Achievements Unlocked

How to easily improve your gamerscore by 8000 points.

When Microsoft's Gamerscore system was introduced with the Xbox 360, it didn't draw much attention; it was simply a number to show how many games you've played. Little did we know that Microsoft was on its way to making a huge something out of nothing with the new system. The points have no value, add no new functionality to a game, nor do they improve our overall quality of life. Despite this, we have slowly started to obsess over achievement points which serve as nothing more than bragging rights

[fjtorres]

But isn't that what gaming is about? ;-)
Gaming is about feeling good at achieving something; completing a level, finding an easter egg, beating a boss, mastering a game...
Achievement points codify and formalize this into a universal rating system.
Since gamers are by nature competitive it is only natural that the rating system would become a bragging system. And, of course, that the most competitive gamers would obsess about their score.
Basic human psychology.
And a natural development once you have a universal online gaming environment like XBL...
So yes, achievement points are nothing but bragging rights but its better to have something to brag about than nothing, no? Life would be sooo empty without them. ;-)

[Ignorant Fanboy]

Remember at the arcades, you get to put in your initials for a high score.

I obsessed on putting my initials in the #1 slot.

Achievements are just an extension of leaderboards on an arcade game, I love 'em.

My Gamerscore: around 5500 + I have 1,000 for oblivion.

[NewZealander]

the points arnt JUST bragging rites, they also give you reason to replay and get the most out of your games
even after i finished dead rising or gears of war i had a blast going back and milking them for all they are worth, on the origonal xbox i never went back to games after finishing them
and if a game doesnt have achievements i simply wont play it

[SuicidalTendencies]

They also add replay value to games I would have just let sit on my shelf. Like beating a game on it's hardest difficulty, going for 53,000 kills in Dead Rising, searching for all hidden orbs or cog tags. It's a nice little challenge that is optional but sure is fun.

[gta_cb]

i like the achievements idea.

[gta_cb]

its also just like this websites points system. when we post a comment we get 10 points, when we have a daily visit we get an extra 30 points, and with stories... well just look at deep with nearly double points to TnS in second place. yes this time the points thing is going to help deep as hes gonna win some cash, but everyother month is going to help us?... no! but its still cool lol

[Sphinx]

but I don't go out of my way to play games I don't want to play just to get points.

[ben hates you]

sony has the upcoming trophy idea which i think would be great but if sony where to have a trophy for every little thing you get an achievement point you would have hundreds of trophies which i think wouldn't work very well, your not going to be able to really enjoy them all

[Systematrix]

Over 22,000-pt gamerscore and climbing!! And a couple of those games in this article aren't that easy. Any 2K6 game is easy money, and TMNT. King Kong I've heard is very easy but haven't played it yet. If you wanna get really lame you can play Open Season, Cars, and Fuzion Frenzy 2, easy 1000 pts there (I told you I was a gamerscore whore =P ).

[TheSadTruth]

In my eyes a gamerscore is nothing to be proud of.. having a high gamerscore is no indication of how good you are at games or what you have accomplished.. but how much free time you have. Anyone can get the same achievements with just as much free time... I'm not knocking anyone here; doing whatever makes you happy is never a bad thing.

It's the sad truth.

[GameJunkieJim]

Or a fake house.

[Ignorant Fanboy]

Try getting any achievement on Guitar Hero 2 above medium.

You could spend days mashing buttons, but you wont get the achievement unless you are really really really good at the game. Anybody I see with those achievements, I give props to.

Do you see how this works?

10,000 multiplayer kills in Gears of War. That is an achievement you can spend weeks getting, and you are right, it only proves you played alot of rounds, but could have finished last everytime.

Now that developers know we love achievements, they have been making them more fun to achieve, and more accurately portray a gamers talent.

[TheSadTruth]

I'm referring to the big picture.. sure there are achievements that are hard or take skill to get, but those are few and far between...

[Evil Rant Monkey]

Try picking up a real guitar, ignorant doucehbag. The Sad Truth is right. You kids, who have absolutely no life, are the ones with the most gamerscore. Just because I have a job, family, friends, and social activities to attend to doesn't mean I don't know what gaming is all about. I do a lot of things in life, and my friends and family still call me a game slut.

P.S. I give props to Steve Vai because he's amazing at guitar. Screw you guys who think you can play guitar just because you have played guitar hero before. YOU SUCK!!!

[Ignorant Fanboy]

I have 6 guitars, 3 of them actually stay in tune more than a day. I know about 35 chords, not including power chords. And about 10 scales. I only play guitar because my neighbors would call the police for my drumming.

I am better at the real guitar than at guitar hero, I can actually play war pigs, not that hard right? Try playing it on GH2, its crazy.
I can play most of the playlist better on real guitar. So when an 8-year old kid can play Psychobilly freakout on expert, its pretty amazing.

He might just be the next steve vai, give the little kid some time.

P.S. Kovenator, Steve Vai is not from this planet, he has a super computer for a brain, so he can process the the notes his Bionic fingers are playing. I have alot of his videos, most are on VHS, he doesnt have that many out on DVD.

[Covenant]

Other "easy" achievement games:

Lego Star Wars II: I have 920 out of 1000...just too lazy to get those last four.

Any of the Burger King games, and most of the "kiddy" games; e.g., Cars, Open Season, Meet the Robinsons, etc. I think they left these off the list, as most gamers looking for an easy boost probably won't go for those.

Prey: 750 easy points. The rest are online, but if you're into boosting, those will be easy.

Hardest so far: Fear. Some of those achievements are insanely hard to get. So is Gears' "Seriously..." achievement. 10,000 kills? Jeez.

Personal score: 4695 on eight games. (Only 50 from Oblivion...I've barely started that game).

[fjtorres]

...but they require you to actually play the game.
If you play the game through naturally, the achievements will track your progress.
They're like signposts along the various quest lines.

Other games use them differently.
Some use them to track activity (number of kills), which *can* be kinda cheap but others encourage exploration and creativity (crackdown) which prods the gamers to go beyond the obvious and can lead to some serious fun.

Either way, Achievements and Gamer Score (two different things, really) both succeed in changing the way we approach games and increase the fun and overall value of the game.

A plus, all-in-all.