Your Gamerscore and You - Part Deux

I was probably supposed to follow up on my gamerscore post about, oh, 9 or 10 entries ago. Frankly, I've lost the gusto to continue on much more on that topic. I broke the 1000-point mark in my gamerscore weeks ago, so it's hardly newsworthy anymore... not that it would've been a banner headline if I blogged about it right away either. Well, let's see where this ramble takes us...

It's clear that the achievements concept has become a big hit and if the rumours are to bear any fruit, gamers will have even more reason to obsess over their gamerscores. Aside from bragging rights and personal pride, attachment to one's gamerscore does serve a more practical function, at least from the perspective of Microsoft and, more specifically, their departments responsible for monitoring codes of conduct. The latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine features a revealing article about the life of an Xbox Live community watchdog, known only as "Chris". Part of the rather amusing story focused on an OXM editor's experiment to try and get himself banned from Live. He set up a dummy Live account and went about harassing teammates, griefing Uno opponents and generally acting like an obnoxious ass, all in the attempt to find out how far one has to push it before the powers that be take action.

It turns out he never got banned, even after a 4-day period of sending curse-laden voice messages and webcam-ming his crotch for all to see. It was later revealed on the weekly OXM podcast that although his account was not suspended, the editor indeed caught the attention of "Chris" and his fellow community watchdogs and had been put on a high-priority "to watch" list.

In the end, if you are someone who is intent on disrupting the experience on Live, you will find a way to do it by constantly changing up accounts. I think a large deterrent for doing that, of course, is the loss of gamerscore. Losing all those hard-won achievements just so you can continue to be an Ass, is simply not worth it for the overwhelming majority of gamers, even from the hardcore griefer set.

Gamerscore: addictive meta-points grind and invaluable EULA enforcement tool!