GamerScores: Bragging Rights or Pieces of Flair?

Admit it, Xbox 360 owners: every time you hear that little electric plink and see the achievement notification pop up, a tiny part of you says something like “Cool, I do some things right,” or “Oh yeah, chicks dig my gamerscore.” While neither of these statements is typically true, one thing is for certain; Microsoft has struck video gaming oil by drilling into our inner need to be the best. Gamers have become addicted to collecting these virtual pieces of flair, racing to see who can collect the most. But are these points actually worth anything? For that answer, I think we should look back in time at the video gamer’s forgotten friend: the arcade.

The gamerscore is essentially an extension of the arcade scores of old, one of the most competitive arenas in the 1980s. Who knows how many buckets of quarters were shoved into Galaga and Donkey Kong machines just to try your hand at being the best player in the neighborhood. Having your three-letter initial at the top of the list was a symbol of honor, a tribute to your greatness at Q*bert. Now with Xbox LIVE, we don’t even have to leave the indentations in our couches to type our names (or dirty words, for shame!) next to our high scores. Even better, you’re not just competing to be better than that greasy kid down the road; you’re competing to be the best in the world. Your gamer point total is another chance at ’80s-era glory.

Or at least that’s what Microsoft wants you to believe. Yes, every game has 1000 points to earn, and typically only the most committed players can conquer these challenges. But after you’ve spent days of your life mastering one of your most beloved games, doesn’t it bother you a bit to see that some punk has almost triple your score simply because they’ve played ten times the number of games that you have? That’s the inherent problem with gamerscores: you are rewarded more for playing a large quantity of games for a short-to-medium amount of time rather than earning points for mastering a few games. That said, I’m sure that the current gamerscore leaders have mastered their fair share of games, but I’m willing to bet that they’ve also rented their fair share of no-brainer games just to collect the points they offer.

So gamerscores are flawed as a scoring device; the next King of Kong documentary won’t be about the battle for the highest rank on Xbox LIVE. Yet not all honor is lost when tallying the results. Every game you’ve ever played is recorded, as well as the number of gamer points you’ve earned for each title, showing how your gamerscore came to be. Though it might take a little digging for people to find, hardcore players searching for someone else who’s completed the “Little Rocket Man” achievement from Half-Life 2: Episode 2 can certainly do so.

In fact, a system that showed off these areas of expertise—instead of making you dig for them—would be a great addition to Xbox LIVE, wouldn’t it? Sure, keep the current system, but also employ mini leader boards for individual games or specific categories. How about one for perfectionists, which shows all the games a gamer has maxed out point-wise? Or maybe speed runs, showing how long it took you to get each achievement? Maybe getting ranked on such lists could award you with (gasp!) more gamer points! It’s not like they cost anything, right? We’ve already seen how addictive it can be to compete for high scores in Geometry Wars, so why shouldn’t Microsoft take the extra step?

Unfortunately, lists of this kind would only take you away from Microsoft’s ultimate goal of getting you to buy as many games as possible. We can’t really fault them for this; they are a business after all. Plus, gamers have already proven that they’re willing to play along with the current system, which really is fine. As they are, gamerscores are a fun way to compete that shouldn’t be taken too seriously—someone will always have played more games than you. But if Microsoft were to implement scoring systems similar to those I’ve listed above, they just might be able to more faithfully revive the competitive spirit that thrived in the arcades just a few decades ago—man, I’m getting old.