Rumor: Achievements Unlocking Rewards for Gamers?

by David Dreger { Jan 29th 2007 at 1:00PM }

Deacon Blade of Unscripted360 broke a very interesting story this morning. Apparently, he and some fellow MVPs came across at "torn document" that contained intriguing ideas for the future of the Xbox 360, and more importantly, its Achievement and gamerscore system. According to Deacon, Xbox is working alongside sponsors to initiate a program in February to reward gamers for their Achievements. Participation is free of charge, and the number of prizes are limited, although you will need to register to get in. We don't know if this will be limited to Xbox Live Gold subscribers, or open to Silver as well, but don't be surprised if only paying customers are eligible. Gamesaving was also brought up on the document as a "top priority", and will supposedly be taken care of.

All in all, the release of this information seems a little fishy. It's very likely that Microsoft gave the go ahead for its high ranking community members to give a few tidbits of information without revealing much more than the concept. Deacon, and the others at the event probably know more than they're letting on regarding the program, and just want to leave people wanting more and thus building hype. Well, it's working. We're excited about this opportunity for casual and hardcore gamers alike to get free stuff for playing games, what about you? And how do you expect Microsoft to circumvent the current, albeit neutered, gamesaving from exploiting the idea of rewards?

Tags: Achievement Unlocked, Achievement Whore, Achievements, AchievementUnlocked, AchievementWhore, Gamer score, GamerScore, Rewards System, RewardsSystem, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox360, XboxLive

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

DaKing240 @ Jan 29th 2007 1:06PM

I really think this could be a huge success for Microsoft, and for gamers... that is, if Microsoft gets it right. Only time will tell if this is true, and if Microsoft is going to make a push to really please its gamers by ending GameSaving, and rewarding the people who play games legit.

DeaconBlade 360 @ Jan 29th 2007 1:21PM

what? me not tell everything i know? come on...;)

Daryl @ Jan 29th 2007 1:13PM

Nice!

LuckyChowmeinDude @ Jan 29th 2007 1:20PM

Cool , now this is a reason to rent more games.

Nutman @ Jan 29th 2007 1:44PM

It's just too bad that all the people in the world with the really really high gamerscores cheated to get there, and they'll probally be rewarded the most.

drunkenshaolin @ Jan 29th 2007 5:32PM

when i first heard about the gamerscore and Achievements, when 360 was all hype. this is how i thought it was going to be. that you can use you gamerscore as currency to buy stuff over xboxlive...
Could work if done right.

mike @ Jan 29th 2007 2:39PM

LOL. Dustin Burg reposted this just above under a different title then removed it. Do you guys just wait by a folder and keep refreshing it until a tip appears and write a storya bout it?

Justin U @ Jan 29th 2007 2:44PM

Probably Mike. Since, you know.

Its their job.

Either way... Cool, I guess? I think the random Gamer Pic unlocked with some achievements is more than enough, but free shit is welcome too.

Knuckles Dawson @ Jan 29th 2007 2:55PM

I cannot be held responsible for Dustin's incompetence.

Zilju Kefai @ Jan 29th 2007 3:26PM

call me a noob, but what is Gamesaving?

Mike @ Jan 29th 2007 3:28PM

"It's just too bad that all the people in the world with the really really high gamerscores cheated to get there, and they'll probally be rewarded the most."

About as (un)reliable as any in-game leaderboard. In fact, rewards would just make leaderboards 100x more crooked than they already are because people would be boosting like crazy and in turn going up on the leaderboard in most cases. The entire console industry needs its own form of Punkbuster variant. Maybe a way of having your Reputation used as a variable on leaderboard positions, so glitchers and boosters get reports against them that shave off leaderboard spots when appropriate. Then the jerks get penalized on both AP value for earning rewards and leaderboard position.

It wouldn't be so bad if Microsoft demanded that developers strictly used Zones more. Then you could have a leaderboard for each Zone instead of Recreation players being banished to the bottom of the leaderboard because all the Pros and Undergrounds naturally claim the top spots. Reputation, Zones, and TrueSkill should all be used TOGETHER to matchmake. As of now, there's no point whatsoever to set a Zone for yourself...it's never used at all, and Reputation doesnt' seem to matter either.

Daryl @ Jan 29th 2007 3:42PM

The Rep system can be taken advantage of. I got my first bad review today for "quiting early". Thing is, I didn't. The game session ended. I don't know why someone thought I had anything to do with it. I wasn't the host.

The Rep system is a good idea, but you can't put much weight on it, otherwise I would want to challenge that bad review. lol.