Why are so many people complaining about easy platinum games

[AJ_Radio]

On 10/4/2021 at 3:26 AM, Shikotei-kun said:

All one can do is vote with their wallet.

Don't buy the craptastic pile of trophyware (even lower than shovelware), and support good/actual games.

AAA is screwing folks with microtransactions, pay-to-win, day-1 DLC (or pre-release DLC), pre-order items... you name it.

Indie devs are still on a hit-or-miss region (and mostly always stay), so when they DO release an indie-darling be kind and support.

 

I've said a lot of things on AAA games over the years, but they are still actual games. Thousands of people work on those games, even the annual Madden and NBA 2K games, as much as I despise them, have a ton of people working on them. Certainly not cheap to make either, having to get 4K support, 60 FPS and program some actual gameplay is not easy at all.

 

The trophyware stuff, on the other hand, barely takes any effort. I find it pretty funny that ZJ the Ball is literally over a decade old, yet a new generation of gamers who trophy hunt is taking advantage of the easy trophies it has.

 

It's a marketing tactic that has worked because it has easy trophies, and therefore those games generate more sales than an indie game that few people are ever going to buy because it's challenging. I don't recall people on Steam or Switch buying ZJ the Ball en masse.

[Lillia]

Knowing you have obtained hard trophies while other people obtained easier ones is not even a bad thing in my opinion. 

[Nelson_]

On 10/8/2021 at 10:24 PM, Lillia said:

Knowing you have obtained hard trophies while other people obtained easier ones is not even a bad thing in my opinion. 

 

The topic is misleading lol it's not about being easy but some ugly shovelware tainting psn and trophy system, it's like living in the dumps now.

[Lillia]

18 minutes ago, Nelson_ said:

 

The topic is misleading lol it's not about being easy but some ugly shovelware tainting psn and trophy system, it's like living in the dumps now.

 

Oh I think I get what you mean, you mean like what is happening with Steam? That any idiot can submit crappy games with zero efforts?

That I actually agree with. There's a lot of weird stuff on Steam because of it.  

[ChanelOberlin494]

They really frustrate me. They’re bad games, effortless games and people inflate their profile with them to try and look good.

 

 

they ruin leaderboards and they ruin what getting a Platinum was originally about.

 

 

I don’t have a single of these 30-60 minute Platinums. I don’t see the draw or satisfaction.

 

I have earned 36 Platinum’s in around 17 months. I have some ridiculously hard ones (Fall Guys, DbD), and I won’t ever dirty my profile with a ‘Dirty Plat’. I’m proud of what I’ve earned and I’ll continue to push and earn harder, more time consuming Platinum’s. 
 

I think my shortest completions are between 6-12 hours for Undertale, Maneater and Spyro.

 

Not everyone is inherently skilled enough to Platinum online only games or SoulsBorne games though. Hence the ‘Dirty Plats’ 

[TomataEighty9]

2 minutes ago, ChanelOberlin494 said:

They really frustrate me. They’re bad games, effortless games and people inflate their profile with them to try and look good.

 

 

they ruin leaderboards and they ruin what getting a Platinum was originally about.

 

 

I don’t have a single of these 30-60 minute Platinums. I don’t see the draw or satisfaction.

 

I have earned 36 Platinum’s in around 17 months. I have some ridiculously hard ones (Fall Guys, DbD), and I won’t ever dirty my profile with a ‘Dirty Plat’. I’m proud of what I’ve earned and I’ll continue to push and earn harder, more time consuming Platinum’s. 
 

I think my shortest completions are between 6-12 hours for Undertale, Maneater and Spyro.

 

Not everyone is inherently skilled enough to Platinum online only games or SoulsBorne games though. Hence the ‘Dirty Plats’ 

 

I guess it's all about perspective. I feel like you. I don't understand why people wanna play trash for points or trophies, but if that's fun to them, and they wanna race the leaderboards, all the power to them  

 

I focus on MY trophies, and my trophy goals. Stop comparing yourself and your list, to others who play for totally different reasons. They have no impact on your life or trophy list  

[AJ_Radio]

On 10/25/2021 at 7:10 AM, TomataEighty9 said:

 

I guess it's all about perspective. I feel like you. I don't understand why people wanna play trash for points or trophies, but if that's fun to them, and they wanna race the leaderboards, all the power to them  

 

I focus on MY trophies, and my trophy goals. Stop comparing yourself and your list, to others who play for totally different reasons. They have no impact on your life or trophy list  

 

Everytime somebody comes on these forums and says stop comparing yourself, we do just that. The signatures with our trophy cards is a clear example. Making a post on someone disputing a flag over trophies, that is already comparing yourself.

 

You want to stop comparing yourself? Stop posting, stop talking about trophies, worry about your own life. There is plenty in my life right now that is shit, things that I will never discuss on these forums or any public setting because nobody needs to know. I have never gone through with a single trophy hunting contest on either PSNProfiles or on PST.org. In doing so, you're already comparing yourself with others. I don't partake in the trophy community events on this website nor do I do any contests. I do like to share what trophies I've earned, where I've made my progress, and in the process maybe congratulate somebody else on a job well done for what they did. That is what a community is.

 

I can see when we can be contradictory. This is a public setting in a community of trophy hunters that share a niche hobby. Nothing else. As far as I'm concerned everybody else can love the newest, hottest music and the latest movies to come out of Marvel. None of that matters to me. What matters to me is this community that I decide to partake in because it's what I enjoy doing.

 

I've gone and looked at countless profiles for games I might be interested in. So am I already comparing myself? Apparently I already have more times than I will bother to admit.

 

Those who don't really compare themselves never post or share their trophy progress, which is the majority of trophy hunters, many of which don't even have an account here on PSNP.

[TomataEighty9]

I don't come on this site to compare myself. I come here for the community, and to brag a litlle when i feel like a badass after doing a platinum or a hard trophy  

 

If i see someone else "bragging", i can give them a thumbs up, and i do, especially if they have fought hard for it  

 

You will never see me thumbs up someone who got plat in a crap game... That's not my interest. 

 

But i don't care if people play those. I don't care if people do what makes them happy. 

 

And if i had a dream of going top of leaderboard, and i felt someone "took my spot" because of crap ezpz games, then i have a choice. Accept the current landscape, and participate in the crap gaming, or stop leaderboard chasing. (or accept that i have to set a smaller goal). 

 

 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, TomataEighty9 said:

And if i had a dream of going top of leaderboard, and i felt someone "took my spot" because of crap ezpz games, then i have a choice. Accept the current landscape, and participate in the crap gaming, or stop leaderboard chasing. (or accept that i have to set a smaller goal). 

or you can forever question why the system went to shit, you know, complaining won't change anything but people still have the need to complain, you can do that too 

[AJ_Radio]

3 minutes ago, TomataEighty9 said:

I don't come on this site to compare myself. I come here for the community, and to brag a litlle when i feel like a badass after doing a platinum or a hard trophy  

 

If i see someone else "bragging", i can give them a thumbs up, and i do, especially if they have fought hard for it  

 

You will never see me thumbs up someone who got plat in a crap game... That's not my interest. 

 

But i don't care if people play those. I don't care if people do what makes them happy. 

 

And if i had a dream of going top of leaderboard, and i felt someone "took my spot" because of crap ezpz games, then i have a choice. Accept the current landscape, and participate in the crap gaming, or stop leaderboard chasing. (or accept that i have to set a smaller goal). 

 

 

 

My issue is when people start to think that others are simply butting in, which people have accused me for countless times over the years I've been posting here. I don't care what others play, but the stupid trophy debates that have somehow lingered on and on for a number of years have always divided us because everybody is different.

 

Nothing good ever comes out of the Disputes subforum and to me it's just a colossal waste of time for the cheater removal team to bother, since it puts a huge burden on them.

[TomataEighty9]

Just now, kevao97 said:

or you can forever question why the system went to shit, you know, complaining won't change anything but people still have the need to complain, you can do that too 

 

Sure. You can do exactly what you want, im not gonna tell you how to live your life  

 

My point is, if i think platinums have more value, if they are hard or grindy, then i can just plat games like that. If i think ezpz games are nice, i play that. 

 

MY trophy list, for me, is not gonna change, or my love of the games i play. 

 

So you play whatever you want, no hate from me. That's my whole point. Just focus on you  

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

Nothing good ever comes out of the Disputes subforum and to me it's just a colossal waste of time for the cheater removal team to bother, since it puts a huge burden on them.

there are people who use the forum exclusively to post on disputes, that section has become a comic zone at this point, maybe there should be selected users to help with disputes, and not fully open to the public. but we know that there will be no implementation of suggestions on this webist.

[Shikotei-kun]

On 10/27/2021 at 5:39 AM, kevao97 said:

there are people who use the forum exclusively to post on disputes, that section has become a comic zone at this point, maybe there should be selected users to help with disputes, and not fully open to the public. but we know that there will be no implementation of suggestions on this webist.

The whole reason that subforum is public is because the CRT cannot and will never have knowledge of every game out on the system.

Giving a select group of members access to this won't help.

Sure, the majority is guilty and is lying through their teeth, but once in a while an innocent is released.

Speaking of a comical situation: GTA V is getting slammed right now.

 

As to why the system "went to shit" is (my guess) because until recently the hurdle to put forth the cash to give a game a platinum prevented a lot of crappy games from getting one.

With porters (and of course the trophy whores who fund their shenanigans) they've been able to start up and keep afloat. Remember, not every trophy hunter is on this site, and selling a $5 game over 3000* times is apparently enough to keep it up.

* : arbitrary number

[Jelly Soup]

Not going to quote a two month old post for it, but the point about Hakoom being a father and husband in particular isn't a great point against a high trophy count. Specifically because his trophy hunting actively makes him money and apparently easily supports his family. That's the dream really, "do what you love and the money will come".

 

11 hours ago, Shikotei-kun said:

As to why the system "went to shit" is (my guess) because until recently the hurdle to put forth the cash to give a game a platinum prevented a lot of crappy games from getting one.

With porters (and of course the trophy whores who fund their shenanigans) they've been able to start up and keep afloat.

 

It's that and some smaller devs are seeing it as an investment. For a couple hundred bucks, their game gets out to a very wide audience and they get a 1000% monetary return. Then there are the folks who are just trying to get their passion project out there, like that bible RPG guy. Hell, I'm working on a game presently and I don't intend to make the achievements particularly difficult (I'm a fan of progression and 'get all the things' type of achievements) simply because I don't see the use. I'm more interested in trying to make something people will enjoy.

[AJ_Radio]

Sure it’s an investment, but we’re getting dumbed down lists that any little kid can finish because those lists require no effort. 
 

Games like Transistor, Bastion, Pyre and others came out with well balanced lists. Nothing too difficult, and worth the time and money. But nowadays people consider those kinds of lists too difficult and time consuming. 
 

Zippy the Circle takes no effort. If they came with one stack only, most of these bitching threads wouldn’t even exist. But people discovered they can profit more by selling multiple stacks, and a portion of trophy hunters are cashing in on them. 
 

They’re giving you the trophy lists and literally just spoon feeding you them. When I started trophy hunting I cared about the leaderboards, but they are to me completely meaningless now. 
 

Playing what you want instead of cashing in on a trend like these throwaway games are will be a lot more fun and rewarding in the long run.

[pogo_loco]

3 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

When I started trophy hunting

 

PlayStation Trophy hunting has existed for 13 years, 3 months and 27 days, probably less than most PSNP forum contributors.  Pining for “the good old days” of Trophy hunting is like wishing for a resurgence of the first gen iPhone.  It came, it lived, it died.  Like other fads it will be milked and then it will be discarded.  Gamers gamed before Trophies; gaming will continue after Trophies loose significance.  The need for recognition is fundamental to any sport, but “PS Trophies” will simply be replaced by something else.  Fun while it lasted, but as you acknowledge: "Life. Goes. On." ©

[AJ_Radio]

4 hours ago, pogo_loco said:

 

PlayStation Trophy hunting has existed for 13 years, 3 months and 27 days, probably less than most PSNP forum contributors.  Pining for “the good old days” of Trophy hunting is like wishing for a resurgence of the first gen iPhone.  It came, it lived, it died.  Like other fads it will be milked and then it will be discarded.  Gamers gamed before Trophies; gaming will continue after Trophies loose significance.  The need for recognition is fundamental to any sport, but “PS Trophies” will simply be replaced by something else.  Fun while it lasted, but as you acknowledge: "Life. Goes. On." 

 

For the record I've been gaming since the early 1990s, so I have seen how it has changed and evolved over the years.

 

Dumbing down the lists to cater to a broader audience isn't a step forward. I had the same complaints about free mobile games that just handed you everything, and if you had a bunch of money to spare you basically had an unfair advantage.

 

These people aren't stupid. They're releasing piss easy trophy lists because they know they can attract more trophy hunters to buy those games. Contrast that with games that have more complete trophy lists, like Kaze And The Wild Masks, you got far less people playing them. So why then, are there around 1000 active players for stuff like Zippy the Circle? Because it's really easy and requires no real skill, effort or determination to finish.

 

Can't even make a comparison to the first gen iPhone, which I picked up the month it came out.

 

A better comparison would be comparing Britney Spears and N'Sync to today's so called pop artists who are making millions from kids. The former set the standard and had to bust their ass to get famous, the latter is cashing in on a trend that was already established years ago. The standards have declined, and so has the hobby of trophy hunting.

[TomataEighty9]

@AJ_Radio

 

If you feel that this "trash" is ruining the leaderboards, then stop caring about the leaderboard?

 

This happens everywhere. Bad music "ruins" the music industry, but YOU have a choice to listen to whatever music YOU like. So complaining about "bad music", is kinda pointless, instead of just listening to the music you like  

 

Complaining about fastfood, instead of just eating good food, is a little pointless. 

 

The same with trophies. If you think leaderboards are ruined, just play the games you like. Set lesser goals. Im not a hardcore trophyhunter, i play what i like. I don't find it appealing to spend my time playing crappy "games". And when i look at other peoples profiles, i can define between people who do easy crap, and people you makes an effort. So i have more "respect" for the hard games profiles  

[DrBloodmoney]

6 minutes ago, TomataEighty9 said:

If you think leaderboards are ruined, just play the games you like

Quite right ?

 

The best thing about the leaderboards are that they bring people to the site initially, but that’s really the beginning and end of most people’s relationship with them.

 

They encourage growth of the community - people who like trophies seek out a leaderboard site, then find this one and migrate into the forums… 

…but generally only a small subset continue to actively pursue leaderboard placement.

People come for the leaderboards, but most don’t stay for them.
They stay for the friends they make, the events, the conversations, and the sense of community the site fosters. I know I do ☺️

 

 

[AJ_Radio]

9 minutes ago, TomataEighty9 said:

@AJ_Radio

 

If you feel that this "trash" is ruining the leaderboards, then stop caring about the leaderboard?

 

This happens everywhere. Bad music "ruins" the music industry, but YOU have a choice to listen to whatever music YOU like. So complaining about "bad music", is kinda pointless, instead of just listening to the music you like  

 

Complaining about fastfood, instead of just eating good food, is a little pointless. 

 

The same with trophies. If you think leaderboards are ruined, just play the games you like. Set lesser goals. Im not a hardcore trophyhunter, i play what i like. I don't find it appealing to spend my time playing crappy "games". And when i look at other peoples profiles, i can define between people who do easy crap, and people you makes an effort. So i have more "respect" for the hard games profiles  

 

We've already been over this. Anything you're saying to me is a moot point.

 

Just because I say something is bad, doesn't mean anybody has to take my words like the gospel. It always amuses me when people fight with one another in the comments on a YouTube video of someone bashing something, regardless of what topic it is.

 

In the meantime, sounds like you got a bit "triggered" with the comment I made.

 

I get satisfaction out of being one of a few, not playing the same crap that everybody else is playing. Those are my standards, and that's how I go about things.

[TomataEighty9]

1 minute ago, AJ_Radio said:

 

We've already been over this. Anything you're saying to me is a moot point.

 

Just because I say something is bad, doesn't mean anybody has to take my words like the gospel. It always amuses me when people fight with one another in the comments on a YouTube video of someone bashing something, regardless of what topic it is.

 

In the meantime, sounds like you got a bit "triggered" with the comment I made.

 

I get satisfaction out of being one of a few, not playing the same crap that everybody else is playing. Those are my standards, and that's how I go about things.

 

I think you are misunderstanding me  

 

Im not triggered, and i don't care what you, or others like. I think YOU should do what makes YOU happy, no matter if it's hard games or easy games. 

 

I don't play easy games like my name is mayo or games like that, so i have no dog in this fight  im not even in the top 1.000.000 on the leaderboards.

[AJ_Radio]

Just now, TomataEighty9 said:

 

I think you are misunderstanding me  

 

Im not triggered, and i don't care what you, or others like. I think YOU should do what makes YOU happy, no matter if it's hard games or easy games. 

 

I don't play easy games like my name is mayo or games like that, so i have no dog in this fight  im not even in the top 1.000.000 on the leaderboards.

 

You're just stating the obvious, and you're not contributing to the actual discussion of games gradually getting easier over time. This post holds as much water as me telling everybody to stop making rants.

 

I enjoy ranting as a matter of fact.

[TomataEighty9]

33 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

 

You're just stating the obvious, and you're not contributing to the actual discussion of games gradually getting easier over time. This post holds as much water as me telling everybody to stop making rants.

 

I enjoy ranting as a matter of fact.

 

I didn't realize you just wanted to rant. I thought it was a discussion, since we're on a forum, silly me  

 

I'll let you rant then, no problem. Have a good day  

[Jelly Soup]

I slightly disagree with the notion of so called dumbing down being an overall bad thing. Funding further project, bringing in new customers, growing the community, all theoretically good things. From my perspective, I mentioned in my last post that I've been working on a game. This dumbing down has opened the games in such a way that I can even do that and have a reasonable expectation that more than two people will every play it. It's not an opportunity I'd have otherwise, forget any monies I may or may not make in the end.

 

Ratalaika is totally taking advantage of that opening, but it's important to remember that this is a publisher doing it. The games themselves are solid 6+/10 products that are being hammered down for something another guy is doing (I say for the umpteenth time that MetaGal is a really good Mega Man clone). It unfortunately colors other projects that aren't trying to go the Ratalaika route, but have the same end result. Mayo and Mr. Massagy aren't meant to be achievement spam games, they are intended to be a 2 hour comedy for a purposefully cheap price. And they both succeed in that goal, I feel like the $1 I spend on both Mayo 1 and Mayo 2 was worth the laughs.

[AJ_Radio]

17 hours ago, Jelly Soup said:

I slightly disagree with the notion of so called dumbing down being an overall bad thing. Funding further project, bringing in new customers, growing the community, all theoretically good things. From my perspective, I mentioned in my last post that I've been working on a game. This dumbing down has opened the games in such a way that I can even do that and have a reasonable expectation that more than two people will every play it. It's not an opportunity I'd have otherwise, forget any monies I may or may not make in the end.

 

Ratalaika is totally taking advantage of that opening, but it's important to remember that this is a publisher doing it. The games themselves are solid 6+/10 products that are being hammered down for something another guy is doing (I say for the umpteenth time that MetaGal is a really good Mega Man clone). It unfortunately colors other projects that aren't trying to go the Ratalaika route, but have the same end result. Mayo and Mr. Massagy aren't meant to be achievement spam games, they are intended to be a 2 hour comedy for a purposefully cheap price. And they both succeed in that goal, I feel like the $1 I spend on both Mayo 1 and Mayo 2 was worth the laughs.

 

The sad fact is there are many indie developers who don't make it far into the industry because they can't make the profits off of the projects they made. I just read somewhere that the Nintendo Switch has been taking more indies as of late since Steam now seems to have this gatekeeping system, or at least that's what people have told me.

 

The refund policy on Steam has its share of problems, as evidenced in this article:

 

https://www.techspot.com/news/90993-steam-two-hour-refund-policy-forces-indie-developer.html

 

---

 

What I'm happy to see and hear about is people who primarily game on the Nintendo Switch that are buying the indies are the ones who are getting good games, such as Axiom Verge 2 and Garden Story.

 

Games that are entering the PS Store that offer almost nothing but easy platinums are just that, throwaway games that a niche group of people are buying for niche points. There is the price point to consider, and for being so cheap it's no wonder so many trophy hunters have cashed in on them. Who can't say no to easy trophy points and easy trophies?

 

What I did for years on this website was criticize Ratalaika for the trophy lists they were pumping out, not the games themselves. Somebody else develops the games, Ratalaika only publishes them. Still, when a game only asks you to do 20 percent of the actual content for the platinum, almost nobody is going to be playing all of it, so a lot of that later content that is seen later in the game is completely ignored. And because a lot of those games were primarily bought for easy trophies, that was a chunk of Ratalaikas income.

 

I'm just tired of seeing the new releases on this website get cluttered with the same bullshit trophy lists that were intentionally meant to be easy so more people would buy them. That is a business strategy. You don't have that luxury on the Nintendo Switch because that doesn't have an achievement system, so a majority of people on that console just buy the indie games that they want. They value a game by the gameplay and its replay value rather than just trophies.

 

The leaderboards is full of people with countless 20, 30 minute, one, two hour platinums that aren't even barely games half the time. That's basically the trophy hunting ecosystem now. Those throwaway games aren't going to be remembered in five years or so, because why would people try to remember them? They just played them to get easy trophy points.

 

My Name is Mayo and Mr Massagy were just prior to when Ratalaika started coming out with multiple stacks, but more people played them because of how ridiculously easy they were. I'm fully aware they were meant to be "joke" games, but unfortunately they got a bad reputation. Before those games, the best you could hope for was an Artifex Mundi 'find the hidden object' game that took a couple hours to finish, or a game like The Bunker which is a point and click FMV style game that takes around a hour or two to earn all the trophies.

 

Somebody on another thread said it best when he brought up ExistentialSolid's 'Destroy Me' thread in the Trophy Checklists subforum, which is a thread talking about how the guy is doing with the games he's playing, what tips are good for beating said game, etc. That is the kind of thing we should be promoting and encouraging in the trophy hunting community, not purposely going for whatever easy game is out there to mindlessly climb the leaderboards. When these awful games take 5 - 10 minutes to finish, and multiple stacks at that, there is obviously something wrong.

 

Whenever someone like myself or someone else tries to make a point on easy games and why people shouldn't indulge in them so much, we get called arrogant, self entitled, elitist, rude, pissed off, angry, whatever negative adjective you can think of.

 

My suggestion is, don't make your game just to sell easy trophy points. Have your game be fun and enjoyable on its own.