My Trophy-less Adventure In Monster Hunter Tri

On Friday, I posted an update in which I claimed to be a trophy whore.  I had been looking through various other ruminations concerning whether or not Trophies have crippled the fun-factor of video games, transforming them into another monster altogether different from prior generations of games.  I ended up sharing that while Trophies have pushed me to feel like I was "working" rather than enjoying myself, the overall reason that I play games is for fun.  Then something struck me: I couldn't remember the last time that I played a title that didn't have Trophies or Achievements.  Since I ended that post stating my belief that the majority of gamers (myself included) played for the sake of fun rather than some call to the collecting of intangible and relatively worthless digital items, I had to put that theory to the test.

Or a quiz, as it were, since I only gave myself this weekend to see just how truthful I was being with myself.  I decided that I would power-on my Wii for something more than watching 30 Rock with my wife via Netflix.  I have two titles for the Wii that I have yet to play through completion: Monster Hunter Tri and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.  I decided that, since there was no way that I would be able to complete Skyward Sword in a weekend, I would pop-in Monster Hunter and see where that took me.

Here I was: playing a game that is arguably last generation, with beautiful yet 480i visuals, and not a single Trophy or Achievement to unlock.  The title didn't have the nostalgia associated with it that something like Chrono Trigger could bring to me, it was simply a test to see if it would stack-up to the more "modern" games that I find myself drawn to.  Could it occupy my attention and keep me interested long enough that I could believe my statement about gamers playing for pure enjoyment?

The answer to that question is yes.  While I haven't put in 300 hours or played it for more than a few days, Monster Hunter has me thinking about it when I'm not playing it.  When I went to a work function on Saturday morning, I was thinking about different strategies that I could employ and what weapon preference I was going to have when I got back on.  Hunting (on the Wii Classic Controller Pro) the pixelated yet beautifully-realized monsters in the game's gorgeous environments has been a real treat.  It has brought me, in some ways, back to the more basic joys of gaming.  I have been transported back to the days before I paused to view a game's "checklist of things to do to show-off that you have done them".  I am creating my own achievements by gathering the appropriate resources to complete my very-Japanese armor sets.  My character's appearance serves as Monster Hunter's only "trophy".  It's a blast!

Something else that I have been trying to do with Monster Hunter is rely less on forum support to figure something out.  I have been allowing the game to teach me how to play it and how to reap the most benefits from my time within its world.  This is another thing that can be beneficial/detrimental to our current-day enjoyment of games: the internet.  Instead of using trial and error to defeat a boss or forage for spider webs, we all-to-often turn to Google to be our savior.  While it can make progress more of a grind than it already is in Monster Hunter, the results are much more rewarding when we take the time to figure-out a solution by ourselves.  

All-in-all I feel as if my assertion that I still play based on the fun-factor of a title instead of simply for Trophies can now be proven.  I've been thoroughly enjoying my time with Monster Hunter Tri on my fairly unused Wii and I'm really glad that I decided to give this game a chance.  I would like to say that I'll be spending a lot more time in the near future with Monster Hunter, but with Bioshock Infinite releasing tomorrow night, I'll be lucky to sleep for the next few days.

I'd like to know the last game that you played without Trophies or Achievements.  In the comments section below, why don't you tell us what game it was and your thoughts on Trophies in games?