How much time and money should one invest in collecting Gamerscore or comparable achievements? When is a lot “too much”? And how much value do such statistics have when one can artificially inflate them with so-called shovelware?
Where do all these questions come from? From a current discussion in the gaming community on Reddit. There, the Xbox fan “x1001x Puppys” shared a picture of his Xbox account, which shows an impressive 2 million Gamerscore. The player apparently reached this milestone this week.
According to further comments from “x1001x Puppys”, the account is now over 20 years old. It was created in November 2004 for Halo 2 (Reddit). The first achievement was unlocked by the player in December 2006.
Currently, “x1001x Puppys” is playing the remake of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion – here is the trailer:
How does one achieve such a Gamerscore? In another post on Reddit, “x1001x Puppys” admits to having purchased several thousand shovelware games to boost his Gamerscore. “5 dollars can get you 5,000 Gamerscore today; the big challenge is enduring them”.
The player also emphasizes that he has played many very good games over time, currently for example the remake of Oblivion. He also participated in “a lot of Gamerscore tournaments and special events” where one can achieve up to 50,000 Gamerscore in a single day.
In short, the Xbox fan estimates that about 1.5 million Gamerscore comes from trash games, tournaments, meme events from achievement websites, or Twitch streams. The remaining 500,000 Gamerscore, on the other hand, should come from games he would not classify as trash or shovelware.
For an achievement in Gears of War 3, “x1001x Puppys” had to team up with a friend and run four Xbox consoles around the clock for almost three months – resulting in approximately 1,150 AFK hours and 300 hours of actual playtime.
“That’s just sad”
How does the community react to this? With more than 6,900 upvotes and over 570 comments. Naturally, the topic of shovelware is extensively discussed, as well as individual Gamerscore values.
- YourMomsFavUsername writes on Reddit: “I just crossed 150,000 and thought I had no life left. This post makes me feel like I’ve touched enough grass.”
- Panix_Orti congratulates on Reddit: “GZ I’ve been playing on this account since the 360 launched and have only 168,000 points. I don’t replay games after I’ve finished them, so I don’t gather many achievements.”
- AngryTownspeople points out on Reddit that this achievement unfortunately brings nothing tangible: “I wish we could use Gamerscore for something.”
- whiteguyballin just wants to know on Reddit: “Was it worth it?” The response from “x1001x Puppys”: “Why are we still here, just to suffer.”
- Yawd sees no reason to celebrate on Reddit: “That’s just sad. Most of it is shovelware, there’s nothing to achieve.”
Have you ever had such a hunting and collecting phase on a platform or in a game? Where was it important to master as many or certain achievements? Did you also use every trick for it? Let us know in the comments! By the way, in Monster Hunter Wilds, it took only a few days for the first player to get all achievements: Player from Monster Hunter Wilds gets all 50 achievements and platinum: “Please go touch some grass this weekend.”
