Trophies and Achievements
Do you love Trophy hunting? do you love achievement hunting? I do to! When I first got an xbox 360 I was so amazed by achievements. I wanted to collect them all. I loved the fact that achievements/trophies added an extra level to playing games. They became almost like a game within a game. As time went on I became more and more obsessed with getting all the achievements i could. I would spend hours trying to get every achievement in a game. It was so much fun to compare with my friends to see who could get the most achievements. seeing that score rack up on xbox live felt so good. its funny because achievements affected the way i played games so much, and eventually it actually started to hinder the way I enjoyed a game. I feel totally different about achievements now, and I wonder if this has happened to others.
Like I said it started with my 360. I used to see the achievements as the ultimate sign of beating a game. Because of that, I would make it my mission to try and get every achievement for my favorite games. Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, halo 3 and Fallout 3 are some of the games where i did this. It was so much fun, but it was tough, especially when you got one that was more luck based then skill based. for example, in halo 3 their was one i could never get, you had to kill 2 people with a spartan laser at the same time in multiplayer. The chances of that happening was so low. Whenever I could not get an achievement I would have to reluctantly move on to the next game, the annoying thing was that i could not get it out of my mind. Even now that spartan laser achievement still bugs me.
The quest to achievement hunt my favorite games continued for the entire 360 life cycle. As it went on i started to notice something that did not become so apparent till I got my ps4. I noticed that I started to play games more for the achievements and less for the enjoyment of the games. Their was a time when i sort of stopped playing so much since i was busy with college and during that time I was preparing to get a ps4. when the next gen of consoles was announced i was so happy to hear that achievements and trophies were going to carry over. I was set on getting a ps4 since xbox one was going to have a ton of bullshit like dmr at first before they realized that was a bad idea. In the back of my mind I wanted an xbox one just to keep all my achievements. I tried to ignore and I got a ps4.
My first game on ps4 was bloodborne, i could not wait to play it. I started to play it but I was in it just to get trophies, I stopped the game since i was busy with school work and I never went back to it till about a year later. I continued to get new games but as i beat them I would spend hours getting trophies. I started to notice that I could hardly remember the stories and moments of the games because i was more focused on the challenges. When I realized what was happening i was devastated, beaus of my love for the art and storytelling of video game. I noticed that I had a problem, I was robbing myself of the thing I loved because of my OCD with trophies and achievements. For a while I did not know what to do. I couldn't play a game without having to first look at the trophies before poping the game in. I had to plan which ones i would get and It would create this sort of artificial experience. I knew I had to do something because it was ruining gaming for me.
To say that it was easy would be a lie. It was really hard for me to break the habit. I started off my not looking at trophies or achievements for any game before I beat the game once. I did this so that i could focus on the game and not the artificial challenges. then once I beat the games I would look at the trophies to see what they were. I would try to see if any seemed like they were worth getting and I would ONLY replay the game if i really liked it and NOT to trophy hunt. I was so happy I started doing this. I noticed that when I did I began to enjoy every aspect of a game more since I was going back to what i loved. The music, the visuals, the story, and the journey finally stood out again. my gaming experiences started to become precious memories once more. Ever since that day I have never looked back and I decided to give up trophies and achievements. I still like to look at them, and from time to time I will try to get them all if I really like a game but ONLY using my new habits.
I hope you guys enjoyed my view on trophies and achievements. I know this is not the same for everyone but I thin its important to remember that achievements and trophies dont matter. enjoy the game, take your time, and most of all have fun have fun doing it. thanks for reading guys and I will catch you all on my next post.