To Plat or Not to Plat: Pros and Cons of PS3 Trophy Hunting

I've had a PS3 for nearly a year, and I've grown to really love the sound that indicates that I have acquired a new trophy. Some part of me hates the fact that I care about these essentially meaningless awards, but I'm addicted. As Kevin Butler so eloquently put it, I regularly stay up until 3 AM to earn a trophy that isn't real…but is. It's totally real! That trophy will be forever associated with my user name. And of course, the pinnacle of trophy hunting is the all-powerful platinum.

Trophy hunting can also be a major pain. As much joy as I get from Sony's brand of positive reinforcement, there are times when I'm annoyed with the game developer, myself, and that stupid controller I just threw to the ground. And yet I find myself unable to play for more than half a game without a glance at the trophy list. Below, I will discuss some of the pros and cons of trophy hunting I've noted since I began regularly playing the PS3.

Pro: Trophies help you get the most out of your game.

The nice thing about trophies is that, if you earn them all, they will generally take you through every important aspect of a game. Take Heavy Rain, for example. If it hadn't been for trophies, I probably would have just played through it once, enjoyed the twist, and never seen any of the other endings. Instead, I saw every outcome, which is way more than I would have seen had there not been some incentive to play through again.

By platting Red Dead Redemption, I easily doubled, and perhaps tripled, my gameplay time. For a game as good as RDR, this is a great thing. Now, there's a chance that I would have done everything anyway—I've always been somewhat of a completionist—but through Sony's innovation, I got a reward for it. It may not be tangible, but it's real.

The last game I played before purchasing my PS3 was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii. On this last playthrough, I collected everything: all the heart pieces, poe souls, and extras there were to be found. Obviously playing a Zelda game is its own reward, but in retrospect, I can't believe I went through all that for nothing. Sure, I had some extra health in the final battle with Ganondorf, but I didn't need it. I can always say that I did it, but it's not recorded anywhere except in my mind. There's just something nice about being able to review what you did or didn't do in a given game. Trophies make that happen. I haven't yet reached the point of nerdiness where I keep a running log of everything I've done in every game I've played. I'm sure I'll get there eventually.

Con: Trophies can lead to game fatigue.

Let me give the flipside of the examples I used above. Heavy Rain was awesome. But by the time I got to the point of unlocking the last few endings, I couldn't wait to set it aside. The same goes for Red Dead Redemption. I spent so much time doing side quests and challenges that by the time I made it to Black Water I was exhausted…and then I had to get all the online trophies, which take forever. It's possible that my perception of these two games, even though they are among my favorite on the PS3, was soured because I ended up playing slightly past the point of absolute enjoyment.

One of my favorite games on any platform is an old standby, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. You know what I have never done on that game? Collected all 100 gold skulltulas. Do you know why? Because it's not fun. Collecting more than 50 doesn't really net you any great in-game rewards either, so there's not a great incentive to do so. In the six or seven times I've played OOT, I've gotten all the heart pieces just once and I've even skipped the Biggoron's Sword a couple of times. I guarantee that if there were trophies for this game, I would have gone for the platinum. And I wonder if it would still be my favorite if I had tracked down all of those gold skulltulas.

This leads to an important point: collectible trophies are really, really annoying. Finding all of the feathers on Assassin's Creed 2 sucked. But Infamous was downright painful, with a whopping 350 blast shards to find. Developers need to realize that we do not want to track these things down. People have been speaking out about fetch quests for a long time, but tasks that require you to find arbitrary collectibles are just as bad. Once you commit yourself to a game, you're going to look for these things, but you will hate every minute of it. And I'm pretty sure video games are not made to fulfill the public's need for masochistic behavior.

Pro: Trying to increase your trophy count leads to playing a wider variety of games.

I had a PS2 for more than five years and when I finally upgraded to the next generation, I had played about 50 games on it. By contrast, I've now had a PS3 for about ten months and have played around 25 games. Granted, I was a student when I had my PS2 and sometimes couldn't find time or money for gaming. Now I get to leave my work at work and therefore have more free time.

Besides the time and money issues, I attribute my playing an increased number of games to trophies. Why replay a game on which I've already achieved platinum when I could play a whole new game and get a brand new platinum? I played my PS2 games an average of four or five times each, whereas I don't generally revisit PS3 games I have already mastered. This helps me to be more familiar with the vast library of great games available, which makes me a better, more informed gamer. Or at least that's what I tell myself.

Con: Replay value of games is essentially ruined.

At the same time, I am essentially barring myself from replaying great games. Uncharted 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 are both utterly fantastic and well worth playing a second time. However, I have the platinum trophies for both of these titles. I just can't help but think of the opportunity cost of playing a game I've already mastered instead of a brand new game. In a sense, I really want to replay Uncharted, but can't bring myself to do it because I'm not getting any (totally real) trophies.

Now, as I've only had my PS3 for ten months, this could all change. Maybe in a year or two I'll be more inclined to revisit my favorite titles, but at this point I have no desire to play anything but games I haven't yet platinumed. And it's not like great new titles aren't coming out every month.

Pro: A sense of accomplishment after getting a particularly difficult platinum trophy.

I am proud to say that I have a Demon's Souls platinum trophy. This is regarded by some as one of the hardest platinum trophies to get, so it makes me feel like I've really accomplished something. I am among the few who have mastered an incredibly difficult game. Not only mastered it, but learned to enjoy it--it's one of my three favorite PS3 titles. I am pretty much a board certified badass.

Con: That sense of accomplishment is dashed when you realize how much time you lost.

It's not like I got the Demon's Souls plat in a week. I did it over the course of several months, but I still marathoned that game for obscene amounts of time. I'm surprised my wife still loves me after that ordeal. The worst part was obtaining certain crafting materials. I managed to sink a dozen hours into just grinding one portion of the game, waiting for that pure bladestone to drop.

Pro: You can compare yourself to friends and review your past gaming experiences.

Public trophy lists allow for competition among friends and I enjoy the opportunity to compare gaming experiences.

Con: You feel like a loser because no one else cares.

Yes, I am a self-loathing trophy hunter. But I can't stop.

Pro: Trophies are better than Microsoft's achievement system.

On the PS3, you get one of four types of trophies: bronze, silver, gold, or platinum. On the 360, you get an arbitrary number of points. Sony's system is more appealing to me as a gamer, as rather than just an ever-increasing number, I work toward advancing a level (in my case, I'm currently level 13). It's completely illogical, sure, but I would rather climb levels than just have a lump number of points. I can't explain why I feel this is better, it just is. Most importantly, the PS3 gives you some incentive to complete every challenge in the form of a platinum trophy.

Con: Sometimes completing that last trophy is a pain (AKA: Xbox envy).

Let's go back to Demon's Souls. If I didn't have a platinum at stake, I would give myself credit for doing as much as I did and forget all about several of the crafting item trophies, particularly the one involving the pure bladestone. But because I put so much time and effort into the game, there was no way I was going to give up. There are always a few trophies like that: Red Dead Redemption had several online ones, collectible trophies in all shapes and forms, and getting gold medals on the combat challenges in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Sometimes when I am down to the last one or two trophies, I work well past the point of having fun to finish up the last few challenges. I'm sometimes jealous of Xbox owners because they can just accept that they're not going to get those 25 gamer points. As a PS3 owner, I don't just stand to lose a random difficult bronze trophy-- I stand to lose a platinum.

Pro: Trophy lists provide guidance in huge games.

I'll probably platinum Fallout: New Vegas tonight. I am grateful that this does not mean that I've done everything there is to do in the game. Both Fallout games have been absolutely huge. There comes a point where the game fatigue hits hard and I just want the damn story to end. In both Fallout 3 and New Vegas, after playing sans spoilers for a while, you realize that there is far too much for any mortal man to do. Solution? Consult the trophy list. In most cases, the developers select the best side quests as being worthy of a trophy. This way I don't spend an hour exploring some cave where the ultimate reward is a trio of fission batteries and some duct tape. That's just infuriating. Some might argue that not having a huge reward in every area is more realistic. I argue that I play video games to escape from reality. I want awesome gear, not a wrench.

Con: Spoilers.

Sony and game developers do a pretty good job of protecting us from story spoilers with hidden trophies. Sometimes I'll look up what these hidden trophies are online, but for the most part I've only hurt myself with minor plot points. I didn't spoil the killer's identity in Heavy Rain, so clearly the video game gods were watching over me. But as a trophy enthusiast, I do risk spoiling things for myself. If a game doesn't run past 40 or 50 hours, I'll usually play through it one time without worrying about trophies at all--that's for the second time through--but for the occasional game that takes upwards of 100 hours, sometimes I don't relish the idea of playing through a second time.

Pro: I just like trophies!

Look, I can't explain why trophies are important to me. In thinking through all of this, I actually came up with more cons than pros. But that doesn't make me want to give up my platinum-seeking ways.

Some people just don't care about trophies and that's fine. I admit that there are times when I'm jealous of these people. If they want to replay God of War III, they just do it and don't worry about the fact that they're not getting trophies this time. If they want to play the first Modern Warfare or Valkyria Chronicles or The Orange Box, they just don't care about the fact that the trophy system had not yet been implemented when these games came out. They're playing for the love of gaming. How could I possibly fault them for that?

Does this mean I'm not playing for the love of gaming? No way! I've loved games since I was a kid playing Mario on the NES. But I'm at the height of my enthusiasm right now and I think that trophies have a lot to do with this. Maybe I'll become disenchanted with them one day, but for now I'm enjoying every one that pops up. I must now excuse myself. I've got a New Vegas platinum to get.