Ding!

If you're like me, who never got a 360 even when they were new and instead waited for (or just went with) a PS3, there's a chance you entered into it in the beforetimes when the above things were not even thought of.  The above things being Trophies, of course.  But now, they're practically a meta-game all their own on the same level as all the equivalents out there (of which, of course, one came first):  Xbox 360 Achievements, Steam Achievements, etc.  And I, like many others, find myself endlessly fighting for more and more to put my mark, so to speak, on a particular game.

At least, that's why I go after them, honestly.  I believe I've covered that fact before....but if I have, I can't pick which article it was in.  That wasn't always my stance, though; I used to be more "I only get trophies in games I like, because it means I like/want to play the game more".  Now, it's more like I said, I just get them when I want to leave a mark, for better or worse.  I'm sure we all remember (or will be reminded when I link it) how I talked about getting a platinum in Dark Void out of spite because I had high hopes for the game that just.....just crashed and burned.  I just wanted to get all the trophies in the game so I would never -have- to play it again.  DLC trophies really don't count for anything, so I have a platinum, it's shelved, I didn't enjoy playing it, so I won't.

Which isn't to say games that I platinum get put up forever, of course.  Just the ones I don't like.  Uncharted 2, for example, has been played at least twice more fully through -after- I got the Platinum for it.  Just because it's an amazing game and fun to play.  Same with inFamous 1; I beat that game probably eight times, four of those after getting all the trophies, simply because I wanted to do different things.  "Good turns evil, Evil reforms, Neutral and 'what would you do'" approaches were all touched on in my plays.  They're a nice little addition, but trophies honestly don't determine how I play my games all the time.

Nor are they a necessity at all when playing games, of course.  There are several well-known, well-liked games out there that just never saw a trophy patch after trophies became mandatory in PS3 games, simply because they were released before the date and their developers are lazy were working on something else and never saw a reason for it.  The above-pictured Valkyria Chronicles, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Resistance:  Fall of Man were all included in this and absolutely nothing convinced their developers to implement it.  Not even a re-release can get trophies in these games.  (For some reason I couldn't find a single article about Resistance not getting trophies in the re-release that I wanted to use)  It's kind of an interesting climate, to say the least.

For me, it's honestly just like a meta side-quest for games as a whole; something I can do or not do at my leisure.  Which I think is the best way about it.  I really hate hearing stories about people starting to hate a game because they have to "grind x hours" to get trophies/achievements so that it really becomes no fun.  So sometimes you just have to know when to know the task at hand is something you don't want.  My former philosophy with trophies being a symbol of my liking of a game didn't mesh well with Yakuza 3, for example, because some of the trophies are just things I do not want to be party to.  The side-games, mostly.

Really, the whole revelation of my new ideal on trophies came about earlier when I was playing inFamous 2, grumbling because I thought the "Extreme Makeover" trophy was bugged, and how much it would annoy me if I'd never get a Platinum trophy in the game because of it.  I had to scour the internet for an idea on why it wasn't unlocking, which pointed to the theory that perhaps all the big objects needed destroyed in the same sitting, and also that different things needed to be taken out:  Not only the verandas in the first island, but the Oil Towers in the second island.  (Gas works.)  After a bit of trying, I eventually got it, and was sated, before I thought about it.  Why did I care?

Because I care about inFamous 2.  I care enough to leave my mark out there as a Platinum trophy.  I came, I saw, I conquered.  And I enjoyed every moment of it.  That's the message I want to pass along with my Platinum, which is wholly based on the game alone, and not some sort of pre-designated notion through a trophy system as a whole or anything.  And that's how my stance changed; because it was never the right one to begin with.  Now I'm very much more comfortable with where I stand on the matter.  And when I have that Platinum trophy (need to go through again on Hard -again-, and make sure to do the Ice side missions), I'll be comfortable with that too.