The REAL truth about the Gamerscore

Since there has been so much talk today about the cheaters getting their gamerscore reset and so on, I just want to take a couple minutes and go over a few points of interest that involve the gamerscore. And I have a feeling that about 60% of you will agree with me. If not, let me know, I'm always willing to listen to creative criticism.

1. I'll just get this out of the way. The cheaters got what they deserved. The idiots out there that cheated to boost their GS and then went into online games and started bragging about your awesome GS are definitely losers. Even more so if you got your arse handed to you right after you spewed your sour BS.

2. The gamerscore DOES NOT show how good a player is. To be honest, I could sit my mom down in front of the 360, give her the controller and turn on COD4, Veteran difficulty, Mile High Club, and even my mom would eventually get the achievement. It may take her years, but if she would be willing to be dedicated enough to just keep trying, she would eventually get it. BTW: My mom can't even squash the first Goomba in SMB.

3. The gamerscore DOES show commitment to games. I think everyone hear knows what I'm talking about when it comes to commitment to games. Every single person reading this has most likely signed up to Gamespot so that they could talk about games just like I do. That right there shows a commitment to games. And everytime I see someone say "Gamerpoints are worthless, I don't care about them", I just think you're completely full of crap, because you're obviously committed to games enough to have a Gamespot account. What's wrong with admitting that you're committed to games enough that you enjoy a small, digitized-trophy for putting a lot of work into something?

Now, I know all the people that I just pissed off are going to say to me, "Gamerpoints shouldn't matter, games are made to be fun when played, not played to get achievements." And I will completely agree with you (as in, agreeing that the priority should be to have fun). But guess what, wouldn't it be cool if we could play games to have fun AND play games to earn achievements too, ALL AT THE SAME TIME? Wow, what a great idea! Oh darn, Microsoft thought of that already.

Right On Jasonic!

You pretty much hit it - Played for years without GS, Now that I finally got an Xbox - the achievements are very cool - makes you go back to that old game you already finished just to try to get the rest of the achievements.

Definately adds to the playabilty of the games and lengthens their lifespan.

Yes - I don't care about the Gamerscore - but still - if I could just get those extra 20 points..........

/fires up xbobx

Good post, but this belongs in your blog and not on the forums. I really do like your points thoughAPOLLOCJD

Yeah, you tell him! X-Box 360 related topics belong in your blog! Not on an X-Box 360 forum...

I think the GS shows more dedication than skill.

Did you get killing the whole population in Dead Rising? It's not really hard, just time consuming, and it's some serious bragging rights.

Got 1000/1000 in Gears of War, awesome you must really love the game.

GS' show your dedication, and by all means it's fun. It's fun to earn achievements, it's fun to unlock them and co-op for them. They offer replay value when you thought there was none, and they give you incentive to try things yo may have never tried before.

But they don't say your the worlds best gamer.

3. "The gamerscore DOES show commitment to games. I think everyone hear knows what I'm talking about when it comes to commitment to games. Every single person reading this has most likely signed up to Gamespot so that they could talk about games just like I do. That right there shows a commitment to games. And everytime I see someone say "Gamerpoints are worthless, I don't care about them", I just think you're completely full of crap, because you're obviously committed to games enough to have a Gamespot account. What's wrong with admitting that you're committed to games enough that you enjoy a small, digitized-trophy for putting a lot of work into something?"

i think your completely full of it trying to compare gamespot and gamerpoints. they are totally different and have totally different reasons behind liking or disliking either or. I came to gamespot because i like to read about previews and reviews, and i like the forums (for the most part). its not the same thing at all.

otherwise, i agree for the most part.

3. "The gamerscore DOES show commitment to games. I think everyone hear knows what I'm talking about when it comes to commitment to games. Every single person reading this has most likely signed up to Gamespot so that they could talk about games just like I do. That right there shows a commitment to games. And everytime I see someone say "Gamerpoints are worthless, I don't care about them", I just think you're completely full of crap, because you're obviously committed to games enough to have a Gamespot account. What's wrong with admitting that you're committed to games enough that you enjoy a small, digitized-trophy for putting a lot of work into something?"

i think your completely full of it trying to compare gamespot and gamerpoints. they are totally different and have totally different reasons behind liking or disliking either or. I came to gamespot because i like to read about previews and reviews, and i like the forums (for the most part). its not the same thing at all.

otherwise, i agree for the most part.

Gokuja

you can read the reviews and previews without having an account, correct? then what drove you to make an account? the part about the forums just reinforces his point...

And he wasn't comparing gamerscores and gamespot, he was simply pointing out a similarity between them.

[QUOTE="Gokuja"]

3. "The gamerscore DOES show commitment to games. I think everyone hear knows what I'm talking about when it comes to commitment to games. Every single person reading this has most likely signed up to Gamespot so that they could talk about games just like I do. That right there shows a commitment to games. And everytime I see someone say "Gamerpoints are worthless, I don't care about them", I just think you're completely full of crap, because you're obviously committed to games enough to have a Gamespot account. What's wrong with admitting that you're committed to games enough that you enjoy a small, digitized-trophy for putting a lot of work into something?"

i think your completely full of it trying to compare gamespot and gamerpoints. they are totally different and have totally different reasons behind liking or disliking either or. I came to gamespot because i like to read about previews and reviews, and i like the forums (for the most part). its not the same thing at all.

otherwise, i agree for the most part.

joe11king

you can read the reviews and previews without having an account, correct? then what drove you to make an account? the part about the forums just reinforces his point...

And he wasn't comparing gamerscores and gamespot, he was simply pointing out a similarity between them.

there isnt any similarities though, besides the fact that they have to do with games. thats it. only thing you can really relate between the 2 is gamerpoints with your GS level or post count. me creating an account on gamespot has nothing to do with gamerpoints. I like gamespot and i hate gamerpoints, and think gamerpoints are completely irrelevent, but a good marketing technique.

No. I do not agree.

As the achievements are right now; I don't give a **** and neither should anyone else since it represents absolutely nothing. They should make rules for achievements. Some games have way to easy achievements. The least thing they should do is rate games on achievement difficulty in stars for example. And then add the avarage amount of stars of games played to someones gamercard. Then it represents at least something. I mean, I can have 1000 gamerscore in less then 10 minutes whereas it may take you over two months to get 1000 gamerscore. Just because we have a different game. That should be noticable more easily then having to go all the way in someones played game list.

Also, I think there should be some kind of difference made in online and offline achievements. I don't play online. So that means I can't get the multiplayer achievements. Maybe they should be seperate. Probably wouldn't work but whatever.

i agree one more point you should make is that the gamerpoints are also there to entice people to try new genres of games and expand there gaming experience. Ive played plenty of different types of games and genres i never used to prior to the xbox 360 and 1 one reason i found engaging is the achievements help you get more bang for your buck by giving you incentive to delve deeper into a game

example: lets say you play gears of war on easy the game is simple fun and you like it but then you think i might try harder to get the hard achievement, suddenly the gameplay strategy is much more engaging hence you get a better experience for a game then the first run through and you may now like to buy the sequels.

yep thats how I see it. nice post. I dont give much about achievements. I played years and years without them, but now that they are here, I dont want them to leave. Its a nice plus and pushes you to try out some more stuff in the game. like harder difficulties or other things you wouldnt even have tried out or you would have missedkillerfist

Exactly! Well said. It's not like I would be pissed if I lost all my achievements, or if they magically disappeared, I wouldnt even notice they were gone. But I like them there in my little achievement list. It gives a reason to go back and play a game I put down. For example, if it werent for achievements, I probably would have never completed Gears of War on Hardcore and Insane mode. Ever since I started playing games on higher difficulty settings, I've been able to get a lot more from my videogames. Now, I make it a habit to beat every game on all difficult levels, with the exception of skipping casual or easy. I go straight to normal or higher. This also makes the game length longer, instead of flying through it on casual in under 8 hours (throwing out numbers here), play it on a higher difficulty setting and beat it in, let's say 12 hours. You get more for your money that way too. Achievements = Great.

I think the GS shows more dedication than skill.

Did you get killing the whole population in Dead Rising? It's not really hard, just time consuming, and it's some serious bragging rights.

Got 1000/1000 in Gears of War, awesome you must really love the game.

GS' show your dedication, and by all means it's fun. It's fun to earn achievements, it's fun to unlock them and co-op for them. They offer replay value when you thought there was none, and they give you incentive to try things yo may have never tried before.

But they don't say your the worlds best gamer.

rocktimusprime

Gears of War has 1250 gamer points.

To get 1000/1000 GS in a game it requires a mixture of dedication and skill. Your example about sitting your mom down in front of COD4 and expecting her to complete veteran and MHC eventually - time has nothing to do with it, if you don't have the skill. Putting in loads of hours and working out where the enemies are and how to kill them will increase your skill.

It is far too sweeping a generalisation to put all GS together, since we all know that 1000GS in Avatar does not require the same amount of skill and dedication as 1000GS in GoW, COD4 or Halo3

While high GS does not mean a player is very good, and a low GS does not mean a player is very bad, when you are playing online you would expect the player with 30k+GS to be better at the game than a new player with 1k GS. It won't always be true, but it's what you expect when you play them.

[QUOTE="joe11king"][QUOTE="Gokuja"]

3. "The gamerscore DOES show commitment to games. I think everyone hear knows what I'm talking about when it comes to commitment to games. Every single person reading this has most likely signed up to Gamespot so that they could talk about games just like I do. That right there shows a commitment to games. And everytime I see someone say "Gamerpoints are worthless, I don't care about them", I just think you're completely full of crap, because you're obviously committed to games enough to have a Gamespot account. What's wrong with admitting that you're committed to games enough that you enjoy a small, digitized-trophy for putting a lot of work into something?"

i think your completely full of it trying to compare gamespot and gamerpoints. they are totally different and have totally different reasons behind liking or disliking either or. I came to gamespot because i like to read about previews and reviews, and i like the forums (for the most part). its not the same thing at all.

otherwise, i agree for the most part.

Gokuja

you can read the reviews and previews without having an account, correct? then what drove you to make an account? the part about the forums just reinforces his point...

And he wasn't comparing gamerscores and gamespot, he was simply pointing out a similarity between them.

there isnt any similarities though, besides the fact that they have to do with games. thats it. only thing you can really relate between the 2 is gamerpoints with your GS level or post count. me creating an account on gamespot has nothing to do with gamerpoints. I like gamespot and i hate gamerpoints, and think gamerpoints are completely irrelevent, but a good marketing technique.

I need you to think outside of the box here for a minute. I'm only saying that a person's gamerscore shows commitment. Similar to that commitment is a person that has a Gamespot account, which in my mind also shows commitment. The vast majority of gamers don't have a Gamespot account. Those of us that do, it obviously shows that we have a commitment to games if we're willing to create an account on a gaming website, regardless of the fact if it's free or not.

I have a score of 32000. But you know what. I couldn't care less if it was 32. I play games for fun accross all systems.

This is why I chose "recreation" :P

Honestly, it would be cool if they created some achievements for original xbox games, I think it would add incentive to go back and play some of our old collection.

Since there has been so much talk today about the cheaters getting their gamerscore reset and so on, I just want to take a couple minutes and go over a few points of interest that involve the gamerscore. And I have a feeling that about 60% of you will agree with me. If not, let me know, I'm always willing to listen to creative criticism.

1. I'll just get this out of the way. The cheaters got what they deserved. The idiots out there that cheated to boost their GS and then went into online games and started bragging about your awesome GS are definitely losers. Even more so if you got your arse handed to you right after you spewed your sour BS.

2. The gamerscore DOES NOT show how good a player is. To be honest, I could sit my mom down in front of the 360, give her the controller and turn on COD4, Veteran difficulty, Mile High Club, and even my mom would eventually get the achievement. It may take her years, but if she would be willing to be dedicated enough to just keep trying, she would eventually get it. BTW: My mom can't even squash the first Goomba in SMB.

3. The gamerscore DOES show commitment to games. I think everyone hear knows what I'm talking about when it comes to commitment to games. Every single person reading this has most likely signed up to Gamespot so that they could talk about games just like I do. That right there shows a commitment to games. And everytime I see someone say "Gamerpoints are worthless, I don't care about them", I just think you're completely full of crap, because you're obviously committed to games enough to have a Gamespot account. What's wrong with admitting that you're committed to games enough that you enjoy a small, digitized-trophy for putting a lot of work into something?

Now, I know all the people that I just pissed off are going to say to me, "Gamerpoints shouldn't matter, games are made to be fun when played, not played to get achievements." And I will completely agree with you (as in, agreeing that the priority should be to have fun). But guess what, wouldn't it be cool if we could play games to have fun AND play games to earn achievements too, ALL AT THE SAME TIME? Wow, what a great idea! Oh darn, Microsoft thought of that already.

jasonlc3221

I agree with points one and two....for the most part, however I completely and utterly disagree with the 3rd point. My gamertag has never ever been a symbol of commitment for me, namely cause I change my gamertag every time my subscription expires, sometimes I have a monthly subscription, other times a year...some times I drop the gamertag after only 6 or 7 months with months left on it lol. My first gamertag had about 13000 points give or take, can't really remember, wasn't really fussed... but once my gold had expired, I created a new Gamertag, mostly because I was sick and tired of the same old boring name and started all over again and never looked back, I lost all my so called achievements and saved games lol (bit of a pain, but so be it). I had the usual set of achievements, I had an elite rank in Rainbow Six (Big frigging wow, it wasn't earned, it's just because I enjoyed playing it so much and lost it....pffft big whoop)

and yes, I know you can change your gamertag name for 10 dollars, but I'd rather start completely afresh.

As a gamer, I'm pretty damn commited, I own the Xbox 360, the Wii, Gamecube, PS2, PS2, the two greatest consoles in the world, Supernes and the wonderful N64. Thankfully I had very good parents (Mind you, I was a damn good child) , who pretty much bought me what I wanted, then I got my own independence and started buying my own games.

The gamertag is just a name for me, an online identity, I pay absolutely ZERO attention to other tags and their scores. That annoys people, I often enter a game and some guy or girl is saying...

"Oh look at me, I have 30000 gamer points"

My reply...

"O.....K, good I suppose?"

I really am that totally careless towards gamerscore and points. I always register my gamertag and because I've done it a bunch of times now, I've had a Microsoft customer service manager have a word with me to discuss why I do it, I answered a bunch of questions and spent about 45 minutes with him on the phone. He was totally astonished and in his own words, "Never encountered quite a soul like yourself" I actually felt complimented and was awarded 200 dollars in vouchers for taking part in the survey...which I sold for 150 dollars on Ebay and bought myself a bunch of DVD's lol.

I've been a member of gamespot for a good 3 years, this is the first person that I read a post of and COMPLETELY agreed.

Well said son, well said.

Great post, Jason! Check out the Xbox Cheater Watch List for a list of all the cheaters that were caught and punished:

http://xboxcheaterwatch.wordpress.com/