Earlier this week Nintendo announced that they weren’t thinking of adding a system similar to the Xbox 360’s Gamerscore, which counts your Achievements, or the PS3’s Trophy set-up. “Nintendo’s designers don’t tell you how to play their game in order to achieve some kind of mythical reward,” said the company’s Bill Trinen.
“Basically, the way the games are designed is they’re designed for you to explore the game yourself and have this sense of discovery.”
Trinen also suggested that the sense of mystery is far preferable than the two points systems, which he pointed out were little more than numbers. “In my mind, that really encourages the sense of exploration rather than the sense of ‘If I do that, I’m going to get some sort of artificial point or score that’s going to make me feel better that I got this,'” he said, “And that, to me, is I think more compelling.”
There’s legions of gamers that would venomously disagree, of course. To some, Trophies and Achievements are serious business – indeed, our very own PS3 Trophy List was not only the first of its kind but it still attracts lots of readers, and we’ve got our very own Skibadee doing a thankless job maintaining it. Gamers like the two systems.
Achievements, the first out of the door, give you a nice round number and a very easy reckoner as to who plays games the most, although it’s unclear at a glance as to that player’s particular skill beyond the total score. Trophies, on the other hand, show the four different levels of silverware, with Platinum badges obviously the hardest to get.
But what do they do in the long term, beyond providing a discussion point and a method of comparing with friends?
The concept of ‘100%ing’ a game has changed over the last few years – previously games that required a fair amount of your time would come with a total percentage somewhere, which showed you how close you were to completing everything the game had to offer. Now it’s just a Platinum or a 1000 points Gamerscore, depending on your choice of platform.
Gamers don’t need to explore so much for themselves, a simple look at the Trophy list (or, of course, a list of Achievements) would show them everything they need to ‘do’ to get that final ping, and even though developers can opt to keep some Trophies hidden, it normally doesn’t take long for a spoiler-heavy list to hit the internet, and usually before the game is launched.
Are the rewards ‘mythical’ as Trinen says? In some respects, yes – neither Sony nor Microsoft has really found a use for these systems beyond what we’ve talked about above – they’re there to show you how many points you’ve got from playing the games in specific, pre-meditated conditions. Is the company right to completely ignore them for the 3DS? No.
Regardless of what an individual might think, or indeed a group of game designers, Trophies and Achievements go a long way to keeping gamers hooked to your system; before Trophies appeared multi-format gamers might have opted to buy games purely for the Xbox 360, for example, and Apple’s Game Center shows that it’s possible to get this absolutely right on a mobile platform.
Nintendo have always been a little internet-wary, preferring to dip their toes in the online water rather than jumping in stark-bollock naked, and that’s their call. Will the 3DS suffer from not having it’s own system of comparing your gaming prowess with mates? Probably not, but would it be better with one?
Almost certainly.
dammspi
I am a trophy whore too! If the next Wii or even 3DS with a patch support some kind of trophies (monster) i am buying it
DrNate86
A game should stand by its strengths, not its trophy support. Nintendo have dominated the market quite happily without them, I don’t think this will be an issue at all. Most casual gamers don’t worry about trophies or achievements, and I wish the same were true for everyone really. It drives me mad when people refuse to buy quality games because of a lack of trophy support. Personally I think achievements were one of the worst additions to modern gaming. A game should encourage you to explore and try new things by being fun, not by dangling an ethereal reward in front of your face.
KeRaSh
Well said. I totally agree with you.
skibadee
your missing the point trophies without a game are useless there just a nice extra, I have been gaming since the Atari days & I find them a great way to make you get more than 1 go out of a game.
Pete_UK
I’m not fussed on trophies officially, but I’m about 3 hours from getting platinum on Demons Souls. I’m full of support for Nintendo not kowtowing to the Trophy crowd, but there are some instances where Trophies do add to the experience – though they are few and far between.
Shaggy2Dope
Just an idea of a name if Nintendo ever decide to implement a reward system on the Wii…..”Wii-wards”. It could come with its own channel and everything!
MegaBonez
Why should we need a reward for playing games? We did fine in the 90’s didn’t we? Good on you Nintendo, sick to what you’ve always done!
Rocket_345
Trophies are something i could take but would also leave. When i purchase a game i look at the trophies then play through the game just forgeting them before looking at them after i have finished the game and decide if to go for any more.
tonycawley
just because you guys don’t like them, doesn’t mean its not a mistake not to include them. there are countless people that really do like them, so to just ignore those people is potentially missing out on a large chunk of the market. I’ve got to say if it wasn’t for my ongoing competition with my brother I probably wouldn’t care much either, but we banter a lot about having more plats, higher overall level or % on a game etc. really adds to the whole enjoyment for the both of us, since we’re rarely available to play together at the same time, this is our way of gaming together.
OneDown
For me personlly, getting a Trophy is not something I particularly aim for but once you do hear that ominous ‘ping’ then for some unknow reason I do feel I have acheived something although I couldnt care what tbh. Will Nintendo live without it, YES. Would people in ‘general’ like it. I think definitely so! I think personally the right approach for them would be to even publish their equal to “trophies” in lists inside game cases themselves so people actually know what to aim for. But hey, thats just my opnion…
BigCheese
I don’t even know how many Trophies I have, I’ve never ‘hunted’ for them, and my only Platinum was an accident; I didn’t even know I was 50% let alone 100%! But I also don’t care about online multiplayer, and I choose not to buy games based on it, or at least have it as their main focus (Warhawk, CoD etc) so I’m not like most gamers. I can see how they are a nice little reward for doing a difficult task on a game, but there’s no way Nintendo are gonna suffer by not including them.
The Mysterious Phantom Bear
Trophies are to me just a bonus. They will not force me to play a game in a different way or grind through some ridiculously dull passage of gameplay multiple times just to collect a set of pixels that has no bearing as a quantifiable reward in real world terms.
Trophies to me are just online willy waving. Occasionally I will see a trophy I like the look of and attempt to obtain it because I specifically like the challenge. I will not finish something just for completism or a virtual reward if I don’t find it fun.
I have a friend who’s a platinum collector. He has around 19 at this stage I believe. I once got a PSN message saying “Bear! Did you know you’re only two trophies away from a Platinum on Burnout Paradise?”. My non-plussed response was a bit of a shock to him.
The same person has also got platinums for the last three COD games. I have no desire to play through grenade spamming veteran modes where any progress is often due to perserverance and luck and the difficulty comes from a cheap gameplay tactic rather than increased enemy AI so I will never achieve platinums on these games. He hated every minute of each veteran campaign but did it anyway.
Incidentally, the two players in our clan who have platinum trophies for each COD are the two worst players statistically in the online modes.
I would rather enjoy a game and move on rather than sticking to some restrictive criteria to feel better about my online self.