I got all the Uncharted ones because I love the game. I persevered and got all the Burnout ones simply because I was waiting for other games to come out – otherwise, I wouldn’t have bothered. But I won’t buy games simply for Trophies, and I won’t go back and complete games just for the sake of them either.

I’m not bothering with the GTA IV Trophies; although I really enjoyed playing it, I stopped playing after completing the story mode. I couldn’t be bothered killing all 200 pigeons in the first place, and I’m certainly not going to bother just for a Trophy. In fact, I’ll be trading it in soon.

I’ve got a few from Super Stardust HD, and may get others as it’s a game I enjoy playing… but that will be ‘as and when’… I’m not deliberately going looking for them.

I’m currently playing Dead Space, and am loving that… so I may well bother trying to get all the Trophies in that.

And some Trophies are just insanely difficult. PAIN, for example, has some which – to me – seem utterly impossible to obtain.

I’d be more tempted to go for Trophies if you actually had a chance of getting something for them other than bragging rights. I don’t really have a competitive streak, so I don’t care if I have more or less than anyone else. But if you could exchange the ‘points’ for money off stuff from the PlayStation Store (for example) I’d be more tempted.

Remember, this is still early days, at least for most PS3 devs. Insomniac had ‘skill points’ for a long time, so I think their system is more developed than most. They were always completely hidden tasks, which meant you had to play a fair bit and experiment to discover them, and they unlocked videos and other stuff, so you had at least some reason to play for them. And many, if not most, were quite imaginative and not totally obvious. Personally, if I unexpectedly got a ‘good shooting’ skill point for 10 head-shots in a row … it makes it more interesting than just getting a trophy for something explicit listed as ‘get 10 head-shots in a row’ (i.e. more of a surprise, and less of a job).

That said I believe that there must be a middle ground. Burnout Paradise’s trophy list is a rather long one. The example that you give about having a trophy for driving through a gas station is a bit misleading. You get the trophy for driving through a gas station during a race. In this case you are being rewarded for strategic use of the facilities….

I get your point. Actually, I didn’t really understand it until I took a closer look at Burnout Paradise’s trophy list. This is a game that is doing exactly what you are arguing. Burnout, as a series, has been mostly car battles along a linear route from point A to point B. Burnout Paradise has broken away from that mold. Now, the game is as much about exploration as it is about racing. The trophy list shows the developers desire to get you to think about Burnout in different terms from other racing games. This is why there are so many awards for exploration. These trophies are less about freebies and more about getting you to play a car battle/racing game in a ways that you’ve not played one before.

I hope that you are right. I hope that more developers use trophies to expand what we perceive as core gameplay in their titles. I also hope that as a gaming community we are observant enough to realize it and appreciate it when it happens.

What is more, I now play SSHD to get new highscores (I was world top 500 with my old username on late boomer, eheh)

SSHD trophies are a very good example of achievable trophies. Some are real hard to get, but you know you can get them when it’s your day. However, trophies that requires too much repetition in a game should not be allowed, such as doing a mundane task 100 times, that is out of the course of the normal gameplay..

My point is for devs to come up with a more imaginative use for trophies within games. Getting a Trophy for driving through a gas station in Burnout Paradise is NOT an imaginative way to use Trophies in games.

There’s not much creativity involved in that process. Trophies should encourage us to explore the game world more and do things we would normally not do in a particular game.

It’s not about Trophies being frustratingly hard so that people just give up. I know I won’t get most of the Trophies in WipEout HD simply because some will require too much effort but at least they have put some thought into their Trophies compared to many of the trophies available in Burnout.

The Trophies in WipEout will push some gamers to a new level but at the same time, some gamers will give up and not bother with them (me). It’s about finding the right balance between challenging your gaming ideals via imaginative use, making you think of different ways to approach certain games and tasks outside of how you would normally approach them and offering the right amount of challenge to make you feel like you’ve earned the Trophy.

So far, no game has really done all of those. Maybe BioShock and PixelJunk Monsters (to name drop two games) are heading in the right direction. I just want less Trophies that are given for doing something so simple and basic within a game world, like a lot of the Trophies in Burnout Paradise.

Trophies have so much potential to add to a game’s lifespan and make you appreciate each game in a way you maybe wouldn’t.

It’s interesting that to think that perhaps there is a ideology that would see the trophy system become more of an electronic standard for an elite hardcore that would begrudge casual players the trophies that they would receive that mark progressing through the game as the developers intended.

The system is already in place to allow you to compare trophies with other players. Those elite can still hold their gold and platinum trophies over the heads of less stalwart gamers.

The trophies that mark a greater level of achievement are already there. Why would you take away trophies from others? What would that accomplish? Wouldn’t that make trophies that much less inclusive?