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Quote:
Originally Posted by akathatoneguy
You had me until the "not a real gamer" part. Who can determine that? Obviously the guy enjoys playing lots of games and unlocking achievements. On some level, there have always been gamers who enjoy completing what would seem to the rest of us to be arbitrary tasks...
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But they're not gamers.
Off the threads intended topic, so don't click if you're expecting deals.
Gamers are people who genuinely play games, thus the term. The guy who plays endless games for that 1 million score is, like other people on that site, a booster. Booster's don't actually play their games. Boosting is also cheating. People use the term 'boosting' to try and separate it from cheating, so that they don't feel guilty for it. When you boost, do you need to kick people to hold a lobby? Do you need other players to stand still and/or not complete objects, and thus not really play the game? How is that different from cheating. If a sports team threw a game, people would accuse them of cheating. If a pitcher intentionally threw pitches that lead to easy hits for the other team, and the players on that same team refused go after the ball, or try to get people out, or get hits or get on base, that'd be considered a cheat. People would label the game thrown. Yet if that was occurring in an MLB video game between two players online, they'd call it boosting. I guess Lance Armstrong's boosting wasn't cheating, he was just doing it for that 100% race completion, right?
In Gears of War, booster lobbies will demand that you leave so that these players can just cheat to get the achievements. Rather than actually play the game, they just play with others that lack skill, so that they can brag about completing it. Why not just mod your profile? Other than it being against the terms of service, why not? It actually requires less effort, and
you still get to brag to strangers that you completed the game.
Gears of War was designed so that ranked matches weren't meant to be played with friends. You're supposed to battle against strangers, with a team of strangers, which is what made it so competitive. Creating lobbies to negate that is cheating their setup. You're literally not even going to 'play' the game, and instead just exchange kills with other random boosters, all so that you can proclaim that you 'earned' some number. Rather than boost, why not just actually play the multiplayer with the other boosters that show up. Though, since that might take effort, I'm sure the players would all drop out.
In GTAIV, boosters will literally kick other players out of lobbies so that they have a lobby to themselves. This is to ensure that each booster wins. So even though there are other people that will actually play or race, they are kicked because boosters who lack skill are unwilling to play, since they cannot win. They want the credit, but not the effort required for it. So they'll knock others out of the game, just to literally earn some fake numbers.
In the Halo games, people will drop out of matchmaking lobbies, questing to find the lobby the other boosters are in for the game they're scheduled for. Not only does this mean that they've abandoned other teammates, but have also left the enemy team with less players to face against, making the game less than satisfying for real competitors. These same boosters will then also change their Language and Local settings to find specific lobbies for boosting. Bungie would actually suspend people for doing this, as it went against how they wanted you to play, but people still justify needing to do it because they 'have' to.
Rather than actually play and earn it, boosters will inconvenience other gamers, all because they 'need' that number. This is the same group that I'm classifying as 'not gamers.' If a friend came to you and told you they beat a game really fast, and, when you asked them how, they told you they used a cheat code because they lacked the ability to actually beat it, you'd roll your eyes and feel disappointed that someone would literally go and brag about cheating a game. That's not gaming.
Likewise, if you ever played a sport with, play a game with, raced or competed in any way with someone who cheated, you'd label them a cheater, and not the title they tarnish. Some people can earn it, but not everyone, which is why it's achieved. This is why there are harder achievements in games, and why it's sad that some people will literally cheat to get them, as if the world will somehow melt if they don't get it. It's an irrational justification for their own insecurities.
And to the guy who messaged me about my low 'joke' rank in Halo 3, and how higher ranks have no issues with getting Perfections, you're mistaken on several issues. Bungie directly explained that most 50 ranks in Halo 2 and 3 were boosted for, and not earned. People would play against alternate accounts, exploiting the game setup and standards for rank, in order to achieve a 50 rank in about a months time. What was more pathetic was that there were people who would then buy these very high ranked gamertags off of ebay, or pay people to get their gamertag to a high rank. Would you consider these people gamers, both buyers and sellers? Are gamers people who put forth no effort, and exploit a game just to brag about some unearned number?
This is exactly why in Halo: Reach there was no measuring rank system, but just a progressive one. Bungie realized that it was pointless to have one if the vast majority of high ranks were earned via exploits. Likewise, this is why the multiplayer achievements that Bungie made for Reach are much easier than those from Halo 3, since it didn't distinguish who actually earned it versus who lacked skill and just cheated to get it. Do you really believe that the same people who boosted for their high ranks in Halo 2 and 3 would not boost for a difficult achievement. Please don't pretend to be that naive.
That's the whole point of this issue. Are you really that pathetic that some fictional number for your fictional gamer name will truly force you to cheat other gamers? I don't mind people playing games, I mind people being arrogant assholes to other people. My achieving Save This Film is devalued by the very people who boost for it. It's a hard achievement to obtain, but rather than actually play and potentially earn it, these people cheat a setup for it. They then rationalize it by saying they hate online achievements, or couldn't be bothered to get it, or lack the time to work for it. So why boost it? If the answer is because you're a "completionist" (which isn't a real word, but a made up expressions on the internet that became 'real' to some people, sadly), then why would you actually play to complete it. If you lack the time, then why waste your free time trudging through a game you don't enjoy, when you could play other games, or spend that time with things or people that matter. If you hate online achievements, then why get them?
And I find True Achievements to be the most insulting of sites for gaming. They're supposed to give a better ratios for rarer achievements, yet this only encourages members there to boost for it. Even more confusing, the site not only accepts boosting, but encourages it. They allow you to openly post requests for boosting, thus lessening the value of a score, making it seem completely backwards as a site. It's not a true achievement if it's falsely obtained. Better yet is the issue that I previously mentioned with them considering, but they definitely won't, removing people who cheated in games by modding or hacking to get achievements. Reading only a few of the posts by these people who rationalize their need to get that fictional score, so that they can feel superior and whole, is just sad. I expected to read logical replies, like all cheaters should be banned, yet these seem to be in the minority. Instead it seems more like people try to justify that cheating is completely acceptable, and everyone makes mistakes, especially intentional ones. How can you accurately track 'true achievements' when people blatantly admit to cheating to get higher scores?
If you're no longer playing games to game, but instead only for an arbitrary number, then you're not a gamer. I don't see how that can be argued otherwise. I'm annoyed by these people who don't legitimately earn it, then have the gall to have signatures with their gamerscores or completion ratios, as they feel the narcissistic need to brag to strangers about the fictional numbers that they didn't even earn. It's insulting, as people like myself, who actually earn them, don't have obnoxious signatures like that, and feel satisfied in knowing we've achieved it. It's just sickening to read how people self obsess and feel the need to justify their obsessions.
I await the replies that try to explain how boosting isn't cheating, which will probably sound like Vanilla Ice explaining how Ice Ice Baby's bassline is different from Under Pressure. Or the other excuse of how it hurts no one, even though I've already explained how it ruins gaming lobbies, and negates the point of actually playing to earn it. These replies will instead focus on protecting their need to exploit, rather than intelligently realize that if you really want to earn the achievements in games, you work to gain them and not be insecure narcissists who feel incomplete without a fictional number. It's just weird.
The reply is long, but I was asked, so I explained as clear as I could.
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