Anyone interested in Achievement swapping?

[pragmatic insanester]

Today, while playing a less-than-stellar 360 game to yank out a couple of achievements - I came to realize there was a better way to unlock these things than force myself through these boring titles. There are a couple of good 360 games I own that have been 1000/1000'd that i'm pretty good at playing. I notice that a lot of people may not be so skilled at these games and have to resort to playing Crappy-Movie-Tie-In games to get their gamerscores up.

So why not have these people play the lame games or games I'm not good at for me.. while I boost up their score with my half-dozen needing-a-reason-to-play-again stack of titles. I could simply log onto this person's account and vice-versa, and we could arrange deals for "beat this game for me in exchange for me doing this many points/achievements for your account".

The problem lies in who do I trust? I have very few friends who care enough about their scores in real-life to make much of this idea. I don't trust 99% of my XBL friends and I certainly don't trust people on Gamefaqs.

Since I have history here (abeit long absence due to 360-obsession), I was wondering if anyone that remembers me would consider my idea. I have a 31k gamerscore and excel at titles like Vegas 2, Condemned 2, Dead Rising, Fear, and a couple of other ones.

If this is against gamer creed or forum guidelines, I apologize in advance. I just can't take another sub-par game to keep me in the top 25 of my state while I wait for the next game worth investing 30 hours into.

[Cornelius]

How very pragmatic! Doesn't sound very fun, though.

Hope you have an asbestos suit, cause I think you are going to take some heat.

[zemmix]

I'm not going to give you heat but I just could never get into this gamescore deal. Playing crappy games over and over for some magical epeen number? Do these gamerscores do anything? Can you cash them in and buy armor pieces like the honor system in WoW? Can someone explain the appeal?

[ProgrammingAce]

I'm just going to quietly recomend that you don't do this, lest you get a nice "cheater" icon on your gamertag...

[pragmatic insanester]

i'd say the whole gamerscore obsession ties in with OCD and completionism. Like, the same mentality that makes you do 30 hours of lame side-quests in rpgs to get uberarmor/secret characters. plus, the same deal was back in the arcade scene with your initials. difference is that the whole world sees your score and it doesn't reset if the arcade's power goes out.

i don't think my idea is othermore "cheating" than playing bad games for easy achievements or boosting online. i mean, i'm still earning (or re-earning achievements in this case). unlike some people who claim have hacked their achievements out using code-breaker style devices.

i just can't stand having 790/1000 points in my game history, and i would like to land a steady spot in the top 25 of my state instead of barely keeping up playing good games every other month.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I disagree with this practice, but I won't flame you for it.

However, I do have a warning for you: Microsoft has begun to crack down on people who do this sorta thing, so you could get your entire gamerscore zeroed out, AND tagged as a cheater. Tread very carefully.

[Half Japanese]

Yes, I'm sure the entire internet has been waiting to beat lame licensed games for you in order to boost your meaningless gamerscore.

[ProgrammingAce]

i don't think my idea is othermore "cheating" than playing bad games for easy achievements or boosting online.

What you think, and what's written in Xbox Live's Terms of Service may not agree...

One of these things is a perfectly valid way of boosting your gamerscore. The other is a good way to get your gamerscore erased.

[MachineGex]

I am good at math but suck at spelling. I will take someone's math test, if they take my spelling test? What, not fair?!? I am still taking the test again? Seems fair to me!

[Alucard79]

Suck it up, play your own games, or feel the wrath of the ban-hammer!!!

Account swapping IS cheating. It violates the terms of use policies and can get you banned and your account zeroed out. In the future I would refrain from mentioning account trading, you never know who may be reading your posts and who may be keeping a close watch on you because of your posts.

[heybtbm]

i just can't stand having 790/1000 points in my game history

It's too bad you can't enjoy your hobby like the majority of gamers do. IMO, 790 points for one game is pretty good. 1000/1000 is unrealistic for most games.

Overall I think people should do whatever they want with their free time, but...

When I see someone with a huge gamerscore (i.e. tons of 1000/1000), it kind of makes me sad. I legitimately feel sorry for those people who play shit game after shit game just to raise their score. I'll admit to borrowing Avatar to get the 1000 points in 4 minutes, but on the other hand, I'm never going to participate in some asinine multiplayer boosting session just to complete the achievement list. It's just silly. People should play games to have fun. Achievements can be a part of that, but it's crazy to make that the primary reason for turning on your 360 (I'll get off my soapbox now).

[Skelix]

But see that's what cool about achivements, you will try (and or) playthrough games you wouldn't normally have tried.

You don't want someone using your accout, the trust issues alone. But how could you even feel like you accomplished something if someone else did it?

There's plenty of non suck 360 titles you can get game points off from. If you find yourself hating a game just switch to another, or bite the bullet and grind through it.

I've had to grind through some titles now that people just destroyed in reviews and you know what I kinda didn't mind them. Find the best in those games and just play through them. They're like movies they're gonna have a good line or a good scene.

[carlcarlson]

Until Achievements points can actually be used for something (as a sub for MS points perhaps?) I don't really see why it matters what your Gamerscore is. Having said that, if it's in the MS rules that swapping accounts isn't allowed then I would stear clear if I were you, especially if your score is really that important.

OR.... do it, get your account wiped, and then play them all again! Win-win.

[DonMarco]

So what's the thinking on boosting online achievements for games with little or no online community? There are dozens of older 360 games that doled out points for winning 50 matches here or 1000 kills there, but if there's no one playing these games online, years after they're released, how else besides boosting would you get the points?

I love having 1000/1000's on my gamerscore whenever possible. I won't even try for any achievement that requires 100+ hours for 50 measly points, but a few hours online boosting in fixed matches isn't below me.

I'd also like to point off I said "online boosting" because offline boosting does exist in some games. Games that require you to leave the 360 on overnight with a rubberband around an analog stick. Many of the Madden offline achievements can be done quickly if the player has a second controller.

[Captain Wrong]

And I thought the guy at GameStop was full of shit when he told me he had regular customers who buy all the games at release, quickly unlock the achievements and trade them in. I can't imagine why anyone would care that much about this to subject themselves to some of the shit out there, but well done Microsoft for discovering a way to boost that attach rate.

[kaedesdisciple]

And I thought the guy at GameStop was full of shit when he told me he had regular customers who buy all the games at release, quickly unlock the achievements and trade them in. I can't imagine why anyone would care that much about this to subject themselves to some of the shit out there, but well done Microsoft for discovering a way to boost that attach rate.

I'm sure Gamestop loves it, too. This way they have a ton of current-gen used games where they can still turn a good amount of profit.

[Slate]

No. Do not swap accounts.

[Cobra Commander]

I just won an ebay auction (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSAA:US:31&Item=130215762461) in which I thought I had bought a game, but in reality, it's some jerk who wants to log into my account. It's my fault of course, so I really can't leave a negative feedback, but I may leave a neutral one.
I felt a bit stupid when I finally read through that crap in the middle, but there's no way in hell I'm giving a total stranger my XBL info.

[heybtbm]

I just won an ebay auction (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSAA:US:31&Item=130215762461) in which I thought I had bought a game, but in reality, it's some jerk who wants to log into my account. It's my fault of course, so I really can't leave a negative feedback, but I may leave a neutral one.
I felt a bit stupid when I finally read through that crap in the middle, but there's no way in hell I'm giving a total stranger my XBL info.

I'm confused. What exactly did you think you were buying?

[Cobra Commander]

As I said:

in which I thought I had bought a game,

I clearly didn't read the middle part well enough. Everything else led me to believe it was a physical game I was buying.

[Nesmaster]

Don't do it. You may love achievements as much as I did at one time, but what I realized after making two errors of my own is that achievements are best earned yourself. Push yourself as close to 1000 as you possibly can, but don't get into shady dealings for achievements.

The truth is that 1000 IS unrealistic in most games, unless you boost multiplayer or played kiddie/cash-in games. I still like achievements in great games, but I think I'm done playing stuff just for the points. I had fun doing it for around a year but I'm burned out now. I do want to hit 100 000, and I will soon. Playing games I want to play.

[Half Japanese]

I clearly didn't read any part of the auction at all.

Fixed.