Hello. My name is Stephen Tailby, and I’m fine, thanks.
Welcome to a new feature on Push Square, in which I recount every game I’ve platinumed. It’s a verb now, alright? “You gonna platinum Balatro, mate?*” It’s a verb, and it’s all good. We need to make peace with this now, because it’s gonna make things easier in the long run.
I’ve platinumed dozens of games across PS5 and PS4, and I can’t figure out if I’m happy about that or not. I think it changes every so often; there have been periods in which I’ve gone seriously out of my way to achieve a platinum Trophy, and others where I don’t give the damn things a second thought.
This feature will allow me to reflect on every game I’ve cared to platinum, and I’ve yet to work out if that’s worth doing, or entertaining in any way.
At the very least, it might be fun, and the potential for fun is what we all buy into when we take a chance on a new game, right? Am I likening this feature to a video game? In a sense. Both are potentially fun.
Anyway, here’s the first issue of Going Platinum. If you like it, please let me know, and if you don’t, well, I mean you can let me know as well, but just be nice about it.
*The answer is no.
Image: Push Square
Platinum Trophy #1: Rocket League
Date Earned: 11th November 2015
Dopamine Index:
For the longest time — by which I suppose I mean the seven years between their introduction and me earning this platinum — I didn’t give one solitary honk about Trophies.
Making their debut in 2008 on PS3, at the time I probably thought they were kinda dumb, and let’s be honest, they are.
I mean, they’re fun to collect, but their sole purpose is to keep you playing, and to keep you playing on PlayStation specifically.
If you look at it that way, all you’re really doing by collecting Trophies is keeping Hermen Hulst happy. He wants user retention to go up, just like all the other numbers on his fancy charts.
He and all those big execs at the top, quaffing champagne from Trophy-shaped chalices and laughing as you earnestly attempt Fall Guys’ ‘Infallible’ Trophy for the 286th time. That’s it, keep playing, they think, a faded Concord standee wilted in the corner.
Sorry. What I was trying to say is that I didn’t care about collecting Trophies one bit — until I got my first metallic taste of a platinum. Rocket League was my very first, and what a blast it was to get it.
I think an important reason why I look back on this platinum Trophy so fondly is because I wasn’t really trying to get it. I just enjoyed playing the game so much that I got 99% of the base Trophy set from pure, natural fun.
I played that dumb soc-car game alone, with friends, for 10 minutes or three hours, slowly getting better but never making it more than just a pastime. I do think there was a moment when I realised how close I was to the platinum, and thought it’d be cool to get it for this game I’m enjoying so much, but that’s about as far as it went.
That’s my favourite type of platinum, and it’s something I’ll probably say many times as these go on — ones unlocked through a sheer love of the game, whatever it is.
Rocket League has changed a lot since I was actively playing, but I’ve no doubt that I’d have a good time with it if I booted it up right now.
Cheers, Rocket League.
Do you have the platinum Trophy in Rocket League? Let us know in the comments section below.