Sony is turning whole PSN into a MMORPG! with 2.40

[cRush]

yes. they are starting a new trophy system (not unlike achievements from 360) . this update will come with FW 2.4 tomorrow !!

but it'll have a level up system that is much seen in a lot of RPG games.

you'll earn Trophies for completing specific tasks in a game (a notification will pop up in the corner of the screen to tell you when you've earned one). The difference though is that instead of being worth a rather arbitrary point total, you'll earn either a Bronze, Silver or Gold Trophy for each accomplishment.

Each Trophy has a behind-the-scenes point value (that you probably won't ever see), with developers allotted a total number of points they can use per game. So devs could pop in only a handful of Gold Trophies, a ton of Bronze Trophies, or mix and match with a few Silver tossed in, up to the point limit for the game.

There will be "large scale" and "small scale" Trophy amounts, likely split between downloadable and retail games. So, like on the 360, full-fledged titles should offer more Trophies than smaller downloadable games.

You can compare Trophies with others easily.

Each game will also have a single Platinum Trophy assigned to it, which is only unlocked once you've earned all of the other Trophies. This Platinum Trophy plays nicely into the new Level system that will be introduced in 2.40. Instead of simply having a total number of Trophies (which is also viewable), each PSN profile will also have a Level. Each Trophy takes you closer to the next Level, though like an RPG, you'll be required to gain more Trophies to advance to each successive Level (it'll take longer to get to Level 3 than Level 2, in other words).

Platinum Trophies will give you a ton of "experience" towards your next Level, so if you have a game where you're missing just one Bronze Trophy, nabbing that last one will give you a huge Level boost as it'll also automatically earn you the Platinum Trophy. Though there's technically a Level cap on the server end, Sony will continue to up the cap so that gamers should never be able to hit the maximum. Level 1 billion, here we come.

Greg Miller's Take
Once this Trophy thing gets going, I'm done with Achievements.

With one morning meeting, Sony has made me ready to buy every cross-platform title on the PlayStation 3 instead of its Microsoft-bred competitor. Sure, points are nice, but now I'm Leveling up? You mean to tell me that Sony's turned my gaming into an RPG of its own? You mean that everyone's going to be starting from square one and have an equal chance at being king of Trophies?

Sign me up.

The Profile pages will show you a users' Level. Addiction +1.

Seriously, everything I saw during our eyes-on with 2.40 impressed me. The ability to play custom music looks like it'll be fun, the in-game XMB works just like you think it should, and Sony honestly seems like it's ready to improve the feature as it goes. Sure, it's weird that calling the XMB up doesn't automatically pause the game and I'd like to see the Levels of my friends when I glance at the who's online section, but during our session, Sony was already talking about Phase Two and Phase Three additions and plans.

It's nice to know that it's committed.

Sadly, it's going to suck waiting for developers to get Trophies in their games, but the promise of Stardust and every major first-party, 2008 release being ready to roll with the system is a nice silver lining. Plus, they're working on a Warhawk Trophy patch, so I'll be set once that hits.

I'm excited. Really, really excited. Since the PS3 launched, I've been waiting for Sony to say "This is why you should play games on our system." The independent, original award system 2.40 is implementing is a great first step towards an answer to that question.

The PSN is about to become a community.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/885/885177p1.html

[EaGL1337]

With PSN's Home coming it'll be just like an MMORPG