About trophy screenshots & profile integrity

[judgment_ring]

Hey folks, I'm having something of a first world dilemma around trophy screenshots and how they play into the integrity of ones PSN Profile.

Is it a good idea to keep these just 'in case' someone decides to question the integrity of your profile? Cause I deleted all of mine the other day (had about 4 years of them built up) because most of them were just meaningless black screens and because I reasoned that if the PS3 games on my list don't have screenshots (and likely never will), then I may as well just disable them for PS4 games too for consistencies sake.

But then, of course, after thinking a little longer and reading around as to people's opinions on the subject, a small constituent seem to believe holding on to them is a good idea for reasons of integrity - the suggestion is that they can, in certain cases, be used as evidence that you got a trophy (or trophies) legitimately, even if they are random black screens in cases. Many trophies in many games will produce the same screenshots for everyone - story related trophies being a quick example. Everyone will always get the trophy at the same point in the game, thus producing the same trophy screenshot. They can be looked at as a general indicator of whether you've earned a trophy legitimately. Of course, there are just as many trophies that can be obtained anywhere you want in a particular game, so they probably have less value when it comes to these 'flexible' types of trophies.

Does anyone around here take them seriously in this regard? Are any of the reasons I've just given valid or worth having any concern over in the long game? I basically just want my profile to be as clean and DEFENSIBLE as can be, and sort of feel deleting all the screenshots was a low IQ move. Trophy screenshots cannot be restored because you cannot re-earn trophies for a game, so they're sort of a unique thing that cannot be re-gained unless you chuck it in and start a whole new profile.

 

So long story short, should trophy screenshots be retained as a best practice thing, or is it really totally subjective? In general, the way the trophy system is designed is really beginning to grate on me lately with respect to its general lack of flexibility. It is so easy to make mistakes and be unable to correct them! Even if you have a passcode and test all your games on another account, it only takes a few minutes for a kid to load up Goat Simulator and get a trophy because you had to rush to the toilet and forgot to sign out. Then the list is stuck there, FOREVER. You hide the games from your profile, people look down on it and think you're a cheat and even then, you still have to look at it each time you view your trophies on your actual PS4. There has to be some sort of flexibility here given how easy it is to mess shit up. We can't even hide them from ourselves or alphabetize our lists which is utterly ridiculous to me. Sorry, this turned into a bitter rant about Sony's design choices. Maybe I need therapy to stop being so pedantic because this has been an enjoyment killer for years.

Anyway, your thoughts on the original comments re Trophy screenshots would be appreciated. I know that I'm overthinking it but that's sort of my thing.

Edited July 29, 2019 by judgment_ring

[DaivRules]

Screenshots won’t make a difference if there is any kind of dispute. The timestamps and reproducing the order of timestamps is just about the only thing that matters. 

[judgment_ring]

1 minute ago, DaivRules said:

Screenshots won’t make a difference if there is any kind of dispute. The timestamps and reproducing the order of timestamps is just about the only thing that matters. 

OK, that's good news - what do you mean when you say 'reproducing the order of timestamps'? Do you mean, so long as the trophies appear to be earned in the correct order and in a realistic time frame? There's never been any situation you've been made aware of where trophy screenshots were used as evidence of any kind? I always saw them as a totally optional feature but yeah, the discussions I read through sort of poisoned my perspective on the subject and I've begun doubting myself.

[DEI2EK]

You’re way over thinking this

 

[sepheroithisgod]

6 minutes ago, judgment_ring said:

OK, that's good news - what do you mean when you say 'reproducing the order of timestamps'? Do you mean, so long as the trophies appear to be earned in the correct order and in a realistic time frame? There's never been any situation you've been made aware of where trophy screenshots were used as evidence of any kind? I always saw them as a totally optional feature but yeah, the discussions I read through sort of poisoned my perspective on the subject and I've begun doubting myself.

"Reproducing the order of the timestamps" means if someone else can get the exact same time stamp without cheating. For example, if there was a 2-second gap between trophies,  someone else would need to be able to repeat this.

[DaivRules]

Go ahead and read this:

 

 

then ask yourself if screenshots would make any sense for proving one of the flagging scenarios didn’t happen. Trophies generally follow a specific order and timeframe, short of known and reproducible glitches, and if your trophies follow an order and timeframe that is realistic and reproducible, then you don’t have to generally worry about getting flagged. 

[Dauersack]

Let's say you don't ever cheat in a game and avoid sketchy lobbies like the plague, then the only way you can really get flagged is if timestamps bug out on you. If that happens, you are just shit out of luck, because the people in charge here don't give a fuck about the reasons or whether you are at fault or not, they see an impossible timestamp and flag you, and thats that. No screenshot is really useful in that regard, the flag will stay, some users here will believe you, others will not. You should not care too much about what hundreds of anonymous people on the internet, of which not a small numbers are cheaters, account sharers, boosting service users and the likes, actually think about the "integrity" of your account. If you know that your account is legit and have some pride for it, you are golden. Screenshots are a memento of great ingame achievements, at least in theory, in reality it is as you said, most of them are blackscreens that just take away a lot of space, so feel free to delete them, they will never have any real use to you.

[pot1414]

26 minutes ago, Nighcisama said:

Let's say you don't ever cheat in a game and avoid sketchy lobbies like the plague, then the only way you can really get flagged is if timestamps bug out on you. If that happens, you are just shit out of luck, because the people in charge here don't give a fuck about the reasons or whether you are at fault or not, they see an impossible timestamp and flag you, and thats that. No screenshot is really useful in that regard, the flag will stay, some users here will believe you, others will not. You should not care too much about what hundreds of anonymous people on the internet, of which not a small numbers are cheaters, account sharers, boosting service users and the likes, actually think about the "integrity" of your account. If you know that your account is legit and have some pride for it, you are golden. Screenshots are a memento of great ingame achievements, at least in theory, in reality it is as you said, most of them are blackscreens that just take away a lot of space, so feel free to delete them, they will never have any real use to you.

Actually they do give a fuck.I have seen plenty of flags lifted because of trophies that are known to be buggy.

[judgment_ring]

59 minutes ago, DEI2EK said:

You’re way over thinking this

 

Lol, I know! I feel like it's honestly fatigued me enough trying to maintain my profile the way I want it (and failing in some respects) that I just want to give it up and go back to how I used to play games. The day I started caring about trophies and a profile no one else is ever going to value in any meaningful way is the day I stopped truly enjoying games.

[TheBlaskar]

I only keep the Platinum trophy screenshots just because I like to look back on them, but the notion of keeping them for specific uses (ie proof) is fascinating; using them against people who seek to call your trophies illegitimate is a good a reason as any

[judgment_ring]

31 minutes ago, Nighcisama said:

Let's say you don't ever cheat in a game and avoid sketchy lobbies like the plague, then the only way you can really get flagged is if timestamps bug out on you. If that happens, you are just shit out of luck, because the people in charge here don't give a fuck about the reasons or whether you are at fault or not, they see an impossible timestamp and flag you, and thats that. No screenshot is really useful in that regard, the flag will stay, some users here will believe you, others will not. You should not care too much about what hundreds of anonymous people on the internet, of which not a small numbers are cheaters, account sharers, boosting service users and the likes, actually think about the "integrity" of your account. If you know that your account is legit and have some pride for it, you are golden. Screenshots are a memento of great ingame achievements, at least in theory, in reality it is as you said, most of them are blackscreens that just take away a lot of space, so feel free to delete them, they will never have any real use to you.

Thanks for this, it helps to be reassured in this manner. Overall it simply seems like the trophy system is, like many other Sony services, designed poorly as its base - I mean, even cheaters can have profiles that look totally legit. Who can say? I suppose I shouldn't worry so much about this idea I have of integrity in a system that is so easily compromised.

[BOOTP]

If it's a space issue, you could always backup future screenshots to USB and then delete them from the console. Only reason to keep them is for nostalgia purposes really.

[judgment_ring]

26 minutes ago, BCarsonElite said:

I only keep the Platinum trophy screenshots just because I like to look back on them, but the notion of keeping them for specific uses (ie proof) is fascinating; using them against people who seek to call your trophies illegitimate is a good a reason as any

The only reason I raise this as being a potential 'proof' is because I was reading a few Reddit pages about it where people were discussing the value of them. It was one user in particular whose comment made my mind start racing about it - he said 'lol, probably popped a trophy in an illegitimate place and is just deleting the evidence'. That was the first time I'd seen the screenshots referred to as being a form of 'evidence' in any way, which made me wonder if anyone else shared this view.

The problem with that thinking though is that no one can see your trophy screenshots, so it's mostly a non issue. No one can look at your profile and say 'aha, that screenshot does not match what is typically on screen at the time this trophy was earned'. There were people however who suggested that they *should* be able to see others screenshots which also contributed to this thinking. If Sony ever allowed this, the usefulness of screenshots could change somewhat. People who re-sign and use others saves can pop trophies in the correct order, with 100% legit time-frames between them so that no one can tell. BUT, if people could theoretically see your screenshots and see that you have a totally unique screenshot for a trophy when everyone else has a black screen (for say, an unavoidable story trophy), then it would stand to reason one could question the legitimacy of that trophy on the basis of an unexpected screenshot. If that ever became a thing (which I doubt), it would get hairy and funky. If people didn't want others seeing their screenshots, they could turn off trophy screenshots but then people would probably start pointing the finger at people with no screenshots the same way they point the finger at those with the blue H on their profile - "they must be hiding something" or "it's looked down upon here".

Furthermore, if a trophy timestamp was glitched and you get flagged, but you earned that trophy legit, the trophy screenshot could lend credence to the fact you didn't hack that particular trophy if the content of the trophy screenshot is consistent with what can be reproduced elsewhere. Though others can't look at your trophy screenshots directly at this time, if there was a dispute of this nature you could video yourself logging into your account, going to your trophies, going to that particular trophy and opening the screenshot from the trophies menu as evidence that it's consistent. This wouldn't work for every trophy however because many trophies can be earned in any area of a game (end game stuff in particular), but it seems to have SOME (if not much) value as being a potential piece of evidence.

Overall though this is just a bunch of hypotheticals and overthinking, but I think I got the wrong idea from these people that retaining trophy screenshots was 'a thing that people should do' as a best practice, just in case thing. Which made my deleting of all my own screenshots feel a bit sour. If things do change in the future, I don't want to be one of those people caught with none with no good excuse. I guess I just wanted any way to increase my perceived legitimacy in a system that is already deeply compromised and problematic. This is likely the error in judgment I'm making here.

[DaivRules]

There are way too many “ifs” and not enough pointing to previous real life scenarios. You’re definitely over thinking the issues.

 

The hardware everyone is playing on is (generally) the same. Which means the code base for each game is (generally) the same. Which means that if a trophy glitches for one person, it’ll glitch in the same way for others.

 

The “if” you’re referring to of public screenshots being called out because no one else has the same screenshot is completely over-complicating what is really being considered. Could the trophies be earned in the order and time you have earned them, but by another person?

 

By now your profile has already been scrutinized and is probably fine. If it makes you sleep better at night, turn screenshots back on now and just deal with the space they take up. 

[judgment_ring]

1 minute ago, DaivRules said:

There are way too many “ifs” and not enough pointing to previous real life scenarios. You’re definitely over thinking the issues.

 

The hardware everyone is playing on is (generally) the same. Which means the code base for each game is (generally) the same. Which means that if a trophy glitches for one person, it’ll glitch in the same way for others.

 

The “if” you’re referring to of public screenshots being called out because no one else has the same screenshot is completely over-complicating what is really being considered. Could the trophies be earned in the order and time you have earned them, but by another person?

 

By now your profile has already been scrutinized and is probably fine. If it makes you sleep better at night, turn screenshots back on now and just deal with the space they take up. 

Good point - there is essentially no sense worrying about something so far removed and hypothetical. We already have all the reasonable safeguards we can expect for a system that is basically broken wide open anyway. I now need to go away and practice a little radical acceptance haha.

[Chocolat_GiddyUp]

Profile integrity

 

Now that's a 5 dollar word right there.

 

 

Edit: Ok it's two words, but yeahhhhhh ?

Edit 2: Whoooa this thread got major censored, 1984 up in here lol.

Edited July 30, 2019 by Chocolate GiddyUp

[Arcesius]

I personally go over my screenshots from time to time, deleting those that are either a black-screen or blurry. There is no point in keeping those, at least I don't see a point.

 

In my case, IF for some reason I would be flagged for something, and IF I were to open a dispute and IF in my case my flag wouldn't be lifted even though I didn't cheat, the worst that would happen is that I would be removed from the leaderboards. Sure, I would find it unfair, but since I don't in the slightest care about those, knowing that my account is legit would be enough for me to move on and keep playing the way I do. In this case, I also don't think that trophy screenshots would make the difference in the dispute. 

 

Don't mind what other people think of your profile. As long as you are happy with it, that's all that should matter. (Oh, and don't cheat.. but that's a given ?)

 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Arcesius

[MidnightDragon]

Wrong topic.  

Edited July 30, 2019 by MidnightDragon