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.)"

So... uh...

[Ant P.]

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?

Re:

[XenoPhage]

And after paying out over $700, you still suck at Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue!

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[Ant P.]

Oh god.

Don't make me remember being forced to play that game. Please.

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[secolactico]

Don't make me remember being forced to play that game. Please.

uh... right... forced...

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[Ponzicar]

A paid beta tester? (or whatever they call the guys who play unreleased console games to search for bugs).

Re:So... uh...

[orasio]

For that amount of money, you could buy a PS3, and you get to play yourself!
Sony RoX0R

Re:

[elrous0]

For that kind of money you could get a hooker and not have to play with yourself.

-Eric

Re:

[pla]

You buy a $400 system and games, then pay someone else $300 to play it for you?
WTF is wrong with people these days, seriosly?

Simple - The combination of three factors:

1) Widespread acceptance of reward in a token economy as a primary reinforcement. You can compare this to sexual fetishes, where the object of the fetish can elicit a stronger response than "real" sexual activity.
2) The use of money - A "token" economy even if also the basis of the "real" economy - has conditioned most humans from a VE

Re:

[PaganRitual]

Methinks you overcomplicated that just a smidgen, poindexter.

Let me summarise the problem here.

These fucking retards have more money than brains

Re:

[twistedsymphony]

I would have sumerized it making reference to the e-penis (TM), but yours works too.

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[grgcombs]

Anyone see the South Park season 10 premier? Very apropos.

this is what turns me off online gaming

[cliffski]

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.

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[drinkypoo]

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?

Look, the simple fact is that if you want this

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[PrescriptionWarning]

amen! The really sad thing is that even though in an MMO money and experience actually gets you in-game benefits such as cool new abilities, weapons etc...

i do not however see the same kind of benefit from merely a higher gamerscore and more achievements. besides being able to brag about how high it is, there's no kind of "tangible" benefit from the game (cept maybe being able to play all levels again in Hardcore-Beat-yourself-up mode)

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[KermodeBear]

hope one day someone will make an online game that doesn't rack scores, or give a fuck about them.

I remember some of the earlier betas of CounterStrike that allowed server admins to turn off points on the scoreboard, and for a period of time I think that the scores were off be default. During this time I found that there was more teamwork and fewer lamers on the servers. It was a nice change. Too bad it didn't last.

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[nahdude812]

In college I ran a CounterStrike server for the campus LAN. Turned out to be popular as it was the only one on campus that was up 24x7. Everyone had fixed IP's, and so I wrote a log parser that tracked individual accomplishments and put them up on a web page. Because my player base was limited to a total of 20-30 regular players, and probably 60 overall, I even went so far as to track how you fared against each other player (times killed by vs times killed), what weapons you preferred, what weapons you h

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[Ramses0]

Did you ever play Tribes 2? They had kills, and points for kills or flag-captures, but no matter what anyone else was trying to do, you could have fun trying to do what you wanted to do (ie: stop them, guard base, etc). It was understood that a heavy base defender would have less points (generally) than a light flag-runner, or that a pilot might not have very many points at all. And even if you were a points-whore, that usually meant you were running across the map like a retarded monkey trying to cap th

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[brkello]

Uhh, sorry, going to have to disagree with you. Some people like to power level and progress as fast as possible. To that, this is fun. Other people like to role play, explore, and take their time. This is fun for them. The two can coexist just fine. They just ignore each other and gravitate towards people that are more like themselves.

I think the real problem is you. You are the type that are jealous of the people who can compete better than you (whether by skill or the ability to play 24/7). Ther

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[fotbr]

They *CAN* coexist, but they don't always, and usually because of the actions of the power levelers.

I play a little world of warcraft -- about 2-3 hours each weekend. I mostly bum around, do the more interesting quests (the ones with some semblence of story behind them rather than the generic "go kill X of monster Y") and explore.

This has been working great, except for one thing -- now that my main character is nearing lvl 50, I'm CONSTANTLY being harassed with guild invites, raid invites, and party invite

Re:

[FlynnMP3]

Everquest (maybe even EQ2) has an afk mode that could be invoked regardless of the character's actions. Eventually that turned into a 'leave me alone' flag. It was nice because the afk tag could be seen appended to the name floating above the character.

As for the original rant I agree with you. Myself I liked leveling with my friends and doing all kinds of roleplaying. That did get old after a while and I would go on leveling binges. Then go back ro roleplaying and having that type of fun. The real ni

Re:

[rugger]

Those problems are easy to solve.

First of all, you should join a guild .... there are plenty of small, casual guilds that like to socialise. Once you are in a guild, other people will stop harrassing you to join their guild.

Second of all, install a mod that automaticly declines party invitations.

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[fotbr]

Yeah, I ended up joining one to stop the guild invite spam. Its still annoying that the spam happens though.

But which mod is this that automagically declines party invites? Any suggestions?

Re:

[rugger]

try http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-677-1-au todecline.html [curse-gaming.com]

You may have to enable out of date mods to get it to work ... its pretty old. Hopefully its simple enough that it still works even after all this time.

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[Sage Gaspar]

What MMORPGS need is a "leave-me-the-hell-alone" mode - the ability to automatically, without even asking me, reject party invitations, guild invitations, etc. Let me turn it on and off according to my mood -- if I want to run with a small group that thinks alike, let me do that -- if I feel like solo questing for a bit, let me do that without being interrupted every 2 minutes with "so-and-so has invited you to join whatever raid/guild/party" popups.

EQ2 and City of Heroes let you toggle off invitations. E

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[fotbr]

I can't fathom why either, except that Blizzard seems to do what the 12 and 13 year olds want -- the ones that spend all day playing WoW or bitching in the forums. Which is why they've been focused on "end-game" and 40-man instances.

The casual player isn't heard, because we don't take the time to fill thread after thread after thread bitching about things.

I guess my point (sorry for the slightly-off-topic rant) is that its not the botters, its the damned kids that can't understand the concept of casual gam

Re:

[cliffski]

you are so right. I am clearly lam3 and just am in aw3 of y0ur l33t skillz.
I play games for fun. Newsflash --> you do not get a ferrari and naked chicks once you hit the level cap in a MMO game.

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[ClamIAm]

Well, some games are designed to prevent this kind of stuff. I play Guild Wars (not a "real" MMO, but hey), and one thing I like is that you don't have to play hours and hours to get some uber-rare drop to get that extra 5% defense. The only real "scoreboard" consists of the top guilds in the world based on their rating from Guild vs. Guild battles. The neat thing is that it's pretty hard to powerlevel an event that requires close teamwork between 8 people.

This is unrelated to the above, but I think the

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[Cornflake917]

"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."

Second Life.

I'm sure theres more.

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[Ravenscall]

Even SL has a ratings system. Driven by users, but a ratings sysem nonetheless.

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[PaganRitual]

This is why I will forever mourn the demise of the pure free for all deathmatch game.

Sure, there was a winner each round, but at the end of each round scores reset and you start over again. You can play in a team, but again, people consider themselves the winner if they scored the highest on the winning team, so they will steal team kills from another player and block people out just so they can get the highest score.

A good old free for all barney was the most fun I've ever had playing online, and it'

Re:

[Orleron]

Here's a solution: http://www.avlis.org/ [avlis.org] Not *massive* multiplayer, but has all the other qualities you talk about.

Re:

[Reapy]

I think that the main problem is people, and not statistics. It does take some effort to overcome the pressure of having good statistics, but, statistics really are interesting to look at.

Getting rid of statistics is not the answer. Why take away featuers of the game? What needs to be done is keep BETTER statistics.

Stats put a lot of pressure on you to play a certain way. Currently, most games keep kill to death ratio, or points per minute, and these tend to encourage tactics that violate the spirit of the

mine's bigger.

[PSXer]

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 frie

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[TommydCat]

A friend of mine is within 1800 points of the possible maximum, as he is only missing one game and has completed the achievements of most of the others... Of course he has no life, either.

Just wondering what would happen if he signed up for this with it impossible for them to fulfil the contract?

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[xappax]

A friend of mine is within 1800 points of the possible maximum

Congratulations! Your friend is the new Moon Master! You must help defeat the Gorgatron!

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[WhiteWolf]

I think you mean:

"Greetings Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada."

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[Saige]

Your friend isn't playing as much as is implied. Pretty much everyone at the top has been using game saves to gain achievements without actually having to play the game. In other words, he's there by cheating.

Fortunately, this is being addressed (as seen on Ozymandias's blog in the comments)

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[TommydCat]

Ahhh.. so this is how they are doing this, eh?

I still maintain my friend has no life, however...

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[SSCGWLB]

Agreed, I could care less. My Gamerscore is anemic, I believe about 300, mainly because Oblivion is the only game I have played on a XBox. What value does a gamerscore really have? Do you get a cookie or something if you achieve Xe27 points? Very sad.

~nate

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[robbway]

I care about my gamerscore, but only because all of those achievements were my own. It's very useful when comparing your score on an individual game. I only have one 1000 commercial game, King Kong, because beating the game once scores all 1000. Anyway, higher gamerscore while not actually earning them will totally skew your True Skill rating. It's not an advantage at all.

Meanwhile, the ever-increasing amount of games is making the score useless as a metric. It doesn't really have much value anymore.

So..?

[kirun]

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?

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[Vo0k]

there are only as many points in each game to be gained. If you love Oblivion but hate Madden, hand over the account to someone to earn you the points originating from Madden.

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[kirun]

So, if you max out your points, does Steve Ballmer come round and personally throw you a limited-edition gold plated Xbox Live chair? Or, are these points just a measurement of how "hardcore" a gamer you are? If that's the case, then these points services are clearly good value, compared to buying a big sports car.

Re:

[amuro98]

But if I don't like Madden (or some other game) why would I care about the accomplishment points from it in the first place?

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm clearly not the market for these services, and I'm just preaching to the choir here.

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[amuro98]

I've always wondered how well something like "Final Fantasy - The Good Parts" would sell. It would only contain the movies and cutscenes throughout the game - compressing what's normally a 60-100 hour experience down into the span of 2 hours or so.

Sell it for the same price as a DVD movie, and there you go.

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[kirun]

I believe they have already tried that plan, only they called it "The Spirits Within".

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[DeadChobi]

They did this to Xenosaga I. It was called Xenosaga: The Movie, and consisted of nothing but the cutscenes. It was also remarkably comprehensible. Apparently if you cut all the gameplay completely out of the game, arrange the cutscenes in some semblance of a chronology, and encode that, it's about the same as going through the game for the cutscenes, without all the damn running around and getting into random battles. I think it was closer to 5 or 10 hours long though. This was nice, as this was a game wher

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[7Prime]

Ditto.

Xenosaga: Good anime, crappy game.

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[KDR_11k]

The movie? Are you sure you don't mean the TV series? That was a nice substitute for the first game that never got released here so I actually understood what the hell was going on in Ep. 2.

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[God Of Atheism]

For starting with all powers and infinite ammo, idkfa springs to mind, just build in some cheat codes and problem solved (still, try playing doom 2 past level 10 on ultraviolence while using idkfa just once and no other cheats).

As to playing the ending credits, there was a Monty Python game which had that option. I don't remember the name of the game, but it was based on the Holy Grail, so it might be called "The Black Knight", "The Knights Who Say `Ni'", or "Castle Anthrax", but more likely something alo

Junk...

[sinner0423]

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.

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[!ramirez]

Or, at the very least, change your password. A small modicum of security-aware thought goes a very long way.

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[amuro98]

If someone's stupid enough to pay for farming, do you think they know anything about password security? Heck, they probably had someone write down their password(*) on their forehead backwards, so all they have to do is look in the mirror to remember their password.

(*) I doubt people like this would use different passwords for different systems, so chances are if you learn their WoW password, you've got their Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, Gmail, online bank, Ebay, etc. password as well.

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[Osty]

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.

This gamerscore farming is even worse than that, because you have to give them your Passport account, and your Live account most likely has a credit card associated with it (for renewing your subscription and buying Points). Imagine w

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[normal_guy]

Indeed...or _change your password after giving it to a gold farmer_. Hilarious that the guy would just leave it.

Re:

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

And you didn't complain about "dorra" being misspelled?

Interesting?

[Daemonstar]

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.

If you think that's "interesting", then you have never heard about this: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141815 [1up.com]

Does not compute

[jizziknight]

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

Re:Does not compute

[SScorpio]

Each 360 game has achievements which you complete by doing things in a game, (beating the game, kill a boss, doing this side quest, etc). Some of them are hard, some are easy. By completing an achievement you get points added to your gamer score which show are l33t you are. The achievement system is a good way to get people to keep playing games and unlocking things they normally won't bother with a 2nd or 3rd play through. But the whole gamer score thing is really just an e-penis.

Re:

[jizziknight]

Thanks for the info. I was apparently making some very incorrect assumptions. And now being enlightened, I can say with confidence that the people that pay to have their gamerscore increased are merely doing it for the boost to their e-peen.

I have a 360 but...

[Travoltus]

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??

Re:I have a 360 but...

[Miriku chan]

... because, being simple minded, you're easily swayed by hype and didnt bother reading up on it first?

am i close?

Re:

[nate_wilbanks]

Actually one of the main reasons Microsoft has a moratorium on cheat devices is they are used for other things besides making games easier, more fun, whatever. Cheat devices have been used in past systems for various hacks and such. It is unfortunate that Microsoft responded in this way and doesn't offer an alternative to cheat devices because those of us that want to use them for their intended purposes have to suffer the consequences. Some how, some way hackers will find ways to do what they want regar

Re:

[krazycraft]

nothing..thats what they can do

All gamerscore points let you do is show your friends, "Hey, Look I got 100% in Burnout or I completed all the mission on hard in GRAW"

It just lets young males stroke their epeens a little bit more.

It's just about having a bigger ePenis

[Sycraft-fu]

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.

This sounds so much like...

[rehtonAesoohC]

... 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.

So really this is...

[kn0tw0rk]

paying someone to do a bit-shift operation on your 'number' to increase its significance :)

Oh man that will be some great spam

[Broken scope]

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.

That's just sad.

[Endo13]

Levels and unlocks in MMORPGS or BF2 actually give you some advantages or more options in games, however pathetic these might be. (In the end they're still mostly about boosting your e-peen, but at least they have a pretense of being more...) Since 'Gamerscore' is merely a way for you to keep score of what you've done so far (and make your e-peen bigger than your friends') it becomes worth exactly nothing when you have someone 'powerlevel' it, because it doesn't even show your score then. All it shows is that you have enough of an inferiority complex to pay someone to raise your score.

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.

Annoy GrumpyReaders by WordConcatenating

[bunions]

all the GoddamnWords you PossiblyCan!

TechnicalTerm for it is CamelCase

[JoshDM]

And they even explain it on YouKnowWhere [wikipedia.org].

Re:

[bunions]

I know. It MakesSense in ProgrammingLanguages where SpacesAreForbidden, but why UseItEverywhere you PossiblyCan? It DrivesMeNuts.

Re:

[neminem]

Cause sometimes you want to talk about [[WikiWord]]s.

Ha ha how pathetic.

[Rev Jim (AKA Metal F]

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.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

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.

The question I have is... WHY?

Gamerscore doesn't mean crap. Seriously. It's just an arbitrary number that some game developer uses. That's why there was an article a while back about how to get an easy 3000 points by r

Re:

[Aladrin]

I'm wondering how I can get paid to sit at home and earn points for people... Cuz seriously... Wow. I've got over 4000 points on my gamer tag now in less than a month, and that's -while- holding down a salaried job and playing other systems, too.

I mean, I doubt I could make a living off of it... But it could be fun. There are certain games that it's pretty easy to make 1000 points. (dw5:empires, for 1)

I could buy a Wii for that amount of cash

[WillAffleckUW]

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.

Way funnier detail to this story...

[EasyThereSport]

Look at the msg board below the actual story [joystiq.com] and follow the saga of random posters vs. aZn_1080p ... For the unpatient, the most hilarious detail is aZn_1080p name drop in this segment: You know Chuckie Akenz? Thats my boy. Thats the crew I roll with. Hell, you can see me in this video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaciX5hDTvI/ [youtube.com] 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 mo

Kudos!

[aafiske]

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.

Achievements are great...

[YourExWife]

...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 m

The real problem with it

[Kuvter]

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.

Re:

[YourExWife]

Gamerscore has nothing to do with rankings or matchmaking. It is just a number that is intended to show how much you play. Basically the higher your gamerscore, the more 360 games you've played.

Karma

[heli0]

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.