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It’s official! Sony has confirmed that the long awaited 2.40 firmware patch for the Playstation 3 will be released on Wednesday 2nd July. No minor updates here – as this patch is to include in game messaging and game invites, custom soundtrack options and a whole host of other goodies. Most interestingly is the new trophy system for game achievements, which is Sony’s reply to the rather popular ‘gamer-points’ offered for Xbox’s Live members. And whilst there is no denying the popularity of Live’s achievements, many argue that such achievements turn gamers who crave them into gaming ‘whores’.
So the question is, will PSN’s trophies descend into the laughing stock which is the Live achievement system, by robbing gamers of the free spirit of gaming for gaming’s sake?
In part one of two, Fuchal argues that Sony has banked on a winner with trophies, and that PS3 gamers will largely avoid the prostituting of their gaming personas.
The new PSN reward system could, at first glance, run the risk of sinking into the quagmire which is Live Achievements. However, by implementing four levels of trophies depending on how difficult the reward is, Sony has taken steps to ensure the relevance of PSN trophies for years to come.
Sony has stated that developers will be limited to the number of difficult trophy rewards they can allot to a tile - these being the Gold and Platinum trophies. The result being that we are unlikely to see a gamer easily score full achievements for a pushover game they way Avatar: The Last Air Bender rewarded Live players with full achievements by merely mashing the attack button mashing for three minutes. To score full achievements in a game will require actual dedication again.
 Because of this, players are unlikely to rent or buy a title merely to rank up. Quite a number of Live players purchase easy family games, like TMNT and the afore mentioned Avatar, just so they can add a quick 1000 points to their gamer score. This is not to say that younger and casual players can’t enjoy user friendly titles – let’s hope they continue to do so. But those gamers who regard themselves as ‘hardcore’ or ‘serious’ gamers will wind up looking rather foolish with all the trophies to Kung Fu Panda the next time a search is done on their PSN card.
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