A look at the Xbox 360 gamer points and Achievements.

Prior to the launch of the Xbox 360 last year we were all no doubt taken aback by the numerous new features the console offered us, which undoubtedly were a stark contrast to anything we had been used to before. The whole Xbox 360 experience was easily summed up by few words, namely the Live dashboard, customization, high definition output and of course high definition graphics. Naturally these were perhaps ideas and practices we could have all foreseen or wished for years before the Xbox 360 was even conceived. The Xbox 360 not only offered those expected features it also provided an extra layer of personality incorporated into the centre of its being. The gamer of course is at the centre of gaming, as it's the gamer who switches on the power and plays the console; not the other way around or so it seems. However someone somewhere sat down and conceptualised a feature that perhaps most people wouldn't have predicted. A feature that could be described as on a subconscious level, playing the gamer and stimulating the egos gamers have! I am of course talking about achievements and the fact that they seem to have made quite an impact on Xbox 360 gamers, achievements which Sony also recognizes the need for having them incorporated into their next generation machine as well.

What are achievements and what do they stand for? Well, the official spin is that each game has 1000 gamer points allocated to it, in which players can unlock these points by completing certain tasks (no more than 50 achievements per game) in a game. The gamer points aren't worth anything in real terms but do serve as a testament to how many games a particular gamer has and how fully games that have been played are completed. Anyone can view another person's gamer profile in which their gamer score is broken down into categories of games; making it easy to browse through the games played and what was accomplished in any particular game.

The achievement tasks themselves are fairly mixed although there doesn't seem to be any standardisation when it comes to attainment difficulty. It's up to developers to come up with suitable tasks for gamers and to fulfil the 1000 points (which are a Microsoft requirement for all Xbox 360 games) and so differences in difficulty are to be expected; especially as not all games allow for intricate tasks to be performed. So we have certain games which unlock points based on story progression and by simply completing the game will unlock all or the majority of gamer points such as in King Kong. Then there are games which require specific tasks to be performed such as finding certain items within a game such as in Tomb Raider or completing levels on a particular difficulty which seems to be a common achievement. Lastly we have multiplayer achievements which are usually time based; meaning the more games you play the more likely you are to unlock some of the achievements, which can be anything from playing 1000 online matches to getting 100 kills with a sniper rifle in games such as Perfect Dark.

The effect gamer score and of course achievements has had on gamers has been quite staggering as many (myself included) opt to display their gamer scores on message boards for more people to see. Why do we do this and what's the point? I guess it goes way beyond simple showing off especially as many low scoring gamer profiles can be seen as well. I suppose it could boil down to the relative solitary experience gaming is and even with online play becoming more and more popular, gamers still often play games alone in their rooms rather than with a group of friends. There's no one really there who is going to pat you on the back and say well done for beating that game. Imagine if your mom would come into your room and say "ahh well done for playing 1000 matches now try for 10,000" its not going to happen and why should it as mom probably would understand what it meant to get 1000 kills in the first place. With the outlet laid out before us with the Xbox 360, gamers can now show off their exploits to others, making a once solitary experience a shared one especially as respect and acknowledgement is garnered due to the shared playing experiences. Its good to know that without uttering a word, another gamer can see what type of player you are, what games you like and are good/bad at and what your general playing motivation is. This is all very clever of Microsoft and in itself creates whole communities of players who are able to freely access a wealth of information based on shared experiences.

As a lone gamer playing through a single player portion of a game the reward for completion only comes once and is always best the first time through. Many games over the years have offered unlock able modes of play and other enticements to make gamers play through games until the end. The achievement system builds on this concept and in fact gently steers gamers into the right direction perhaps playing on their egos in some respects in the process. Some games cry out "play me on a harder difficulty and I wont disappoint- plus you'll get some nice points" which in the past would have probably been something that many gamers would ignore or even not bother with save for some desired un-lockable, only obtained by beating a game on God hard mode. The achievements offer a pat on the back for gamers and so there's a sense of accomplishment gained from hearing that beeping sound and seeing the Achievement Unlocked message appear on the screen. The fact that others can see this and perhaps congratulate you is a bonus but also a motivation especially if you are inclined to wanting your ego stroked as often as possible.

There are of course a number of gamers who do not care for gamer score and what others think of them or their playing habits; however I'm pretty sure many of those gamers still feel the same sense of accomplishment when they do eventually unlock an achievement; however the difference being that these gamers aren't motivated by a need for a pat on the back after completing tasks. On the other side of the coin there are many gamers who take achievements way too seriously as if they have an inferiority complex towards the rest of the gaming community and are overly competitive as well, not a good combination. These gamers need to have their egos stroked constantly to prove to themselves and other that they are in fact the 'l33t' (Elite) gamer. It's clear to see that some gamers spend countless hours of their lives devoted to unlocking achievements in games and by games I mean all games. There are a number of titles available now for the Xbox 360 compared to the 18 or so at launch and when you combine this with the growing number of arcade games (which nets up 250 gamer points per title) there are potentially thousands of points up for grabs, a lure seemingly too enticing for a large number of gamers. This is all fine and dandy except the time needed to accomplish certain goals can take up huge amounts of time. So in some respects you can have gamers in awe at the top scoring players but on the other hand there's also the possibility of a distinct disrespect towards players who spend all their waking hours playing games.

Playing games to excess also raises more issues when achievements are involved as you can often wonder or even ask yourself, would I have played that game on that difficulty had it not been for the achievement gained? In most cases no doubt, the answer would be a resounding "No" and so this is where the notion of the Xbox 360 playing the player comes into effect. With the Xbox 360 achievement system you can go as far as saying that many gamers are playing games they don't enjoy playing simply to get points as some tasks are extremely punishing and or, time consuming. There's also the fact that many gamers can rent titles they would never dream of buying in an attempt to milk the game just for the gamer points. On top of this and exclusive to the online achievements there are players who cheat games to get the achievements. These players often enlist likeminded players to help them; in fact there are whole communities dedicated to the hunting and unlocking of achievements. So with these antics in mind and also if you actually care then there has to really be a distinction between gamer points, specific achievements and of course player skill; a distinction which many choose to ignore.

When looking at any gamers profile either on a forum or via the Xbox 360, the first thing that you will see besides a gamer tag is their gamer score. So when presented with a player who has 20,000 gamer points to their name an immediate reaction is that they have played 20 or more games to accomplish this. Now let's say you have only played 5 games but have 5000 points, the difference is quite a large one, 15,000 points to be exact. However with the option to get a breakdown of how a player achieved those 20,000 points perhaps can paint a different picture altogether and reveal that the player has played some 35 games or more and only completed parts of each game to amass such a large number of points. Does this then make that person the better gamer, hell no it doesn't but it does point to the fact that this particular player, plays lots of games (or rents them) to unlock the easier achievements and in fact moves on to the next game when they become too hard to obtain. There are exceptions, as across the globe there are all sorts of players some legit others not so legit and so using gamer score as a measure of skill isn't very feasible. What is more accurate are the breakdowns for what has been achieved in each game that a gamer has played. This detailed breakdown presents dates and specifics on what has and hasn't been unlocked and is more a measure of gaming prowess than a random set of numbers.

So what about the future of achievements? At the moment there are various websites dedicated to bringing gamers a look at what achievements will be in current games and new releases, which is good if you care, or if you are passionate that much you can't wait to see what challenges lie ahead. There are also dedicated sites that as previously mentioned contain communities which help each other unlock game achievements and are great if you are perhaps stuck or unsure of how to unlock a particular achievement. More widespread than the others there are various websites which have their own leader boards in which registered gamers can see how they fare compared to the masses. One website which has over 500,000 registered gamer tags and is probably the most well known has gamer scores ranging from 0- 55,000 + with the current leader on that site amassing 55,358 points. Whilst initially when there were few games to choose from gaining a high score was often perceived as dedication and more often than not granted some respect. Well with the influx of titles which are now available and as I've just pointed out with gamer scores reaching in excess of 50,000 what does this mean to anyone other than those directly competing for the top slot? Well not much and really why should anyone care unless you have a group of friend all hovering around the same sort of score levels competing in a close knit group. I don't think when the original concept was realised; that having gamer score leagues and leader boards was part of the equation. Gamer score was and is something that can be used as a self reference and also to provide and insight into your gaming habits for other gamers. Personally I feel that leagues will become obsolete in about a years time when there's no chance for new gamers to catch the ever so dedicated minority of leaders that rent, buy, cheat and in some cases use game saves from others to amass points. Hopefully gamer scores will return to what they were intended which is simply an easy measure of ones dedication to playing games and unlocking things.

The achievements system kind of rests on gamer scores, as the whole point of unlocking the achievements is to increase your score, but if no-one cares about score or if there's no real point to them, then where does this leave the achievements? Could the whole system backfire where only the 'die hards' take an interest and the masses simply ignore them? I don't know but perhaps in the future many of us taken in by achievements will return to simply playing games for fun rather than the constant striving for unlocking points, which at the end of the day in reality the points individuals amass means nothing to anyone other than themselves.

The gamer score and achievement system certainly plays on gamers egos and offers some sort of acknowledgement for gaming exploits. However, ultimately it's the Xbox 360 that is providing the ego boost because if no-one else is around to witness what you have achieved, or if no-one else cares, then you're simply left with a self gratifying experience. I guess we're at the stage now where universally there are some specific achievements that are hard to get and so anyone who is able to accomplish these will be granted kudos amongst peers. However outside of the gaming world, achievements and gamer score mean nothing at all as people don't give a damn if you've reached level 100 on Robotron 2084.

Posted By: Robert Cram

Date: 2006-08-08