Author: Chris Wheatley

Over the past decade, our beloved form of entertainment, the tried and true stress reliever and the ever-so appealing grandeur that is video games, have evolved tremendously.

Graciously lifting the gaming industry while taking gamers along for the, more often than not, thrilling adventure, they’ve thoroughly provided us with countless hours of immersion into vast and wild lands of tropical islands, harrowing apocalyptic worlds, heroic intergalactic space expeditions, ancient times through Greece, Rome and now even Egypt, all while challenging not only our skills, but our dedication, personal endeavors and sometimes rather difficult to uncover emotions.

With so many games at much of the world’s disposal, it’s hard not to get overwhelmed with the vast selection. Getting sucked into the story or thrill of a game can lead to hours, weeks, months, sometimes even years of dedication to perfecting and honing your skills. But where does the gameplay end? For some, once the campaign has been completed once or twice, and/or the fill of online play has been quenched, the game is shelved and replaced by newer content, or in many instances, sold.

Unless, that is, you give yourself added time to the game by hunting down specific trophies or achievements, enhancing your game score and allowing the expensive medium to earn its costly price tag.

Sure, trophies and achievements aren’t for everybody, and I certainly wouldn’t expect the trophy list to replace the actual storyline and gameplay itself, but what these added tasks do provide is more value to your game collection. Allowing you to experience something you may have missed in the traditional campaign, like discovering new weapons, items, quest lines, and characters – these are just a few examples of where these tedious chores can take you.

Some gamers pride themselves on their evergrowing list of achievements and trophies, showing off how many games they’ve played through, or even the astonishing amount of games they’ve completed at 100%. Finding games with an easy achievement or trophy list may also point the dedicated gamer to games they otherwise wouldn’t give a play. Embarking on journeys outside of their preferred game style will not only boost their score but broaden the player’s outlook on the constantly expanding library of video games.

I realize this is solely opinion based through personal experiences with both friends and acquaintances, as well as myself, and the excitement of trophy or achievement hunting may not appeal to every gamer. For the reasons above though, it’s clear why the tasking system has become popular amongst dedicated gamers alike. Whether the reasoning is because it provides added experiences, bonus items/weapons, or maybe because it resembles that of the scoring system of the early arcade games, in my honest opinion, the trophy and achievement system isn’t a terrible thing for the games industry.

Regardless of what may be said about the topic, if you hunt for achievements and trophies or not, purely for the story or the thrill of an online victory, enjoy the experience; it’s why video games exist.