The Iowa Pro Gaming Challenge The Iowa Pro Gaming Challenge

Tournament Seeker

Video Game Tournaments

Whether it's a website for your own company, ad space on The GoG, or video game related tournaments/events, reviews, photos, and videos...Jet Set Studio can help you connect with your market in ways you'd never imagine. Let us know if you have any ideas, comments, or questions and we'll look forward to working with you to accomplish your visibility goals...
Jet Set Studio

Chronicles

Cy4n has 13 chronicles

  1. Cy4n A Blue Thought - GamerScore

    Player Chronicle -- Posted on Aug 23 2008

    Is the idea of a Gamer Score bad for video gaming?

    I'm a player who - admittedly - is not apt to finishing most games for one reason or another. I have this massive collection, but how many of the games have I sat down and played all the way through? Not many. Only a few of them have really peaked my interest for long enough to complete, and since most of the time I'm not likely to gun for EVERYTHING possible in a game, I just finish the story mode (if there is one) and turn it back off.

    That being said, I've found myself playing hours and hours on my XBox 360, playing over and over again many games that I've played - in some cases beaten or dominated - in order to gain some small achievement that's being offered to add to my current Gamer Score (which as of this writing is about 1645). I only own three real games: The Orange Box, NHL 2K7 and Halo 3 (I don't count the three BK games, they're basically "arcade" titles). Along with those, I have ten or so XBLA games. But of those, I've worked hard to try to earn achievements... by doing things I normally wouldn't do.

    Like shoot at a wall to try to destroy 75 enemies in Geometry Wars 2. Or save every human in the first two/three levels of Robotron 2084. Or grab that skull in the second level of Halo. Which helps to form my personal opinion of the "Achievement Unlock" system.

    I personally think it's a good thing. When you play so many games and you get burned out on the same formula over and over again through a level, I believe it helps to take a stand back, look over what the developers might be challenging you to do, and take another look at where you stand on the virtual front. A player might put down the controller if they find themselves outclassed by a certain boss, so why not try to take advantage of a distraction? Come back to that boss later? Why not try to see if you can do something outright challenging, like build up your citadel by collecting enough gold, then researching that one special spell that would help you BEFORE you challenge Dugog to save the townspeople?

    This new dynamic keeps the player more and more interested in what they're playing and how they can approach a game. If "save the princess" gets boring, it allows for an adjustment in the action, which might challenge the player in a totally new way than before. It can transform a game like a role-playing adventure into a scavenger hunt, or a traditional "bop them on the head" platform game into a high-jump contest, or even changes a first-person shooter into a puzzle challenge.

    (Which reminds me... GOD I enjoyed Portal! If you haven't already, BUY IT!!!)

    In the end, the whole point of my ramblings is this: the idea of GamerScore brings new life into what would otherwise be potentially worn-out games. If the system is used badly, like in the "legendary" Avatar: The Last Airbender, it brings out that need in us a human beings to "one-up" each other in some fashion. But if it's used correctly, with discretion and ingenuity, it can become a powerful asset to a game company, I would even go so far as to say as impacting as writing can be to any game experience. Implementation is the key: let's keep unlocking those numbers.



    Send To A Friend

 




Chronicle Comments

Cy4n has 1 comment on this chronicle.

  1. BEN BEN
    Posted On Aug 21 2008

    Great thoughts here and nice work on the forum post to accompany this topic. I'm fairly neutral on this topic, but I have to admit it feels good to see that achievement icon come up unexpectedly Very Happy

    Now let's see you attach a different, maybe more related photo to this bad boy...