As an avid gamer, I've made some big changes over the last few years. I was once almost strictly "a PC", and, by the way--when did we start assuming the identities of inanimate objects? If that's the cool thing now, then let's have some variety. Hello, I'm a toaster. Nice to meet you.
Anyway, I'm not a wealthy individual, and I lost the race to keep up with PC gaming hardware as soon as Oblivion came out. When I realized my next-gen gaming desires could be satisfied completely by a console for the mere price of a new video card, I did some comparative research and sprung on a PS3. I was tired of the hacker-infested world of PC multiplayer and believed consoles to be the last pure gaming experience.
PS3 owners have seen a wonderful change throughout 2008, as the system went from sitting under Microsoft's constant, "You don't have enough games," argument to experiencing an landslide of incredible titles. And we finally got trophy support.
Were the trophies worth the wait? Should we even care about them? Some would say that trophies are a meaningless form of gamer recognition, or another extension of the cyber-ego. But for those of us who were creating challenges for ourselves years before achievements existed, trophies are a welcome addition. Before, you'd spend more time refining your ability to survive a six-star federal assault in GTA3 than actually finishing the game, and you got nothing but the thrill. Now, you finally get a prize for being a lunatic, as well as a sense of community.
Competition has always been an integral part of multiplayer, but we've mainly seen it reflected in the form of kill/death ratios and experience points. You'd memorize every nook and cranny of a map, find a technique, wash, rinse, and repeat. Or you'd learn to make twelve hour MMORPG gaming sessions part of your day-to-day life, watching your mortality transform into rare set items. After a while, it's more of a routine than a challenge. There's a difference between a kill and a really sweet kill--the kind you remember for years to come. But those moments aren't reflected in statistics... well, they weren't before the trophy system.
That's why trophies are somewhat monumental for me. They've added a friendly new dimension to competitive online gaming, where the focus is on skill rather than depth of obsession. And the system transcends individual games, taking more of the collective PS3 gaming experience into account.
In the end, all game rankings are subject to a reality-check: Can you expect to impress a beautiful woman at a club by bragging about your kill/death ratio or the amount of hit points your level 400 Mage has? Probably not. But rankings are fun within their context, and PS3 trophies have made a significant addition to the fun, as well as to how much enjoyment we can squeeze out of our games.