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David Jaffe Tweets About The Achievement/Trophy Mentality
Outspoken Twisted Metal and God of War developer David Jaffe is no stranger to ranting on his Twitter page, and today's topic is achievements and trophies. Here's what he had to say:
And I may be a dinosaur but frankly if we can't do a good enough job making the game good enough for you to want to complete on its own, we're pretty ****ty game makers. Trophies are fine but they oftentimes pull you out of the game experience because of the meta layer they apply. A great game should be able to stand on its own. I would be ok if trophies unlocked after the first playthrough (do any games do this?) so the core game can stand on its own. In a game like TM it doesn't really matter cause it is more pure play centric. But story based games? ****ing hate trophies on first play thru.
Some of his fans responded with their own opinions on multiplayer-based achievements, and Jaffe continued:
Yeah trophies in game centric games are fine, they add. But I still think a great game can/should be able to stand without them. From talking on Twitter, people seem (for the most part) to HATE multiplayer trophies either because they don't like putting their trophy hunting fate in the hands of strangers or because there may be no online community by the time they get online.
Before leaving Twitter to "get coffee and a bagel then hit the game," he had one more note about how trophies would play into the upcoming Twisted Metal:
As I've said before, our trophies will probably lean very heavily on the single player side with only a small percentage on the multiplayer side.
He definitely made some good points today. Some games that feature multiplayer achievements have seen the play experience negatively affected by them. I remember back when Halo 3 came out, and every pre-game lobby would be filled with kids trying to organize achievement rounds ("Ok, you three guys stand there and I'll kill you with the sword!"). Others like Modern Warfare have instead opted to feature only single-player achievements, with the built-in perks and unlocks serving as rewards for multiplayer prowess.
How do you feel about his statements regarding second-playthrough achievements? Would you be ok if games featured first runs without any achievements/trophies popping up and taking you out of the gameplay experience?
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