Poll: Achievments or Trophies?

[ratix2]

Aren't they basically just the same thing with a few aesthetic differences?

Not having a PS3 I should go with Achievements, except that I think the PS3 way of separating them is more logical. Gold, Silver and Bronze based upon length/difficulty seems like a better idea than an arbitrary number that rarely makes any sense (example being an achievement that takes 5 minutes in Portal 2 being 75G and one that takes about half an hour or so being 15G).

So I vote Trophies even though I have never received one.
In theory yes, but in reality Sonys system is just as arbitrary as developers are free to do the same thing with giving gold trophies for easy things and bronze for difficult things.

Personally, I think steam is the best in this regard. Their achievements don't give any arbitrary score or level, just things to do and collect.

 

[mjc0961]

please leave a comment saying why.

Would have been nice if you'd followed your own advice.

Achievements have the edge for me right now.

The first big thing is that achievements sync automatically, whereas trophies sync manually and it's a pain in the ass. You go to sync a new trophy and it takes 2 minutes for some absurd reason. And then the PS3 is always trying to make you sync your trophies when you don't have anything new to sync, so there's another 2 minutes wasted for nothing if you want to do whatever it is you were trying to do (if you cancel, it kicks you back out to the XMB).

Trophies are also restrictive because they only come in 3 flavors where as achievements can have almost any score. Sometimes it cuts into how many new trophies you get in a DLC pack, too. Take the Liars and Cheats DLC pack for Red Dead Redemption as an example: 360 version got 15 new achievements, but PS3 only got 10 new trophies because there weren't enough "points" available thanks to the bronze/silver/gold system to fit all 15 into the PS3 version.

I would like to point out that I think Steam achievements beat both 360 achievements and PS3 trophies when it comes to assigning value, though. There are no points or ranks for the achievements. When you get an achievement, you have it. You don't get points, you don't get a trophy. Just bam, new achievement. The cool thing is when you look at your achievements in a game, it shows you the percentage of how many people got the achievement compared to how many people have played the game. So when you get an achievement that 90% of that game's players collected, that's nothing too special. But when you get one that only 5% of that game's players have, you know you just got something special. There's none of that "this trophy is hard, it should have been gold" or "this achievement was easy, it shouldn't have been 50 points" nonsense to worry about.

Anyway, back to 360 VS PS3. Since they have the points/trophies thing tied in to them, I also prefer just having a total GamerScore instead of that weird leveling system the PS3 has for its trophies. The levels are broken anyway: once you hit level 12 or so, it takes so many trophies to level up that most people I've talked to about it stop caring about the levels. But at least with the GamerScore total, you can always see that increase regardless of how many achievements you already have. If you have 100,000 GamerScore and get another 1,000 points by beating a game, you now have 101,000 GamerScore. But if you're level 13 in trophies and you get a new platinum trophy (meaning you also get all those other trophies the game had too), you're still level 13. If people care to look closely enough, you might have gotten an extra 5% to level 14 though. Yay...?
Anyway, that's a smaller thing, but still something I like about achievements better.

The only thing I really like in the trophy system over the achievement system is that newer PS3 games will let you sort their trophy lists so that you can look at just the base game or a single DLC pack instead of just having one giant list of everything mashed together. Sadly it wasn't an automatic update for all games though, so older ones are still just a giant list, but it'd be nice if the 360 could get that feature added in as well.

Not having a PS3 I should go with Achievements, except that I think the PS3 way of separating them is more logical. Gold, Silver and Bronze based upon length/difficulty seems like a better idea than an arbitrary number that rarely makes any sense (example being an achievement that takes 5 minutes in Portal 2 being 75G and one that takes about half an hour or so being 15G).

That isn't the fault of the system though, that's the fault of the developer. There are piss easy trophies that are gold and hard as hell trophies that are bronze too. It happens because developers get stupid sometimes, not because of a flaw in either system.

*snip*

Arr, ye land lubberin' ninja! I'll make ye walk the plank matey!

 

[Harlemura]

I prefer Achievements. Because when you're playing, you do technically reach certain achievements.
I'll change my view when someone gives me a genuine, physical reward just for playing inFamous.

 

[OakTable]

They're the same thing, so I don't see the point in picking one over the over.

 

[sephiroth1991]

I think they both basically the same, It's like how people say Gamerscore isn't the same as Level, they both have the same purpose, If you truly believe there is difference between the two then your are clearly blind.

 

[mjc0961]

I prefer Achievements. Because when you're playing, you do technically reach certain achievements.
I'll change my view when someone gives me a genuine, physical reward just for playing inFamous.

The only reward I got for playing inFamous was absolutely no sense of accomplishment, a headache, and the realization that I need to stop playing games I'm not enjoying just for achievements or trophies because in the grand scheme of things, neither of them actually do or mean anything.

If someone does start handing out a real reward for playing that game though, be sure to let me know how to collect it. It'd be nice if I could find a way to make that wasted time be worth more than a small lesson I shouldn't have needed to be taught in the first place.

I think they both basically the same, It's like how people say Gamerscore isn't the same as Level, they both have the same purpose, If you truly believe there is difference between the two then your are clearly blind.

cool rebuttal bro

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Aren't they basically just the same thing with a few aesthetic differences?

Not having a PS3 I should go with Achievements, except that I think the PS3 way of separating them is more logical. Gold, Silver and Bronze based upon length/difficulty seems like a better idea than an arbitrary number that rarely makes any sense (example being an achievement that takes 5 minutes in Portal 2 being 75G and one that takes about half an hour or so being 15G).

So I vote Trophies even though I have never received one.

I agree with this, although i have recieved both trophies and achievements

 

[The Wykydtron]

'Cheevo's look smoother i think and the unlock noise is far superior.

Also the bronze/silver etc icons next to the trophy name looks like an exclaimation mark that just overshot the previous line making my inner grammar nazi start raging...

 

[teebeeohh]

they are called achievements on steam.
i like achievements, especially the ones that are hard to get in TF2

 

[Cazer]

Aren't they basically just the same thing with a few aesthetic differences?

Not having a PS3 I should go with Achievements, except that I think the PS3 way of separating them is more logical. Gold, Silver and Bronze based upon length/difficulty seems like a better idea than an arbitrary number that rarely makes any sense (example being an achievement that takes 5 minutes in Portal 2 being 75G and one that takes about half an hour or so being 15G).

So I vote Trophies even though I have never received one.

I agree with this, although i have recieved both trophies and achievements

I agree with the reasons stated above.

 

[Kadoodle]

Trophies, because I prefer a leveling system to a score.

 

[Alphavillain]

I like Achievements because they include a numerical value, whereas Trophies only seem to have the Level that you are on as an aside. Plus I think the idea of having something that is very tactile and physical -a trophy- as an abstract thing on a screen just doesn't work.

But as other people have stated elsewhere at different times, it would be nice to turn off Achievements and Trophies.

 

[cannot_aim]

Achievments because ummm......... just because

 

[plank_man180]

I don't really care about trophies, they don't have the same appeal as a gamerscore. It's weird as really, they're the same thing.

I've got waaaaay more trophies than achievements but, whatever.

 

[shadyh8er]

Trophies for the sole reason that I like the "You have earned a trophy" sound better.

 

[Jamienra]

Neither, both ruined gaming.

 

[mjc0961]

Where is the option for neither, that immersion breaking bullshit can die already.

There's ways to turn off being notified of them on both platforms. You also won't be notified of new messages or friends signing on either, but I figure if you find that a thing popping up to say "You got an achievement" ruins your immersion, you'd have the same issue with the "You got a message" pop-up and thus don't care if they go away too.

Anyway, instructions.

360:
Press the guide button.
Scroll to the Settings tab.
Select Preferences.
Select Notifications.
Uncheck the Show Notifications box.

PS3:
Scroll to the Settings section of the XMB.
Select System Settings.
Select Notification Messages.
Select Do Not Display.

Enjoy your pop-up free, non-immersion breaking gameplay! (NOTE: You'll still be getting achievements and trophies. It just won't tell you about it every time.)

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Trophies. I perfer the trophy sound over the achievement sound.

 

[mjc0961]

Neither, both ruined gaming.

How did they do that, exactly? If people want to just get more achievements and trophies and take pleasure from that, that's their business. It isn't hurting gaming or you.