mods for the flagging process, I'd say so

Ah ok, fair enough. I don't really care either way... it just seems like an odd thing to rule out if someone has actually documented earning all the trophies themselves.

 

[Sergen]

On 09/11/2017 at 4:12 AM, kraven_15 said:

Ah ok, fair enough. I don't really care either way... it just seems like an odd thing to rule out if someone has actually documented earning all the trophies themselves.

 

 

It's because if you let one person off the hook with those time stamps then you need to let everyone off the hook because they can all say that exact thing even if they use someone else's save. 

[kraven_15]

On 11/11/2017 at 5:38 AM, Sergen said:

 

It's because if you let one person off the hook with those time stamps then you need to let everyone off the hook because they can all say that exact thing even if they use someone else's save. 

If they've documented unlocking all their own trophies though, then it negates the friend's save file, doesn't it?

 

I mean, i'm against hacking completely and save file sharing and so forth, but to remove someone as a cheater for this one if it can be documented seems harsh

Edited November 12, 2017 by kraven_15

[Sergen]

5 hours ago, kraven_15 said:

If they've documented unlocking all their own trophies though, then it negates the friend's save file, doesn't it?

 

I mean, i'm against hacking completely and save file sharing and so forth, but to remove someone as a cheater for this one if it can be documented seems harsh

 

It's mainly because most people who achieve time stamps in that way are people who used a save file. Someone could hack a game, mention that they saw someone else document what they did and say "I did the same thing as them and they're not flagged". The time stamps not being realistic unless they manipulate saves is what causes that issue. It's fair to do a prepared speed run for a game if you can grind some of it while maintaining 0% and then unlock trophies quickly after you've prepared for it, but when it comes to manipulating saves including your own to get unrealistic time stamps, it becomes an issue. 

[kraven_15]

Yea, makes sense i suppose. If you can't prove it, then that's fair enough.

I think my enquiry is more about MMDE's response of not caring if it's been documented or advised in advance.  

However, i see how it could open the floodgates for save sharing and claims of ignorance. Ultimately, how could you determine who legitimately made a mistake and who's fudged the system?