I am a perfectionist and a born competitor. I like to win, and I win a lot. And I won't lie—I get a thrill when I hear that little *ding* and see a trophy pop up when I'm playing my PS3 or my Vita.
But I need to kick this habit now, before it sucks all of the fun out of my gaming life. Here's why:
1) One thing that is true about winning, in your professional life or in your personal one, is that it takes work. Trophies are no different. Even easy platinums require you to put in the time and effort to read the trophy list and develop a strategy for completing it. And some trophies are nothing but a giant pain in the ass. Death mode on Sound Shapes drove me so crazy that I had to take a gaming break for a couple of days. And at some point, a game just isn't fun anymore—I will never plat even the relatively easy Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time because there is no way I am going sit and play those awful arcade games until I get a high score. I'm finally playing Infamous right now, and you have got to be kidding me if you think I'm going to work on the stunt list or worry about whether I have killed enough enemies while standing on a moving vehicle. I have ruined many of my life's pleasures by getting too competitive, and hell if I'm going to ruin games for myself, too.
2) Planning your game around trophies screws up the way you play. Not only do you end up seeing spoilers because you don't want to miss a missable trophy, but you are sometimes forced to choose activities and play styles you might otherwise ignore. In Dishonored, for example, you have to play the game at least twice to get all of the trophies, and in one playthrough you won't even get to use any of the sweet supernatural upgrades. There is great fun in a challenge, but a trophy list can feel less like a challenge and more like a prescription. I want to feel free to play the way I want to play, without confronting the silent judgment of a trophy unobtained.
3) An emphasis on trophies makes you ignore great games that happen to lack trophy support. I am already falling prey to this problem. When my activity on the PSN is largely reported based on trophies earned, it makes me more likely to prioritize games that allow me to earn trophies. This also means that I am missing out on some sweet games, like Oblivion or Valkyria Chronicles or even older PSN classics like Jeanne D'Arc. And we aren't even taking into account the wonders of the 3DS, which has no trophy support but does have killer games like Fire Emblem, Shin Megami Tensei IV, Super Mario 3D Land, and the list goes on.
4) Trophies determine your obsessions for you, rather than letting you develop them yourself. I am actually a collector by nature. I have spent hours grinding in Final Fantasy Tactics so that I can have at least one party member become a master of every single job class. In Ocarina of Time, I combed Hyrule for every heart piece and skulltula. I am thinking about getting the 3DS version so I can do it again. So I've got it in me to play the hell out of a game purely because I want to. But knowing there is a trophy list is almost like having an invader come into my gaming experience and decide for me when my game is truly done and how I should finish it.
I know that trophies are making games less fun for me, and I know that they negatively affect the way I play. But it's hard to quit. I do love watching my level go up on the PSN, and I love silently creeping up on higher-level friends and then passing them by. Even more than that, I love "objective" markers of how successful I am at things. My PSN level is modest right now, but I've only had my PS3 since November. I could always do more... But I could also just enjoy the ride and stress about other stuff instead.
Will I ever get up the nerve to turn off trophy notifications? Or am I a hopeless addict? There may not be a happy medium, here.
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