What is the point of a gamerscore?

[SneakyStuff]

MS must have done something right because Sony followed suit pretty quick, Steam is adding achievements, and even WoW added achievements. The "scores" mean absolutely nothing but something about it is fun!

 

[venkman]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
<-------- See my post count? Yeah, it means I'm better than you.

I've always assumed it meant your more unemployed than me.

 

[Dessert Tears]

I'll work on silly or grindy achievements if they're the last few I need for the game. I'll try to play through at least once before consulting walkthroughs or achievement lists.

Originally posted by: chalmers
Heck I read one guy who said something to the effect of hooking up 4 controllers and playing a game by himself so he could get a 4 player achievement.

I did that in MUA (using a driving wheel and RB drums), but there was a glitch that cut the time required to a few minutes. I also played 2 players simultaneously for a total of 2-3 hours.

Originally posted by: RedRooster
I like the sound it makes.

I download stuff just to hear that sound when they complete.

Originally posted by: peritusONE
You see people getting stupid achievements by hooking up 4 controllers for that sole purpose, I see getting the 500 orb achievement in Crackdown and being able to prove that I found them all. Now THAT is an achievement worthy of comparing with friends.

Finding things ? orbs (Crackdown), flags (AC), flying rats (GTA4) ? tend to be the most difficult for me. Even if I have a list and a map, I don't know if I got a particular one already or if it's behind something 5 feet away. At least the Crackdown orbs make a noise nearby and boost stats.

Originally posted by: mugs
For instance if there is an achievement for killing 1000 bad guys, it should say you've killed 345/1000. Of course it wouldn't be applicable to all achievements, so it would have to be optional for developers to implement it. I'm actually surprised that MS hasn't added that functionality yet, I've seen it in some games that have their own built-in trophy system.

I liked GOW2's system, I was able to do a lot of them without reading their descriptions, just based on their name and when the progress bar pops up. Doesn't mean I'm going to do Seriously 2.0, though.

 

[Saulbadguy]

It gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

 

[Zensal]

Okay. GS = Crap. But achievements are alternate objectives in games. I beat HL:EP2 and had lots of fun. Then I did it again while carrying a gnome the entire time, just for the achievement. It was just another way to play the game that made it more challenging/fun.

 

[Yreka]

Its pretty much covered.. Their intent was to give new/different goals to the existing games without having to add content.. Win for the players as it gives you more "goals" to accomplish, IE why we play games in the first place. Win for developers as it gives the end user more "game" without significantly more development time.

It sounds like your core argument is against the quality of achievements, well that's up to the developer, not the platform. You could say Microsoft is partially at fault because they mandated a certain amount of points implemented per game. The mandate itself is probibly ok, but the amount may be too high.. I think that, coupled with some not-so-creative developers are the reasons for the call-it-in lamer achievements that are all too common.


Still, I think the system overall is a good thing. They don't hurt anybody. *obligatory* If you dont like them, then you always have the option to ignore them.. ( I think you can even turn the notification off ?)

Personally, I enjoy working on individual achievements, and comparing with friends who happen to be playing, or have played the same game. On games I really enjoy, they give me an excuse to re-play to achieve new goals where I would have otherwise had to put them down. On games that suck, they get ignored just like the intended content itself.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Originally posted by: Baked
OP must have a small penis.

Yup, that's exactly how to keep a thread from potentially turning into a firestorm.

I think, to an extent, having gamer-scores is fun. Achievements are more fun to compare against other players. Comparing two different gamers on the merit of points only for the sole purpose of seeing who can pee higher is less than pointless.

I have about 2 and a half or 3 thousand points. I don't care to get a gnarly high score in every game just for points and bragging license. It's kind of like telling a stranger at a party how many hours a day you spend sitting on your duff doing nothing, or that you can consistently win a speed eating contest.