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Raising Your Gamerscore By PowerLeveling
Joystiq is reporting on a new outfit claiming they'll powerlevel your gamerscore for cash. For $300, they say, they'll raise your Xbox Live gamerscore by 3000 points. Ozymandias, a member of the 360 Launch Team, has commentary on the situation. From his post: "The thing that struck me as most interesting about this is that Achievements (and the Gamerscore associated with them) have become a currency... one just as valuable as virtual currency in MMOs, and one some people might be willing to pay real dollars for. I certainly don't condone it, but it does support my belief that competitors will need to have their own Achievements/Gamerscore system in the future as it's definitely a tipping aspect for some folks. (For the record, I now believe the rumor of PS3 'Entitlements' to be false; however, I fully expect a similar solution within the next year or so once the online service has launched.)"
You buy a $400 system and games, then pay someone else $300 to play it for you?
WTF is wrong with people these days, seriously?
It's this attitude that totally wrecked MMORPG games. there is fuck all role playing, there is fuck all exploring, fuck all entertainment, fuck all GAME. All we have are endless parades of people doing *whatever it takes* to score the points to get to the next level, and then the next level, and so on. Every MMO i've played has been like this. Its weird. Its even polluted FPS games with high scores like BF2. Ever played a BF2 game where everyone is a medic?
"I need to get my next medic badge dude".
"yeah fine, how about we play in a way that we all have fun, and play as a team huh"?
"shut up n00b"
I hope one day someone will make an online game that doesn't rack scores, or give a fuck about them. they can count me in.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
Am I the only one who doesn't care about my gamerscore? A lot of the achievements don't really measure skill, but just time spent playing the game. Oh man, that guy beat 30 Xbox 360 games? He's totally better than me who spreads my gaming time among other platforms as well.
On second thought, that was probably the whole point of the gamerscore in the first place. Hey kids, buy more xbox 360 games and you'll get more easy 'achievements' that'll give you a higher number and thus make you better than your friends!
I can not believe that people would pay $300 for a meaningless number. I'm sure that "my number is higher than you" will work amazingly well when they're being pounded in multiplayer.
If you're paying somebody to play the games for you, perhaps the games in question aren't actually fun and you should buy some different ones? Or, is there a market for games where you start off with all powers and infinite ammo, then just go around destroying stuff with absolutely no challenge? Should developers release a £200 ultimate box set winners edition of the game that consists of one DVD that plays the end credits?
I'm scared of numbers that can't be written as a fraction. It's an irrational fear.
Gold farmer: Okay!!! We powerlevel your character to level 60! Buku gold & epix! Only $100 American dorra!
(Powerleveling ensues)
Gold farmer: Okay joe! Powerlevel done! Enjoy gold and ninja'd epix!
(3 months later...)
Joe Schmoe: What the fuck? Someone logged on my account and stole EVERYTHING in my bank, including my 10,000 gold pieces and epic blow up doll collection!
Typical scenario, and no, I don't make this shit up. Although, the stolen items & currency are usually refunded, it's just asking for trouble if you sign up for something like this. Don't give your password(s) out to complete strangers, and you'll be better off for it.
If you think that's "interesting", then you have never heard about this: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141815
I don't reply to Anonymous posts; if you have something to say to me, identify yourself or I won't reply.
So... you pay someone $300 to get your gamerscore higher, and when you actually start playing again, it falls right back to where it was because you still suck? Riiight.
I don't know much about the gamerscore system, but for a moment, let's assume that the system matches you up with players with similar scores. So now you've spent $300 so that you can play against people that are better than you, and you've developed zero skill while doing so. Not only are you going to get trounced (assuming not everyone is doing this) but you're also going to have zero fun and lose score at the same time. Sounds like a total waste of $300 to me. I'd rather spend that $300 on the electricity I would use playing the game long enough to develop the amount of skill it would take to get my score that high to begin with. But I guess some people will do anything for that brief moment where they can show off how huge their e-peen is, even if it's going to get destroyed John Bobbet-style a few moments later.
Everything I say is a lie. Except that... and that... and that, and that, and that, and that... and that.
I too am continuous dumbfounded by such business, which is why I'm not some high-flying millionaire.
It takes an one to know one, I guess.
what in the world can you do with gamerscore points?
Buy things?
I thought that was what the for-pay Gold membership was for... which is why I never got onto Xbox Live AT ALL. (I'll get my updates via download&burn, thank you.)
Anyways, this gamer score crap is why things like Game Shark hasn't come out (and why 360 games are so brutally hard to play); alas, the ban on cheat code generators has been rendered moot by this run-around with the gamer score. So now we have neither cheat codes for single player games nor any integrity for the gamerscore system. Joy.
Tell me why again I bought a console??
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
... those "enlarge your penis" scams I get in my spambox all the time.
" claims they'll enlarge your penis for cash. For $, they say, they'll raise your libido by 3000 percent."
Back on topic, this is on par with people who would pay to have their character powerleveled in an MMORPG. You will be the max level when you get to play again, but you're still going to suck at it.
ENLARGE YOUR E-PENIS BY 2 DIGITS IN JUST 2 DAYS FOR ONLY $59.99 NO ANNOYING GAMEPLAY OR MESSEY STRATEGEY GUIDES! WE DO ALL THE ENLARGING FOR YOU! oh god... im gonna be sick.
You mad
Maybe I should hire Tiger to play a few rounds of golf for me while I get a massage... that'll help the ol' scorecard.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
all the GoddamnWords you PossiblyCan!
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
So you can wave your virtual cock around and pretend like you are better than you really are. Shit has been happening forever. For example:
In Starcraft battle.net kept track of your win-loss-disconnect record for an account. You could make new accounts, but a given account had a permanent record. Now one would think the point would be to try and match skill with people. If I've got a 34-50 record, I probably don't want to play the guy who's 250-2. However many people were all about pumping up their ratings. What they'd do is form a battle that had a number of plays, 3-7 normally, vs 1 computer player. They then proceeded to kill it fast. The game counts that as a win, Blizzard wasn't running a tournament with the ratings here, it was ok to have off balance games (my roommate and I would try 2vs3 sometimes just for fun).
Of course that won you nothing. You'd have a good record but still get waxed by good players, however some people wanted the big ePeen and that was their way of getting it.
This is just another level of that. People want to show off, and are willing to spend money to do it.
And they even explain it on YouKnowWhere.
People engaging in this type of activity...definitely a desperate cry for attention and recognition by inescure people that in doing so are among the darker side of the online gaming world. Not to mention, dishonest. I would hope Microsoft (or whoever) finds a way to kabosh this sort of thing.
Gaming for over 25 years
And have a lot more fun hopping from star to star in Super Mario Galaxy than I could with a higher level game score.
If you're that short of time that you'd pay money to "raise your level", maybe you need to reevaluate your life and cut back on the time you spend reading slashdot.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Look at the msg board below the actual story and follow the saga of random posters vs. aZn_1080p ...
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You know Chuckie Akenz? Thats my boy. Thats the crew I roll with. Hell, you can see me in this video;
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Here's a hint, I have a sleeveless black shirt on. Like I say, IRL you would be crossing the street if you saw us rolling up. Now run along little doggy, run home and cry to momma cuz things got too real for you.
paying someone to do a bit-shift operation on your 'number' to increase its significance :)
See my art -> http://herbevore.deviantart.com
I heartily endorse this product.
Stupidity like using this service should be punished. Plus, that $300 will do more good in the company's hands. I can't see how it could be spent worse than what the buyer did with it.
...paying a pro counter-strike or battlefield 2 player to play for you so you get a kick-ass online reputation. Still wouldn't make you any better at the game though.
...but Gamerscore has been utterly retarded. I enjoy the xbox 360, most especially the arcade games, but that's due to my personallity and the types of games I prefer. As anyone with a 360 knows, the arcade games only offer 200 gamerscore apiece compared to the 1000 for retail. Thusly, my gamerscore isn't huge by any means (somewhere around 6300 I think). That doesn't mean that I don't enjoy getting achievements.
For me and others like me that populate the XBL Arcade arena frequently, obtaining the more difficult achievements (the most difficult 360 achievements are arguably in the arcade) is quite a bit more exciting than playing some mediocre, boring retail game (King Kong) and getting achievements for essentially nothing or for little challenge.
So, what I'm trying to say, is that achievements were a great idea and are an aspect of the system that I highly enjoy, but Gamerscore was a mistake from the beginning. Points usually aren't even allotted according to difficulty (Dead Rising or GRAW anyone?), and usually retail games, esp. EA/sports games, make the achievements rediculously easy and void out the entire points system anyway.
In any case, this is quite rediculous for 3000 points (not that I'm agreeing with the practice). Just rent a few EA games and play for 1 hour and you get the same effect. The whole thing is just stupid and the result of a poorly-thought-out point system.
is when it pits you against people of your same score or rank. They expect you to be good, but since your score was bought you just unbalance the game and potentially ruin it for everyone else. This is a horrible idea, and waste of money.
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
Remember when we actually had karma points here? Apparently the editors felt that there was too much focus on "leveling up" rather than creating insightful commentary.
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...