Behold the Gamerscore elite
by Ross Miller 
{ Oct 17th 2006 at 5:55PM }
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]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kristof @ Oct 17th 2006 6:14PM
I don't care about their score ... I usually never even look.
Who cares how many games they played or for how long.
"OMG L337GAYM3R played DOA4 for 7 hours straight and unlocked all the swimsuits"
tack @ Oct 17th 2006 6:05PM
Silly yes.
Respect, hardly.
Worry, not a chance.
pete @ Oct 18th 2006 11:02AM
more power to'em. lord knows i barely get a couple of hours a week to play. sometimes i wish i could just sit there and play to my hearts content. but its cold outside, and the car note is coming up , so it is what it is. keep playing. oh but to those who PAY for the high score, you guys suck much ass!
zAlphaOmega @ Oct 26th 2006 1:54AM
I just hit 19,000 last night.
Gamerscore is a great feature, makes me play and finish games I otherwise wouldn't.
Boosting your score is stupid and I hope Microsoft finds and destroys these no life low lifes.
pandlcg @ Oct 17th 2006 6:19PM
Best line in the article:
"basically raping every single Xbox 360 game"
PhantomVI @ Oct 17th 2006 6:22PM
I usually think "Wow, these guys spend a lot of time, effort and money on really crappy games."
I'm happy with my modest gamer score and my discriminating tastes. And the fact that I have a life...
azesino @ Oct 17th 2006 6:31PM
RESPECT? you could say that, I respect anyone that dedicates 90% of their time into building a 40K + gamescore, why would I respect them, because its not something a regular person would do, its not something I would even attemp to do, you have to give them their credit, they are doing it for respect not for money or fame , only the hard-core of hard-core can acomplish a feat like this.
PaleGringo @ Oct 17th 2006 6:35PM
I rent, baby. GameFly for life!
Approaching 29,000 myself, and loving every minute of it. Finding some great titles I probably wouldn't play otherwise. A lot of stuff out there that isn't worth paying retail price for.
Paul @ Oct 17th 2006 6:46PM
I respect the quest for high scores, as it was common sense in Atari 2600-NES-Arcades days, but not those overly obsessed (to the point of shelling #300) with these.
Competition is fun, but some people can't handle it.
JPRacer @ Oct 17th 2006 6:52PM
Just like Kristof I never look and I really don't care. If I happen to see a score greater than 20000 I just say to myself than I'm happy I'm not this guy.
Seeing a guy with a 40000+ score I would be in disbelief and laugh for a minute thanking god for not making my life miserable like this poor guy.
random @ Oct 17th 2006 6:55PM
I think "Dude, don't you have, like, a job, or something?".
computer gamer @ Oct 17th 2006 6:59PM
Happy with my very modest gamerscore and achievements, I enjoy getting achievements but it has nothing to do with trying to beat those 5 figure heroes with more time than sense!
burn @ Oct 17th 2006 7:00PM
it is silly. Scoring should be achievement based and confirmed by actual game play, not farming out tasks to 3rd parties or anything nefarious like that. If scoring is to take place, and be recognized, just like any other "sport" it should be checked, cross checked and verified that the individual getting recognition has in-fact been verified.
PhantomVI @ Oct 17th 2006 7:15PM
@12
That would make sense if Gamerscores actually meant anything.
thebigL @ Oct 18th 2006 4:17PM
They should give prizes or something to these people. I know a kid who has over 62,000 points, he's proly the weirdest kid i've ever met. Microsoft should sponsor them to play or something.
Wulkar @ Oct 17th 2006 10:04PM
thank you for telling me how to get large amounts of gamer score.
Thryon @ Oct 17th 2006 8:04PM
Gamerscore is at both the best thing MS has done, and the worst.
Best because is gives me a reason to replay those old games that I have beaten. I still load up PDZ or DOA4 to unlock a few Achievements.
Worst because I sometimes spend hours, missing out on other good games, just to get that stupid achievement...ARGH!
OH! MS, I cannot stay mad at you. You know I love you.
Steve-o @ Oct 17th 2006 8:52PM
Like many things in life, I would like to empahsize that it is quality and not quantity that is important. I am fairly positive these people racking up these high gamer scores have not really had much experince with this paticualr mind set and what it generally applies to.
LaughingTarget @ Oct 17th 2006 9:14PM
Until Microsoft starts allowing me to use my GamerPoints to buy things, like other games, I really don't care. If anything, the GamerScore idea has destroyed a piece of gaming I enjoyed - secrets. 360 games are devoid of secrets, easter eggs, etc, because they're all advertised for you in the GamerScore section. Why should a neat feature for an inquisitive individual be advertised? We should be surprised when we run into a little nugget.
Jason @ Oct 17th 2006 9:28PM
its called xsata 360. get one and u can get 1000 points for almost any game in under 1 hour.
refinedsugar @ Oct 17th 2006 9:46PM
Cue the infomercial announcer ...
When you have nothing but free time AND YOU GAME you need something to beat your chest with. Something to cherish in those times when you find yourself questioning if you're wasting your time and/or you need a reminder of your relative worth to society. Introducing the gamerscore system that lets everyone know how little of a personal life you really have. No more speculation, no more guess work by friends and associates. Now everyone knows your core values and just how hardcore you really are!
... MS was totally on the ball when they implemented the gamerscore element on the 360. It's the next level. Before you had arcade bragging rights or patches to sew onto clothes, but nothing on the level of a gamerscore. It's a bigger feeling, almost global.
Naturally there were a lot of hardcore gamers out there before this rolled around, but this system creates / addicts new ones while harboring and nurturing existing ones. The only undetermined factor is how many people it pulls in and keeps over time. The ability to have some shiny numbers next to their digital gaming avatar for those in the system/cycle of spending copious amounts of time and money for the sole leisure of gaming is like a hit of cocaine. An added incentive to keep going - spend more money on games, spend more time playing.
I am not part of this gamerscore cycle ... it verges on scary ... and it wasn't all that surprising when it was announced Sony was doing something on the same branch with their PS3. It's great marketing that kinda feeds itself.
Evan @ Oct 18th 2006 8:26AM
I think of the gamerscore as a geek-meter. A high gamerscore is nothing to brag about, because a high gamerscore says that you have no life.