When Ratalaika Games Become Popular?

[BadRep24]

Ratalaika, the game publisher of multi-stack games.

 

Jokes aside, but I'm rather curious about the explosive popularity of Easy Plat games and the developers behind it, and how they have become popular in mysterious ways.

 

I know it will sound like a strange thread, but I've been wondering how these games became popular, since I've only heard of them a few months ago. I've been tediously soul-searching through the leaderboards and found out how popular Ratalaika games have become. Felt like I'm sounding more of a detective, but I love to be curious about Ratalaika's popularity within the trophy hunting world. Subtracting the easy platinum part, from my own lens of perspective, I've only platted a single Ratalaika game, which was Football "Game" to push up some room for my other platinums. Never touched one until I've reached 20th Platinum milestone, and it will be the last (?), I suppose.

Edited July 6, 2020 by BadRep24

[Xylobe]

From what I can recall, leaderboard goons noticed pretty much right away when Squareboy vs Bullies and 36 Fragments of Midnight came out near the end of 2017. Easy plats rarely go unnoticed, especially when it's one publisher putting out so many.

[DaivRules]

12 minutes ago, BadRep24 said:

but I've been wondering how these games became popular

 

They became popular by porting games for other developers to PSN and adding trophy support with very simple requirements.

 

That's how they became popular on a site that doesn't care where trophy points come from, as long as they don't violate leaderboard rules.

[ConAir]

Besides being known for easy Platinum Trophies and many stacks per game, they gave a lot of codes for their games away through Twitter giveaways or the #IndieSelect events.

 

During these events you receive a code and than you must tweet, stream, review or otherwise pay attention to the game

Edited July 6, 2020 by ConAir

[BadRep24]

25 minutes ago, ConAir said:

Besides being known for easy Platinum Trophies and many stacks per game, they gave a lot of codes for their games away through Twitter giveaways or the #IndieSelect events.

 

During these events you receive a code and than you must tweet, stream, review or otherwise pay attention to the game

Never heard of those, before. The only time I heard of that was a group on Steam, who gave away some ecchi genre games in unknown times possible.

Edited July 6, 2020 by BadRep24

[FFATMA]

I bought a bunch and finished some for some easy plats to give me a boost, but then it felt a little greasy getting 15 minutes platinums and I have most of my rata games sitting undownloaded in my games library.  I've finished off most of the ones I started, but I think I'd rather concentrate on getting a few more meaningful plats now.  I know, do what makes you happy and don't worry about what others think about your games list, but honestly, getting a couple more good games done would make me happier than getting 100 rata plats.  Doesn't bother me at all to see other people with stacks of them though, I say go for it!

[Kittet3]

Back in my day, people were paying $5 for a few golds from Aab's Animals and now you can get a whole platinum for the same price and time  

 

There were a few easy platinum that was released on PS4 - My name is Mayo, Adventures on the Prairie, and Fragments of Midnight. Ratalaika kept releasing easy platinum and the games weren't completely awful or expensive, so people started being on the lookout for them and stacking them. There are other developers that have easy games, i.e. POWGI, but they take a bit longer to complete. Ratalaika also releases so many games and stacks for each one across systems so they appear on the front page constantly. Since you know the game will be short and not broken, you don't have to wait for a trophy guy before you buy them either. 

[ladynadiad]

Hate to break it to people, but Ratalaika games aren't popular.  Go look at the number of owners for a Ratalaika game and then compare it to other trophy lists for games that are also single region and platform.  Many of those games have far more owners, even ones that aren't truly popular either.   What Ratalaika games do is appeal to a niche that just happens to have a decent number of people on this site: trophy hunters looking for easy plats.  It's actually a decent niche to appeal to because trophy hunters buy many games and play them.  A sale isn't the only thing a dev wants, it actually benefits them far more for people to actually play the game to completion because people who finished a game are more likely to talk about the game and recommend it to friends.

 

All they did was just smart business.  They are a small publisher who brings indie games to consoles.  Those indie devs want more sales and don't have the ability to get their games to consoles by themselves.  It's a good business partnership on both sides.  It's not going to ever truly be popular, but I'm sure both sides are seeing profits that they are happy with. 

[PalaceOfLove706]

Just love rata games, will never turn back. Profile has a number of meaningful plats already so now I’m all about the boost. Thank the good Lord for putting those developers on earth! I hope they are fiscally rewarded handsomely, and never stop pumping them out. 

[AJ_Radio]

They took advantage when stuff like My Name is Mayo and Orc Slayer were getting platinums despite being ridiculously easy. Then around the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 they started cranking out easy platinum after easy platinum.

 

Usually six stacks, which you have to pay for three times (NA, EU and AS) with the costs coming out to around $6 - 10 for all of them. Mostly games where you only have to complete the first couple levels for the platinum. Rinse and repeat.

 

It's quite easy to get 50 platinums in under a month. I just don't have to respect people who do this, which further proves my point that the leaderboards mean next to nothing in my opinion.

[BadRep24]

10 hours ago, Spaz said:

They took advantage when stuff like My Name is Mayo and Orc Slayer were getting platinums despite being ridiculously easy. Then around the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 they started cranking out easy platinum after easy platinum.

 

Usually six stacks, which you have to pay for three times (NA, EU and AS) with the costs coming out to around $6 - 10 for all of them. Mostly games where you only have to complete the first couple levels for the platinum. Rinse and repeat.

 

It's quite easy to get 50 platinums in under a month. I just don't have to respect people who do this, which further proves my point that the leaderboards mean next to nothing in my opinion.

Isn't that surprising? Even if I'm on the leaderboard, I find it to be statistically irrelevant no matter what others cry about it, due to the statistical skew of players getting Plats on easy platinum games like Ratalaika or Green Lava Studio's My Name is Mayo. By putting this on perspective, if someone who is first on some game leaderboard, but it later turns out that the person, who is first, have like 100+ Platinums consisted of Ratalaika stacks, then the leaderboard is completely useless and irrelevant for that reason. Damn, what a way to go for trophy hunting. It seems Ratalaika has developed their own algebraic formula for easy plats.

In seriousness, 100+ Platinums with nothing more than Ratalaika stacks is never the same as someone with 100+ Platinums obtained from regular, normal games. I only simply use these bastard children of trophy hunting to raise the Plat count to give room for the capstone of my future important Platinum milestones.

Also, aren't Ratalaika games cross-play within PS4 and PS Vita?

Edited July 11, 2020 by BadRep24

[Astray404]

Compared to Ratalaika, I would rather choose some Japanese VN games, although both types are easy to plat

[BadRep24]

2 minutes ago, Astray404 said:

Compared to Ratalaika, I would rather choose some Japanese VN games, although both types are easy to plat

But subjecting yourself to buy the same game 6 times, as Spaz said, over and over again, just for the quick plat, is the most absurd level of crap I have ever heard, just for the sake of Leaderboard. 

Edited July 11, 2020 by BadRep24

[Astray404]

1 minute ago, BadRep24 said:

But subjecting yourself to buy the same game 6 times, as Spaz said, over and over again, just for the quick plat, is the most absurd level of crap I have ever heard, just for the sake of Leaderboard. 

But I do know some trophy hunters who do not know anything about Japanese but buy amounts of VN games just for trophies, so to some extent it's still similar to Ratalaika

[BadRep24]

It's "Press X", yes.

[Atom1cMoose]

i'm no fan of multi stacking any type of game, ratalaika or any other (sound shapes, VN's, etc), but i just wanted to say that not all ratalaika games are that bad honestly lol, are they long double digit plats? usually not, but theyre perfect vita commuting plats where i just dont have the patience to do a 100 hr plat that requires collectible guides and watching out for missable trophies etc etc. I just like simple games that you can jump in and out of with little investment. I quite enjoyed 36 fragments, i and me, some others too. Access denied i believe is one (im not entirely sure of every game made by them) that i tried without a guide to tell me the puzzle answers and i wont lie towards the end i definitely got stumped by a few of them. I had just played the witness and was in the mood for something similar and that fit the bill

 

 

[BadRep24]

6 minutes ago, Atom1cMoose said:

i'm no fan of multi stacking any type of game, ratalaika or any other (sound shapes, VN's, etc), but i just wanted to say that not all ratalaika games are that bad honestly lol, are they long double digit plats? usually not, but theyre perfect vita commuting plats where i just dont have the patience to do a 100 hr plat that requires collectible guides and watching out for missable trophies etc etc. I just like simple games that you can jump in and out of with little investment. I quite enjoyed 36 fragments, i and me, some others too. Access denied i believe is one (im not entirely sure of every game made by them) that i tried without a guide to tell me the puzzle answers and i wont lie towards the end i definitely got stumped by a few of them. I had just played the witness and was in the mood for something similar and that fit the bill

 

 

It's not bad in general, but when it comes to leaderboards, it's a different story.

[AJ_Radio]

9 hours ago, BadRep24 said:

Isn't that surprising? Even if I'm on the leaderboard, I find it to be statistically irrelevant no matter what others cry about it, due to the statistical skew of players getting Plats on easy platinum games like Ratalaika or Green Lava Studio's My Name is Mayo. By putting this on perspective, if someone who is first on some game leaderboard, but it later turns out that the person, who is first, have like 100+ Platinums consisted of Ratalaika stacks, then the leaderboard is completely useless and irrelevant for that reason. Damn, what a way to go for trophy hunting. It seems Ratalaika has developed their own algebraic formula for easy plats.

In seriousness, 100+ Platinums with nothing more than Ratalaika stacks is never the same as someone with 100+ Platinums obtained from regular, normal games. I only simply use these bastard children of trophy hunting to raise the Plat count to give room for the capstone of my future important Platinum milestones.

Also, aren't Ratalaika games cross-play within PS4 and PS Vita?

 

You have to be on your A game to be on the first achievers leaderboards for most games.

 

Then again PowerPyx and Brian (PS5Trophies) both get their games weeks ahead of everyone else which includes you and me. By the time you can buy the latest Assassin's Creed game they probably already platinumed the game and have made a guide on it. PowerPyx regularly writes guides on his website and posts trophy videos on his YouTube channel, he has that all ready by the time the game is available on Day One. So in that respect the first achievers leaderboard is a bit useless too.

 

Honestly I wouldn't bother with that many stacks unless I was competing on the leaderboards, but where is the fun in that? I find it better to get 100+ platinums from regular, normal games. This doesn't mean people should go for ridiculously hard platinums like Super Meat Boy or hunt ultra rare trophies, just having a variety of AAA games with some indie games that you wanted to buy and play for your enjoyment. Much better than stacking the same game several times.

[BadRep24]

I pretty much never mattered about First Achievers.

 

1 hour ago, Spaz said:

Honestly I wouldn't bother with that many stacks unless I was competing on the leaderboards, but where is the fun in that?

That pretty much is the definition of besmirching a game leaderboard, because endless trophy stacking with easy plats is simply a repetitive chore that held little to zilch value. Years ago before Ratalaika's foray into the trophy hunting community, there's the existence of easy plat games like Telltale and even the God of War Collection, but then it was very niche. Now, it's pretty much commonplace that I can't believe to hear that I had to waste my $6 - $10 for the same game, just for the plat stack.

 

In other words, balancing with normal, regular plats and with Ratalaika-esque plats (the stacks) is important (for someone who matters about leaderboards), so that the leaderboards itself would not be fading to nothing but irrelevancy.

Edited July 11, 2020 by BadRep24

[Cerlayjux]

I think it started with 36 fragments but it could date a bit further back from what I can tell

[cera1volta]

I believe people should stop complaining about these easy plat games, of course it doesn't look like much of an achievement having a bunch of stacked ratalaika games, but everyone can buy them. It is your personal choice to buy them and accumulate plats or not. Clearly if someone has a Dark souls of Bloodborne plat their list wouldn't be less genuine cause they have ratalaika plats.

Edited July 23, 2020 by cera1volta

[Wild-Arms-R]

11 minutes ago, cera1volta said:

I believe people should stop complaining about these easy plat games, of course it doesn't look like much of an achievement having a bunch of stacked ratalaika games, but everyone can buy them. It is your personal choice to buy them and accumulate plats or not. Clearly if someone has a Dark souls of Bloodborne plat their list wouldn't be less genuine cause the have ratalaika plats.

I think it has more to do with ppl stacking these games 5times after getting the platinum.

Like cleary the player isnt doing it for fun or the sport.

Thier just using the trophy loophole to place higher on the leaderboards.

At this point the whole compative meaning of trophies is dead.

The top trophy "Hunters" are just try hards with unlimted money and time.

Probbly are shared acounts too.

So I guess the only thing worth doing on this site now is just using it as tracking site and see how good you can be on your own personal stanard.

 

Btw I think playing easy games is all fine.

Not everyone cares for hard/long games, but stacking 1hr games 6times is a exploit and is destorying the spirt of trophy hunting.

Edited July 23, 2020 by Wild-Arms-R

[cera1volta]

14 minutes ago, Wild-Arms-R said:

I think it has more to do with ppl stacking these games 5times after getting the platinum.

Like cleary the player isnt doing it for fun or the sport.

Thier just using the trophy loophole to place higher on the leaderboards.

At this point the whole compative meaning of trophies is dead.

The top trophy "Hunters" are just try hards with unlimted money and time.

Probbly are shared acounts too.

So I guess the only thing worth doing on this site now is just using it as tracking site and see how good you can be on your own personal stanard.

 

Btw I think playing easy games is all fine.

Not everyone cares for hard/long games, but stacking 1hr games 6times is a exploit and is destorying the spirt of trophy hunting.

I agree with that sentiment, I don't see the point of stacking them either. I don't mind if people do it with Sounds and Shapes, that game is not particularly easy. Besides I am pretty sure most of those people are on CFW downloading the game for free and ratalaika is not earning anything. So technically they have access to what others don't or can't have access to, so technically it is cheating.