Ray Cox IV, aka Stallion83, has been rewarded handsomely for his record-breaking gamerscore of 953,000. Not only is he in the Guinness Book of World Records, but Microsoft invited him to the Xbox One launch in New York, where he received a lifetime Xbox Live Gold membership. On a 24 carat gold card, engraved with his gamertag. And they also gave him an employee-only white Xbox One. http://www.at7addak.com/article/gam...ore-receives-lifetime-membership-to-xbox-live
If we assume that he spent an average of 8 hours on every 1000 gamerscore, he spent 318 days - almost a year of his lifetime - on playing Xbox 360. He is the most achieved XBL-player, out of many million players all over the world. What he got is a $500 console, a card and a thank you letter. Not sure if it's really worth going for...
Now that's called putting it in perspective! As much as I love playing games, I'm staggered at some of these achievements - games like Rainbow 6 always stood out for me, when you do the maths and realize just how long someone must have been playing the game to achieve that score - I'm sitting there thinking this guy must (a) not have a job and (b) be playing this game for almost every waking moment of their lives, excluding food and toilet breaks. Now, an intense 2 - 3 day session I can understand... but months, years?
Even with a shitty job you could just buy those things in the amount of time wasted chasing "achievements".
Not that I disagree with you or anything, but those white consoles are fetching a tad more than $500 on eBay. And assuming he isn't too old and plays for many more years, a lifetime of free Live could add up to a decent sum, too. Not worth the time invested to me, but clearly this was something he did simply because he wanted to - with no reward in mind - so it's all gravy to him. I'm actually pretty jealous of the gold lifetime card. I think they should sell a few of those.
The console is NOT a retail console, it's a launch team console. They are selling on eBay for a LOT of money. Generally $2,000 to $4,000... although one went for $11,300! The CONTROLLER alone goes for nearly $500! The "card" is made of 24 carat gold, allegedly. Gold is around $1,250 per oz, which is about $40 per gram. Assuming the 83 in his user name means he was born in 1983, he's 30. If he got 20 years of use out of the lifetime membership, that's what - $600 worth? And that's assuming it doesn't go up in the future... which it probably will. He said he's been gaming since he was three years old, and started going for achievements in 2006. So it took him seven years. If he enjoys it, so what? If he had Gold for those seven years, he's had that paid back... and then some. We ALL play video games. Do you do it for financial gain? Do you sit there thinking "hmm, I could be earning money right now instead of wasting my time playing games!" OF COURSE YOU DON'T! So why criticize him for doing something he loves. Sure, he might spend too much time playing games, but that's his choice. It's no worse than the sad people (sorry, my opinion) that sit there playing WoW or Eve. Yeah, tonight I'm mining. Tomorrow I'll mine some more. Then I'm going raiding. A good two weeks of raiding. In my party. Yeah, we raid together. BOOOOORRRIINNNGGGGG!
I'm no fan of Achievements (or 'Trophies' as they are known on the PS3 and maybe PS4). I don't like them for two reasons; 1) I would like Achievements if they were for genuine, well thought out Achievements. I.e. not stupid things like driving around the track backwards, or playing for x amount of hours, or playing y multiplayer games. Achievements also should not be for just completing the game, and not for completing a chapter or otherwise normal part of the game in an ordinary way. Achievements should be for achieving something that requires skill and is not absolutely essential to completing the game. Achievements should be for things like Killing x enemies in under y seconds, or completing the game in less than x minutes, or getting an unbroken string of x headshots, that sort of thing. Things that require real skill and that you can complete the game without doing. On games I really like, I sometimes replay them with self-imposed challenges (only use weapon x, or try to kill as few people as possible by avoiding them or running away, etc) or try for a speed run (which is a good test of skill, as you have to learn the levels very well, and get as many headshots as possible, etc), and things like these would make for good achievement points. 2) I hate the way achievement points are added up into one meaningless overall total. This means that a bad player who plays lots of games can have a higher achievement point total than a good player who plays less games, especially if the bad player plays games with easier-to-attain achievement points. As a result, I don't bother with achievements (I don't even know my total, but it's no doubt not high, partly because I spend my gaming time on the PC and six consoles (N64, original XBox, PS2, Gamecube, XBox 360, and PS3) and also because I never actively go after achievements since to me they add nothing to the game).
I agree that there are some stupid achievements out there (I remember one Avatar game I think it was where you could get 1,000 in a few minutes). However, in my experience, there are usually a fair few difficult achievements. Maybe it's just the games I play? Take a look at games like GTA. You have to complete the game, but that won't get you all the achievements. You also have to collect things (something that has been present in many games long before achievements, just for a completionist's sake). Or Guitar Hero - you have to play solo, play in a band, play online... and play a ridiculous solo on Expert without using Star Power! Very hard, indeed. Whilst there are easier games to get a decent gamer score, there are still a fair few that require you to deviate from the normal path or play the game multiple times. I like that. In my opinion, achievements (when properly used, you're right) give a game a bit more longevity. And some of them can be pretty funny!
I'm just amazed that the guy can squeeze in nearly a year's worth of gaming within a seven year period. I don't know about most of you guys, but I find that my time set aside for gaming shrinks as I get older. Cheers to that lucky fella!
I like collecting trophies on PS3 for fun. I have 22 platinum total so far nearly seven years already. To me it is more fun collecting trophies only games that you really like the most. Well massive respect to this guy for reaching those score points. But never less, It could be hacked. I can't imagined how many XBOX360 he have to go through with all those RROD problems.
Only because it is new right now. In a few years no one will be getting those prices. Look at the two other Launch consoles for the original Xbox and 360. They aren't going for anywhere near those prices. That one will end up the same way eventually.
Pretty sure that guy is sponsored by Microsoft in other ways too. Basically racking up Gamerscore is his full time job, so not really a waste of time (for him.)
It *is* a retail console in a different case. And since it's very unlikely he'll sell it, it's worth no more than a regular console. Again the same with the controller. The Gold card? Once again is he planning to scrap it? Not to mention I doubt it's a significant amount of gold. If he was going to play all these games even if there was no gamerscore that's one thing. I think it's very likely he plays all sorts of games, often just to get easy achievement points. But maybe that's enough for him to play a game he's not really that interested in. I'd rather spend my free time doing different things than trying to earn worthless achievements.
I like the Xbox achievements but it takes serious time and skills to get them all and in the end I don't have that much time to spend on gaming The PSN trophies, I've never got my head around them, really, but I got some. But between getting trophies and having some fun cop chasing in an helicopter in GTA V using cheats, fun is always chosen But Kudos to the chap who got all the goodies!!!
This. Also my friend's 58 years old father finished Contra Hard Corps without a single death first time he played it. That's THE gaming achievement, not some popup that says "You killed 10000000 fluffy bunnies and adds "Bunny massacre" thing in some menu, which does what? Right, nothing. What i really like is games that have a lot of unlockable stuff, or tons of different ways to finish the game with different endings (if it's possible with the game genre). Have nothing against online score rankings though.
I dunno, they seem pretty sweet to this guy right now. I've never chased achievements like my friends have, I'd rather just have fun and enjoy the games I play. If this guy has fun and likes getting every achievement he can, I say good for him.
