I’ve got a GamerScore. It’s not the biggest I’ve ever seen, but it’s not that bad. It’s certainly not small. Size doesn’t even matter right? Let’s hope not anyway, because compared to some of my friends, my minimal offering of 8500 points cannot even begin to compare to their 6 figure scores! Perhaps I’ve got GamerScore envy…
The principle behind Achievements, and it’s rather unnecessary twin sister GamerScore, has always baffled me. I understand that they’re a visual representation of your numerous accomplishments in-game, but besides providing you with rather impressive (or rather puny) bragging rights, they seem to serve very little purpose. If anything, GamerScore can on occasion have a detrimental affect, with it’s only use as a sliding geek-o-meter, demonstrating to those on Xbox Live just how much time you really do dedicate to your online persona. Personally, I’d rather have away with it all.
Considering the current Xbox 360 setup – I can’t help but criticise the combination of Achievements and GamerScore. The fact that you’ve accomplished an feat in-game is enough, do you really need to be rewarded with “points”, as well?
When you consider achievements in games (and by consider I mean over analyse like I’ve done for the sake of this article) the entire concept seems flawed. Achievements and the constant quest for a ‘greater GamerScore’ only help to drag people away from the game they should be enjoying. After all, you did just drop £30-£40 on that new title, and I can only assume that you didn’t do that for the sole purpose of boosting a on screen figure.
You would be surprised to know just what some, rather dedicated individuals, will do to show off. I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve got a couple of chaps on my Friends List who actually bought the game AVATAR, for the sole reason that they could grab an easy 1,000 GamerScore within 5 minutes. I’m even more ashamed to admit that I then proceeded to borrow said game from one of said friends, so I could get a quick score boost. Whats happened to me?!
Achievements do hold a purpose, despite everything I’ve said. Although I wouldn’t recommend playing through the game for the sole purpose of obtaining the achievements, attempting to complete all 1000/1000 GamerScore does go quite a way to providing you with a true sense of accomplishment. The concept of Achievements does clearly help to indicate when you’ve 100% finished with a game. Oh and lets not forget those geeky bragging rights we mentioned previously.
So I guess the question to ask is – do we still need achievements? In all honesty, I don’t know, but it’s certain that they won’t be going anywhere seeing as they’ve become a cornerstone of all Xbox 360 titles.
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One things for sure though, If I even get to 100,000 GamerScore, I think I might just kill myself.
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