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The Daily Grind: Are you an achievement junkie?
If you're an Xbox Live player, you're well aware of the power of achievements. They help you show off your versatility, dedication, and overall badassery to your friends. In MMOs, these achievements can unlock certain skills, cosmetic items, or even content. We love our carrot-on-a-stick, but we love it even more if we can grab a bite every so often. These achievements don't always mean everything to everyone. Many players couldn't care less about a gamer score or special unlocks; they just want to play the game and enjoy themselves. So we're curious to know how you feel. Do you live for achievements, or could you do without them altogether? [Photo Credit: Rotten Tomatoes forums] Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
X3F Achievements 101: Pre-E3 lull
Welcome to another edition of the weekly Gamerscore whoring extravaganza, X3F Achievements 101. As usual, I'll discuss the last week in unlocking Achievements, or discuss any news that's especially pertinent to the Achievement obsessed. Unfortunately, this week was pretty light, with E3 just around the corner, there wasn't much spare time to grind through any games. I didn't rent anything this week, but I did get my feet wet with Rainbow Six: Vegas, as well as made a couple discoveries whilst playing some Arcade titles locally with friends.
X3F Achievements 101: Dragonriding Swashbucklers
So the previous week has come to a close and I'm back with another glorious edition of X3F Achievements 101. The past seven days had some serious grinding behind it as I finished off the amazingly tedious Eragon. Hopefully Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End be a third time's charm for film-to-game adaptations. I'll also give my interpretation of the release of the Halo 3 Achievements, which took the interwebs by surprise this week. Either way, there's a lot to cover from the past week, so let's get started.
X3F Achievements 101: Bots, Bosses and Babalities
X3F Achievements 101 is back, and on its regularly scheduled time slot of Sundays. Initial response to our first edition was rather positive, so we're glad you like the concept and hope you enjoy reading, and even participating in the column. Emails with Achievement tips also came in at a good pace, and I look forward to playing and trading with you. One particular email stood out, which came from Casey over at brains-N-brawn.com, and the steps he took to get Achievements in one of the most time consuming Arcade games, Bejeweled 2.
Readers pick best webcomic: time to retire
Coming on strong this week is 2P Start, whose 1337 Gamerscore nets them the top honors as this week's best game-related webcomic.Coming in second place is Digital Unrest, while the third place trophy has been divided in half between Penny Arcade and VG Cats. Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!
Eets Achievements edibly available
Yesterday, to go along with the announcement of the double header Wednesday with Eets: Chowdown and Pinball FX, the guys over at Xbox 360 Achievements uncovered all the Achievements for Eets: Chowdown, while having had Pinball FX's set for a while now. So go ahead and take a quick peek and what you'll be shooting for in the puzzle game. We're kinda craving a Double Marshoburger ourself. That being said we're kind of curious why "Smoreland" is worth 0 Gamerscore. Anyway, the game looks promising, will you be playing it tomorrow?
Xbox Live hits 6 million users, 4 months earlier than planned
According to Microsoft's John Porcaro, the population of Xbox Live has hit the six million mark. However, being a member of Xbox Live could mean anything from paying for a Gold account to plugging an ethernet cord into your console and giving yourself a Silver account to download demos. At E3 last year, Microsoft was looking to hit the six million mark in June 2007, thus their exuberant remark that they beat their target by four months.Also included on the announcement is a momentum list, for those who love statistical trivia. (Did you know that there are 2 million messages sent over Xbox Live every day?) What we don't see in the momentum list, however, is the number of Gold members and the retention rate of a Gold account. We do know, however, that the average XBL Gold member has 22 friends. Sure, six million is an accomplishment, but we want to know how many premium accounts they're selling. That will be the real test.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Real Time Worlds has MS raise total Achievement limit
When David Jones of Real Time Worlds was looking at the ideas for Achievements for Crackdown, they had at around 200 or so to choose from. Jones said he wanted to just reward gamers for doing what they do best, having fun. When Microsoft told them they were allowing a total of 50, David felt that would cripple the whole concept of how they were going to approach the game's Achievements. So, when Microsoft recently altered their policy on Gamerscore, they also moved the total Achievements to 80 at Real Time Worlds' request. This gave Crackdown some breathing room with the upcoming 100 and potential 250 Gamerscore add-ons. Hopefully with proper feedback, their new content will be as fun and fulfilling as the current list. What Achievements would you want to see on top of the current set in Crackdown?
Xbox Rewards Revamped [update 1]
Due to issues with the servers overloading at the Xbox Rewards site, the guys at GamerscoreBlog announced that they would be extending the Old Spice Challenge to April 15th. This gives you an extra month three days to rack up your Gamerscore by 1,500 and they even added supply to the rewards so that more gamers can win. When we got word that the policy had been updated, there were brief hopes of broadening the access to the program, but given how much traffic they're getting, that obviously was not the case. Still, they say the site will be back up and running within the next 48 hours. If you haven't gotten in already, are you going to try now that the rules have been amended?[Thanks PacoDG]Update: Barbie says "Math is hard."
Shivering Isles adds 250 Gamerscore points to Oblivion
It looks like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will be the first to take advantage of Microsoft's recently-amended Achievement points policy and push past that 1000-point gate of old. Speaking to Gaming Bits, Oblivion developer Bethesda has confirmed that the upcoming expansion Shivering Isles will have 250 Gamerscore points, divided amongst 10 achievements, to unlock.According to the new Achievement point policy, up to 250 points can be added to a disc-based Xbox 360 title via premium downloadable content, which means Oblivion has maxed out its Gamerscore potential.Shivering Isles is set for release via Xbox Live this Spring; it will also be available for PC and PS3. No word on if it will be released before Microsoft's Xbox Rewards contest ending April 12, so plan on augmenting your Gamerscore elsewhere.
Rumor: Achievements Unlocking Rewards for Gamers?
Deacon Blade of Unscripted360 broke a very interesting story this morning. Apparently, he and some fellow MVPs came across at "torn document" that contained intriguing ideas for the future of the Xbox 360, and more importantly, its Achievement and gamerscore system. According to Deacon, Xbox is working alongside sponsors to initiate a program in February to reward gamers for their Achievements. Participation is free of charge, and the number of prizes are limited, although you will need to register to get in. We don't know if this will be limited to Xbox Live Gold subscribers, or open to Silver as well, but don't be surprised if only paying customers are eligible. Gamesaving was also brought up on the document as a "top priority", and will supposedly be taken care of.All in all, the release of this information seems a little fishy. It's very likely that Microsoft gave the go ahead for its high ranking community members to give a few tidbits of information without revealing much more than the concept. Deacon, and the others at the event probably know more than they're letting on regarding the program, and just want to leave people wanting more and thus building hype. Well, it's working. We're excited about this opportunity for casual and hardcore gamers alike to get free stuff for playing games, what about you? And how do you expect Microsoft to circumvent the current, albeit neutered, gamesaving from exploiting the idea of rewards?
100,000 Gamerscore broken!
The next milestone in Gamerscore points has been reached ... the 100,000 mark. StripClubDj has surpassed the 100,000 Gamerscore point! It looks like Superman Returns was the game that finally put him over the magic number and what a perfect game to choose. Now I'm not saying he cheated at all, whether using game saves or having friends logon for him, but that's a crazy amount of not only time, but money spent. He can't even be human. Cheers to you Mr. StripClubDj, you've surely glued yourself to that TV for way to long and I commend you for it.
Behold the Gamerscore elite
When you meet a player on Xbox Live with an insanely high Gamerscore (upwards of 40,000 or more), what is your first reaction? CVG picks the brains of the players with the some of highest Gamerscores to talk about their lives and obsessions with this little Xbox Live feature.Of course, one of the biggest gripes from those interviewed was so-called Gamerscore boosting, where players artificially increase their points through rather devious means. Swapping game saves, playing the same game from different regions, and cash-for-points businesses are all discussed and lamented. Are these tactics ruining the innocent quest for the high score, or is this a silly quest anyways? Should we respect these XBL fanatics or should we worry about them?[via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
$300 for 3,000 XBL gamer points?!
For years now, companies have offered to level your Everquest and World of Warcraft characters for a fee. By catering to the whims of players who want that level 60 mount but don't really have the time to obtain it on their own, firms that farm rake it in. Therefore, 'twas only a matter of time before farmers that specialize in taking the grind out of virtual gruntwork made the leap over to the Xbox 360. A site called "Level My 360" has jumped in (har) and now offers 3,000 XBL gamer points for the low, low price of $300. There's nothing inherently wrong with this: people hire help to do their dishes, mow their lawns, and perform other mundane tasks. That this service exists at all validates the whole "gamer score" concept, revealing that some players value a high gamer score enough to pay for it. Though the gamer score concept lacks depth right now, it may one day rival the importance of character level in massively multiplayer games like WoW. Even so, we wonder whether this whole outsourcing-of-fun trend will ever end. When we begin to outsource even activities that are supposed to be pleasurable, we're taking a step towards some sort of dystopian future in which developing nations do all the fun stuff while we toil away ... for what? [Thanks, Larry]
