Chasing Gamerscore

[GamerMan316]

OXM chat with the UK's #1 Achievement Hunter

Just who is the biggest gamerscore hunter in the UK, and what drives him to spend so much time in the pursuit of gamerscore?

I caught up with the current UK #1 Anthony Cockram, aka Pigimus Prime to find out. Here's what he had to say about it.

BT: What is your personal motivation for wanting to achieve a high gamerscore?

AC: I see gamerscore as one big game. It has become a way of life. I love games and love that each game I play is part of the bigger picture. I am my own motivation in that I have my own goals and am very proud of my card. As they say there are no prizes for what I do so its really all about doing what you like, unlike a lot of 'score whores' I do this because I enjoy it and if I ever stop enjoying it then I'll stop doing it.

BT: Do you think it's difficult to be recognised as the UK#1 when many players have high scores that might not have been gained legitimately?

AC: It can be difficult but it depends how you look at it! Basically all the big legit players know who is legit and who is not so it's easy to get recognition from all the big guys. That makes it easier to deal with the fact that cheats still stain the leaderboards. I don't hate cheats, I simply don't understand them. I am good friends with almost every "big player" worldwide so therefore we all know and respect each other.

What is extremely frustrating is when you're being accused of being a cheat by a known cheat! You see in his head he can't comprehend accomplishing what I have done legitimately.

BT: How competitive is the world of gamerscore hunting, does it ever get nasty?

AC: Yes it's highly competitive but between the big players the competition is both healthy and friendly. At the end of the day we are all in the same boat so its pointless taking things too serious and being nasty because in the long run it holds no benefit. There is nastiness between some of the big players but this has nothing to do with me!

BT: Tell us your most memorable moment about playing for achievements.

AC: My most memorable single achievement unlock was 'seriously' on Gears. Unlike a lot of people I didn't boost this. I didn't glitch this either, I just played ALOT. And my achievement didn't unlock at the requested 10000 kills, it took more than 14000 kills. I met some good guys playing Gears and I consider it my favourite multiplayer game.

BT: Unlocking achievements has "broken" some of the most hardcore gamers. How have you managed to keep it together?

AC: The bottom line here is that I love playing games, and I look at gamerscore as one big game. It has good and bad like any game does. Obviously you can see from my score that I take this seriously but the trick is to make it as fun as you can.

Planning is essential and I'll give u an example of what I mean by planning - last week I put on roughly 6000gs by playing s*** like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, GI Joe, Brave and a couple of silly Japanese sim games! All those games bored me but that was cool because I knew I had Forza3 to beast on the Friday. So I played Forza for 4 lovely days to forget the crap!

BT: Have you had to make many personal sacrifices to get such an impressive score?

AC: Surprisingly I've not had to make too many sacrifices outside of gaming. I keep on top of my business, see my close friends and family on a weekly basis. My partner doesn't like games at all but she's supportive and cool about what I do.

I will confess however to sneaking my Japanese Xbox on last years Egypt vacation to grab those last audio diaries when my girlfriend was sleeping! I do have to remain smart and make sacrifices within the games themselves. I cannot really afford to play MW2 multiplayer for a whole week because my current priority is hitting 300k before the year end.

BT: Do you have a final score target or will you just keep on going?

AC: I am really not sure about this and there are a lot of factors out of my hands such as will gamerscore continue on the next machine. You see when people first started doing gamerscore to a serious degree it was the 100,000 that was the promised land but things have clearly got more serious and people worldwide are clearing 300,000. My buddy and world number 1 stallion83 has a personal goal of reaching the 1 million mark. This isn't my personal goal but that doesn't mean that I don't think I'll hit the million. In the year just passed I've attained more score than I did in my first two years combined - my point being that I'm constantly improving and becoming more efficient so I don't know where this will end.

[Failed]

Cool, i'd be happy with 200 - 250k before the end of the 360. Hopefully the next console will just use the same Gamertags with the same scores and everything will carry over nicely.

I've changed my whoring ways, i used to just go for any points, now i work on getting the highest score possible, even if that means playing a whole game again just for 50G to complete it.

Also like that guy said, the best way to score whore is to play a couple of games for points (Cloudy with Meatballs, GI Joe) and then play 1 game your really gonna like to balance things out (Forza 3).

[KoreRupt]

Hopefully the next console will just use the same Gamertags with the same scores and everything will carry over nicely.

If im right.. Xbox one gamertags crossed over to xbox 360!

So hopefully the Xbox 720 or whatever will do same!

[GamerMan316]

Tara posted something about carrying gamerscore over to the new console on the old site, the plan at the time was to carry them over so hopefully it will happen, especially after all the hard work that people have put it.  I doubt MS would stop doing achievements as it's been a big success.

[KoreRupt]

I think achivements are one of the best thing about xbox gaming in general, it prolongs your favourite games without really adding anything and shows your abilitys to people.

Only problem is theres alot of people who abuse MP games to JUST get achivements.. Boosters in MP = dicks! lol

[GamerMan316]

I think achivements are one of the best thing about xbox gaming in general, it prolongs your favourite games without really adding anything and shows your abilitys to people.

Only problem is theres alot of people who abuse MP games to JUST get achivements.. Boosters in MP = dicks! lol

Very true, especially when you join random ranked/public matches in Gears 1/2 and people are already boosting and then moan because you don't, i remember me, Tara & Dave boosting on the MP on The Darkness a couple of years ago, but that was in player matches and we only got a few achievements, the MP in that game isn't very good.

[KoreRupt]

I loved the darkness.. and I remember helping a friend get some achievements,  Im one of those people who doesnt try to get achievements though its nice when they pop up randomly..  Only game I tried to get an achivement on was Borderlands.. and that was bouncing on some enemys head cause i had like 990g on the game haha..

Boosting in ranked really does ruin games.. I remember going on W@W and seeing people in Domination with "Bost" in their clan tags and if you didnt agree to boost they would leave.. same with people and cage matchs to get Camo on guns.. Really lame lol.. Earn them!

[GamerMan316]

If i'm renting a game then i'll usually look at the achievements first, so i have an idea what to go for, then get them asap before sending it back, i don't normally look at the achievements for the games I buy, unless they're sports games.

[KoreRupt]

Fifa's achivements are really weird.. One year they are piss easy.. next year you are lucky to get 10g. lol..

I remember looking at Achivements for Bioshock.. After playing the story through like 7 times in a row! haha

[Jaynestown]

Cool, i'd be happy with 200 - 250k before the end of the 360. Hopefully the next console will just use the same Gamertags with the same scores and everything will carry over nicely.

I've changed my whoring ways, i used to just go for any points, now i work on getting the highest score possible, even if that means playing a whole game again just for 50G to complete it.

Also like that guy said, the best way to score whore is to play a couple of games for points (Cloudy with Meatballs, GI Joe) and then play 1 game your really gonna like to balance things out (Forza 3).

I started Batman: AA on hard today, and promptly got pummelled at the first fight... I've decided it'll be a waste of effort to try and got for that!!!

Personally I don't think there should be MP achievements, mainly because I'm rubbish at MP, but I think it takes the enjoyment out of it, especially when you get stuck in a GOW2 game of Submission that lasts over an hour just 'cos people are trying to boost!!!

[Failed]

A friend of mine gave me the Batman AA guide on Saturday, so i'm gonna make sure i 100% that one in the future.

I recently went back to Shellshock to get the last 50G and currently working on Warriors Orochi to get 100% on that, then it's onto SHIFT and then Destroy All Humans to 100%.

[NeuroticSarge]

I'll only boost for achievos when it's required or with friends. Done some recently on CoD 3,real easy to do and quick.We had a room of 8 people and just racked them up,but unfortunately,you do get the occasional one who wants to spoil it,but we just ganged up on them! Funny!
If anyone does wanna boost for any achevos,let me know-don't bother me as long as I get the big G myself!

[GamerMan316]

Race to 1 Million

They all want to make history, but does anyone have the determination, not to mention the cash, to see it through?

For those who aim to become the first to earn a million Gamerscore, it's almost like attempting to sprint a marathon.

The world's top Achievement hunters spend thousands of pounds on games and downloadable content, racing through each one as quickly as possible before moving onto the next.

What's most remarkable though, is that this battle won't be resolved for several years to come.

The race to a million is still in its early phase, for one entirely practical reason. It isn't a lack of time or willpower, but a shortfall in the number of games needed to reach Gamerscore Shangri-La. At present there's only around 650,000 Gamerscore available.

If there isn't a significant increase in the number of games released each month, it's estimated that the million won't be attainable for another four years. Talk about being in it for the long haul.

Pigimus Prime, a property developer from Manchester claims to be the "legitimate UK number one". One or two other players have higher recorded scores, but he says that they used cheats and game saves to get there. His Gamerscore stands at a highly impressive 267,000, a feat made possible by playing both UK and Japanese versions of the same games.

Although many games are region-locked, gamer profiles are usable worldwide. They can be transferred to consoles bought in the US and Japan, allowing a UK-based gamer to play multiple editions of the same title. For example, practically all the top players have 2,000 Gamerscore on Gears of War - the UK version and the Asian re-release. Frankly, we can't imagine going for the "Seriously" Achievement for 10,000 kills twice over.

While Pigimus' tally is very impressive, it's still some way behind the top American player. Stallion83 has a Gamerscore of 371,165 spread over 13,000 separate Achievements. He aims to break the million mark by 31 December, 2015.

"I decided to start my website 1milliongamerscore.com because people had lots of questions and theories about me, and I was tired of all the rumours and hearsay" he says, referring to his critics who accuse him of cheating or having no life. "It's there to give people some insight on how much dedication it takes to achieve a goal."

The race is on
At first, Stallion83 was just pleased to have broken 100,000 points. However, as more and more players reached that mark he decided to accelerate his Achievement-hunt. He says, "To me, the Holy Grail is
1 million. I just can't envision another Gamerscore goal after that."

Ironically, for someone who has shown such dedication to the cause, he can't explain the allure of Gamerscore. "I'm not really sure what my personal motivation is. I would want something good to come out of it. Try to help people look at life in a different light."

He does confess to wanting to work for Microsoft though, and to put some of his "time in the Xbox Live trenches" to practical use.
The quest for Achievements has been a rocky road in the past, leaving some of the highest-scoring players feeling burned out and disillusioned. STtheKing, one of the first players to pass 100,000 points famously quit the race after unlocking every Achievement in Rumble Roses XX - a gruelling and extremely boring task that takes hundreds of hours.

"I think grinding out a single game over a long period of time can eat away at you," advises Stallion83. "I like to switch my style of play up. One month I may try to score 10,000 points, the next I may try to complete 20 different games to 100 per cent. It's all about variety."

Home boy
It seems obvious that anyone with such a high Gamerscore must spend a lot of his life playing games. However, he doesn't believe that he's sacrificed all that much. "The only thing I've really missed out on is multiplayer time with other top-notch first-person shooter games," he says. "I'm a fan of Xbox Live, not just Achievements."

His website paints a picture of someone who loves the limelight, but also wants to retain a certain amount of mystique - he remains carefully anonymous. It's a fascinating collection of fan mail, hate mail and diaries of his 24-hour gaming sessions. His latest endeavour is to unlock at least one new Achievement in every American state. Why? "I like to travel". However, it also seems like a public way of redressing the claims that he never leaves the house.

The race to 1 million is still in its early stages, but it's tight at the top and more are expected to join in as the number of games continues to grow. It's becoming as much a contest of will and spending power, as one of skill.

By our reckoning, at his current rate of progress Stallion83 will need another 1,200 retail games to hit the magic number: that's around £50,000 worth. We can only hope the inevitable Wikipedia citation is worth it.

[Failed]

Stallion83 has recently passed 400,000
PigimusPrime has recently passed 300,000

big milestones!

[TaraJayne]

Does make you wonder what their life is like though  Besides playing video games 24/7 what else do they do?