That's it... I'll just be honest. Achievement Points are retarded.

[Nesmaster]

Why on earth is there NO "TOTAL GAMERSCORE LEADERBOARD"??

If they're made for "bragging rights", and every individual game has it's own leaderboard, why can't we have a rundown of who's got the worlds highest total gamerscores? Wouldn't that be the ultimate bragging right? Knowing your global rank?

Why is this not a totally BASIC feature on XBLA?

While microsoft doesn't have an official one, there's always mygamercard.net. What I'd like to know is, beyond all the cheaters, who has the highest gamerscore by actually, you know, playing the games. I've glitched a couple, I'll admit that. But I'd NEVER use a gamesave to instantly achieve 1000 points in a game.

[Sothy]

Really? you glitched?

Who woulda guessed....

[Nesmaster]

I saw this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-ypLLkY3o) as an easy way out. Believe me I wish I didn't do it, but I wanted the gamerpic. LOL

[Nature Boy]

Why on earth is there NO "TOTAL GAMERSCORE LEADERBOARD"??

Maybe they didn't want people cheating :)

Seriously though, I think Joe's point earlier is one of the reasons why. There really are no rules as to how easy or difficult the points have to be.

I agree with you though, a global scoreboard would still be pretty cool.

[Zing]

- Master of Ceremonies in Rainbow 6 Vegas (VERY hard to get 16 people to join your game... I hosted for 3 days straight and never got it. I relied on other people looking to get it from xbox.com to help us all get it. Likewise, this has potential to be the easiest thing ever, but not for me.)
Ok. This is absurd and hilarious at the same time. I can just picture 16 people joining a game, then instantly saying over voice chat "ok everyone quit, it's r0x0rg4m3r's turn, join his game".

There are a lot of ways to fritter your life away, but rewarding stuff like this is a crime against humanity.

[Nature Boy]

There are a lot of ways to fritter your life away, but rewarding stuff like this is a crime against humanity.

That's a *tiny* bit overstated I think. Personally, a number on a computer is hardly much of a reward, and I can always dig it when people think outside the box like that. It's not cheating in my books unless you're hacking your Xbox really.

[Joker T]

While microsoft doesn't have an official one, there's always mygamercard.net. What I'd like to know is, beyond all the cheaters, who has the highest gamerscore by actually, you know, playing the games. I've glitched a couple, I'll admit that. But I'd NEVER use a gamesave to instantly achieve 1000 points in a game.

Kaens' Leaderboard has the top legit players in the world. Stallion83 is number 1 with over 180,000 GS.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Thanks for the info on external leaderboards ...

... and as far as MS worrying about people "cheating" ... if they don't care about it on individual titles (they don't) I doubt they'd care on a collective score.

[agbulls]

Wow, I just realized this thread was back from the dead. I remember the day I wrote the original post. Maybe I'll make this into a full blown story on our site.

[mnbren05]

I have yet to get all the achievements in a game. I tend to play through a game and pick up a few here and there. I do not have the time or energy to spend forever unlocking achievements. I will say I do enjoy the system though. The points keep me playing the 360 over the wii or ps3.

[s1lence]

Really? you glitched?

Who woulda guessed....

I already knew, you could tell by the time stamps on his gamertag. Seems like alot of people have used that glitch, myself NOT being one of them.

Sorry Nesmaster, I wasn't trying to call you out. You are a great gamer, you have some achievements that are hard to get and you got them legit.

[Nesmaster]

I already knew, you could tell by the time stamps on his gamertag. Seems like alot of people have used that glitch, myself NOT being one of them.

Sorry Nesmaster, I wasn't trying to call you out. You are a great gamer, you have some achievements that are hard to get and you got them legit.

What's funny is, I actually started playing Gears online to specifically work towards getting Seriously (5/6/2007). Around the time that I had 1200 kills I heard of the glitch and thought gee, sure would be nice to not waste 3 months getting this. I got the last achievement from the original 1000 I needed, then spent an hour or so doing the glitch. I really wish I never did it, but hindsight is 20/20. And at least I saved ~3 months of my life...LOL

You can all label me as a cheater, it's okay, I deserve it. :)

[s1lence]

You admit it, thats more then most people that have done that glitch will ever do. So, its all cool in my book. Don't let it happen again ;P

[xtremegamer]

Well, the achievment scores doesn't help me decide what games I play or buy, but how I might play them. For example, I was (3 red rings) playing Call of Duty 2 GOY for the first time through since I picked up a bunch of cheaper 360 games at GS with the B2G1 Free sale, I decided to go ahead and play it on veteran difficulty since you get 60 achievment points for each level. Seeing as how my gamer score is only in the 1500 range, I figured I might as well give it a try. Turns out I am was enjoying the game more on a harder difficulty.

I have picked up one game based on the achievments though, NBA 2K6, it was cheap, I wanted a basketball game, and the achievments are easy.

I like the achievment point system, it adds a new element to gaming that has been missing. Since my dad and younger brother got 360's for christmas, before mine crashed, we were comparing our gamer score for fun. I think it is a great element to gaming, I really don't look at it as a e-penis.

[Zing]

If so many people have cheated to get a particular achievement, doesn't that render having that achievement meaningless? At that point, why even spend the hour to get it? Everyone will know or assume that everyone else has cheated to get it.

[s1lence]

If so many people have cheated to get a particular achievement, doesn't that render having that achievement meaningless? At that point, why even spend the hour to get it? Everyone will know or assume that everyone else has cheated to get it.

I've wondered this as well. There are games that you have to boost for to get the online achievements. No one plays alot of the titles online and then they put online only achievements in the titles, see Fatal Fury or Backgammon.

Sure thats different then cheating, but a people that has a time consuming achievement done legit is looked at differently then those that get it by cheating. Sure I'm probably speaking as a minority but thats how I see it.

[Nesmaster]

Look at the Call of Juarez multiplayer achievements. They're so rediculous they pretty much require you to boost. 3 kills with a single shotgun blast? 4 kills with single dyanamite stick? I'd be surprised if anyone got those legit. Maybe the dynamite one, but the shotgun one no way. The group I did that with while boosting could hardly even get it when there was 3 guys standing still, as close together as you could be.

I don't like multiplayer achievements at all. I'm glad Infinity Ward doesn't either. I just wish more developers did away with them, as they're hardly creative when they're there anyways. Mostly kill X, get to rank X, use "X" X amount of times, or play "X" X amount of times.

And playing COD on veteran is really the only way it should be played. Except that broken piece of junk called COD3.

[Poofta!]

i think achievements are fun, but like anything fun, there are people who abuse it. luckily, only the lamest, silliest most pathetic beings around abuse this one, which is actually good, since it flags people for me to avoid, make fun of, generally riduicule and bring up as examples for why we should trim down the gene pool.

[s1lence]

Look at the Call of Juarez multiplayer achievements. They're so rediculous they pretty much require you to boost. 3 kills with a single shotgun blast? 4 kills with single dyanamite stick? I'd be surprised if anyone got those legit. Maybe the dynamite one, but the shotgun one no way. The group I did that with while boosting could hardly even get it when there was 3 guys standing still, as close together as you could be.

I don't like multiplayer achievements at all. I'm glad Infinity Ward doesn't either. I just wish more developers did away with them, as they're hardly creative when they're there anyways. Mostly kill X, get to rank X, use "X" X amount of times, or play "X" X amount of times.

And playing COD on veteran is really the only way it should be played. Except that broken piece of junk called COD3.

I hate those almost as much as the hour achievements. Play 50 hours, play 100 hours, host for 24 hours straight. Those are the achievements that really piss me off.

[mailman187666]

the only use my gamerscore has for me is only up against my close friends. We just joke around and say shit like, "oh I am better at life than you" or "come on man, don't you know you need at least 10,000+ gamerscore to be my friend in real life." we just joke about the shit but other than that they don't mean much to me.

[xtremegamer]

And playing COD on veteran is really the only way it should be played. Except that broken piece of junk called COD3.


Yeah, WTH did they do to COD3, I tried playing on Regular Xbox since my 360 is down, that game is just retarded.

[Nesmaster]

I hate those almost as much as the hour achievements. Play 50 hours, play 100 hours, host for 24 hours straight. Those are the achievements that really piss me off.

At least those you can get by doing nothing, but yes they are annoying. Viva Pinata for example, I had 980 in that in roughly 20 hours. I had to leave my 360 on for an additional 30 hours for the last achievement. Far Cry, even though I played online a considerable amount, never did hit the 80 hour achievement. I left my 360 on for that one too in the end. Wartech, I got the 100 hour one only because I was breaking in my new 360, which I exchanged anyways.


Yeah, WTH did they do to COD3, I tried playing on Regular Xbox since my 360 is down, that game is just retarded.

Treyarch (shoddy developer, in my book) developed COD3, not Inifnity Ward. They're doing COD5 this year as well, and by the sounds of things so far it'll be another WWII shooter. I'll wait for the "real" Infinity-developed COD5, likely in 2009.

[Graham Mitchell]

I'm clearly late to the party, but I guess I'll put in my 2 cents. I like achievement points. I don't think I need them to play a game, but I do check them and go for them when I feel their attainable. It convinced me to buy Streets of Rage 2 for the bazillionth time, and there's something that eats away at me to buy Robotron even though I have it on 2 different compilation discs. The added connectivity of these old games really enhances them, and I enjoy it. Plus I get to look at a constant reminder that I beat Bioshock or whatever everytime I turn the machine on. It's just for fun, and it's saving me cash because I'm not feeling bored with the games I already have and trolling around for an excuse to buy more.

That said, I did just get the 360 for Christmas, and maybe the novelty will wear off in awhile, but for now I'm enjoying it.

[Nature Boy]

If so many people have cheated to get a particular achievement, doesn't that render having that achievement meaningless? At that point, why even spend the hour to get it? Everyone will know or assume that everyone else has cheated to get it.

Not if you've earned it on your own it isn't. If you can earn an achievement legitimately that others cheat to get that's even cooler IMO.

[googlefest1]

I used to think the achievement system was dumb since you didn’t get anything for it - but I did see its value - in adding game play and making a difference in cross platform games

until the red spice challenge I didn’t care (I entered but didn’t win anything)

I hope they do more of those

the only time I would rent crap games to get achievements is for another challenge that gives you stuff

I’ve owned a 360 for a year and I recently became addicted to t he points system for some reason. I used to play mostly XBOX games on it and for some reason I got hooked. it game me a reason to play games I had on the shelf. Which also led me to being disappointed. some achievements are too hard and some ruin a game for me. Like for example star trek legacy, I like the game but ended up playing it a certain way so I wouldn’t loose the opportunity to gain achievements. which meant that I had to change the way I would have played it and enjoyed the game more (in particular I’m talking about the original series missions for those of you who know what I’m referring to).

my other complaint are the online achievements - some are utterly ridiculous (especially if you don’t really like playing games online) and others become impossible to get because no one plays the games anymore. for example PGR3 I had this game for a long time and never played it. Achievements is what helped it come off my shelf and I discovered a game I really liked. but no one plays this game online and I cant get the achievements for the online play.

so achievements is not a reason why I would buy a game BUT it has become a part of the game for me and I get left with the feeling that the game is unfinished if all the achievements are not unlocked - which is a bummer for me because I am a completeist when it comes to games (I feel that’s the only way to get my money’s worth). I hope I will change my view in the future on that.

[Nesmaster]

which is a bummer for me because I am a completeist when it comes to games (I feel that’s the only way to get my money’s worth). I hope I will change my view in the future on that.

I never used to be a completist, but I don't feel like a game is complete until I hit 1000 (or 1250, if I buy the DLC) when playing 360 games. If you can get 1000 points without fully finishing a game to 100%, I'm fine with that. If at 100% I don't have all the achievements, that title isn't done. This is why I don't like multiplayer achievements.

That said, after nearly two years of owning the game I finally finished FarCry Instincts: Predator for the full 1000. I basically had to play the campaign 4 times to do that (rookie, hunter, predator, and another time for the hidden treasures). :)

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm more interested to find out how you get these games for $15 and then trade them in for $20+ in store credit, myself.

As for Achivements...well, I've been playing old arcade shooters for score, so you could say that's similar to some degree.

The difference, of course, is you need to be consistent, and I also don't play complete shit just to get my name on a list at Shmups.com (in fact there's a number of games I play even though it's unlikely I'll be getting on the highscore list anytime soon, if ever).

Also, Achievements are a way of letting you no-skills losers* feel that you're good at something. Guess what, you're not.

What gets my dander up about Achievements is something you find in other games as well - corridor crawls, collect-a-thons, or games with leveling systems (currently Gothic III is in that category) are so blasted NEEDY. "I'm a computer game, I have no friends, so I'll be asking for you to spend all your time doing nothing but playing with ME for the next few weeks! There's a cutscene at the end!"

Uh, no thanks.

*Yeah, my gaming skills are non-existent for the most part. :*)