High on Live!

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It all started, in the way these things do, with a throwaway comment by Microsoft Interactive Games corporate vice president Peter Moore in the pages of Edge magazine. "There's a guy on Geometry Wars, I can't remember his Gamertag, but his score is far above anyone else in the world. It makes me think this person doesn't have a life, doesn't work, and is completely and sickly addicted to this game. I think there's a level where people go overboard with Achievements, and people pay no attention to that."

So is he right or is he wrong? At the time of writing, the world's number one Gamerscorer currently has 55,000 more points than Mr Moore's ideal (and some might argue somewhat paltry) 4,000 score - so just who are these "sickly addicted" characters addicted to the Xbox 360? What are they doing with their lives? How do they interact with the Xbox 360 community? And surely Microsoft should perhaps pay them some attention if they know Xbox 360 and its games that intimately? Is there anything that developers, publishers and average gamers can learn from them? We decided to find out.

First port of call was www.MyGamercard.net, repository of the acknowledged 'official' Xbox 360 Achievement Point Leaderboards. From there we made direct contact at ground level with the top 25 scorers and invited them to pour forth their experiences and viewpoints. What we got back was a tale of camaraderie, obsession, and an unquenchable lust for Achievements that threatens to bring the system down.

HOW THE OBSESSION TAKES HOLD
Let's make no mistake about the awesome scale of what the world's number one gamer has achieved here with his current score of 59,233. Each Xbox retail title yields an absolute maximum of 1,000 points - often a little less - often a lot less once silly objectives and unattainable glitched Achievements are factored out. The downloadable Xbox Live Arcade games offer up a paltry 200. To get into the top ten, you're essentially looking at playing through a minimum of 70 games, plus pillaging the Xbox Live Arcade library for around 4,000 in total.

The origins of the intense rivalry on the Xbox Live leaderboards began as a much more low-key affair, with non-Microsoft websites starting to track each individual Gamercard, and creating leaderboards from their ever-expanding databases. "I found out that I was number four in the world on www.MyGamercard.net," says elite gamer Fixell (Gamerscore at the time of writing: 43,783). "Once I found out where I stood, I was driven to keep earning as much Gamerscore as possible."

The urge to be the best of the best is a common theme amongst the Xbox Live elite, confirms 50,566-scorer Furydog. "I've always been an Xbox guy but never thought I'd get so addicted to the Xbox 360... now I think I play just to stay in the top ten of overall Gamerscore, which is kinda sad."

For others, it's all about the kudos - the recognition from other Xbox Live users that they are the undoubted masters of the Xbox scene. It's all about the bragging rights, the claims for total and utter domination of high-end videogaming. "With Gamerscore, the world can see how good and I am and the Achievements I can accomplish," says the almighty NOGGIN SHOTZ (Gamerscore: 48,171), whose total control of Xbox 360 scoring he likens almost to a form of penetrative, destructive game violation. "If you read any Xbox forum, they call me the Game Ruiner. I can completely beat any game in one day."

It's a sentiment backed up by The UK's number one player, DJHUNTERD (54,312 Gamerscore), who puts it a little more delicately: "I love to play games and I'm thrilled about the recognition for doing it."

Feeding the Gamerscore obsession is a tricky business. Even without factoring in Xbox Live Arcade purchases, getting to the top of the leaderboard involves a financial outlay in games of between £2,000 to £2,500 - simply to get your hands on the required software. It's here that our cunning games warriors put their master strategist brain power to work, and um, rent games instead.

"I joined Gamefly [an online games rental service] because of Xbox 360," says Fixell. "Prior to Gamerscore, I only played the best games. Once the Achievements came along, it bothered me that I was spending money on crap games to get points. I joined Gamefly so I wouldn't have to waste my money on the likes of Dynasty Warriors or Over-G Fighters. If only I had signed up before buying Rumble Roses - what a turd that game was."

Another widespread tactic amongst the gaming elite is to buy a game on release, ruthlessly fleece it of its achievements, then immediately sell it on internet forums/eBay. New releases can typically get most of their retail price back, especially if the game and packaging are still in pristine condition. New releases can also be traded directly with players for another fresh game.

QUALITY OF LIFE
The purchasing strategies might be canny, but that doesn't make you a winner. You can just imagine how playing your way through 70-plus videogames in the space of nine months betrays a complete lack of any kind of social life outside Xbox Live. And it's a feeling shared by one of the top gamers we interviewed, disillusioned by the increasing dishonesty plaguing Gamerscore gathering, and the use of cheating to further Achievement collection. "The people at the top really don't have more skill than other players - they have more time, more dedication - and often no social life. In fact, as we move forward - maybe you should worry about people with high scores more than you admire them."

Others are far less apologetic. "It doesn't affect my life because it IS my life," proudly thunders BK THE KING (Gamerscore: 50,594). "You can't play games all day... though I do try," says NOGGIN SHOTZ. "Life will always come first, but gaming is one of my top priorities."

Others feel that their investment in ultra-hardcore videogaming should be more rewarding. "Yes I do have better things to spend the money on," says DarK ExiDous (Gamerscore: 48,947). "This is why I think there should be more opportunities to earn free games!"

What we couldn't quite get our heads around was the gaming mindset required to amass such colossal scores, the environmental conditions essential in basically raping every single Xbox 360 game of its Achievements points allowance.

"About 80% of my spare time goes into playing games. Sometimes I play games for 18 hours straight," UK gaming maestro MagicMe (Gamerscore: 47,702) told us. Which all sounds rather low-key compared to the lifestyle of of DarkJinyu (Gamerscore: 45,751) who paints us this hellish, caffeine-fuelled vision of the singleminded über-gamer. "I won't play for maybe four days, then suddenly I'll play for 52 hours straight, drinking Columbian coffee and listening to hardcore techno music."

Crash 27 (Gamerscore: 41,408 - retired) is another disillusioned elite gamer, who has now turned his back on the lure of Xbox 360 Achievements, but still contends that ultra-gaming and a normal life can co-exist peacefully. "Sure, you can have a normal life. I play quite a bit, but still leave myself plenty of time to spend with my wife and two kids, and also visit family and friends. I also have a full-time job. So yes, if you manage things right you can still leave room for life. Family and friends should come before games."

It's a point backed up by UK mastergamer, N0va360 (Gamerscore: 48,588): "I spend my money on important things first, like my son. Games come second. I see it like this: I don't go out wasting my money on booze every weekend like my friends, so therefore I have money to spend on games."

CELEBRITY SQUARES
With the spoils of gaming victory, come the rewards. While DarK ExiDous' wish for free games doesn't appear to be in the offing as of yet, reaching the heights of the Gamerscore leaderboard brings with it a lot of attention. "It affects you greatly," observes Crash 27. "I receive Friends requests and messages every day from people who've seen my name on the leaderboards. Some want tips, help, or an Achievement cleaned up for them. And there's the occasional cutdown from people because you have a high score."

"Being one of the top gamers has a good and bad affect when playing on Xbox Live," say Furydog. "I do get a lot of messages asking for help which I always answer and I don't mind giving tips or getting Friend requests. What I do mind is the messages that are full of hate."

Stallion83 (Gamerscore: 47,475) also reflects on the envy generated simply by being good at games. "Some people ask if I am rich; others send hate mail for no reason; but then you have the nice comments, which is always... nice."

Of course, what we're all dying to know is just what kind of hate mail these people get, and curiously enough, out of the 12 über-gamers who rose to the challenge of answering our in-depth probing, only one had the courage to admit to the full cruelty of the envious lunatics who populate Xbox Live, detailing a couple of the vicious put-downs he's had to take on the chin. "I do get multiple Friend requests," says UK-based über-gamer MagicMe. "But I also get called bad names as well, like 'sad f***er' or 'Mr No-Life'... but I don't care."

What is clearly unacceptable though, is the annoyance of unsolicited communications when there are far more important things to be done - ie unlocking more Achievements and boosting Gamerscore. DJHUNTERD elaborates, also revealing how a mighty Gamercard often puts people off playing games online with him: "Sometimes it's a little irritating while you're waiting for the Achievement bubble to pop up and it turns out to be a Friends request. One funny thing I noticed is that because you have a high Gamerscore some people think you are unstoppable at ALL games. Therefore they don't want to play you on Xbox Live. Silly muppets!"

TOUGH AT THE TOP
While relations at the top of the Achievements leaderboard are either friendly or nonexistent (some people just keep themselves to themselves), a lot of rivalry takes place between the key players as they jostle for position. When gaming is your life - or at the very least, a large part of it - nobody wants to surrender their position in the world's Top 25, but this doesn't stop the elite from banding together to collectively earn extra score.

UNARMED GUNMAN2 (Gamerscore: 48,037) describes how the über-gamers organise their own Xbox Live games in order to unlock online Achievements - a process known as 'boosting'. "I've met a lot of good friends online that also like to get Achievements so it's then easier to achieve a common goal. For instance, Georgia Boy and FuryDog are two of my close friends online who I would not have met were it not for Xbox Live."

"The rivalry at the top is one the most enjoyable parts of having such a high Gamerscore," affirms the aforementioned Furydog. "I feel it helps to have a core group of friends you trust when you're chasing down Achievements."

"You NEED a good core of boosting friends. At least one really good friend is key, you simply can't do it alone. There's a camaraderie amongst us because we all know the people at the top are willing to put in the time to earn those Achievements," says Fixell. "Really, the people you have to watch out for are the ones that are way down the leaderboard, that want to be at the top."

And it seems that this mild subverting of the Xbox Live system is just the thin end of the wedge when it comes to cheating - opening the door for rogues and videogaming imbeciles to work their up into the top slots, essentially destroying the whole essence of what Gamerscore is supposed to be about. "Achievement points have made some people into real jerks," states Fixell matter-of-factly. "People will even try and rip you off to try and make you earn

Achievements for them. One of the guys in the top ten wanted to get the Ridge Racer 6 No Crash Victories Achievement - and this guy named Helacool360 had it. He said he would give it to him if he temporarily took control of his account and beat Far Cry on all three difficulties for him. My friend did Far Cry for him, and Helacool360 refused to give him the Ridge Racer save. We then found out that he was doing this to other people (he wanted the Quake 5,000 Ranked Matches Achievement from me) - he never planned to give that save to anyone. Those are the people you have to watch out for, not the ones at the top right now."

ACHIEVEMENT APOCALYPSE
Some of the top Gamerscorers we approached reckon that the problem of cheating is now threatening to completely destroy the whole point of the system in the first place. Hackers have managed to find a way to transplant game saves between machines, and people are even 'loaning' their accounts to skilled players to complete Achievements for them.

"I have a good buddy that I play just about every game with in order to boost and he originally had a much lower Gamerscore than me. But while I was playing FIFA World Cup, I noticed he was earning huge amounts of points very quickly. Finally I noticed he earned some Achievements out of order and called him on it and he told me about game saves," says Fixell. "I was really pissed off at first - because all the time I spent playing games to earn things that other people could get in a few seconds made the whole process seem like a waste (which it is - let's not kid ourselves). Just knowing that people get all the Ridge Racer single-player Achievements without even playing it still bothers me - but I'm guilty of it now in other games so I can't say much about it. I'd say about 1,500 of my Gamerscore was achieved this way."

The UK's N0va360 prides himself on his 100% legit Gamerscore and reveals how to spot a cheat: "Achievements unlock in the wrong order and you can see this on the Gamercard. For example, 200 online wins in Ridge Racer before 50 wins... All Characters Unlocked in Table Tennis before any of them have been individually unlocked. You can tell who most of the game savers are because they hide their Achievements, so you can't see the games they are playing and in what order they got their Achievements."

"It's really a sad thing to see, because all self-accomplishment gets lost," says Stallion83, another gamer claiming an unsullied Gamerscore tally. "Therefore I don't respect them. My girlfriend's 850 points is greater than theirs, because she has EARNED them herself. They are really abusing the system and making the legit people look bad." Crash 27, who has retired his high-scoring persona because of this situation, agrees: "I see no reason to use cheating methods. I think it takes away from the feeling of accomplishment, and it doesn't show anyone that you are a good gamer but more the opposite... The real joy comes from knowing that hard work has paid off and you EARNED that Achievement."

Another way that the hardcore are abusing the system is through 'game doubling'. This is where different region versions of the same game are played through, the same Achievements unlocked each time. NOGGIN SHOTZ takes particular exception to this one. "They need to secure this so no-one can do it. Achieving points twice for the same game is ridiculous. There's no feeling of accomplishment in doing this - it's simply a free 1,000 points."

It looks as though it will be down to Microsoft to sort out this unholy mess - game saves can be locked to an individual console (Perfect Dark Zero and Dead or Alive 4 do this), game doubling would simply require a bit more effort put into the game to check for other versions on the player's profile, but this still leaves the problem of 'loaning' your profile to someone else to do the Achievements for you. This could also be solved relatively easily, says Fixell. "Make it a requirement to enter your credit card number when recovering your account. My guess is that people would shy away from giving this information to strangers."

IMPROVING THE SYSTEM
Aside from clearing up the dishonesty, in terms of how to make the system work better, our Xbox 360 über-gamers have a number of useful tips for Microsoft and developers. "I have one simple message," says Furydog. "That is, make the Achievements part of natural gameplay."

"Don't abuse Gamerscore," warns Fixell. "Don't make Achievements that will take thousands of hours to obtain - no one likes them. And don't make Achievements for playing X number of online games. If your game is fun - it will get played."

DJHUNTERD agrees with that point. "Yes. Be a little more creative in giving them out. It seems lately that they are all about beating the game on each difficulty level, requiring multiple play-throughs. Also I would like to see some more Easter egg Achievements. Stuff the developers want you to see, but you have to meet certain requirements in order to get."

As you can see from the side-panels, sports games are currently the number one target for an easy thousand-points' worth of Gamerscore and this must improve. "I would especially like to see better Achievements in that type of game," notes Crash 27. "NCAA 07 did a good job of theirs, but others like NBA 2K6 have made them way too short and easy. I would also like to see the back of Achievements that are about reaching top ranks online - unless they have a regularly scheduled reset of the respective leaderboards."

And in terms of improvements to Xbox Live itself, the overwhelming request is Party Chat. "We need four-way voicechat," says N0va360. "PLEASE ENABLE A MULTICHAT FEATURE!" screams DJHUNTERD. "Party chat would be GREAT," says BK THE KING. "A bigger hard disk for the system would be a nice touch, too." The elite have spoken...

Official Xbox Magazine staff