For Love of the Trophy…. I Mean, Game

Hey there, cave dwellers! Don’t worry, I’m not dead… not yet anyway. It has been a rollercoaster of a year so far, though. With my recent promotion at work and the added responsibilities that accompany it, moving into our new house, my grandmother’s passing and installing a new front lawn, spring and summer just sailed right on by without me. It wasn’t all madness though, I was able to finish off the “God of War: Collection” and “The Sly Collection” and even get a few good books read. I began “Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition” in March and have been making very slow progress since. Now that things have calmed down somewhat, it’s time to recommit myself to more of the things I need to be doing as well as things I want to be doing, writing among them.

In the Beginning…

 

 

 

 

 
My interest in video games began early with my father’s Atari. Long before the advancements in story, cut-scenes, side quests and multiple endings, some of the best times in my childhood were sitting on the couch with dad playing classics like “Breakout” or “Joust”. And the fun just got better when we added an Evil Gray Box to the family (some of you may have called this a “Nintendo”). Our new buddy Mario was really something to see in shiny 8-bit graphics, running and jumping from left to right while the iconic theme music we all know played on. But the real turning point was “Dragon Warrior”. Trying to wrap my little 10-year-old mind around such an epic quest to save the world would forever change me. I was a gamer. 

Through the NES, SNES, Master System, Genesis and Nintendo 64 I was a gamer. Of course, growing up in a large family meant that we weren’t exactly rolling in cartridges. I did rent a lot, but when your genre of choice is the turn-based rpg you don’t finish a lot of games during a standard rental period. 

Then there was a period of about 5-6 years where life… got kind of weird. It wasn’t a coma or prison, or anything like that. Let’s just say, there were no video games. I know… sad, right? But I have to say, if you’re going to check out of the video game world for a few years, the last few PS1 and first few PS2 years are the best ones to miss. Why do I say that? I’m glad you asked. Obviously I missed out on a lot of great stuff, some really killer games. How would I ever catch up? The truth is I’ll never catch up. I’m destined to be buried along with my tremendous backlog, but that’s not the point. So many of the classic games everyone else played when they first came out are being re-released over the last few years, and I imagine the trend will continue for the foreseeable future. Will the wonders of modern technology never cease to amaze? And the best part is that the games that are not simply re-released in their original form are given a nice, sparkly coat of HD, sometimes 3D, as well as…
 
…Trophies!!!

Ok, I know this topic is far from groundbreaking conversation. Anyone who’s spent any time with a gaming magazine, website or podcast has probably heard this attacked and debated from every angle, and those who don’t really play video games couldn’t care less. Need any more incentive? Me either, moving on! 

For the uninitiated, “trophies” (or “achievements” if you’re one of those people… only joking) are little notifications that magically appear on your screen after performing certain tasks or accomplishing specific goals throughout the game. Anything from defeating a boss, completing a level or using a skill “x” number of times are the most common. Each one adds a varied amount of weight or value to your total Trophy Level (or Gamerscore), usually based on the difficulty in earning it. They come in bronze, silver and gold but chief among them is the Platinum Trophy (sorry Xboxers, you’ll have to translate for yourself from here on out) which is typically earned by unlocking all other trophies within the game. This signifies that you’ve done all there is to do, seen all there is to see, found all there is… you get the idea, complete mastery! 

With regards to trophies I think there are generally two types of gamer, the “I just like to play through the game and move on to the next” gamer and the “WHERE ARE THE TROPHIES? I NEED ALL THE TROPHIES!!!” gamer. In my limited experience there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of middle ground between the two, and there’s nothing wrong with that. There are, of course, variations of those gamers. For example, there’s the gamer who values his time way too much to lust after each and every trophy available in his collection, but after finishing a great game and noticing that there are only a few he didn’t get naturally in the course of his playthrough will go ahead and knock those out and nab the platinum as a nod to the developer. On the other side of the spectrum is the gamer who, although 20-something and male, will shamelessly devote hours out of his life to something like “Hannah Montana” for an easy boost to his Trophy Level. There might be something wrong with that…
 
Which One Are You?

Early in the PS3 lifecycle it wasn’t even a question, as Sony was a little late to the party with trophy support for their games. I just played the games I had the way I wanted to play them. By nature I’m something of a completionist, I don’t like to leave games unbeaten. I tend to be thorough and do my best to find all of the hidden secrets and trinkets I can, but mainly I want see how it ends. I’m much more invested in the characters and the story than whether or not I gathered all of the (fill in the blank) scattered throughout the level. I want to know for myself that I finished the adventure, saved the world, etc. and then boot up the next quest. What’s the point of replaying the entire game on a harder difficulty level if I already know where the story goes? Where’s my incentive to keep hunting down all of the arbitrary collectibles once the plot twists have been revealed? Enter the trophy system. 

At first it didn’t really affect the way I chose to enjoy video games. While playing something like “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” (great game, epic series, highly recommended!) I might hear that little chime and see the upper right corner flash something like 50% of treasures found! and think, “That’s cool” and carry on. I might even check out the list of trophies in the game out of curiosity and see things like, Kill 10 enemies with a grenade while hanging on a cliff or Beat the game on insanely brutal difficulty level and say, “Yeah… I’m not going to do that. I would like to play a different game sometime this year.” Then I played a little game called “Assassin’s Creed II”. Through the natural course of my playthrough I had earned all but a small handful of the trophies in the game, and the ones I didn’t get were neither extreme or repetitive, or even extremely repetitive. They all simply required trying a few different game mechanics I hadn’t explored and it took no time at all to jump back into the world and earn my very first platinum. It just went downhill from there.

Do Trophies Ruin the Experience?
 
That first platinum trophy, albeit digital and completely intangible, has the potential to spark something inside that’s akin to “gold fever” depending on your natural inclinations. In a competition-saturated medium where bragging rights are the envy, trophies become your currency. Even if you don’t play a lot of competitive-oriented games, the gratification that comes from seeing that trophy pop, knowing that you’ve mastered that title, can be great.  But whether or not the hunt for trophies takes away from the fun of the experience, I think, depends a lot on the individual. If getting as many as you can, as fast as you can is really where the fun lies for you, go crazy! More power to you! If story and character development are more your bag, be warned that serious trophy hunting will often lead to spoilers. Keep in mind, if chasing them down begins to feel like a chore, you might want to reevaluate how much trophies mean to you. 

Exercise some judgment, this is your free time and you should spend it in a way you find rewarding. Slogging through “Demon’s Souls” for multiple playthroughs to get the platinum was at times extremely hard and brutally frustrating, but I loved it in a self-deprecating kind of way. “3D Dot Game Heroes” on the other hand, while a great game and a must for any original “Legend of Zelda” fan, would have probably cost me my sanity. Beating the game once was good enough. 

Above all it’s just a game, and games are supposed to be fun. If you’re not having any fun then you’re no longer playing, you’re working. And if you’re working it had better be paying the bills or you’re just wasting your time. Put it down and play something that is fun, in a way that is fun for you. Game on!!!

“It’s a War Zone Out There!!!”

Welcome back cave dwellers! It’s been a hectic three and a half months since my last post. Between a promotion at work, a new difficult project starting up, my company’s home office relocation, the busy holiday season and Mrs. B and I getting the ball rolling on a new home being built for us, I’ve been fortunate just to have enough time to breathe. This particular post has been a long time coming so without further delay…

The title of today’s post comes from the punch line of one of my favorite stories that a good buddy/co-worker tells, involving another mutual co-worker/buddy. As much as I would love to relay this story to all of you here, both for it’s immense comedic value and relevance to the topic at hand, it doesn’t translate well to type and loses too much of it’s humor if you aren’t familiar with the players.

This One Is for the Ladies

Huddle up ladies and listen close! I may be risking my guy-card by sharing secrets about the inner workings of the subconscious male psyche, secrets that I myself wasn’t even aware of before this post topic began forming in my mind. If I’m banned from the monthly meetings for providing intel to the opposing side, the least you can do is learn something. I’m joking of course, it’s the quarterly meetings that don’t allow double-agents.

But First, a Little Setup

Several months back I was driving around the New Orleans area in a work truck while my customized, dashboard-beating Pandora station blasted through the speakers. There’s nothing like a soundtrack with a Breaking Benjamin foundation, infused by a shot of Within Temptation and a dash of Lacuna Coil to keep the creative mental juices flowing. It’s in situations like these that I do some of my best free thinking, as well as my most random.

On this particular afternoon I was, for some unknown reason, remembering a dinner outing with my wife. It was a common scenario where I had eaten my fill, but steadfastly refused to yield to the remaining portion on my plate. While my sweet wife did her best to save me from myself, urging me to stop and ask for a doggie bag for the excess, I was attempting to “power through” as had become something of a mantra over the last two or three years (much to her dismay… and my amusement). As I chuckled to myself over her reaction to my insistent, “I can power through”, I began to wonder why. Why was it so important to finish the meal? Why did it feel so demoralizing on a seemingly molecular level to throw in the white napkin of surrender? I instantly received my answer…

The Light Bulb

It was at that precise moment when I heard my buddy/co-worker, in his best imitation of our mutual co-worker/buddy, conclude the famous story with, “It’s a war zone out there!!!”

Like a brilliant flash of lightning tracing across the sky, my mind leapt into action, instantly connecting the dots that are many of my common behaviors with the one underlying, previously unknown and subconscious reason they share… it is indeed a war zone out there.

That remembered event was no mere date, no simple meal. Sure, I thought so at the time and so did my wife. What began as a basic evening, designed to satisfy both her desire for a romantic activity and my need sustenance, was in fact something else at a much deeper level. Despite the ambience and pleasure of getting out of the house for awhile, once the plate was set before me the challenge was engaged. The gauntlet was thrown down. I was suddenly, yet unknowingly a general, marshalling my forces for good in a war against evil. In defense of my land, my freedom and all else I hold dear. How could she ask me to simply surrender?

For Sparta! This far and no further! None shall pass!

As my mind continued to flood with past experiences, it only made more and more sense. After a long day of framing basement walls and that one 2x4 just wouldn’t take a nail, the first six attempts terminating only halfway in and successive strikes from the hammer only served to bend and twist the nail. Rather than removing the nail and trying a seventh, the command decision is made, orders given. The hammer keeps swinging until the end of the 2x4 becomes an unrecognizable, splintered mass which must now be freed from the wall and tossed aside. It seemed ridiculous, wasteful even if you think about it. Progress was halted and building materials lost, so why did it feel great? Just look at that 2x4… I won.

Everything from tile installation, roofing and drywall to completely different tasks like spreadsheets, driving… even video games are approached from the subconscious view of a battle, and with it the refusal to be beaten. And each time the tide begins to turn, that urge rears it’s ugly head. The urge to “push the big, red button”, to strike a decisive, absolute victory despite all the consequences and potential collateral damage.

Don’t Believe Me?

Just look at the men in your life. Have you ever seen your guy (husband, boyfriend, father, brother, etc.) start to use a wrench as a hammer on a part of the car that didn’t need fixing, all because he was tired of fighting a bolt that wouldn’t turn? Have you really looked into his eyes at that moment you suggest that maybe he should stop and call a professional plumber/mechanic/electrician? Ever notice how he seems to get just a little too much satisfaction from accomplishing even the simplest tasks? Think about it.

That guy zipping in and out of lanes on the freeway when traffic slows down? He’s trying to win. That foreman tossing his hardhat on the ground? His battle is going poorly. It’s everywhere.

Some of you may protest that your guy is different, more refined. I hate to break it to you ladies, but that is simply not true. It may occur when you’re not around. It’s likely that he is a better tactician, giving a little ground in the smaller battles while keeping an eye towards the larger war. But rest assured, within each man beats the heart of a warrior, fighting the day to day battles. Each man has his line drawn, where enough battles lost will result in creative, inventive cursing and a drastic change to his front line tactics.

So What’s the Point?

What have we learned? Is this the way the cave man compensates for being taken from his cave and shoe-horned into a cubicle, suit, home owner’s association, etc.? Is this information even useful? Can this knowledge be helpful to you, the women in our lives in recognizing and defusing the “big, red button” scenario? I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I do know one thing. Telling the general to put down his fork because he is being silly is definitely not effective.

See you next time. Thanks for stopping by.