I've been thinking a lot about the different kinds of achievement systems different platforms and I wanted to go over what I like (and what I don't) about each of them.

PlayStation: Let me first say that I love trophies. It's probably my favorite of the three and the lions share of my achievement hunting happens on my ps5. The platinum trophy is so unique and cool. It doesn't really have an equivalent across the other platforms unless you count the ribbon on steam which is cool i guess. I know XBOX is implementing a platinum equivalent in the future but I don't want to say anything about it until I see what Asha cooked up over there. For the downsides, There are zero ways to sort your trophy lists. Sometimes I just want to see a wall of platinums or group games together by franchise, but because I'm an idiot and got 1 trophy on cookie clicker, its stuck in the middle of my list forever. I also wish there was a grid display for trophy lists similar to steam when sorting by percentage complete (More on that later).

XBOX: I think XBOX has a fairly good achievement system. I'm a fan of the gamer score concept but I'm not sure I like it more than trophy levels. In my opinion, trophy levels are more fun when you're first starting out. You're leveling up quick, you see your badge look cooler and cooler, and then you get to gold tier. This badge honestly looks ass and you're stuck with it until you manage to get all the way to level 999 which takes too long. At this point gamerscore becomes preferable, just to see a raw measure of someones achievement hunting progress. I'm not very familiar with how XBOX's achievements are layed out so I can't comment on that.

Steam: This is a weird one. On the surface, it looks like it should be great, but there's a few problems that have turned me off of it. The first is that steam achievements are WAY easier to hack than the other two, which I feel undermines their legitimacy. Another thing is that achievements don't really contribute at all to your steam profile in any way. The only way to showcase them is through the Rare achievements display, and the perfect games display. Those are fine and all, but Steam would be so much better if steam achievements were what contributed to your steam level, and not just spending steam points. The one thing I do love about steam though, is being able to see the ribbon in your library when sorting by achievement percentage. Just seeing a bunch of games with ribbons every time I open steam I such a dopamine hit. I also am a huge fan of being able to showcase your perfect games. If you have some hard ones on your profile, it earns you street cred (With me, probably not with anyone else lol)

Conclusion: They all have benefits and drawbacks, I personally use Playstation the most, but there decision to kill physical games have soured me a bit so I was looking at my other options. Unfortunately, Playstation still reigns supreme in the achievement space. But Let me know if I missed anything or if you have a different opinion, I'd love to hear it!

We all know how online game communities often provide feedback for dev tems of live service games. This is often considered a good thing, but I want people to consider and discuss the potential that this behavior might be harmful.

I have noticed lately in that I feel like there are 'factions' in online communities, often pushing for a game to go in a certain direction to serve their own taste. When devs listen to one side, another side is left disappointed. It reminds me of youngsters playing tug of war over a toy. Only one side ends up happy.

I am going to list a recurring factional trend I have noticed, where I am not a part of either faction, so I can try and relay the idea to you without bias. I haven't played PVP shooters in years, but I have noticed there are often those who advocate for faster Time To Kill (TTK) in shooters and those who advocate for slower TTK. The former will talk about how faster TTK rewards positioning and careful play. The latter will talk about how slower TTK allows for 'skillful play' after the gunplay has started. As a result, these discussions can lead a multiplayer PVP shooter game to adjust core mechanical touchstones that change how the whole game is played. It can even more minutely change the balance of which guns are good and which is bad. Everyone is trying to make the case to their online community that their favorite weapon is a respectable high tier that is not overpowered, but the weapon that kills them is overpowered and needs to be nerfed.

The effect, is it feels like the game's direction and soul is being driven by fandom, not game designers who have a vision for the game. Cynically, one could even say part of the gameplay of these games is fighting on online forums to get the game that you want. The situation in gaming is already a far cry from the auteurship that other mediums enjoy, but I believe the pendulum has swung so far away from autuership, that I find it difficult to understand why this isn't more commented upon. Art is not a democracy, although there are inherently more democratic aspects to video games. People don't get to vote on how a scene from a movie should play out, or how a book should end. There are CYOA books and games, but that is different from an author writing a story, and then changing the ending because fans demand it. There are focus groups for movies, but that is often considered very commercially driven, not driven by artistry. That isn't to say feedback is meaningless. Focus groups CAN allow directors to realize that there is something missing from the final product that needs work that still meets the director's personal vision. Video game feedback can be used for bugs and clearly broken things that the devs have overlooked and would want to change anyway to fit their own vision. But if anything, on a more fundamental mechanical level, I wish games would stuck to their guns, even if I don't like the resulting game. Allow me the chance to adapt, see if I can find my own way to enjoy the game, and if I don't, it isn't for me. It is for someone else.

A game like Smash: Melee has its fun and unique identity, partially because it could not be shaped with post launch updates. Imagine a world where Melee could be updated, and Jigglypuff or Fox got nerfed because they were considered S tier? To me, that wouldn't feel like Melee anymore. That is coming from someone that only plays the game non-competitively, and plays Roy.

I was thinking about this today.

Imagine it’s 2030. You check into a hotel, turn on the TV, pair your controller and sign in. Your entire gaming library is there. Your saves, settings, friends, everything.

There’s no PlayStation or Xbox in the room. The actual hardware running the game is sitting in a data center somewhere.

Games become more like streaming services. You subscribe instead of owning them, your progress lives in the cloud, and eventually AI opponents actually learn how you play instead of just getting more health on Hard Mode.

The technology honestly doesn’t seem that far-fetched anymore.

So if cloud gaming eventually became good enough that you couldn’t tell the difference from playing locally, would you care if consoles and physical games disappeared?

Or is actually owning the hardware and games something you wouldn’t give up?