[Other] trophy hunting has ruined my friend. Can I get him back?

He used to be that type of gamer who could fire up a game and play it for joy. But as the years passed and generations changed (PS3 -> PS5), things went south so hard that it affected our long-lasting online friendship.

Within his small circles, he’s fine, but when chatting with other people, he pretends to be an expert, and people praise him for his insane Platinum trophy count.

But in reality, he has Platinum trophies in Dark Souls 1, 2, 3, and Bloodborne… and he never actually beat the games on his own. He judges games without experiencing them.

Literally, a friend of his in Elden Ring would run through, clear rooms, and deal with bosses, while he just ran behind, collecting stuff, giving zero damn about anything. Changing outfit or weapon? No bother - it doesn’t affect his Platinum. Dark Souls coop? Got all the rings dropped and souls duplicated. Once I made him beat Ornstein and Smough by himself, only to see him disappear for an entire week and come back with a screenshot of him beating them, health bar barely fitting into a 16:9 aspect ratio.

And it just goes on and on, getting worse. Buy the game - it’ll be fun in coop - but as soon as the Platinum comes up, the game gets deleted and never installed again.

MechWarrior 5? It would be fun, but guess what - we never play it because there’s no way to cheese it. You have to think to beat it!

MGS Delta? Complete it on the easiest mode where enemies can’t see you at point blank range, then run hard mode with all OP items unlocked using a 1:1 copy of a YouTube guide - easy game - deleted.

The list goes on, and I’ve stopped playing coop with him once and for all. Every new game he spoils by reading trophies and guides before even installing it. Any coop session turns into a guide driven walkthrough where he lets his teammate die for the sake of getting the trophy.

How cringe it was playing with him in Dead by Daylight when I invited him to play with streamers - he gave no damn about us hanging there while he had to clean totems that were… you guessed it, cursed.

I feel like I lost my old friend to this system. Buy a game for full price, read spoilers, run through on the easiest mode, Platinum it, delete - back to Zenless Zone Zero, playing that casino of his.