Gamerscore 2.0

If there's one thing the world will never be short on it's theories (but that's just a supposition I use to explain the phenomenon), and given the great gains of Microsoft's achievement system it's only common that it command both constructive conjecture and crackpottery alike - so let's begin by lambasting the latter!

First of all, your current score isn't going anywhere. Can you imagine the nerdy uprising that would ensue if Microsoft were to essentially erase everyone's gamerscore? Seattle would be burned to the ground in minutes! Now exactly how your score "isn't going anywhere" could be another matter altogether, but Microsoft isn't really one to rock the boat once they hit on something big, so chances are you'll simply see your score carried right on over to the newest console/system (everything except Bejeweled, of course, because lets face it: it needs to be erased from history at some point). Still, starting from scratch has a certain appeal.

I've heard more than a few gamers express indifference over "hunting" achievements because they're already tens of thousands of points behind "everybody else" out there, and while the competitive aspect of achievements has been thoroughly overplayed, that doesn't mean that evening the playing field wouldn't indeed draw in some new customers, and possibly revitalize some of us war-weary vets out here. So maybe gamerscore ends up being generation specific - one for the 360, and one for the next gen, both ongoing - but that still seems like the least likely scenario.

Regardless of their form from generation to generation, achievements aren't going anywhere, so what are some future features we might finally find?

First of all: completions. Knowingly or not, whoever decided achievements would be permanent effectively fathered a whole mess of OCD children that day, and these completionist kids would love to see the dashboard take care of some of the nerd-work for them. Completion percentage for gamerscore, games, and/or total achievements unlocked would be a nice addition to the simple stat-shot screen I'm going to suggest in the next sentence. Also, we'd need a simple stat-shot screen.

While we're on the subject of stats, let's dream big: progress tracking. Valve, Harmonix, and Epic all built beautiful examples of this into their latest games, so why not institute a standard across all Xbox titles that results in a more informative dashboard, i.e. achievements that show just how close/far I am from unlocking them? Because some developers wouldn't want the required work - that's why not. But hey, a girl can dream.

And dream people have. The question isn't new, so there are plenty of ideas floating around the net:

• A separate score for multiplayer achievements
• "Dashboard" achievements for attaining certain milestones
• Enable achievement icons for use as gamerpics
• Dynamic achievements that change based on how you play
• Giant solid gold break dancing robots

In any event, I'm sure most of us would like to see something more than just a simple next gen port of the system as it stands, so what are some of your ideas?

Mid-Month Mustering: July

Ever wondered what things are going to be like in the year 3538? Wonder no more! After a long day of space-work, people will transport back to their home-pods, plug in their brain internets, and be able to read on the history webs that these achievements existed! Then they'll go poop in a toilet... in the future!

• Comic Jumper
• Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
• Halo: Reach
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
• Madden NFL 11
• Mafia II
• Monday Night Combat
• Plants Vs. Zombies
• RUSE
• Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
• Shank

Mattering

It's always been a tricky business to really gauge the appeal of achievements. I'd wager that the majority of gamers view them casually, but positively - that little blip equates to accomplishment, no matter how trivial, and that's something more ingrained into the gamer gestalt than fear of women (or hatred of stereotypes). Most recently, however, there have been a few firsts from achievement land that suggest their following is flourishing...

Demo the Game, Demo the Achievements

Not long after writing the achievement breakdown for Crackdown 2, Ruffian Games broke with tradition and released the Crackdown 2 demo with unlockable achievements - well, sort of. It turns out there was 100 points available that would carry over to the retail release version, giving you a nice 10% head start on the world - the world that didn't also download the demo, anyways... but still!

Wronged, but Not Forgotten

The latest Ghostbusters game had a rough development life, and for a while there it was unsure which part of developer Terminal Reality's name was going to be more appropriate for the troubled title. "Reality" was the answer, thankfully, and while the game reviewed generally well and moved more than a million units, it didn't quite shatter any records, and any completionists that played it soon found themselves curled up in the corner crying uncontrollably - 2 multiplayer ach (20g total) appeared to broken, never to be unlocked. Amazingly, Terminal Reality has since announced a patch for the problem - over a year later! Sure, plenty of pouty pansies out there will whine "about time!" through their stuffy little noses, but I can count on one finger the amount of developers that have gone back to fix flawed achievements after so much time has passed, and that's saying something.

Marvel Ultimate Re-Alliance. Again. For Now.

While some games rely on glitches and closed servers to negate completion, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 broke the mold of... being broken by completely removing 250 points worth of DLC from the Xbox Live Marketplace - and this time there was no "Gold" or "Game of the Year" edition to fall back on for your 1250/1250. As inexplicably as the content was yanked, however, "HeroHQ" big wig "Kalina" announced that some even bigger wigs had agreed to re-list the DLC until the end of the year, although at the full original fee of 800 Microsoft Points. Hey, a completion is a completion, especially when it's one you had written off long ago.

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As with anything, there's always a tinge of marketing in the mix - demos that unlock achievements, patches that fix games, and re-available, limited-time DLC are all bound to draw in customers, and not just obsessive online dorks with blogs. But the fact that achievements are figuring into the marketing equation, that they are being considered by both developers and a growing amount of fans... is good. Not so much in that we're constantly barraged by said marketers and fanboys, but good in that, you know... it matters.