Achievement competition with anyone?

[dimples]

Do you have a competition between any of your friends? Who has the highest gamerscore?

[CemeteryGates]

Yes, with one of my closest friends. I have just over 21k, and he has around 19k. :D
Normally, I think it's petty to compete over achievements, but he cares about it so much, that I just can't help it, haha.

I just did him the favor of getting him a PS3 in the US (it costs twice as much here), and now he's probably gonna wanna compete for Trophies as well. :p

[Jason]

Most of my friends are waaay ahead of me in the achievement stakes, having been playing on XBox a lot longer than I have, but me and a couple of the guys I work with have been playing Blur quite a lot recently, and that gets pretty competitive, especially when you rob someone of their place right on the finish line!

[JustaBitOutside]

It depends on how you look at it. People who play a wide variety of games are bound to rack up some gamer points quickly. I have a friend who is seriously OCD about it. he only plays the games to get every achievement. His whole score list is 1000 1000 1000 etc. He's a teacher and he prints up his gamerscores to compete with his students. One time we took his console and started playing some SHITTY games and get the basic achievements. he sat there playing barbie games, and spongebob, and burger king stuff for two weeks just to correct it!!

I try to get the most in the games I like the best, but I don't get too into them anymore.

[MotherGraham~]

I've got around 3395 Gamerscore, but then again, I rarely go outside the RPG genre, and considering there's only a limited amount of RPGs on the 360, I don't have the opportunity to get such a high Gamerscore as some people. Regardless, I'm not much of an achievement-dude myself, but moreso someone who's there for the storyline and pretty much general immersion. Without these two things, I don't have a reason to play the game regardless of what people say about it.

[JustaBitOutside]

What RPG's are you really into on Xbox? I'm just about to get started on Dragon Age

[MotherGraham~]

Fable 2, Assassin's Creed II (I consider it action RPG), ME series as well as Dragon Age, though I've never bothered playing the last two mentioned ones as I already did them on the PC.

[JustaBitOutside]

Assassins Creed2 and ME are two of my all time favorites. Fallout 3 as well. Already put my money down on New Vegas.

[dimples]

My boyfriends brother got his xbox 360 somewhere in the beginning of this year. And in a few months he had over 10,000. We had ours for over a year and were nowhere near 10,000. But once we did get 10,000 I just wanted to beat him :D And so me and my boyfriend bought some stupid games to get a easy 1000, so we could get closer to him. As he playes a lot, and we have a little kid so we don't often play during daytime.
I bought Fight Night Round 3 and got all from that and my boyfriend got all but one from a Turtles game :D And now we passed him. I played some Smackdown vs Raw 2010 because I knew I had a lot of achievements left. And most were worth 50 or 100.
I hate it that I care about the achievements, but I just don't want to lose to him :(

[Steph]

I've never had a competition with any of my live friends on gamerscore .. I only have over 9000 gamerscore just now and it's been like that for a while.

I've only really been an achievement whore with L4D ...

One of my friends on it has over 200,000 gamerscore ... I should challenge him haha.

[CemeteryGates]

Fable 2, Assassin's Creed II (I consider it action RPG), ME series as well as Dragon Age, though I've never bothered playing the last two mentioned ones as I already did them on the PC.


Do you like traditional Japanese RPGs? Like turn-based and stuff?
If you do, you should check out Lost Odyssey. I borrowed it from a friend, and though I don't like the character design, it's a great RPG. :)

[dimples]

I've never had a competition with any of my live friends on gamerscore .. I only have over 9000 gamerscore just now and it's been like that for a while.

I've only really been an achievement whore with L4D ...

One of my friends on it has over 200,000 gamerscore ... I should challenge him haha.

Might take a while :D There aren't even that many games with easy achievements that you could catch him :P

[MotherGraham~]

Assassins Creed2 and ME are two of my all time favorites. Fallout 3 as well. Already put my money down on New Vegas.
Personally, I thought FO3 was getting a bit too repetitive if played more than twice or so, even in a long timespan. But that could be just me.
Do you like traditional Japanese RPGs? Like turn-based and stuff?
If you do, you should check out Lost Odyssey. I borrowed it from a friend, and though I don't like the character design, it's a great RPG. :)
I absolutely have no problems if turn-based. Especially if the story is good, as that's the biggest factor - personally - in choosing my games. Played WoW and Perfect World (MMORPGs, though) and Warcraft series, which would be turn-based. But hey, WoW/Warcraft had good lore and was worth it.

[CemeteryGates]

I played Perfect World before they made a US/West server.
Didn't get too far, but my best friend's cousin ran the second biggest clan in the game. After the US server, I think he ran the biggest clan. I think his in-game name was Zargabath. He recently got banned, though.

Anyway, Lost Odyssey does have a rather interesting story. There's also a pretty unusual narrative element I liked a lot, which is triggered after certain events... you are presented with text and accompanying music, which describes a memory of the main character. It sets an incredible atmosphere.
You can probably find it cheap, too. It's a 2007 game, I think. :)

[Steph]

Might take a while :D There aren't even that many games with easy achievements that you could catch him :P

I know right, he's pure powering through his games every day without fail full gamerscore on nearly everything.

He's a tank =|

[Diachron]

Normally, I think it's petty to compete over achievements, but he cares about it so much, that I just can't help it, haha.

Heh... Achievements suffer from a strange stigma. Personally, I love them, and love unlocking them. A friend once vehemently asked "Well what do you GET for unlocking them?".

Which is both a common and a weird question. Weird, because what do any of us "get" for playing games?

What I love most about achievements is that they create two games out of one. In the "interior" game, you're operating within the game's rules and expectations. In the "exterior" [achievement] game, you making use of the same rules to get different results.

What's more, achievements accrue over time and can serve as a log, or a badge, or a permanent trophy. I might farm a game for hours to get an item that doesn't leave the confines of that game, but if it unlocks an achievement, that achievement now moves into the realm of my permanent, visible record.

At the end of the day, there's no difference between an in-game quest/mission, and a meta-game achievement. Both are challenges thrown down by the developer.


(And to actually answer the original question.. I don't outright compete with friends, but I do keep track of a few friends' achievement goals, including my own. This includes progress over time. And while we don't compete directly, we're each trying to hit our goal.)

[CemeteryGates]

It's a very interesting way to see it.
Made me think a bit... and I suppose I do that, but not with achievements themselves. For example, if one were to access my main Oblivion file and browse through all the objects and money I've collected, they would probably introduce me to female friends in an attempt for me to get a girlfriend. :p
Or if they could see how many games I've gone without losing and how much money I've amassed in FIFA games' Manager Mode, they would likely be impressed; if not at the things I've done as my own personal "achievements", at least at the amount of time and effort I have cared to put into that for no one but myself to see. Because I guess I can't really show it to anyone... even my gamer friends don't often ask me to show them my files on games.

Hahaha, that probably sounds more pathetic than caring about Achievements and Gamerscores, but I guess it's a part of the nature of gaming. :)

[Diachron]

Haha-- I hear you, Cemetery-- I think many of us amass little empires in the games we play. I am a compulsive virtual hoarder and collector. And while we may not [always] do it to brag, there's something about sharing those "achievements" with others that's pleasant.

I personally think that's one of the few primary motivators behind MMO play. In an MMO, you're probably not just earning loot and armor and weapons and furniture entirely for yourself... there are prestige and status implications that are hard to shake or deny.

I think the same is true of the gamerscore. It's inherently meaningless, but like that virtual treasury of loot and gold, there's an undeniable germ of pride behind the work involved to amass it. And when that's recognized by like-minded crazies... erm, I mean peers... then it just feels good. ;)

Achievements FTW!

[MyNameDidntFit]

As far as achievements go, I tend to look at Valve as a stunning example of how they should be done. Achievements in Valve games tend to be things that you see and go "hey, that would be awesome to do!" and so off you go and do it.

I usually look through achievement lists to see if there is anything obtuse that the devs have thought of to do in their game that I haven't that sounds like great fun and, with Valve, I tend to find many.

[Jason]

Yeah, I'm partially with MNDF on this one. I'm all for the tracking of achievements and so on, but I feel that they should only be given for actual achievements - things that require skill and effort to carry out.

You shouldn't get 40GP/Silver Trophies just for headshotting 10 enemies - any monkey can luck out ten times given enough time - achievements should be along the lines of 'headshot with sniper rifle without aiming', 'win a race without a single wheel leaving the track' and so on.

As MNDF points out, Valve are excellent exponents of this - Team Fortress 2's achievements are a true masterclass in creative thinking in this field. Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 have a couple too, but tend for the most part to stray on the 'do X of Y' type.

[Diachron]

Aye, no question-- coming up with a good Achievement list is an art that not all developers have nailed.

The same, however, is true of actual design itself. Just like there shouldn't be cheap achievements that just require showing up, there shouldn't be cheap sidequest/missions that just pad gametime while I go off on some mystifying errand.

"Hey look, I know you're saving the world, but be a darling and get me 10 boxes of tissue from Skull Mountain. kkthanksbye."

I guess in the end it all comes down to a developer's chops, in-game or out of it.

[dimples]

Damn! He got NFL 08 (easy achievements) even tho I don't think he ever even liked football. Anyway, so he got over 500 for that one, and now I'm a lot behind :( I have gazillion games, but they take so much time and I have to get 20,000 before him :D

[Daggers]

I only have around 3000 Gamerscore, I should have around 10,000 but I had to make a new Gamertag when I moved out and got my own Xbox (used to just use my brothers but I couldn't recover my gamertag :( ).

I don't really compete with anyone because I'm not a very competitive gamer. I just like gaining achievements for my own personal benefit XD

[dimples]

I almost feel bad for doing this, but not really :D I loaned NFL 08 from him and well I figured out that I just sim the game and can get achievements. So I got like 500 without doing anything :D

[Steph]

I almost feel bad for doing this, but not really :D I loaned NFL 08 from him and well I figured out that I just sim the game and can get achievements. So I got like 500 without doing anything :D

Haha well I hope you win, you seem really determined about this.
:D