I was thinking about achievments and having a gamerscore today, and i realised what a stroke of brilliance it was by Microsoft!

1. It encourages people to play longer: the more use you get out of one console, the less likely you are to buy another.

2. It encourages people to buy more games: In order to increase your gamerscore you need to either buy or rent, and complete the achiements in more games. This could even be part of the reason that the 360 is such a software beast, it would also increase the favour of MS with rental places like blockbuster (how many people rented avatar for the gamerscore?)

3. It will make people more likely to by the next MS console: This is perhaps the most beneficial of the three, having a gamerscore that exists across consoles will foster a product loyalty to Xbox, and gamers who want to keep/increase their score will more than likely buy a 720 to do so.

This all assumes that the player is interested in their achievments and scores, but as far as ive seen quite a few of them are.

Yes they add so much replay value. And there great and fun to get.

I completely agree.

Acheivements/trophies are fun too collect and they motivate players to play the hell out of any game they are playing. It's one of the best innovations for gaming in the last decade.

Actually I prefer compulsory demos on Xbox Live. Its the reason why they have gotten over $100 of my money in Arcade titles. But yeah, achievements are up there too.

agree :)

It's a great idea as it does extend the replay value but I do think it isn't being used to its fullest potential. Achievements are sometimes pathetic, outrageous, unrepresentative scores, etc. They give a base system for all of this with no filler on the inside haha. And the requirement for all games furthers how bad it can sometimes be.

I like the idea, but I think it needs more refinement on execution. Not necessarily MS's fault either, but it would be nice to know that there is some actual thought put into some of the achievements. So I guess more of a fault of some developers but I'm sure MS could lend a helping hand eh. We all like to extend replay value and feel accomplished, but just like any game, that accomplishment and replay value needs to actually be worthwhile.

100 percent agreed....

I have thought about hoe good of an idea it is as well.
When I first head about achievements, the concept seemed strange to me. I would attempt to describe it to my friends, and overall was against the idea.

But then I experienced achievements, and now, I truly believe achievements and trophy's are a huge reason why I continue to play video games as much as I do.

I do think there is a lot of room for improvements to achievements and trophies though. If not this gen, then next gens iteration of the achievement system will undoubtedly be more robust and rewarding for playing your games than it is now.

You can say that about the game as well. Whats the ultimate goal of a game, its not unlocking the next weapon or whatnot its the experience and having fun and if getting an achievement is fun for someone then they will get as many as they can. For example the 4 player co-op vidmaster achievement for Halo 3 was some of the most fun I've had playing a videogame and that was worth 0 gamer points so I didn't even get an arbitrary number to show off.

Besides they have started tying in unlockables with achievements so you get a new avatar shirt or a new theme background so theres your incentive I guess.

But I think we can both agree it would be nice if a good amount of thought is put into achievements instead of just a required filler.  That is the only point I'm trying to make as sometimes that case does occur.  But trust me, I enjoyed vidmaster: annual as well.  Great 3 hours of fun haha.