There Should Be More Incentive for Trophies & Achievements

[hanselthecaretaker]

You really, really, really need to be exceptionally enjoying most games to actually complete their lists; just saying. It would be cool if there was a rewards program for getting Gold/Platinum or whatever the Xbox equivalent points are. Like a certain amount of Gold would earn discounts, smaller digital downloads or DLC, whereas a Platinum would earn a free fulll game download.

Basically, make the system more value-added than merely stupid bragging rights.

 

[Catfood220]

Well I remember getting an profile icon for platinuming Spider-Man. I mean what do you want? They are a extra bit of meaningless bling that you can either collect or not. If, as you suggest, you linked rewards like free games or DLC to getting the harder to get trophies it could end up costing these companies a small fortune as everyone would be claiming these games. To counteract this, gold and platinum trophies would probably become almost impossible to get so that Sony and Microsoft don't have to give away these games. I mean, I like getting a platinum trophy as much as the next person, but I am not going to go out of my way to get it if I don't feel like putting in the effort. And I imagine that a lot of people probably feel the same way.

I mean, you could give rewards. For example, as you progress through Persona 5 Royal you get sent dlc codes for themes and profile icons, that sort of thing could work if other companies wanted to do something similar. But I think asking for free games could be a bit much.

 

[Hawki]

Should there be?

I don't care about those things. But if devs start locking content behind trophies as 'incentives,' then so help me...

I mean, I wouldn't say no to discounts, but I don't see anyone doing that.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Should there be?

I don't care about those things. But if devs start locking content behind trophies as 'incentives,' then so help me...

Why not? Devs used to 'lock' content behind beating the game, getting an S rank, achieving 100%, etc. Nowadays they make you just pay for it.

 

[Dreiko]

I think trophies and achievements should be tied to lore-based goals. Like in trails of cold steel when you scan an enemy you get their battle data in a little reference tab and there's a character in-game who manages the databases and every milestone of additions you make they give you some rewards and if you fill it up all the way by scanning everything the game also gives you a trophy. If it's something like that it's fine. Just being some external goal that you'd NEVER wanna achieve were it not for a trophy though, no, I don't care at all about that. It's why I've only platinumed like 5 games at most, which were games that you get a platinum by just beating everything 100% and seeing all the story.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Should there be?

I don't care about those things. But if devs start locking content behind trophies as 'incentives,' then so help me...

I mean, I wouldn't say no to discounts, but I don't see anyone doing that.

Where did they say anything about locking content behind them? All I said was make getting trophies more rewarding, by offering discounts/free downloads of stuff. Judging by the percentages of completion on PSN profiles I doubt it would be much worse than the free games offered every month with Plus. I mean they’d still ultimately choose the rewards anyways, but as of now it’s like, I think you can get a free avatar for Platinuming Horizon or Bloodborne. Meh? I’ve heard they aren’t even as good as the normal paid ones, so I never bothered. Apparently it also takes a long time for them to honor your request.

Playing time directly correlates with customer loyalty. Rewarding customers more ultimately will lead to further loyalty, so to me it’s a win-win.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Gonna be honest, when I first had a go with an Xbox and saw the points they gave for achievements, I literally assumed that was the money they sold to use in the online store and was the coolest idea for rewards. My dumbass idiot self was extremely disappointed to learn otherwise.

Still, if they want to try that anytime in future, I wouldn't be particularly motivated to argue against it.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Because nobody would ever find a way to exploit that for easy discounts or free games.

 

[Elijin]

Gonna be honest, when I first had a go with an Xbox and saw the points they gave for achievements, I literally assumed that was the money they sold to use in the online store and was the coolest idea for rewards. My dumbass idiot self was extremely disappointed to learn otherwise.

Still, if they want to try that anytime in future, I wouldn't be particularly motivated to argue against it.

They do.

It's called the microsoft rewards program and it gives out daily/weekly/monthly quests to play gamepass games and earn achievements in them, which grant reward points.

Like most reward programs, the value of the points is more of a long game though.

 

[BrawlMan]

They do.

It's called the microsoft rewards program and it gives out daily/weekly/monthly quests to play gamepass games and earn achievements in them, which grant reward points.

Like most reward programs, the value of the points is more of a long game though.

There you go, problem solved.

I lost interests with Achievements/Trophies around 2013. They almost do nothing for me at this point aside from certain exceptions.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Content should be done because it's fun/enjoyable/entertaining to do. If you're only doing it for a reward, then it's almost certainly not worth your time.

 

[Shadyside]

You really, really, really need to be exceptionally enjoying most games to actually complete their lists; just saying. It would be cool if there was a rewards program for getting Gold/Platinum or whatever the Xbox equivalent points are. Like a certain amount of Gold would earn discounts, smaller digital downloads or DLC, whereas a Platinum would earn a free fulll game download.

Basically, make the system more value-added than merely stupid bragging rights.

They're never going to do that. Especially since DLC and microtransactions exist. Why give people discounts when they've shown they will spend lots of their own money on lootboxes and scams?

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Content should be done because it's fun/enjoyable/entertaining to do. If you're only doing it for a reward, then it's almost certainly not worth your time.

My point was getting the Platinum for pretty much any game requires exponentially greater dedication than any other piece of medium, save perhaps the next GRR Martin novel. Granted, no other medium have dopamine triggers like trophies, but why are they really there other than to keep people playing?

With that in mind, a “We appreciate your dedication to our products as your pastime. Have a free download on us” once in a while for the hundreds of hours spent would be a cool kickback. They already do it for absolutely nothing during special sales, and PSN+ gets free games every month just for subscribing. Being able to chose from a tiered list of perks for earning the highest honors a game can bestow would be the icing on the cake of simply hearing that chime. In a business sense on the consumer end it could also be considered a value-added bonus which typically leads to further growth, so it would also really be in the platform holder’s interest.

 

[happyninja42]

I'd be happy with them just making them rewarding within the game frankly. Have the various achievements unlock skills, or special armor with stats or whatever. Perhaps a unique ability, or augmenting an ability you normally have.

Like how inFamous 1/2 had a shard gathering achievement, and picking them up, gave you XP, that went directly into increasing your power pool for your electricity powers. Plus they gave you a pulsing radar ability to let you home in on them, so it wasn't just blind wandering. THAT's the kind of stuff I want to see them do more of.

I mean, some wider platform currency would only be useful if I'm playing them all on one platform, like Steam, or PS4. But I bounce between, depending on the game type. So it would be harder to actually accumulate enough points to make it worth my time.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Playstation used to give out special themes for platinuming a game.

I think they could go with the World of Warcraft method in which you get a vanity item or costume for doing achievements. But outside of that i dont think any sort of reward is a good idea.

Achievements are supposed to just be special badges for either completing a challenge or doing something in a special way to entice players to try different playstyles. They are a means to and end in order to "complete" a game and nothing more.

 

[laggyteabag]

Giving out rewards for achievements is fine, but I feel like actual discounts or freebies would never fly from a business perspective.

I can imagine that the best a game would do, is give out in-game rewards for completing certain achievements, like in World of Warcraft, or Halo 3.

That said, a lot of achievements are just really annoying to unlock, or in rare cases, are completely broken. Its a bit of a double edged sword.

I don't really mind achievements as they are.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I'm actually ok with the achievement/trophy system as it is. I go after them as a metagame, the incentive being not only to play the game, but in ways I might not have without that dangling carrot of an achievement. I 100%'d Dark Souls meaning I played the game pretty much every way imaginable and tapped it for everything it was worth (and then another +100 hours because I love that game immensely); I might not have done so without multitudes of achievements geared towards specific play styles that can't necessarily be enjoyed in NG, or even NG+.

My fear, were they to start tying tangible (so to speak) content behind achievements, is that developers would start gearing their achievements to be award-worthy, read: "if we're giving them something free for earning them, we're gonna make these achievements a B*TCH!" If you recall, in early PS3/360 days, titles frequently just lumped achievements/trophies in as a thing, many games requiring little more than beat the game or complete a couple menial tasks for 1000 GS, but as the generation progressed, they collectively became more nuanced, nodding towards the game within the games. I'm afraid if someone decided to award free shit, the industry would lockstep towards making the awards harder to obtain, like, "beat Dark Souls with the Rock Band controller while the tip of your penis is squeezed in a garlic press, and you get 5% off a yearly XBL/PSN subscription." No, thank you.

 

[DJShaddycat]

Why not? Devs used to 'lock' content behind beating the game, getting an S rank, achieving 100%, etc. Nowadays they make you just pay for it.

This is one thing I miss from old games. Unlockable stuff. I recently played Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast, and man, I get to unlock fan art for playing missions? And character concepts? All this cool stuff just from playing the game?
It really is depressing how much of a lost art rewards for playing are now.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

This is one thing I miss from old games. Unlockable stuff. I recently played Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast, and man, I get to unlock fan art for playing missions? And character concepts? All this cool stuff just from playing the game?
It really is depressing how much of a lost art rewards for playing are now.

My benchmark is Residen Evil 4. Beat the game, you unlock a harder difficulty, a subscenario and a minigame. Get a high score in each map to unlock a new character. Beat every map with every character to unlock a cool weapon for the main game. Beat the harder difficulty/subcscenario, you unlock more weapons and new costumes that also change the gameplay. By Resident Evil 6 they were selling Mercenaries maps instead of letting you unlock them. By Resident Evil 7, what would've been a free subscenario is now sold as DLC.

And I miss concept art as unlockable rewards. Other than Uncharted and I think Gravity Rush I don't recall the last time I unlocked concept art.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

My benchmark is Residen Evil 4. Beat the game, you unlock a harder difficulty, a subscenario and a minigame. Get a high score in each map to unlock a new character. Beat every map with every character to unlock a cool weapon for the main game. Beat the harder difficulty/subcscenario, you unlock more weapons and new costumes that also change the gameplay. By Resident Evil 6 they were selling Mercenaries maps instead of letting you unlock them. By Resident Evil 7, what would've been a free subscenario is now sold as DLC.

And I miss concept art as unlockable rewards. Other than Uncharted and I think Gravity Rush I don't recall the last time I unlocked concept art.

MK has always had loads of concept art in its Krypts.

Another cool one is some of the old God of War’s had developed diaries or behind the scenes making of type stuff when you beat the game or challenges.