Well our well know host magx01 has a many interesting ideas for blogs wich has to be cultivated from raw ground.
Trophies/Achievements.
So what is it trophies/achievements for ordinary player?
Not much. As we know the potential user is teenager individual wich don't give a damn shit about trophies/achievements , at mostly it's at one-two genre possesed persone wich spend's mostly time on few games. Shame, really .

So why do we need this feature? Hard to say.

For those with a PS3, do you use a ps home feature ? I am not, my 60 gb hdd is almost full and i am gladly sacrifice all space on saves of my favorite games, but i heard about updates you can use on your ps home account thanks to certain trophies, maybe it's cool, i dunno , actually i don't care. All i care is how to finish my favorite titles at fullest. And trophies/achievements ? I guess it's nice psychologycall trick wich targeting on competitive thinking. Wich subconcisionally makes us compete wich each others alongside making us do immposible at times. It's a trick , working one ? It's depends on us. I guess.

I added achievemnts in your topic so this could stay in the general gaming section. Consequently, I made a few small edits so that both system owners could talk about this. I removed the part about xbl having a trophy system. That's what the achievement thing is They are called xbox achievements.

So, as for the topic, yes, it's absolutely a marketing move. As I said in my views on gaming blog:

Achievements/trophies are a great way for the video game companies to keep us buying and playing their games. They are a marketing tool, nothing more. When MS started the initiative, you think the idea was pitched because they were looking to extend replay value, or increase the bottom line?

This is how it probably went:

''We need to keep gamers playing more and more. How can we ensure that they stay hooked?''

''Well, sir, gamers love assessments of accomplishment (think points) and competition, right?''

''I'm listening.''

''Well, why don't we create a system that tracks accomplishments throughout all games, giving the user an overall look at how they are doing? We can assign this a point value, say, a gamerscore. So you accomplish something, say, earning x amount of kills, and we call that an achievement. These individual achievements across all games add up to a total comprehensive score across the gaming platform. Then we sit back and watch as the obsessiveness and competition leads to more and more sales.''

''Brilliant, Johnson, brilliant.' Here's a gazillion dollars and a harem of Brazilian prostitutes.''

''Ah, yea boiiiiiiii, I'm going all out tonight, yuppie style!''

See, they are banking on us acting like little mice, scrambling to acquire as many gamerscore points as possible, which is why they tack them on to expansions and why arcade game trials tell you when you've unlocked one, and prompt you to ''BUY NOW!!'' lest you ''lose'' the achievement.

All that being said, I freaking love achievements. They obviously know us pretty well The only difference is, I don't let them affect my purchasing decisions. And I do not hunt them all down in games I don't like. I'm not going to labor through a shitty game for some meaningless points (although, to be fair, I used to. That's right, for a while there, I was sucked in as well. Luckily I at least have a rental plan, I wasn't buying games for points, but still). Once I have a game in my hand that I truly enjoy, then I'm going for those damn achievements, because at that point, they can be quite fun to attain.

Thanx for help man. But worst thing of T/A is that mostly you get nothing from them, yes sometimes you see your name in top 100 ranking list at best, but that's it no dlc bonuses , no prizes, just your wasted time, lifetime..

Nope, to me trophies/achievements have no substantial effect on how much I enjoy a game. Its nice to be rewarded for doing something but sometimes an achievement or a trophy feels more like arbitrary padding for some weak attempt at replay value. Although there's something very satisfying about being rewarded for something you didn't mean to do.

But its very annoying when achievements/trophies are only unlockable through online multiplayer. Like in GTAIV to reach level 10, that shit is annoying..

Do you guys think achievements/trophies should be reasonable for everyone to get? It seems most people think that way, but if you think about it, those gamers that do some crazy shit like 1 credit arcade games, they get...nothing. WHy should I get 10 pts. for doing some menial task, and that guy get nothing?

Well, at least you get something, psn users gets only trophies, correct me if im wrong.

Ya, achievements are the exact equivalent of trophies, nothing more

I don't care at all for trophies or achievements, but I have played so many games that I actually have a hefty number of both.

It depends on the game. If I really enjoy a game to the fullest extent I'll use trophies as a form of motivation to challenge me. For example Fallout 3 is the only game where I got a platinum trophy and probably the only game where I will get one, I enjoyed the game so much.

I think I replayed it over ten times (not an exaggeration) I had a good, neutral, evil characters and a wide range of different gameplay characters. Ranging from heavy blokes with large amounts of health, to sneaky guys with small weapons but headshots and crits.

But yes being a 'teenage individual' trophies hold no significant power over me. If a game is bad, I won't go on for trophies. Unless I fancy it, because the game is good, I won't try for it.

I do not feel the need to accomplish every achievement in every game I own. Mostly since most games I own are on PC and those usually don't include achievements. Unless there's a challenge or something like that. Well, OK, Mass Effect 1 and 2 did, but I never went out of my way to get them. Never felt the need.