Trophy Addiction

So I love a shiny virtual cup. That moment when you achieve something in your favourite game and the familiar yet to seldom heard ding celebrates your achievement for all in the room to hear.  This moment of victory is then logged, added to your list of greatest game playing moments and the admiration from your peers fills you with pride and joy at your accomplishment.  In fact I’d even go so far as to say I pity those who don’t play games. They will never know that moment of short sweet elation. They will never know what it feels like to spend an hour doing the same tiny segment of game again and again till you perfected it in the manner that some designer (whom you will never meet to praise your skills) deemed to be worthy of merit. I think it’s safe to say I’m addicted to that accolade!

What once started as a novel prompt to explore the less trodden path in a game has become the sole reason I play it. While a platinum trophy used to say “I liked this game so much I played till there was nothing more to take from it” now it is the goal I have to achieve before my conscience allows me to get a new game- If I don’t get one I’ve not got true value from a game. This I know is nonsense!

This obsession doesn’t stop there. I’ve even started to Google “easiest platinum trophies” so I know what to get should I ever need to bolster my score. I shy away from playing on my DS as it would be wasting valuable time I could spend on a Vita trying to get a bronze trophy in Lumines from playing it for 24 hours. This I know is nonsense!

The silly thing is the only people these trophies mean anything to is you - the sort of person who reads a blog about boxed SNES games. I don’t get to work and high five a colleague screaming “get me! I got a silver virtual cup for finding all the hidden items in LBP”. So why am I putting all this effort in for you especially when I realised that not once have I looked through any of your trophy lists and gone, wow that’s a lot of trophies for Bioshock, I should send him a message congratulating him. The most I have ever done is looked at your global score and smiled if my score was higher. Thats it – that second of smug satisfaction is what the hundreds of hours of frustration and gamer rage was for?! Really that’s how I choose to spend my free time?! When will the Nonsense end?

So, I call on you the reader of this blog to stage an intervention (Don’t worry your requirements are nil it’s a metaphorical thing). The line in the sand is drawn, I am signing up for Trophy Hoarders Anonymous. Gone will be the hours of toil to get a virtual accolade, and instead the hours will be spent exploring new game experiences, Ideally on a fresh Mint condition SNES game that has dropped through the letter box.  

Now I’m not saying I won’t ever get a Platinum again. On my favourite games I still think this will be a fun thing to strive for – Tomb Raider will be the next and not far away at 85%.  But I’m hoping I can just stop playing a game that I’m not enjoying, even though it means a trophy score of 8% for it.

As after all let’s face it, do you guys ever care that I have games with low trophy scores? Of course you don’t you’re too busy trying to get your X Box Achievements to even be looking!