Burning the Backlog... again.

A backlog, in regards to the gamer, is a collection of unplayed games. When a gamer gets to a certain lifestyle of game play, backlogs are a natural occurrence that stems from a gamers' attempt to save money by purchasing games on sale that they will play in the future. It's so common an occurrence that there is a site online that helps document your progress on your progress on burning the backlog. However, some cases of backloggery are more extreme than others.

In the month of June, 2010 I accepted a verbal challenge with Botafogo "The Enabler" 007 that I w/couldn’t drop my completion percentage from 75% to 50% and build it back to 75%. In actuality, my percentage was higher than 75% and I was around 115,000 at the time. It took around 117 games, according to True Achivements to achieve 49.9%. My percentage and many people’s feeds were properly raped that month; and it was all done at a time before the terms “Bean Dive” and “Feed Rape” actually HAD names. Today, I have hit 60% and I’m looking at an all too familiar backlog that found its way back on to my shelves and into my hard drive.

Backlog? Again? That’s totally unacceptable. 

I remember when I first heard that what I had done had become a community event. At first I was slightly annoyed that what I had originally done to separate myself from the norm became a mainstream event. Then it was funny to compare their efforts to crush their card compared to my own. I figured that a genuine percentage dump wouldn’t be able to be recovered from the same year; but I have to remind myself that their reason for having a backlog is totally different from my own. Most gamers are not exactly Gamer Scoring League participants, or into Competitive Gamerscoring.  However it did serve its greater purpose of freeing gamers from the personal restrictions that they bind themselves to. 

From a mathematical standpoint, it takes a much greater effort for me to gain and drop percentage than most people. It would take me 185 individual achievements to gain 1%. In comparison to other extreme cases, StophJ requires 275 to achieve the same results. Vandetta x360a, who has a 40k Gamerscore, only requires 39 unlocked achievements for a full percentage gain.  Interestingly enough, both Stallion and Smrnov need 295 achievements to acquire a gain of one percentage point. This is on top of the fact that these numbers only remain true if these gamers do not add any more games to their tag, which is an impossibility considering their playstyle. This is probably why completion percentage races are generally unpopular for higher tiered GS tags; it is the equivalent of running uphill wearing a parachute when playing against those with significantly lower gamerscores.

Believe it or not, it gets HARDER to drop in percentage the higher you get. In fact, it is now a mathematical impossibility for the top scoring gamertags to make any truly significant percentage changes because of the sheer mass of achievements they have already accumulated. There are not enough games available for the top 10 to drop 25%. So the lesson learned is that as a gamer adds more games to their history, completion percentage gets harder to manipulate. Eventually, there is that theoretical threshold where gamers' will find that it is harder to drop their completion percentage, as opposed to raising it. Unless you’re already there, like everyone’s favorite personal stalker Jason3535 or Omfamna, who seems to have played everything that Xbox has to offer. (Information is accurate as of August 29, 2011.)

From 60 to 75%, it would have taken me 2766 total achievements. That would have been cake. However I have decided to play what I have on hand. But why am I dumping at 60%? Why aren't I waiting until I reach my personal goal of 75%, when I made that personal challenge?  Let’s just say I have my reasons.

Gears of War 2

Gears of War 2. I love the story. I hate the multiplayer. The first time I decided to give Gears multiplayer a chance, it was a public match on the first version, and my entire team proceeded to gib me with the shotgun the moment I would spawn. Never did care to touch any of that until recently, where I’m in a situation where I will the one doing the gibbing with no chance of recourse whatsoever.

Game speed completion: This is not a fast completion by any means. There is an extensive list of single player and multiplayer achievements in both the co-op and versus flavors. Fulfilling some of the achievements requires extensive attention as well so if the achievement hunter is looking for game value for achievements, this would be an investment in your time.

The single player achievements can even be done with the assistance of a co-op partner, and also has achievements for doing so. This co-op option has been used to exploit the difficulty specific achievements where one partner plays on the game’s easiest setting and carries the lion’s share of the work while the other partner plays on Insane and hangs back to reap the rewards.

Multiplayer achievements can be affected by the gamer’s MP level, which is earned through any active participation in any multiplayer experience. Reaching a prerequisite experience level and a specific task such as reaching a specific horde wave take up a majority of the MP achievement list, and will require dedicated boosting partners for maximum efficiency. Expect to work with a team of for exp and horde level grinds and larger groups for misc verses achievements.

Time frame for expected completion for casual game play would take months. A proactive team (of working adults) dedicated to completing this game can complete the achievement list in two weeks realistically, or within one week if nothing else was played and if a exp multiplier event was available to exploit during that time frame. Outside equipment such as network bridges can also prove useful in expediting the completion of this game.

GSL Potential:  The stacking potential of achievement points is incredibly high in this game. The game contains an in-game progress tracker that periodically reminds the player of how far along they are in fulfilling requirements for specific achievements. Achievement progress can also be checked from the main menu as well. Due to the cumulative nature of a majority of the achievements, progress can be purposely delayed until the appropriate time to unlock achievements comes along.  

Most achievements are dependent on the multiplayer experience level of the player. Also, progress in Horde specific achievements will not begin until the appropriate experience level is reached first. Grinding to level 100 will allow the GSL participant to begin completing all horde wave achievement prerequisites. The GSL participant should start at wave 2 on every horde map with their boosting partners to leave the easiest wave incomplete and proceed to fulfill the rest of the horde achievement requirements. When it comes time to pop the achievements, each achievement will only require the completion of the first wave to fulfill requirements. Doing this method can potentially provide 365 points in 10 minutes for the horde mode achievements only. The stacking method can also be applied to all the cumulative weapon kill, complete map pack, collectables and story mode achievements. Story mode difficulty achievements stack, so a potential 275 can be popped, with an additional 50 if the GSL participant decides to complete the game in co-op as well. If the GSL members are on the same team, payoff is doubled.

Stacking visibility is fairly high for competitors. Achievement stacking can be recognized by story mode achievements being completed with or without the story mode completion achievement being unlocked on casual difficulty. Level stacking can be recognized if the GSL competitor has completed the MP rank update DLC, which are the only MP ranked achievements that do not have a second set of requirements to unlock.

What the guides don't tell you: Your MP progress is saved onto your gamer profile, there will not be a game save file on your xbox. The data can become corrupted if data save gets interrupted in any way, which usually comes from players taking shortcuts while playing the game. Always be aware of your habits to ensure that you properly quit to the main menu of the game before quitting to the Xbox live dashboard. Also refrain from varying the method of boosting. Do not grind horde levels online in co-op one day if you have been conducting it solo for the majority of it.

Botafogo007 200k Tribute Video

If you get the chance, drop by the thread and leave him a note. That would be awesome. And check out the video I made for the occasion. Original writeup can be found at http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=308674.

Also, big shoutout to Raymond Gallardo of Infrastructure Productions (www.infdv.com) for his personal contributions to making the video look as good as it did.

Beginning my roadtrip today, it's gonna be four weeks of traveling for me. The guys said it should be something interesting to document, but I'm sure that I'll find time to write about it while I'm on the road. Tell you all about it later.

Botar Botar Botar. We’ve been playing this silly Gamerscore metagame since 2007. When we first met, we were competing for cash and prizes from the 360voice Old Spice Challenges. And you beat me both times! The second time around I used your own guide that you were writing for Golden Compass against you to finish the game faster than you did in the same competition. But I had to make the tough decision between winning 50 dollars worth of Microsoft Points or picking up my girlfriend up from the airport on time, and needless to say you were 4000 points richer that New Years Eve.


http://360voice.gamerdna.com/challenge/977


Those were the days when scoring games was HARD. We didn’t have plentiful, easy 1k games that these whippersnapper gamerpunks have nowadays.


For some reason afterwards, we went from competitive rivals, to competitive buddies, and things haven’t changed since then. We’ve gone though many gamer trials and tribulations; friends have come and gone, websites have been joined and lost, gamertags have been retired but not forgotten, (Because they’re still playing, they just prestiged their gamerscore. LULZ.)


Botafogo smashed through 200k in March during the 360 voice month long GSL challenge. As one of the team members of the Emopotomous Killers, which consisted of long time friends and GSL veterans Irish, Peace Star and Fastest Slug, they successfully defeated over 459 individuals and 46 organized teams. Congratulations guys, although it might not mean much to others, now the good ol boys all have a prestigious GSL win under our belts.


http://www.ebash.com/mega/
http://360voice.gamerdna.com/challenge/78030


You are dear friend who I will never wonder if I have to ask permission to jump into parties with because there is no doubt. We still tackle with open arms the challenges that other gamers are too afraid to attempt. Drop our completion percentages from 75% to 50% and build it back to 75%? Don’t tell us we can’t do it. Bomberman retail? , Nope, we ain’t never skrrd. Not giving OutcastNeedsHelp a hard time? We gave him the benefit of a doubt he was genuinely retarded!


Anyone who knows me knows I’m always looking for excellent people to spend time with. Botafogo is one of the most excellent people I have the pleasure of ever encountering. I’m sure you’ll be talking me into boosting Japanese Culdecept Saga, even though I can't even be bothered to finish the one in ENGLISH. But regardless of how shitty the game, how gritty the grind, how pitiful the party may be; I know if Bota is riding for Rohan, it will never be that bad.


Congratulations on 200k my friend. You blew through it out of obligation, but it’s not as if we’re stopping anytime soon anyway.


Oh, and I'm sorry I didn't have a bigger sledgehammer.