"Fundamental changes" coming to Xbox achievements
For people who only play a lot of one game.
A "fundamental change" to Xbox achievements is coming, Microsoft has teased.
The rework will address the different ways people play games - to highlight people who only play a smaller selection of games but do so a lot, or who only play one game at a very high level.
These people are not well represented by the current 1000 Gamerscore per title system, Microsoft has realised.
"Somebody who only plays multiplayer in Halo 5 at a professional level, maybe they only have 2000 Gamerscore," Xbox exec Mike Ybarra told Windows Central, "[but] you want to be able to celebrate that person.
"This person doesn't play a lot of games, but they're world top ten at Halo 5," he continued. "We're going to go big in the area of letting people show off and represent their gaming history and the type of gamer that they are, far more than we do with Gamerscore."
This change would not replace Gamerscore but complement it, Ybarra reassured.
I'd like to see some integration of time spent or other stats into a more rounded player stat - of which Gamerscore from achievements could be a component.
It's a decision which feels a long time coming. I used to collect achievements fairly obsessively back in the Xbox 360 era, when I played a large number of games for a relatively short amount of time. I'd finish the game, try and get as close to 1000G as possible, then move on. These days I play fewer games for longer - a situation I know I'm not alone in.
After playing 600 hours playing Destiny over the course of three years, I still don't have all the achievements. I don't even want to check how long I've played Minecraft. My time playing these games has not been well reflected by their achievements, so I now care much less about the achievements system in general. Here's hoping Microsoft's changes can help matters.