Ready Up

Death of a Gamertag

The unthinkable happened to me, I lost my gamertag with no chance of recovery. The customer service people I spoke to at Microsoft were unable to help me but very sympathetic, as if they were gamers themselves, which is what one wants in these type of situations, people who understand. Unlike those around me in real life that I’ve told who look at me like I’m some kind of weirdo and offer “comforting” words such as “It’s not the end of the world” and “Why don’t you just make a new one?”.

The thing is, of course I know it’s not the end of the world, I remember playing games without achievements, it wasn’t so long ago. I loved them just as much, They were just as much fun and I know a gamercard is all for show and pretty shallow but I have made a new gamertag and I am throwing as much time as possible into my gamerscore right now, about six hours a day I’d say. Trying to get it as high as I can before the pregnancy bump figuratively and literally gets in my way.

It’s not all about the score for me to be honest, I’d liken my use of the gamercard to a MySpace kind of page. My score wasn’t overly impressive but the achievements I chose to really put the effort in for were pretty personal. A way I express myself, it’s a record of what kind of gamer I am, what I enjoy doing and what I will put myself through for the little plinky achievement unlocked sound.

I named him G-nome

I’m not saying that I don’t go for the easy achievements, most of us do, friendly competition and comparison is fun. Photo’s can be airbrushed to look good, Facebook friends can be whored to make us look loved and gamerscores can use that wee bit of filler to raise the total up. I want an impressive score and a visible online profile even more lately as Ready Up becomes increasingly popular. Especially as a female, it helps one to be taken a bit more seriously as a gamer. It’s a hell of alot easier to spout my opinions on multiplayer victories and RPG addiction when I have the achievements to back up what I’m saying.

I’m going to look on the bright side anyway, I’ve really enjoyed re-aquainting with some good old friends the past few days. Captain Price, Gaz, Marcus and the gang, Arby and the Chief and I hope to catch up with The crew of the Normandy, the lovely and not so lovely folks in Cyrodil and I’ll also be taking down that pesky Frank Fontaine again pretty soon!

Posted

in

,

by

Laura

Tags:

Comments

9 responses to “Death of a Gamertag”

  1. Skill avatar
    Skill

    We feel your pain. (Big Hug)
    Any help needed achievement hunting, just ask.
    And yeah, I’ve noted that one (small) downside of achievements is the sense that once you’ve got all the ones you’re going to get, the game is over. Not so long ago, I would replay whole games many times, just cos I liked them,. Now I almost always stop when I hit the 1,000. So enjoy those old gems all over again. 😉

  2. Michael avatar
    Michael

    I don’t think I could face all the time I invested in gaining everything over again… how quickly my mindset has changed, hmm?

    That’s what I liked about CoD4 – it wasn’t just achievements but those challenges in MP. It gave it more longevity; a shame most people I knew shifted to GTAIV and R6V2…

  3. Skill avatar
    Skill

    Yeah, the shelf-life of online MP can be cut brutally short when a big title comes out.
    I still miss Shadowrun. But when Halo 3 came out it was flogging a dead horse.

  4. Zanveth avatar
    Zanveth

    I’ve been there before…twice in fact so know your pain.

    I’m on my 3rd Gamertag now, and while I really enjoy going back to some old games and getting a new bit of life out of them, I’ve come to ignore my gamerscore and use it mainly as a record for how much of a game I’ve got left until its 100% beat (which is a rare thing for me anyway.)

  5. Tony avatar
    Tony

    Hmmm, if this happened to me I’d be more bothered about the actual name than the achievements and the gamerscore etc.

    Particularly as my gamertag is the same on both PSN and Liveas it’d be a pain if I had to change one of them.

  6. Van-Fu avatar
    Van-Fu

    That’s a shocking development. My condolences.

    I think I need to let something like that happen to shock me out of my achievement farming habit. But only after I have caught Geofortean.

  7. Laura avatar
    Laura

    Ah Geofortean, the Ready Up God of gamerscore, have you ever scrolled down his list of games it takes about a day and a half! 😉

  8. Alex avatar
    Alex

    As we know, I’ve been there too 🙁 I feel your paiiin!
    But you’re making up for it pretty quick I must say, you’ve been on every time this week that I have! =D

  9. Martin avatar
    Martin

    I have a habit of playing a game, finishing it and trading it in with still about 500 points or so to get from it. Then a while later seeing it at a bargain price and buying it back to play again to get more points but….I deleted the save file for more space and have to play the whole game again! Very annoying, not to the extent that you have but….

Leave a Reply