Your Rants On Achievements/Trophies

[William Fleming]

I'm sure there are a few people who have already posted the same sort of thing but I'm just going to say it anyway:

There is a special place in hell for multiplayer based trophies. If you were going to get the game maybe a few weeks or months after launch, good luck with them before the last two people left online decide its time to move on. Maybe you can use some dedicated trophy/achievement boosting forums if they might be active unless you are trying to platinum the PS3 versions of Aliens vs Predator (with a ton of online trophies for ranked matches where the matchmaking system barely works) and Brutal Legend (Server loves resetting your stats and online is completely dead).

Also I found this:

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/...ion/78965-unachievable-glitched-trophies.html

Seriously look at all these unobtainable trophies due to server closure, glitched trophies or just outright badly designed though my favourite has to be the A-men 2 for Vita;

"Reason: 13 S ranks are required but there are only 12 levels. As well as this, getting S rank on the last level requires you to kill 21 enemies but there are only 17 enemies which makes these three trophies are impossible."

Quality game design here people.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

There are a few achievements that I hate, but none more than multiplayer achievements. There are just so many reasons why you shouldn't do it: inevitable closure of servers resulting in 100% completion being impossible, other players being a factor that you can never account for, and sometimes doing things are straight up detrimental to actual play.

Halo 3 had some of the worst, with some achievements being pretty much impossible today. One such one is the "kill two players with a Spartan Laser" achievement. Hell, I actually got it on my first gamertag. When the game first came out, this was a moderate challenge, what with many people fighting over weapon and many targets to hit. But soon they started to swap out maps that had the weapon altogether and no one was playing any of the objective based games, which were by far the easiest to get it on. It pretty much became required to ask for help in the pre-game lobby ahead of time, which is the definition of cheating.

But by the worst achievement I have ever seen, bar none, is the World Champion achievement in Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. The achievement requirement is literally to reach #1 on the global leaderboards. There are just so many reasons that this is wrong that I honestly can't believe anyone thought it was a good idea. First, if I were to actually go for this, it would take MONTHS of planning and grinding survival modes with several friends just for me to achieve it, what with deathmatch being down. Also there is the fact apparently, people just love to hack their scores, pushing themselves up the leaderboards illegally, meaning that at any one time, the only way to the top is cheating. Whoever came up with this either hates gamers or just hates achievements in general.

 

[superpandasauras]

There's a particular achievement in Halo: Reach called "If They Came to Hear Me Beg". To get this achievement you have to survive a fall that should be fatal by assassinating an Elite. I lost 4 hours of my live trying to get that achievement.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Personally, the only Platinum trophies I've ever achieved are on Mass Effect 2 and 3. They weren't that hard to get, you can probably get every trophy in one playthrough if you do everything on the hardest difficulty. I'm working on ME1, but that's much more annoying since you have to play the game 3 times to get all six party member trophies.

I'm trying to get platinum on Dark Souls, but the Knight's Honor trophy is balls. Nowhere in the game does it tell you what a "rare" weapon is, you just have to get every single item and hope you didn't miss anything. You have to cut off every detachable boss tail, and some of those are total bitches. Plus, you need to use Sif's soul for three different weapons, which means a minimum of three playthroughs with one character just for this one fucking trophy.

What's really fun is that you an easily screw up Liara's trophy and thus waste a playthrough. Just in case you don't know, I shall give you a heads up: Get her first. Do no do ANYTHING else in terms of quests save for the main quest. Don't help anyone on the Citadel when you first arrive, don't run errands, don't explore, don't do anything. Just do the bare minimum that you need to do in order to get the ship and then go get her. Once you have her, come back and do all those quests you skipped with her in your party. Because you get her so late, just doing a few side quests without her will screw her up.

As for Dark Souls, I'm actually playing the whole thing co op with my friend. He gets one weapon, I get the other. We are on our second playthrough and have all the weapons save for Sif's shield and Gwyn's sword. If you want, once we get the trophy for the weapons, you can summon me and I'll drop everything you need for the trophy. All you have to do is pick them all up and wait until it pops. I would like the gear back, of course, but it this would save you some trouble. Or you can use a guide, which is what we are doing.

On topic: trophies I hate the most are trophies that rely solely on luck. A prime example was the trophy in Call of Duty: World At War map pack 3, where you had to get all three Wonder Weapons at one time. Hours spent in front of that mystery box, waiting for the game to decide whether or not to give me my trophy.
Second place for most hated: multiplayer trophies. Any trophies that go beyond, "Play a single round, see if you like it," drive me nuts. I hate multiplayer, and there are people out there who don't even have multiplayer, so how are they supposed to get the trophies?

 

[Something Amyss]

Eh. I don't spend a lot of time fretting over Achievements and trophies. I do think some are badly thought out, but I've rarely bothered for 100% or platinum.

My only complaint right now is that I got an achievement a while ago, I think it was Halo 4, with a 2 or 7 on the end so now my gamer score doesn't end in a 5 or 0.

It really bugs me.
It shouldn't but it does.

Other than that, I wouldn't consider myself an achievement hunter. I like getting them but I rarely have the patience to do really tedious missions for achievements, especially not ones that involve collecting 6 million tiny items scattered around the four corners of the map. If I really like the game, I'll try to do everything that I can but that doesn't have that much to do with achievements.

Could be worse. I have an odd number from playing a game where one of the achievements that rounds it out is bugged and multiple tries have failed to unlock it. For some people it's glitched permanently and I seem to be one of them.

Normally achievements don't matter too much to me, but this one rubs me the wrong way.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

I'm another person who hates online multiplayer-based trophies. I hate playing online in the first place, but when the servers inevitably shut down, they become 100% impossible to achieve.

I don't really go for too many achievements, but I do like to get some; I've got two Platinum trophies, and I'm hoping to get a third and maybe a fourth eventually, but it doesn't really matter to me. It's just kind of annoying when I'm barred from getting an achievement or trophy due to my, er, allergy to online play. I'm surprisingly okay with grind-based achievements, so long as I enjoy the game and/or they're easy, so they're not really a problem for me.

 

[porous_shield]

I dislike achievements in general but I did end up doing all the achievements for Left 4 Dead 2 and then one day I was admiring that fact and realized that there was one more added and to get it you had to play a campaign with a new player on a Steam Free Weekend. What that meant was that I had to wait, and hope, for Steam to run the promotion again and also complete a campaign with a player taking advantage of the promotion. If the person quit part way through the campaign...no achievement and added to that there was no way to easily get into a game with a free weekend player, you just have to wait and hope one joined your game.

That missing achievement still sticks out like a sore thumb only now there is another for "Free Holiday Player" with the same concept.

 

[CloudAtlas]

I don't care about single player trophies and achievements and I hate every game that doesn't give me the option to deactivate them.
I mean, I don't hate the game itself, of course, I hate the developer or publisher who didn't bother to add this simple option.

 

[AmberSword]

I don't care much for achievements, I understand their appeal, but they just aren't for me, so I play the game while ignoring achievements/badges/trophies/cards whatever.

That said, achievements that basically require you to do everything in the game several times over/ require multiple playthroughs are plain obnoxious (especially the type that requires you to complete the game in every difficulty), I pity those that go achievement hunting for them.

To me, achievements shouldn't even be all that important, why should the developers dictate the way you enjoy their game? Yet there are people that go "Hey buy this game I know it sucks but its easy platinum/100%" or "OMGWTF DIS GAYM NO ACHIEVEMENT? NO BUY". Do they find enjoyment out of games only when they see an arbitrary number/statistic that makes them happy, or when there are people holding them at their nose telling them what to do? I don't understand.

 

[Woiminkle]

One more for the online hate-train. Watch Dogs made it pretty quick and painless except for the hacking which was completely unbalanced.

Besides the online, I suppose the only trophies I have a problem with are: "Beat the game on hard...now beat the game on harder than hard that you had to unlock by playing hard."

I do like collectables trophies. Far Cry 3 was great about that because getting to places was fun. WD...not so much, those city hotspots are boring and driving through the city is boring. Still going to platinum it though.

I don't understand this mentality. You've just said it's boring so why would you keep doing it to get a trophy that does nothing for you? I can put up with a fair amount of grind if it gives me something in return like access to new content or items but not for a little picture on your account that means nothing and does nothing. Why wouldn't you just play something that's actually fun instead?

Not trying to antagonize or pick on you specifically here, it's just that your quote nicely sums up an attitude that I see a lot, which boils down to "ugghhh this is not fun but I'm not gonna stop", and I just don't understand why people do this to themselves. What is so attractive about trophies and achievements?

 

[Smolderin]

I must say, I am a bit surprised about the anit-trophy/achievement sentiment running around in this thread. I mean, I get the multiplayer achievement hate (I hate games that require me to go online for anything pivotal relating to the games content) but the general hate for achievements and trophies? I don't get it. When I play games that have achievement and trophy support, I don't see them taking away from anything. At times they can be a little immersion breaking but I find them easy to ignore. Trophies and Achievements are optionally there for anyone who wants to undergo the challenge of collecting them (though I do see the issue with Trophies and Achievements being given to you through plot related developments...i.e defeating the first required boss).

Now I am not going to be a major advocate for trophies and achievements as I don't collect that very often...but in the case of Kingdom Hearts 1.5HD remix, I made an exception because I wanted to be challenged, and I wanted to get through all the content no matter the trials. So yes, parts of it weren't fun, but I did it for the challenge, and in a small part...to honor and thank the game for all the joy its given me in the past. I am attempting Platinum as a sort of my own sendoff of the game so I can put it behind me, so I can truly say to myself that yes, I did not just beat the game...I completed it. To me, Kingdom Hearts is one of those games that deserves my attempts at completion. Basically, in the end I think trophies/achievements are harmless side ventures that are their for people to undertake should they decide that they would like to accept the new challenges. Are they perfect? No, there are still some issues, but I think they are largely undeserving of the seething resentment I am seeing around this thread.

 

[AmberSword]

snip

Well I already made my post, so that's my stance on it, neutral, but negative towards achievement "whoring".

That said, I do believe you got so much negativity partly because of your title (rant about X) and how you started the topic, it got people thinking about the more stupid of achievements in games and in turn got people who didn't like them to voice their opinions on why, just my 2 cents.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

What's really fun is that you an easily screw up Liara's trophy and thus waste a playthrough. Just in case you don't know, I shall give you a heads up: Get her first. Do no do ANYTHING else in terms of quests save for the main quest. Don't help anyone on the Citadel when you first arrive, don't run errands, don't explore, don't do anything. Just do the bare minimum that you need to do in order to get the ship and then go get her. Once you have her, come back and do all those quests you skipped with her in your party. Because you get her so late, just doing a few side quests without her will screw her up.

As for Dark Souls, I'm actually playing the whole thing co op with my friend. He gets one weapon, I get the other. We are on our second playthrough and have all the weapons save for Sif's shield and Gwyn's sword. If you want, once we get the trophy for the weapons, you can summon me and I'll drop everything you need for the trophy. All you have to do is pick them all up and wait until it pops. I would like the gear back, of course, but it this would save you some trouble. Or you can use a guide, which is what we are doing.

On topic: trophies I hate the most are trophies that rely solely on luck. A prime example was the trophy in Call of Duty: World At War map pack 3, where you had to get all three Wonder Weapons at one time. Hours spent in front of that mystery box, waiting for the game to decide whether or not to give me my trophy.
Second place for most hated: multiplayer trophies. Any trophies that go beyond, "Play a single round, see if you like it," drive me nuts. I hate multiplayer, and there are people out there who don't even have multiplayer, so how are they supposed to get the trophies?

Yeah, I figured that was the only way to get Liara's trophy. That's exactly what I was going to do.

I get what you mean about lucky trophies and multiplayer trophies. One of the trophies on the original Bioshock requires you to hit a jackpot on one of the slot machines in Fort Frolic. All you can do is pull one machine at a time until it comes up lucky. It might take hours and thousands of dollars.

Multiplayer trophies are stupid too. One awesome thing that ME3 did on that front was, they included trophies for multiplayer accomplishments, but gave them a second criteria on the single player campaign for those of us who wouldn't or couldn't play the Galaxy at War.

 

[Smolderin]

snip

Well I already made my post, so that's my stance on it, neutral, but negative towards achievement "whoring".

That said, I do believe you got so much negativity partly because of your title (rant about X) and how you started the topic, it got people thinking about the more stupid of achievements in games and in turn got people who didn't like them to voice their opinions on why, just my 2 cents.

Well I know that obviously the negativity isn't directed at me, but rather achievements/trophies. Still though, I can understand if it was a case of miscommunication on my part but how I started the thread with the story of a particularly ridiculous trophy should have been a bit of an idea of what I was hoping to achieve here...other stories. Not people condemning the very idea of trophies/achievements. Oh well...technically they are still on topic so I can't really berate anyone for stating their opinions.

 

[Woiminkle]

I think "seething resentment" is a bit of an overstatement. I would agree in that I don't think trophies are actively taking anything away from games and in fact I've seen one or two that have given me ideas or challenges that are worth trying out, and could be satisfying to get, like say that one in the recent Xcom to take on a crash site with a single soldier. I get that, there's fun and a challenge there.
But when it comes to actively boring yourself by doing tedious busy work like find x amount of this or do this thing x number of times I don't get why people care enough to do that for something that is essentially worthless and doesn't add to your experience. If you've finished the story and seen all the content why does an arbitrary number of collectibles or enemies slain make it more complete?

 

[Korenith]

The lamenting of grindy bullshit online trophies continues!

The absolute worst thought out trophy I've ever seen though is Mortal Kombat's "My Kung Fu is Strongest" which requires you to play as each character for 24 hours as well as do 100 fatalities and land 150 x-rays with each. After I'd got every other trophy in the game and playing the vast majority of it as Liu Kang he was still only at 11 hours and all the rest of the characters barely an hour.

Also whoever decided non stacking difficulty trophies were a good idea is a moron. Oh you beat the game on super duper hard? Well done. Now go back and do it on easy. We're not convinced you deserve your platinum yet.

 

[Signa]

The worst ones for me are the ones that make you do the hardest thing possible in the game. Beat the game on the hardest difficulty in 1-death mode, or find all the secret mcguffins that you really don't want to spend your time doing.

Those goals in of themselves are fine, but they are the kinds of things you do when you really enjoy the game and want to keep playing it. Tying your "completion rating" to those goals just pisses me off, because chances are, the game isn't THAT good to keep playing through all the permutations of difficulty. I found all the hidden packages in GTA3, and all the Skulutelas in Ocarina of Time because I loved the game and wanted the rewards for my time. I should not be told that the game was not complete because I didn't collect them.

 

[Fijiman]

I don't necessarily hate multiplayer achievements, but I sure as hell can't be arsed to give a shit about most of them. More specifically the ones that require you to get X amount of kills with/on blank, especially when it's for a game type I have no intentions of ever playing. If there is one thing I do hate though, it's achievements for games that are linked to DLC. I hate it when you don't even have the DLC and yet the achievements pop up in the list, especially for games which I have absolutely no intentions for getting the DLC.

My only complaint right now is that I got an achievement a while ago, I think it was Halo 4, with a 2 or 7 on the end so now my gamer score doesn't end in a 5 or 0.

It really bugs me.
It shouldn't but it does.

Actually I think it might be from Reach because I have a similar achievement from there that does that. I'll have to check later to see if there's one on Halo 4, but it is pretty stupid since the achievement that would fix the problem is one of the match making achievements.

There's an achievement for TF2 where you have to invite a certain number of friends to play with you and when I see it all I can think is "Oh thank you Valve, thank you for reminding me that I have no friends." *sobs*

...In all seriousness achievements that have to be earned through online multiplayer tend to be pretty bullshit. Especially when the servers aren't running anymore so it becomes impossible to get said achievement.

Edit: It seems people have already mentioned bullshit multiplayer achievements. Sorry for not reading posts before posting.

I remember that achievement, I don't have it either because even when I was still playing it I only ever had like three friends that played it at any one time and I'm not going out of my way to beg people to be my friend just for a stupid achievement. This is also not helped by the fact that, as of the last time I checked, TF2 for the Xbox was still vanilla and filled with games hosted by complete douchebags. I can only be spawn killed on 2Fort but so many times before the game becomes not fun.

 

[Smolderin]

I think "seething resentment" is a bit of an overstatement. I would agree in that I don't think trophies are actively taking anything away from games and in fact I've seen one or two that have given me ideas or challenges that are worth trying out, and could be satisfying to get, like say that one in the recent Xcom to take on a crash site with a single soldier. I get that, there's fun and a challenge there.
But when it comes to actively boring yourself by doing tedious busy work like find x amount of this or do this thing x number of times I don't get why people care enough to do that for something that is essentially worthless and doesn't add to your experience. If you've finished the story and seen all the content why does an arbitrary number of collectibles or enemies slain make it more complete?

Ya, seething resentment is a overstatement but while writing I tend to be naturally dramatic. Can't help it at times.

Anyways I think in my case it boils down to sentiment and meaning. It is a tiny bit challenging to explain but I will do what I can to accurately detail. What kept me going through that Gummi Ship Collector trophy, despite it's boring, tedious, missions was an actual desire to complete the game. Except in my case, completing the game IN MY EYES meant getting this trophy. Why? Because it was there. A trophy or achievement, is in it's own way, a small part of the games content. I treated them as little mini missions, as if they were built into the game itself. When I picked up KH 1.5HD Remix, I told myself that this would be the first game I ever get Platinum because this game held so much meaning to me. Getting Platinum held the meaning of completion in regards to that game. I gave meaning and purpose to a feature that by all logic has none other than to brag to your friends what a cool digital picture you got for beating the first boss on easy mode. It may not have any meaning to you, but it meant something to me. It meant honoring a game that gave me much joy when I was younger, a game that sparked my love for RPG's in general, and a game that quite honestly helped me through a rough patch in my life. I hope that better explains why I decided to put myself through that little bit of boring, and tedious activities.

 

[MHR]

Achievements for online play are absurd and I usually just refuse to do them on principle. Like others have said, the online community for a lot of random games just doesn't exist after a time, and sometimes whatever tacked-on online multiplayer is just something I'm not willing to explore.

Exclusive online games like TF2 or MMOs are different. They're nothing but online so....