Home Trophies, Like Other PS3 Games
(Editor’s note: this article was originally published on March 23, 2013. Following the recent announcement of trophy support for PlayStation Home, we are rerunning it.)
by Orion_NGC1976, HSM Editor Emeritus
Home trophies are only visible in Home and only to those who visit your personal space.
How about something more visible? Something that everyone would be able to see, whether they were on Home or not?
What is one of the first things you do after making a new friend on Home? I always check out what games they play, by viewing their game trophies. I like to see if they enjoy playing the same type of games that I do. If they do, I like to see if they have some games that are unfamiliar to me, but are of a genre that I enjoy playing. If they have a game that I have, I like to compare which trophies that they have that I don’t have and vice-versa.
Some of the games in Home award you with special items or even trophies for winning the game. The Hudson dolphy races awards the winning owner with an impressive trophy that you can place in any of of your personal spaces. Likewise, you are rewarded with an award for completing each of the Xi mazes. The awarding of such award items has prompted some to ask for a trophy case or room.
Now imagine that Home had its own section of trophies. What benefits would there be in having Home trophy accomplishments?
- The Home user would be able to publicly show off their Home accomplishments.
- It would advertise to the Home user as to what there is to do in Home.
- It would also give a wider visibility of Home.
- It would elevate the games found in Home to the same status as other PS3 games.
Leaderboards and reward items for playing games within Home are Home’s only ways of showing off your accomplishments. Some of these rewards are fleeting and can be lost. Many of the Hudson dolphy rewords, such as unlocking skins when you reach a certain number of wins, can be lost because they are stored locally on the PS3. I have lost my dolphies on two occasions, due to crashes, and have had to start all over, losing all unlocked effects and skins. (Note: with the 1.75 update, this may not happen anymore – Ed.)
How could this be implemented? Each area, game or Home in general could have its own set of trophies. Perhaps, ten trophies maximum for each. I realize that this could easily become a very large list, which may be too unwieldy to navigate.
Hudson could have trophies for winning ten challenge races, winning ten star races and one each for winning fifteen and thirty total races. There could be a trophy for going head-to-head against a friend’s dolphy. nDreams could have trophies as different milestones with the OrbRunner game or for reaching a certain level of points in one run. Sony could have trophies to encourage exploring Home, much like the Activities Board was intended. Some trophies achievements could be: make five friends, visit ten public spaces, visit a friend’s personal space, buy an item in a store.
All of these trophies would encourage players to achieve them. Often, when I purchase a game, I browse through the trophy list to see what I need to be aware of while playing. How else would I know to do a swan dive in Tomb Raider Underworld? Similarly, this list would advertise things to do in Home, and many would be persistent on achieving every trophy.
If Home games and Home itself were treated as other PS3 games with their own set of achievement trophies, then there would be an external and permanent way to see what your friends have done on Home. This could be an impetus for generating conversation and action among Home users. It may also encourage group participation to achieve the same trophies as a group or helping a friend achieve a certain trophy.
Having public trophies for Home would raise the awareness of what Home has to offer to not only Home users, but to those who have never tried Home. This could attract more gamers to see what Home is all about. Most likely, it would, at least, attract the trophy hunter gamer in search of gaining more trophies. How more attractive could it get to a trophy hunter? For no money down, he or she could up their trophy count.
Of course, some of the gamers who would come into Home for the trophies, would get the trophies and not come back, but there would be a percentage of them that would discover the magic of Home and take up residence.
The trophy list could also encourage those who have left Home or have been away from Home for an extended period to get back on Home to see what is new and achieve the new trophies.
As I see it, there really is no downside to having Home achievement trophies–Sony and Home developers would have a way to advertise and draw people to Home and the gamer/Home user would have a meaningful way to track and show off their Home achievements. There’s probably a litany of technical reasons why this can’t be done, but hopefully a future iteration of Home may take into account this one step to increase gaming attention on a social MMO devoted to the gaming audience itself.
March 11th, 2014 by Orion_NGC1976 | 4 comments
Father, husband, dolphy racer and sometimes Home world traveler.
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I have thought about the implementation of trophies on Home in the past. I have plenty of friends who get online exclusively to hop on Home to hang out who are just as deserving of earning trophies as gamers are. Though, while Home trophies would certainly catch the eyes of the PS gaming community, I’m not sure if it would be enough to lure “hardcore” gamers to play the games on Home.
Take a look at today’s tablet gaming market, while a huge success among casual gamers, hardcore gamers tend to stray away from them as they’re not seen as “real games”. With that said, I think trophies on Home is a brilliant idea, especially for the usual Home-goers. I rarely find the more interesting people I meet on Home with a trophy level in the two-digits. If trophies were a part of Home, I doubt that would be the case in most situations.
I believe there is only good to be earned from having trophies on Home. It’ll increase the social activity, offer new experiences, and encourage newcomers to Home.
It’ll also probably sever my ego for not being able to earn a Home trophy.
Great Article Orion. I agree whole heartedly -Here is why- other than JOURNEY and a few others I tend not to play vid games outside of HOME- but wouldn’t like to know that I can swat flies with the best of them in MERCIA and that I like getting down and dirty in Granzilla -but I do not at all into FUBAR or Zombie attacks. I suppose it might define the fact that I am not at all interested in Military or FPS games. I much prefer RPGs which could reveal a lot about my character. I would certainly tend to look at the trophy comparisons a lot more frequently if they involved HOME games. Now as RAIN so aptly points out some of the people I most like hanging with on PSH are the least like to have any trophy info.
It is also a way of sorting out Randoms from those people that are truly engaged in the HOME experience.
Kudos
And RAIN I hope to see more of your insightful comments on HSM. -Brilliant Mate! Truly Brilliant!
Riff
Though I am not a trophy hunter myself, I think having them connected to Home achievements is a great idea. The best part is the increased visibility for Home itself. With Harry Potter and Dr. Who currently in the works to come here, this would be the perfect opportunity to add trophies to the mix for achievements there. Great read Orion, good to see you back on the front page.
Home not having trophies is a mystery. They planned on it and then let it slide. If Home and, as you suggest, each Home game had trophies it would pull Home out of the niche and into the mainstream.
I’m not a trophy hunter but I know those guys will play ANYthing for trophies. *cough-Hanna Montana-cough*