Achievement Points Part 1: What are they?

April 19 06:38 2008 by Alexei Rivera Print This Article

So Achievement points… what are they?

Achievement points are a scoring system in the overall xbox 360 gaming stratasphere that works with all games and accumulates from all of it. Your total score is attached to your gamer profile and people can browse your gaming history (or lack thereof) from your achievements.

To obtain achievements, you must reach certain goals in a game – like beating the story mode, or collecting certain items. Some games have easy achievements, some are impossible. For the most part, achievements are harmless goal rewards that give that extra oomph to game conquest.

To most people, achievement points are ignored as some form of statistic. Casual gamers would have around 2000-5000 points under their belt – and they don’t find themselves scampering for the next achievement goal. This is perfectly fine even for most gamers – the concept of improving your gamerscore isn’t really a big thing.

However to some, it is quite an addiction. Microsoft has implemented gamerscore so well that you won’t go to any gamer profile without noticing it. While on the other hand, nobody ever really complains about seeing it too much. Its so unnoticeable yet so much a part of your gaming identity that some people take it further than obtaining the few achievements they would under normal play.

Personally, I find myself going for extra achievements on games I play. (27k points right now) I feel compelled to complete more of the game so that I can maximize its entertainment potential. The other effect I’d also like to produce is the fatter gamerscore I can look at. Simply put, it gives me a history of my gaming accomplishments.

But thats only really what Achievement points are good for, isn’t it? A history of your gaming accomplishments to show off to yourself or friends, right? What good is it for really? Nobody cares right?

I suppose you can say that. Personally I don’t really mind. I just like my accomplishments served with my gamertag. But what if it were actually useful? In part 2, we’ll discuss what achievement points really mean.