So Jim Sterling over at Destructoid made a very interesting article saying his opinion as to why PS3 Trophies “underachieve” in comparison to Microsoft’s 360 Achievements, citing what he thought was the “clunky” XMB of the PS3, the lack of a true identity on PSN, the “syncing” of trophies, the level system, and the gold, silver, and bronze trophy tiers illustrating how “worthless” some accomplishments are. This is all well and good, and he has every right to this opinion (which is why I’m doing a DP Thought as opposed to a Media Watch on this one. I don’t think this was a fanboyish article, even though I know Destructoid is known to have some 360-fanboyish flamebait articles in the past, and the article in question has a few fanboyish claims in it, as well).

However, I have to respectfully disagree with a lot of his points. In fact, I think that PS3’s trophies are ten times better than Achievements. Want to know why? Read on as I do this by stating my opposition to each of these points.

First, he states the lack of identity on PSN, saying that Microsoft has done more with the Gamertag than Sony has with the PSN ID (never mind that they BOTH do better than what little effort Nintendo has done, if any). However, I don’t see how the Gamertag is any different than the PSN ID. He says that the Gamertag is tied into every game you play, and every Achievement you earn, while the PSN ID is just a handle. Hmm? So exactly who earns those Trophies that you unlock? Who is showing off the trophies to those in your friends list? If the PSN ID is just a handle, then what’s linked to the trophies. I guess I can just throw away any trophy that I’ve ever earned because they don’t mean anything to my handle, then.

Thing about it is, trophies are more tied into your PSN ID because you can have a sense of competition. When you go into someone else’s ID card, you are given the option to “compare trophies”, and see how your progress in a game stacks up against one of your friends. In this sense, you can then get a rivalry going to see who can get that platinum trophy first (more on that later), and also as a sort of benchmark. You may want to get to that same level of expertise as one of your friends or someone you meet in Playstation Home.

That’s one other thing that Sterling forgot to mention. When you are in Playstation Home and target someone, you have an option to see their PSN ID, and then compare their trophies to your own, and also see what they play, and how good they are. This is perfect if you are trying to find someone to play against in Street Fighter 4, or a battle partner in Killzone 2 or Warhawk. There isn’t a sense of that kind of community that I have seen on the 360 yet. This also squashes Sterling’s point that “With the PSN, there’s no sense of personal investment and no real platform to show off your Trophy progress at an easy glance.” I’ve just labeled for you the way to do it: Look in someone’s profiles, and you’ll see “Compare Trophies” right there on the bottom row (it’s the middle one with the little TROPHY icon). Plus, let’s not forget that Microsoft still charges 50 bucks a year for XBL Gold Membership, which is still a factor in which of the two online services are better.

Also, keep in mind that if you have had a certain system for more time than the other, then you will obviously feel more attached to that than you do the other. The Achievement system was put in place long before the Trophy system has been, and Microsoft made the Achievements mandatory for all games, while the PS3 Trophy system was put into place last summer, and they just got the mandatory rule in January. Also, if you play more on one system than the other, than that console’s accomplishment system will get more of your praise. For me, I got my PS3 first and have worked up my Trophy level far before getting my 360. Thus, I have made more friends on that than I have the 360. This is just personal preference.

As for the load time, the fact that you could press the guide button when you unlock an achievement on the 360 to view all achievements was something I personally didn’t know you could do, and I think this would be a good thing for Sony to implement into their trophy system (thanks, Sterling, for bringing up something that could go into a future firmware update). However, this prompt only lasts for a few moments before going away. Afterwards, you would have to go into the mini-dashboard, click right, select Achievements, and then select the game you are playing to see them. Oh, and the added button click on the 360: you have to click the Achievement to see what you have to do to unlock it. It doesn’t describe it underneath like the PS3 Trophies do (though if the trophy requirements are too long, you would have to click the actual trophy to see the rest of the description, that I can read good, by the way. Maybe Sony could update that so the description scrolls when it is highlighted). Thus, despite that one little advantage (along with the loading thing which I don’t know if you could even call it an issue, though it could be a BIT faster), it’s essentially the same way, though with an added click on the 360.

Oh, and another thing about that. I bought the Pac-Man game from XBL Arcade some time back, and I unlocked multiple Achievements through one play through. What did the prompt say? “Achievement unlocked – x for xxG” (let “x” be whatever number was actually there). It didn’t say what I actually unlocked. Though the game itself showed icons of what I did unlock and I had an idea as to what they were (more on the pain I had to go through to find out about that later), I can’t imagine what someone would think if they got that kind of thing while playing Fable II or Halo 3. With Trophies, if you unlock multiple trophies at once, it will show you EACH trophy individually. A bit of a small advantage since you will always know WHAT it is you unlocked.

By the way, the “mini-dashboard” being “useful” is kind of a personal preference and Sterling saying this DOES sound somewhat fanboyish. It’s somewhat cumbersome to use in it’s own right. It’s essentially unchanged by the New Xbox Experience and is still the blades. I can see now why that blade system needed changed. You had to know where you wanted to go before the system booted up. When I first used it, it wasn’t that easy for me to find where everything was on that thing.

As for syncing, I’m VERY happy that Sony did this. I’m not quite sure how this exactly works on the 360, but what Sterling is complaining about is what protects your trophy status if something should happen to your PS3 console. For me, I just upgraded my hard drive to a 500GB drive. Because the trophies are stored on Sony’s servers when you sync, I could retrieve my Trophy info and be good to go. Yeah, it’s a bit on the slow side, but not nearly as slow as Sterling is making it out to be. Only about a second or two. Now I do have to say that sometimes it DOES slow to a crawl and this is something that Sony should fix, but it doesn’t even happen often. Usually, when I want to compare my trophies to someone else’s, it doesn’t even have to load. Plus, the “circles” are for the trophy icons (which are images that would have to load normally, anyway), not the trophies themselves. You can instantly see what the trophy is and who does and doesn’t have it.

However, let me tell you how cumbersome I think it is to get to the Achievements list on the NXE. You have to first go to “My Xbox”, find the Game Library, look for your game, and then see the Achievements on the next square over, and you STILL have to click a particular achievement to see what it is you have to do to unlock it. With trophies, they are in a separate section on the Game area of the XMB. It’s very hard to miss. Why do I have to sift through four different screens just to see what I got to do to unlock an Achievement? THAT’S what’s inexcusable.

I do have a huge problem, though, with how Sterling tries to compare the Gamerscore with the level system. He says every Achievement adds to your Gamerscore, and “5G is still 5G”, while because the PS3 trophies are tiered, that the bronze trophies would be meaningless. This logic is severely flawed since bronze trophies are what the 5G Achievements are, and they still add to your level progress. So the 5G Achievements AREN’T worthless? This DOES sound fanboyish. I could’ve been wrong about this blog Sterling wrote here. “Who cares about common Bronze Trophies?” How about those 5G Achievements you are so happy to get? Plus, I find it easier to know how much skill is needed to unlock those trophies by the tier system than the arbitrary number that I might not notice right away.

Plus, each trophy in a game gets you one step closer to the platinum trophy in that particular game. This is something that Sterling completely left out, and something that makes you strive to get every last trophy in Uncharted or SF4. Once you unlock all the trophies in a disc-based game, the system rewards you with the ultimate bragging right: that you accomplished EVERYTHING that the game had to offer. You not only get a hefty boost in your level progress (which, by the way, is much more inspiring and easier to find than a jumbled score you get through Achievements), but you have a platinum trophy icon next to the percentage on the game, and the plat is the topmost trophy. Thus, those bronze trophies may be the difference makers in some games. They also make every trophy in disc-based games far more meaningful. And some PSN games have Plats, too. The DD version of Burnout Paradise has one, obviously, as does Wipeout HD (good luck GETTING the latter one, though). This is something that Achievements don’t really have (you get the full point allotment, but nothing else to show for it).

Also, if and when that trophy room ever gets added to Playstation Home, one will be able to show off all of their hard-earned trophies to their friends. I can understand why Sterling left this out (where the hell is it, Sony?), but still, the lack of even bringing up the platinum trophy is non-excusable.

And what about the sound? The Achievement sound is very much like the sign on sound I hear when I turn on my 360, and it is barely audible. I have no sense that I’ve done something good from the sound, provided that I even hear it, and you can sometimes miss that something was even unlocked. With the Trophies, the “bling” sound is unique to the system, it loud enough to notice, it gives an icon of the trophy that was unlocked, and the sound is what you would want to hear if you hit the jackpot on a slot machine in Vegas. Oh, and that Achievement unlock icon is no different from the other 360 system prompts. How is this “iconic” to this gaming generation, Mr. Sterling?

Also keep in mind this: Sony is not kind to cheaters. Have a game save you got off the internets and trying to get a trophy that way? Not so fast. You have to have your OWN game save that’s linked to your OWN profile. You’re going to be hit with the newest deterrent if you try to cheat: either that they aren’t retroactive or the now infamous “You did NOT earn a trophy” sign that a few people have encountered. 360 gamers, even though Microsoft is trying to curb this (not sure how) can still cheat to earn THEIR Achievements. Hell, there’s even a website devoted to stuff like that for the 360.

Finally, let’s not forget that game developers are starting to tie in trophies to Home. In Street Fighter IV, earning certain trophies can net you some stuff for your character in Home. Don’t expect it to be the only game that does something like that, either. This is something that Achievements have yet to implement, and the talk of having your trophies mean more when it comes to the ever-expanding social networking service only adds to the potential.

Of course, this is only my opinion that I decided to give because I’m sort-of a trophy whore myself and I love going for some of these myself. You may think that Achievements are better for other reasons, and some may think that trophies are better for completely different reasons than the ones I stated. Thing is, they both essentially do the same thing: track a player’s accomplishments on a game that they can then show off online to their friends. It’s a wonderful concept that I hope both companies improve and expand upon. Sterling is entitled to his opinion, and I’m entitled to mine. Although I had a few issues with some of the things he said because they sounded fanboyish (see above), it is his own opinion. Unfortunately for him, I disagreed with most if not all of it.

At least both accomplishment systems are better than Nintendo’s…wait, they…don’t…have…one!

NEVER MIIIIIIIND!