My Profile Doesn't Reflect Me As A Gamer Anymore

[RK9]

So here's the thing: I've been gaming since the mid 90's, I've had little breaks here and there when life has been manic, but gaming has always been a part of my life in some form or another, for as long as I can remember.

 

Since the original Xbox launched, I've mostly played my games on an Xbox system. From the early 360 days up until last year, I played multiplayer almost exclusively; typical Call of Duty, FIFA, GTA Etc... But right at the beginning of last year, it started to become stale, certain friends weren't really online much anymore and as the numbers of our group dwindled, I began losing interest in the games I had been playing for years. So I needed a change of pace, so I played a few single player games and started to hunt for achievements/trophies. (I didn't have a PS4 at the time but I would eventually get one).

 

As I started to get into achievement/trophy hunting, I decided to create a new Xbox profile and when I got a PlayStation I created my first PSN account. Reason being is I wanted my profiles to reflect me as a gamer, to showcase that I was completing my games and what sort of games I'm actually into. Problem is, I got totally wrapped up in putting down a big Gamerscore and racking up numbers, so I went on a tear and played alot of shit games. Admittedly, I had fun, because I felt excited to embrace this change of pace and have some new gaming goals. But recently I've hit an all time low in terms of motivation to play anything, when I look at my profile on both platforms, they're just cluttered with shit games that I honestly wouldn't of played without easy Gamerscore or quick Trophies, and that doesn't reflect me as a gamer or atleast the gamer I am today and just leaves me feeling frustrated.

 

Despite struggling with low motivation, I've recently completed God of War and it was fucking awesome! I think it highlighted to me that bar a few games on my profiles, the majority are complete and utter shite and I'm not sure whether to just start a fresh and make a new account... Or to stick with the profile I have on each platform and just make conscious effort going forward to not play games for easy/quick completions and play purely based on what I'm into or what looks fun (Should of been that way from the start) 

 

One good thing that has come of all this though, is that I feel that I reconnected with the reasons I started gaming all those years ago. I'm now more interested in amazing single player games than I have been in many years, and that's how it all started. Same reasons that I find myself frustrated with the games I have been playing over the last year. 

 

Has anyone else found themselves looking at their own profile and felt like I do? What would you do? 

 

Apologies for the long post !

Edited June 23, 2018 by Adamantium

[DrHambone]

Just play games that interest you! I'll have phases where I play EZPZ games then will move on to actual AAA games. Some of those games I would avoid purely because I know the trophies would be difficult (Metal Gear V, Final Fantasy XV, etc). You have to break from that mentality and just play those games so you can enjoy gaming! Just play a mixture of shit games and actual good games.

[iFraaN97]

Well, most of the games you've played on your profile are definitely easy (you don't even have a single rare trophy), but they are not bad games at all, I wouldn't feel ashamed because of that.

 

Just keep playing whatever makes you interested.

[Paleblood]

Yes, I feel the same way. Thats also why my trophies are hidden. 

I have created a new PSN profile which I would like to use with this forum account since I a.) paid for it and b.) it has all my posts and conversations on it. And I'd like to keep them. But Sly doesn't read my messages so I guess this won't happen.

What in return demotivates me to spend time on the new account... so... I play more on my Xbox these days.

 

J

[sh4d0wzcs]

I do a few AAA then go do easy plats as a break of sorts, no use doing nothing but hard games stressing yourself out.

[HaserPL]

I'm used to hunt only good games, I try to avoid crap/easy plats - I can only count Telltale but they aren't craps, just easy as hell, few PS Plus games and Hitman GO. And it made me feel bad about playing because right now, all I have to do is to complete a game with a guide, sometimes on hard diff and that's it. I don't feel any kind of reward about it right now. So I've decided a few weeks ago that I will clean-up my backlog, buy those games I've always wanted to play, and after that I will focus only on getting UR plats/ those that are fairly difficult to create a challenge for me, to feel that "YAAAAAAAAAAY I GOT A PLATINUM" again, which I haven't said in a looong time.

[Zolkovo]

Some day everyone will realise no one really gives a shit about PSN level or total # of trophies or # of platinums. Life's too short to care about these arbitrary numbers. The stark reality is that no one gives a toss about a profile that isn't their own.

 

So in the end, just stick to the games you love and enjoy and try to get the most out of them.

Edited June 23, 2018 by Zolkovo

[DF007gamer]

"My Profile Doesn't Reflect Me As A Gamer Anymore" Trust me this is all a virtual reality. There's only a very small percentage of gamers that look at other people's profiles and judge them on what they playing. Nobody worries about what I've played or you yourself have played. Just play what you enjoy. 

[Kittet3]

I mean, as you grow and get older, you change in a lot of ways and your profile is never going to represent who you are right now at this moment, but rather, it's going to represent how you changed. My profile goes from a lot of kiddie games into a lot of non-plat games and then now it's a bunch of barely started incomplete games and that basically sums up how I've changed my gaming habits from play everything I get my hands on to trying to complete games to starting every game to get a taste of it. 

 

You can change your habits right now and all those easy games will go farther and farther down on your list. I really only look at the first page of people's profiles to see what type of gamer they are, so it's never too late to make a different first impression.

[DF007gamer]

1 minute ago, Zolkovo said:

Some day everyone will realise no one really gives a shit about PSN level or total # of trophies or # of platinums. And especially that no one gives a toss about a profile that isn't their own.

 

So in the end, just stick to the games you love and enjoy and try to get the most out of them.

 

Could have not said it better. 

[Terra]

Play the games you want and platinum the ones you want to do. So what if it's an easy platinum? 

[HOGIE838EIRE]

All the above points are not gonna stop you feeling the way you do and if it is really wrecking your head then start a new profile - sooner rather later! I recently started a new profile (for different reasons) and I’m glad I did it now.

 

All the games I left incomplete were really annoying me and I had no desire to go back to them for one or two trophies. I’d prefer to start the game from scratch and get them all at once if that makes sense. I had a lot of long winded grindy plats on my old account that took a lot of work but I’m still glad I decided to start fresh now.

 

While not wanting a lot of shite games on your profile keep in mind that going after hard plats one after the other could be torture. You need an easy game in between to help you relax more. Just pick a game that you will enjoy and not something crap for easy trophies. ?

[kidson2004]

20 minutes ago, Zolkovo said:

Some day everyone will realise no one really gives a shit about PSN level or total # of trophies or # of platinums. Life's too short to care about these arbitrary numbers. The stark reality is that no one gives a toss about a profile that isn't their own.

 

So in the end, just stick to the games you love and enjoy and try to get the most out of them.

Pretty much this right here. If you enjoy the games, that’s all that matters. 

[Dreakon13]

This is why I stopped collecting trophies (not that I was ever great at it lol, but it started taking over for sure)... and started collecting games.  Not in the "thousands of digital games from bundles and sales in my backlog" sense of collecting games, but in the "having physical copies/mementos of my favorite or otherwise noteworthy games" sense.

 

Call it OCD or being anal retentive or what have you, but I wanted my profile to reflect...

a. my gaming tastes

b. the games I actually owned still

c. as complete 100%/plat as I could reasonably accomplish

 

And it just got way too restricting.  After a while I found myself constantly making new PSN accounts and starting over to try and get things as close to my stated goals as possible.

 

Now I just play games for fun.  Admittedly I lost a huge motivating factor when it comes to playing through games completely, without trophies now I just do one playthrough of most games on the medium/normal difficulty.  Especially as I get older and time to game gets less and less, it's harder to care when I get stuck on a really tough boss or hit a really slow/boring patch of a game without having those trophies dangling like a carrot in front of me... but for reasons that extend WAY beyond just trophies (without getting into it; getting over an entirely unnecessary amount of vicious drunk abuse growing up)... I want/need to learn to respect myself, the things I like, and to love gaming again.

 

In 20 years, PSN may not be around anymore and trophies won't matter (not that they really ever did).  But I want my collection of games to live on and maybe even be played for generations to come.

Edited June 23, 2018 by Dreakon13

[AffectatiousDonk]

I will throw in my perspective, 

 

Starting a new profile won't change anything 

 

Despite your belief that you disliked those easy games I am sure they bought you some enjoyment

 

The fact that you don't see your current position reflected in your past behaviours is a sign of growth,

 

Trophy hunting is purely a contest against yourself, you are not accountable to anyone else

 

If you suffer low motivation go and do something else for awhile. 

 

My profile is a perfect representation of me. Just like me it is diverse, not finished, imperfect, encompassing and passionate. It has many moments of whims, smattered with periods of commitment. It may not be perfect to many but it is perfect to me. I have enjoyed every moment of it and that is all that matters. I hope you can find the same because gaming really is great.

 

 

Edited June 23, 2018 by cjshaitan

[PooPooBlast]

From the beginning when I got my very few first plats, I wasn't planning on going on the leaderboards. 

 

I had one instance though when I got caught up in it and bought goat simulator. I realized how dumb that was and since then I never bought a game just for trophies. All it took was one game for me. 

 

Though I was very adamant about completing every game I play regardless if it was good or bad. Once I hit 100 plats I no longer cared anymore and now I simply play and plat whatever interests me. Much better that way. 

 

Point is, do whatever the heck you want. Whether it was doing easy plats, watching paint dry, or playing games that only interests you, just do it if it makes you happy ( besides drugs. Don't do drugs). 

[Gommes_]

Great post! This is what I am always talking about: playing games for the sake of it and spicing it up with trophies. Never understood how a a huge amount of trophies is so much more important than playing great games. So many people seem to avoid hard or long games just because it is easier to play crappy games and get trophies for nothing. Some profiles are filled with my games like slyde, my name is mayo and everything alike. While I certainly have my own problems when completing certain games, I am always looking for games I could have a good time with. 

 

Maybe quitting trophies and just focusing on games is even the better choice... My 5 cents

1 hour ago, Zolkovo said:

Some day everyone will realise no one really gives a shit about PSN level or total # of trophies or # of platinums. Life's too short to care about these arbitrary numbers. The stark reality is that no one gives a toss about a profile that isn't their own.

 

So in the end, just stick to the games you love and enjoy and try to get the most out of them.

 

Well we as a community used to care about quality platinums. Now we don't, due to the numbers of easy games

[wafflestomper810]

I am guilty of this and have recently tried to actively break the habit.  I still buy some games simply for the easy plat, but for the most part am only buying games I am interested and think will be fun.  Still, I have been surprised at how enjoyable some of those easy plats are.  I really got hooked into the artifex  mundi games and am glad a lot have gone on sale recently. 

[nyonmyan]

Can't you just, you know, hide these games?

[Undead Wolf]

At least you figured out playing games purely for easy trophies is a bad idea quite early on. If I were in your position, I would probably just restart on a new account since the vast majority of platinums you have are low effort/not difficult and wouldn't take much to earn again if you wanted to. The sooner the better! You'll enjoy looking at your profile much more knowing that you played all of these games because you wanted to and not because you wanted a quick trophy/platinum boost.

[RK9]

Appreciate all of the replies! Definitely lots of different opinions and I've enjoyed reading them all!

 

@Zolkovo I am definitely at the stage where I realise that no-one gives a monkeys about my profile, I agree with you entirely. Going forward whether I start a fresh or keep playing on this account, I will only be playing and completing games that appeal to me for the right reasons. The state of my current PSN just doesn't sit well with me, on a personal level, if that makes sense? I'm quite OCD and like things a certain way, and, well... I feel as though I got caught up playing for the wrong reasons which is what lead me to how I feel today.

 

@Undead Wolf I am very glad that I realised sooner rather than later, I only have 30 platinums, it's not alot to lose, especially when you take into account that there's only a handful of games that I would replay and re-complete, such as: God of War, Wolfenstein, RIME, Until Dawn, Hellblade and Life is Strange 1 and Before The Storm. That is it. 7 games that I really enjoyed, the rest were just pure trophy whoring.

Unfortunately, I'm now over 100,000 Gamerscore on my Xbox profile and in all honesty, about 70k of that is absolute rubbish, and that really feels like a lost cause. I look at my Xbox account and just sigh. I definitely want a profile that I can be proud of (for me, when I look at it, not for anyone else), so it's just a case of whether I feel I can turn this one around or just move on knowing that I understand myself as a gamer much better these days and won't make the same mistakes twice. I'm undecided.

Edited June 23, 2018 by Adamantium

[AlchemistWer]

Hi @Adamantium!  

Let me give u a suggestion; Why no try to play games you really like? for example you said the new God of war was an amazing game, and I think you can play more god of war games on ps3 so that can be a good motivation. Also keep in mind a lot of good games are easy platinums... For example Persona 4 and 5, the difficulty rate is 3, but it does not matter because both games are incredible and the best thing is you need A LOT OF TIME to plat each one, and that mean more time to enjoy the game!!

What I try to say is you could find a lot of games with low difficulty rate to plat but they can be a 9/10 games (depend your preference of course) I love visual novels and each vn is a easy platinum, and for that reason I wont stop play vn, so don't let you drop in easy platinum games because people who create games like that do it just because they know people like us will buy their games just for trophies. 

 

Good luck and I hope you find your own answer!

[supkris]

Don't we all have that feeling? But I try to find a balance between easy (shiity) and good games and so have no complaints.

[mecharobot]

4 hours ago, Zolkovo said:

Some day everyone will realise no one really gives a shit about PSN level or total # of trophies or # of platinums. Life's too short to care about these arbitrary numbers. The stark reality is that no one gives a toss about a profile that isn't their own.

 

So in the end, just stick to the games you love and enjoy and try to get the most out of them.

This post again.

 

I'm not saying that I fully disagree with this, but there is more to it than levels and # plats. Making acquaintances, participating in community events, finding mp/boosting buddies, getting ideas what to play, sharing/asking tips etc. Trophies can help with all this. It just depends what people make of it. Just preaching to the choir, but just trowing this out there to remind that people are in fact gaining something out of it.

[thefourfoldroot]

Just play what you like, for whatever reason you like it. If that's trophy hunting then that's legitimate fun too. I don't really care what others feel, although I do kind of wish I didn't cave and get those Mayo plats lol.