My phone is going to get me in trouble someday.

Well it’s the end of the year and as they say, “Out with the bad, in with the good.” It’s entertaining to see the parade of failed goals of the year ticker across the board. Of course, one of the biggest excuses has always been, “Life gets in the way,” and I always considered that an excuse, even if it is the truth. The same excuse for leaving purchased games played on the shelf and our hard drives, creating the backlog situation that plagues gamers of our caliber.

Usually I would back up a lot of my writing with references and supporting facts, but I’m at a serious disadvantage at the tools at my disposal in my current position. Despite my own life getting in the way, I still manage decent movement with my own gamerscore. If it wasn’t for the WP, then you wouldn’t be seeing anything from me at all. Thankfully I’ve gotten the opportunity to calculate what I’ve managed.

Since deploying near the end of September, these total numbers earned were:

September: 500gs, equaling 605 TA
October: 2885gs, equaling 4078 TA
November: 2470gs, equaling 3543 TA
December: 3140gs, equaling 4374 TA

A grand total of 8995 gamer score, 12600 TA score and roughly 36 games completed, almost purely by windows phone. (40 points are credited to Tinker.)

When you see the prices of DLC and games, don’t forget that there is more to the product than what sits before you. The names that show on the credits aren’t there simply for you to sit through to earn that achievement. They are on the other side, doing the things that most of us aren’t capable of doing, which is creating the content we are so quick to judge. We as gamers are given the right, and entitled to our own opinions on wither something is worth its cost; we are the market’s voice. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they take it personally if they ever read through the comments that unfortunately permeates the front page news. Just as we as consumers are entitled to use our voice, developers and publishers are just as entitled to set the price of the content we want to buy. Of course there is the business end of this industry, and there is one more reason why products are priced the way they are; after all, we as a collective whole have made the bed we’re sleeping in right now. Read about the process and maybe even give it a try, then ask yourself when everything is done and your own creation is up on the indie marketplace if the blood, sweat and time put into your creation isn’t worth more than 80ms points.

As for me, when you begin to see crimson traces smear across the cell phone screen, although it would make for a great story, it’s time to reconsider the priorities.

New Year’s Resolution: Come home with all ten fingers. (Insert any monophonic Fallout 3 BGM here.)

Don’t just wish for a good new year; be the change you wish to see in the world. Do it like you mean it, and then do it well. At least do it better than those who settle to bark rather than bite. If you’re as deep-rooted into the gaming culture to the point where you joined communities such as TrueAchievements, gaming is not something that gets in the way of life, it’s a part of it.

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.

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.

GSL Resource Article: Dealing with your game genre weaknesses

This was originally going to be added as the introduction of the next GSL game analysis, but it got long enough to just separate itself into its own post.

An analytical writer prides oneself on the objectivity of their writing, with the ability to put aside one's personal feelings about a subject in order to produce an informational, unbiased product. If I was unable to do so, this article would be written more like the stuff that you would see from your 13 year old siblings tumblr account, screaming beautiful poetic rants of anguish and emotion of my absolute hatred of sports games. Luckily I'm objective enough to realize that even though it isn't easy for me, it might be for someone else. I just finished playing Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers, which was an easy game for everyone else other than me. With my group of friends, I was the first to start, and the last to finish six months later due to my personal feelings of sports games.

Yeah... Sports games are my videogame Kryptonite.

Lessons can be learned from this. For GSLs, the motivation to play certain genres of games can dramatically affect achievement point earning efficiency. Sports games is my weak genre; so playing sports games will take more time and motivation than any other genre available. For others, it may be first person shooters, platformers, or even the inability to tolerate Japanese visual novels that will handicap a person from finishing a game as fast as the rest of the competition. Knowing what your teammates will and will not do is key to team managers who usually dictate who gets what games at particular points of a GSL schedule.

Participants playing games they may not like is a normal occurrence in any GSL. Find me any GSL discussion and I could quickly point out people complaining about what they're playing with very little effort. But just because it is a necessary evil does not mean it would be wise to grind out your weak genre until you're ready to gouge out your eyeballs. In short, two tidbits of information to consider.

1. A GSL participant can earn points more efficiently playing games in their strong genre. Although I personally had tons of point potential in the sports category, the most efficient use of my time came from platformers and first person shooters, in which my strengths are. On top of that, I actually enjoyed what I was playing, so motivation was high.

2. If a GSL participant must earn points in their weak genre don't stay with the genre for too long and break it up with games that you may like. I made the mistake in my final GSL to complete seven basketball games in one stretch. Doing so killed my motivation to revisit the genre for a short period until it became a point necessity for individual placement. If you're not motivated, you're not scoring points. Toss yourself a bone and play something you like in-between personal grinds.

Gamer Analysis revisit and redesign.

Supposedly when you add a new Label, it gives you a new option to start a new tab on the blogger. I need a new tab. Lets give it a try.

No whammies no whammies no whammies..... Stop.


Well, I figured it out, and it wasn't exactly how I expected it to be, but the problem solver in me got from point A to point B as always. I used this reference to create the categories for direct linking the tabs to my labels. I actually used the information on the comments to get the results I wanted. If you like the design, check it out.


http://ilovethewaysheblogs.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-use-pages-on-blogger.html


With the time I currently have on my hands, I think it's time to start developing my skills on web presence. It has never been in my personality to announce anything at all, but my ability for creative writing needs an outlet. And if there is anything I learned from my experience from my Master's Degree capstone, it is if you have an idea of what you'll be doing for your doctoral dissertation, I better start building my portfolio now.


What's my idea? The dedicated collection of academic level writing focused on the social, philosophical, economical and technological aspects within the gaming industry. Just starting with my own writing for now, but if I can become a truly legit accredited source for video game academic writing, then I've found my niche in the market.


My gamerscore was always a testament to myself and nothing else. An establishment of the tenacity and dedication to the metagame of minor accomplishments for the bigger picture. Along the way I've had the privilege to play and meet some excellent people, gamers and otherwise. So it would be a waste if I was to keep all that experience to myself, would it not?


I have to give my respects to those who write; to the ones who dare to put their soul on display for others to criticize and condemn. But in order to teach, you have to express your opinion, which I usually keep to myself. Mastering the sweet science of communication nowadays is what will separate the supposed men from the boys, and now I have to learn a whole new electronic language in which people who shouldn't have the ability to express themselves do on a regular basis and make the collective world look worse off than it actually is. I don't want to be one of those people, and I have no intentions to be.


There's probably more to say, but I'll save that for some other time. I'm actually making some decent progress on the redesign. Shout out to MajinFro for the little tidbits of advice that got the ball rolling on this thing again. Follow him on Twitter. Shoot, follow ME on twitter. Don't worry, I like to think that I limit my messages to worthwhile, meaningful messages. If there is one thing that I do, it's show appreciation to those who support me. I swear, appreciation is a lost art in this day and age of entitlement. I don't promise much, but I do promise to always give credit when credit is due. You got video game blogs and you write? I'll follow you. Just let me know.


This blog will integrate my original, "1 Million Soft Blocks Bombed and Other Monotonous Tasks," Blog under, The Crucibles. This tab will follow all the tedious games that I am willing to tackle on my own and includes Tom Clancy's End War, Bomberman Retail and Armored Core: For Answer. Although there are people who have completed the games, there isn't anyone that has documented the effort required to achieve those goals. I will probably add Rumble Roses XX to the list sooner or later. I guess that's my small contribution I will make to the gaming community.


In addition to the academic analysis's I will be writing, I will also be adding my personal gaming experiences, which will include my thoughts on gamerscore earning potential for played games, (which may become useful reference material for future Gamerscore League Participants.) With my background in operations, finding the most efficient way to complete a game is just as important to me as enjoying it. The gamerscore metagame has always been the most important to me as an Xbox gamer, so thats where my gaming discipline will focus. So my reviews will be coming from a very different angle; catering to a very different type of gamer. It hasn't been done yet; it should be a fresh angle.


I knew 2011 would be a year of change, and so far, some of it has been PRETTY UNCOMFORTABLE. But you know what? There is nothing a little analysis couldn't solve. The site is still a work in progress, so expect changes and updates as time passes and writing is completed. But thanks to you who took the time to get this far. I might even move to my own domain as well and all this writing would have been for nothing. Screw it. Pursue it. For me, actions always speak louder than words. It shows in my gamertag, it shows in my efforts in my final GSL performance. And as I now apply it to the real life endeavors, it's time to bare my soul and show it here as well.