My best effort . . . and my worst

I found a site a couple of months ago when I was looking for a way to put my Xbox Live profile graphic on this blog. I still haven't made up my mind about that because I do play other systems besides the Xbox 360. No, really I do.

The site is MyGamerCard.net and it has a really cool feature that I use often. After you sign up you can view a list of all the games you've played. It will show a progress bar for the gamerscore and number of achievements you've earned in that game. It lists your games by "last played" by default (although it might be slow to update some times) but you can switch that to alphabetical A-Z or Z-A. It also has a sorting option to display your games in order of the effort you've put in to them compared to the rest of the registered users of the site. You can sort by Best to Worst or Worst to Best effort.

For instance, if you look at my profile my 'best effort' game is Chromehounds. My gamerscore of 580 out of 1,000 is a 349.06% overachievement above the sites average score of 129.16. Considering how hard this game is to get some of the achievements I can believe that. A score of 720 in Chromehounds is the equivalent of 1,000 in any other game.

Now, let's look at my score in Uno. I've finished the game so I have 200/200 points. But that score is only a 54.97% overachievement above the average (129.06). When they released this option on the site they explained that "finishing" Avatar: Burning Earth and getting those 1,000 gamer points will only give you a 3.75% overachievement score. Why is that? Because everyone is playing that game and getting those easy achievements. Not much effort there.

Hopefully you'll have more games listed with a positive or overachievement rating than games with a negative or underachievement rating. But if you're like me you've dabbled a little bit in a lot of games. I've played a lot of Puzzle Quest recently but my gamerscore of 70 in that game is below the 81.34 average so I have an underachievement rating of 13.94%. And then there's Yaris. A game I've only played 2 or 3 times (hey, it was free) and my gamerscore of 10 points is only just short of the 19.79 average (a 49.47% underachievement).

I do have a lot of games with an underachievement rating of 100% because I haven't scored any achievements in them yet. I've played Bejeweled 2 many times, for long hours, but I still haven't heard that little bleep and seen an achievement pop up. But while my gamerscore of 0 has an underachievement rating of 100% it's not that far below the average score of 25.38.

And then there's Tempest. Based on the fact that no one on the leaderboards has received all the achievements for this game so you can bet this is one game that's hard to get achievements in (whether through gameplay or tough achievements). If you couple the leaderboards with the fact that the average gamerscore for this game from people on the site is only 3.73 points any achievement earned in this game is going to be an overachievement. My score is currently 0 so even if I get just one little 5 point achievement in this game I'll go from 100% underachiever to a 1.34% overachiever. It's not much but my number will go from in the red (underachievement) to green (overachievement).

It's really cool to see what games I'm underachieving in but within an achievement or two or the site's average and then try to play that game in order to get those achievements. I'm only a 1.56% underachiever in Luxor 2 by only .95 gamerpoints. Any achievement there will turn things around. Some of my other marginally underachieving games are Gauntlet, Boom Boom Rocket, Zuma, Joust, Word Puzzle, Tetris Splash, Poker Smash, Ikaruga, and Gears of War. An achievement or two in any of those games would put me on the plus side.

There's a leaderboard where you can look at the leaders overall, by a specific game or by gamerzone (i.e. Pro, recreation, etc.) or other options. You can also check out other people's scores and progress and see what games they've underachieved in and then point that out to them when they start bragging about their game prowess. There's a forum (the only video game forum I can access while at work) and a LiveTracker that lets you see which games registered site users are in at that time. Right now there's 27 in Call of Duty 4, 13 in Gears of War, and 198 in Grand Theft Auto 4 (that's down from the near 400 usually) and a lot of other games.

I picked up 15 points in Solitaire last night and that jumped my overachievement rating from 120.89% to 159.07%. Now you might think I'm crazy and obsessed with achievements or gamerscores . . . okay maybe I am just a little . . . but it's nice to know how my game playing stacks up with everyone else. It use to be the mark of your game playing skills and effort was getting to put three letters in next to your high score at the arcade. Now, it's achievements and gamerscores. And if I'm hoping to break the 10,000 gamerscore point barrier this year knowing where my best efforts are being made is nice. Besides all those negative ratings just make me want to take a day off and turn those negatives into positives. Oh wait, I'm already taking Monday off to play games. Too bad my job can't get me this motivated and productive. Maybe if my job had achievements too.

Beep.

Achievement Unlocked.
Arrived to work on time 5 points

Your gamer score IS something to brag about

My youngest brother kaiakapero is borrowing my spare Xbox 360 and some of my games . . . and dain's too. I've tried to get him to play the story mode of Gears of War with me but he said he's not that into single player games. When I tried to tell him of the achievements you get and the points for your gamer score he said his gamer score doesn't matter to him.

But yesterday when we were all over at my parents house to hear about their latest cruise he comes up to me and says:

kai: "Guess what?"

me: "I don't know. What?"

kai: "My gamer score has gone up. I've played a couple of Arcade games and picked up some achievements. I'm now over 100."

me: "Well I'm over 6,000."

kai: "Yeah, well, you play more than me and have more games."

He does have a point there. I do have more games then him (especially when most of the games he has are mine to begin with). And I do play more than him. He works an evening shift and his wife won't let him play violent games in front of his young kids (wise idea) so he's usually left to playing the games he likes on Sunday and Monday nights when he doesn't work.

He said that he lets the kids play some of the Arcade games like Uno and Feeding Frenzy. Last night he started a game of Uno and gave the controller to his 4 year old daughter to play. She knows what to do, she's just a little slow before she acts. While she was playing, dain comes over to me and says she just got an achievement for bluffing. And then I think she went on to win the game. I don't know if that set to well with kai. He's tried to bluff, but couldn't. And he hasn't won a game himself. I guess it's kind of hard to get up staged by your 4 year old daughter. He should be use to it now since she can beat him (or give him a run for his money) when we play bowling on the Wii. Just don't remind him of that.

I don't know if he's a total convert to the "higher is better" club when it comes to your gamer score like I am. His play time and limited games will probably help curb any obsessive tendencies he might have towards that. But for him to go from some one who didn't care what his gamer score was to some one who took great pride in getting it over 100 I think he might be brought around to my way of thinking. For me now, a gamer score of 100 is laughable. But I remember when I broke that three digit barrier with my score. I was thrilled. It looked much more legitimate than a two digit gamer score, but not as legitimate as a four digit one. Now I'm working on breaking the five digit barrier. So your gamer score IS something to brag about no matter how much (or how little) it is.

I finished a game!

Yeah I finished a game! Okay, when I tell you it was Uno are you going to be disappointed that I got your hopes up? That makes four Xbox Live Arcade games that I've finished: Carcassonne, Backgammon, Jewel Quest and now Uno.

Yes, I know there really isn't an "end" to Uno. It's not like you get the great dramatic moment and then you get to see the credits roll. But I've finished the achievements. Now I can play the game without those hanging over my head.

I'm only two achievements short of "finishing" Catan. All I need are 500 Victory points and 1,000 Victory points. I really like that game. Unfortunately my internet connection at my place doesn't. I always lag out of the game. It use to be right after the initial placements then WHAM I'm staring at three AI faces. Now I usually make it a little longer in the game (maybe a round or two) before I lose connection. I had to stop playing it for awhile because my reputation was taking a beating from all the "quitting" feedback I was getting. I went from 98% to 80% in the matter of about a two week period. The funny thing is I can take my system over to my parent's house and play just fine. It's only my internet the game doesn't like.

With Uno there was a time when I didn't think I would ever get those 40 wins. When ever I played a four player game (all humans) it would seem to take forever for anyone to play their cards. Playing a game to 250 points could take two and half hours. I didn't want to invest that much time in something that I would probably lose anyway. When I started hosting matches with a point limit at 100 I thought would speed things up a bit. The problem was I couldn't keep four players in the room. I finally got the achievement for winning 10 four player games when I had 17 total multiplayer wins. I got my 40 win achievement when I had 38 multiplayer wins . . . but then I realized it's 40 total wins and I have some wins for ranked matches.

Now that Uno is complete I'm going to have to pick another Arcade game to work on for achievements. I know it's not as much fun playing for achievements as just playing the game. But when I pick a game I just try to play it normally but I keep in mind what achievements I might be in line to pick up. Kind of like the "don't hit any obstacles through the first 20 levels" in Crystal Quest. I know about the achievement and I try to play the game so I can get it but always around levels 13-15 I run into something and now I can't get the achievement. I could just restart the game and try again but I continue to play to see how far I can get and there might be another achievement I could pick up instead. I like having a goal to work towards. Maybe that's why I never liked Grand Theft Auto III when I owned it (rather briefly I might add).

I've been "auditioning" games for my next big focused attack. They are AstroPop, Bejeweled 2 (although I completely lost my saved game of 33 levels when I got dumped from Xbox Live when the new Call of Duty maps were released), Boogie Bunnies (lost a save on that one but I've since earned it back), Hexic HD & Hexic 2 (can't decide which one I like more), Poker Smash (gets a little boring after playing for a long time), Luxor 2 (I'm finally at a point in the game where it's getting difficult) and Texas Hold 'Em (although last time I made a push to get a $100,000 bankroll I got up to $80,000+ when the leaderboards were reset because of cheaters and I lost everything).

I like having a "go to" game I can play on my own. Something to take the edge off of a bad day. Or maybe just to kill time before I have to really get up and start doing something with my life (as my mother would say). And although I try to play it every day there's no way I'm going to make Brain Challenge the game I grind in. It's taking all my brain power just to get a rating of 19% on the daily tests. If I ever make it to 100% it would be a miracle. So that's one game I won't be finishing anytime soon.

What's a little competition between friends?

One thing I really like about my Xbox 360 is the Xbox Live Arcade. All you have to do is look at my recently played games to know that. But the reason I like it so much is that it made going to bed so much easier.

Eh?

I loved playing Star Wars Battlefront right up until bed time. Unfortunately when I crawled into bed my adrenaline was pumping and sleep was a long way off. I figured out if I played something like Bust-A-Move or other mindless arcade type game before I went to bed I could calm down enough that getting to sleep wouldn't require a hour or more of tossing and turning. Unfortunately that meant changing from my original Xbox to my PS2 every night. When the 360 came out and I had those type of games on the same machine it made things so much easier.

After a grueling session of Gears of War I could load up Pac Man and try a couple of levels while my heart slowed it's beating to a more normal level. And if Pac Man wouldn't do it for me there were numerous other games I could play. For some reason Jewel Quest seemed the best game for "powering down" late at night. Uno was another good one . . . until recently.

A friend of mine bought a replacement Xbox 360 while his is in the shop and it came with an Xbox Live Arcade compilation disk. Uno is on the of the games on it. So he started playing it. Myself and a couple of other friends would join him in a room and play away. And I have to tell you it's so much more fun (and faster) to play with a full group of friends.

Now Uno doesn't strike me as a competitive game. It certainly wasn't for me. And I didn't think it would be for anyone else. I also didn't think how much my "ultra competitive I'm going to shoot everyone" guys would do in a non-competitive game like Uno. They figured out a way to play the game. They made it competitive. If you stick them with a draw four card suddenly the game is personal. Throw in the stacking of penalty cards and the "draw until you play" option and the game can get pretty heated. Who knew Uno could be an intense battleground for gamers?

The games do get intense. But in a much different way. Instead of adrenaline pumping action it's face grinning, laughing at others action. So much so that sometimes my cheeks hurt . . . and not the ones I sit on. We've laughed at others misfortunes and even laughed at our own. Although we tend to growl first before laughing when the game takes a sudden turn for the worse when you go from one card left to 16 cards all in one hand. This game is no longer the relaxing game I play before going to bed. It is a game we play to win. And hopefully screw the person to our right and left in the mean time. So, what's a little competition between friends anyway? Except now I've got to find a game I can play to calm down from playing Uno.