Let me take you back to a deep cut in PlayStation history. The year is 2007 and Sony has just revealed its then-promising but ultimately ill-fated PlayStation Home service for the PS3. It was a controversial idea for consoles at the time; a space where you didn’t play anything as such, but instead met up with friends, customized avatars and personalized your apartment. I must admit at the time I struggled to see the point in such an experience, but there was one area that I found hugely intriguing; a trophy room.
At the time Sony didn’t have an answer to Xbox’s popular achievements system. But the first glimpse at home promised not just the PlayStation alternative but an incredible concept in which you could display your best rewards as fully 3D models for friends to come and look at. It was a brilliant idea and a great way to incentivize people to start playing on PlayStation in a period in which such reasons were few and far between. Sadly, the hint of this system in trailers never materialized into a full experience, despite Sony’s trophy system launching later on.
It boggles my mind that Oculus isn’t doing something similar with its achievements system.
The VR specialist launched its own take on in-game awards earlier this week, and a handful of games across both the Rift and Gear VR have already got them. These days no online gaming ecosystem is complete without giving players the ability to compete for these small digital milestones which haunt the most obsessive of gamers, so it’s a big relief to see them finally make in. Cross-compatibility with Gear VR is also a hugely welcome touch.
I myself am something of a trophy veteran on PS4, though I have made some attempt to put those days behind me. I’ve only completed two lists in recent years (Transistor and MGSV, if you must know), which pales in comparison to the frankly disgusting 60 or so I completed back on the PS3.
But trophies have lost their luster to me, though, and I don’t think that will change as long as it remains just checking off tasks on a list for a tiny icon. With its own achievements system, Oculus has the chance to recapture my interest using VR, especially once Touch launches in a few months time, but I’m worried Oculus isn’t thinking along those lines right now.
At the moment Oculus achievements are just the same bog standard set of icons you see anywhere else. Imagine, instead that the company had given you your very own trophy room as an extension to the cozy apartment space seen in Oculus Home. You could have cabinets of 3D models designed by developers that differ in size/metallic value, arranging them how you want. I know I’d love to have a mantle which figurines showing everyone what I’ve pulled off in games like Lucky’s Tale, Chronos and Damaged Core.
Pictures of the moments you won your prizes could be hung up in frames on the walls, perhaps with a portal to 3D screenshots for you to explore. Achievements you’re still yet to earn could be seen on a digital screen, and you could quickly take shots of your arrangements to send to the outside world.
It could be a brilliant social experience too. You could bring in friends to show off your accomplishments, and then using Oculus Touch, you could physically pick up items and shove them in your friend’s face for bragging. Or they could barge in and ruin your display out of envy. Oculus could deliver on the promise of that PlayStation Home experience I longed for nearly ten years ago now.
The idea just makes too much sense to me, not to mention that it would give Oculus customers a genuine reason to buy off of Oculus Home instead of Steam (though HTC should really be setting this up for Viveport too, as should Sony with PS VR).
PlayStation Home never delivered. I want Oculus Home to pick up where it left off.
