360 achievement points = crack

When Microsoft was announcing the features of the upcoming new system, the Xbox 360. They announced one new feature that seemed to stand out among the new list as an odd feature, and that was the new achievement points scoring system. Not only was it new to the system, but it was new to gaming as a whole, and people didn’t know what to make of it. No one knew what it was a gave Microsoft a hard time for implementing something so foreign into the gaming market. Now that the system has been out for more than a year and the games are out and in full force with over 100,000 possible points to earn. It is plain to see that this new point scoring system is not some crazy add on, and it’s here to stay.

One of the reasons why I think the new point system is so popular, other than the fact that people naturally like positive feedback for anything, goes way back to the days of arcade machines. Back in the day when arcade machines weren’t a thing of the past, I would spend several hours perfecting my game just to get the chance to post my initials among the top 10 high scores. The high score was something everyone tried to get and many people spent countless more hours on a game than they normally would have, if the lure of the high score was not there to tempt them. It was great, your initials, and in later machines your full name, were emblazoned on the screen for everyone to see. It was a great sense of achievement when you finally got your name on the screen. When consoles started to come out and get better over the years the high score achievement system was not in place. The games did not have a place for the high score, and if it did, it would be erased as soon as you turned off the console. You could play a game and max out the score, yet there was no way to put in your name for future players to see. There were no bragging rights, just tall tales of flipped scores on Super Mario Bros. It was sorely missed for many years, that is until the console manufacturers started to add more memory and you could finally enter in your name with your top scores into the game again. The sense of achievement was back again, but this time on your console at home and you could brag again to your friends.

With the achievement system linked to your gamertag Microsoft and the Xbox team have revolutionized the high score and the achievement system with their new console. The actual high score is still there in it’s original form, except now you can share and brag to all you friends and everyone else connected to the Xbox Live. This is something that is catching on for gamers and the achievement system is just more fuel for that competitive fire. Finishing a level with a certain amount of health or in a certain time frame didn’t really mean much before to most gamers.
Now for something as minor as just finishing a level or something as hardcore as killing 10,000 people in an online match, you can get a virtual high five from your console that surprisingly enough means quite a bit to a lot of gamers now. This is not something you would have thought of, or even gone back through the game just to do. But with achievements added on to every game that comes out for the 360, you find yourself doing stuff you never would have of done before. And all this just to hear that sound and see that icon pop up on your screen. It is like crack in my house. Finding everything I can to get a set of points that mean absolutely nothing to the game itself, and in the long run mean absolutely nothing more than bragging rights amongst friends.
This new system is nothing short of genius in my opinion. The simple addition of make believe points to games has encouraged me to play games much longer than I normally would have in the past, and even helped my decisions in purchasing games I was on the fence about. I bought NHL2K6 for $20 even though I had the 2007 version just because it had an easy 1000 points. How’s that for pathetic? But this the type of draw the achievement points have. A simple system that ultimately plays a huge part of the entire console. The implementation of these points is getting very clever from developers as well. Strategically placed achievement points can make you play a game in ways you never thought of before also. A good set of achievements in a game can almost guarantee your game getting played longer and explored more than it normally would have with an audience. Instead of blasting your way through a game, you may now spend your time in that game to find certain achievements littered throughout the level, and in the end giving you a much broader view and better understanding of the game. This is where the genius comes in to play in my mind. A smart developer would make the achievement points easily obtainable, but placed in ways that make you play the game the way the developer wants you too, or have you doing things that really show off the games potential. But a developer can also change the system into a mindless grind for points in the same respect, case in point is the like 10,000 kills achievement in Gears of War. That is an achievement worth bragging rights, but getting it is no fun for anyone. The system is still brand new and making huge improvements with every game coming out. So it will be very interesting in the next couple years to see what happens with the achievement points system.

We may see the other consoles develop something similar in the coming years. Sony has something coming with their games but not much is known about it. The fact that something so simple can make games that much more enjoyable is amazing to me. But I say bring it on, and in the meantime we might see achievements for doing basic things start to pop up everywhere. Like reading this article. LOL.