Gamerscore Hacking and Its Underground Economy 85
An anonymous reader writes "There's a writeup on SpywareGuide that explores the world of Xbox Gamerscore hacking, and how high Gamerscores are proving to be a big target for hackers and phishers. It also talks about how a recent release of a Gamerscore-altering program onto forums for hacking & cheating is proving to be lucrative business for both eBay sellers and those who want to artificially inflate a Gamerscore before selling that account, or trading it for credit card details."
Re:The buyers... (Score:3, Interesting)
Achievements don't unlock extra content. You unlock extra achievements using extra content. As desirability goes, achievements have no other purpose than to show how good you are at a particular game, how long you've been playing it, and how much effort you've been willing to put in to perform all the crazy acts the developers came up with that have nothing to do with the original goal of the game.
Re:The buyers... (Score:2, Interesting)
Someone below me also said that achievements are a way of adding content without really adding content, or saying it a different way, they add replay value. This is very true, at least for me, but I suspect for many others. Even after I complete the standard storyline of the game, I'll go back through and pick up as many of the achievements as my schedule and spouse reasonably permit me to. Why? I don't know. I guess its just another challenge.