PaigeFTW: Empty Rewards
The other day I recently earned my 2,000th trophy on PlayStation Network — a rather nondescript Persona 5 story-related trophy, sure, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Now, I quite like trophies. They’re nice little addenda to the gaming experience. Something fun to reach for, if you want to. And I, for one, always love arbitrary markers of achievement. I have more than anyone else I know! (This says nothing about anything, I know.)
I even have five platinum trophies in games as rigorous and challenging as LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus and Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi.
Yes, that’s right, if you’re counting, that’s two Telltale games, a children’s LEGO game and a dating sim in that illustrious batch (and technically it was my sister who earned that last one).
OK, here’s the confession. I’m just garbage at earning trophies. You know why I have so many? I have a lot of games. That’s all it is.
In some games, trophies are handed out like participation medals at an AYSO soccer match. In other games, you have to be a wizard, a champion, a paragon, even a god to earn even one. (This is why I have a grand total of two trophies in The Last of Us.) Those are the true achievements.
I know they are meaningless, added simply to bring an extra layer of competition and fun to games. I know this! But I hate that I suck and can’t get them. Will I ever beat Adamantoise in Final Fantasy XV to get my platinum? Will I ever break 2,000 objects while driving my carriage in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate? The answer is, sadly, probably not.
I’ve always loved the experience of playing, of the happy escape into brighter, more exciting worlds. But skill is still part of the required package, and I can’t ever forget it.
