Plus XP

When I first got my 360 and Played Halo 3. I was blown away by the graphics and just the sheer awesomeness of the game, I’ll probably say this time and time again but I am a sucker for First Person Shooter games. Then when completing the first mission I remember a bar appearing on the screen saying. Achievement Unlocked: Landfall – 20G.

For a second I though I unlocked a huge mega prize, so I looked under all the Halo menu’s but couldn’t find a thing. Then I returned to the dashboard and noticed the number next to my name had gone up to 20. This was my first experience with achievements and I look back at it now and just, Facepalm.

Ever since then I have been one of these guys who likes to get achievements. Sometimes I will try and get some of the hardest, other times I would just play through the game and be happy that I had unlocked a ton of achievements just by playing the thing.

I’ll admit I am pretty happy with my gamer score but what I don’t understand is the small section of the gaming public out there who just buy games for the sake of the ‘easy achievements’. I remember being in an XBox LIVE party at one time, and one of my mates said, ‘oh I just bought Lost, King Kong and Avatar’. I questioned this strange purchase, because, lets face it the games aren’t really your run of the mill classic must buys. Turns out he bought them for the easy achievements and was gonna trade them in about a week or so later.

Is that what gaming is about now a days? Buying games just for the sake of a number next to your name? I know I am one to talk, but why oh why would people buy games that they aren’t interested in for the sake their gamer score/trophy collection.

To me the introduction of a gamer score and achievements is both a good and quite bad idea. Good for the competitive streak in people, as they can have a laugh, and just blow raspberries at each other if they have a bigger score. Then there is the Bad, this whole achievement malarkey has of corse set off the crowd of gamers, who call themselves ‘Hardcore Gamers’. If you delve into the Plus XP archive you will come across a post I did a fair while back about my views of these so called Hardcore Gamers. These guys have now taken their gamer score and started bragging, flaming and just being damn right gits about it all. Who in their right mind would judge someones gaming ability just because they have a smaller score than them. I could go off on a year long rant about this, but it would probably bore you to tears.

Another good thing about the achievements is for completionists out there. Ever since the dawn of games there have been  crowd of people out there who, when hey get a game must squeeze every gaming nugget out of it. Achievements help these people and thats another reason while I do admire them.

So let’s get back on track, now taking into consideration the fact that there are gamers out there who buy games just for the sake of the achievements. Was this Microsoft’s clever idea of helping publishers out by shifting units of their not so great games? Probably another silly theory of mine but if the achievements are easy to get, then surly gamers who love achievements, or achievements whores as they are more commonly known, would buy them? Therefore shifting more units, and more money for developers and publishers. I mean Look at the Avatar game? Getting 1000 out of 1000 gamer score in the first 5 minutes of  the game? Surely they must have been thinking that this was a cunning plan to get more units out over time?

With all that said, Achievements, trophies and gamer scores are a bit Jeckle and Hide really. They can make people grin when hey are unlocked, but can turn a select few quite nasty when it feeds their ego a little too much. For me, they are just a nice addition and when I feel like it, which I sometimes do, help me try and complete every single thing in a game.

But looking at my gamer score thats quite rare.

-Garv