Xbox 360 Fanboy

XBOX 360 RULES

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I think readers would be ok counting Vista achievements but boosting is pretty lame any way you slice it...

just my opinion!

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I think boosting for achievements is legit. As Knuckles says, as long as your thumbs, or any part of your body actually does the work to get the achievement, it is legit in my eyes.

Also, I think that getting achievements on Vista would on one hand, also be legit but on the other, would not be legit. For the legit argument: You are on Microsoft's Live service getting achievements with the same gamertag that you get them on your 360 with. Not legit argument: If you go for achievements on Windows Live gaming, than you have effectively killed your Xbox Live achievement streak. In my eyes, even though it'll be a little harder, you shouldn't go with getting achievements on Windows Live.

Whatever you do decide, it is legit.

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makes me sad thinking shadowrun is gonna die down once halo3 comes out... didnt get all my achievements yet =/

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boosting is "legit" ? hardly. the exact opposite, in fact.

when you boost you really detract from the whole point of achievements - it really trivializes the whole system.

i'm not gunna lie, i was pretty disappointed when i read last week's ach 101.

fact is , knuckles could have gotten most of those achievements (except godlike) without boosting if he played the game legitimately, but most of the time he just ends up goofing around, team-killing, or arguing with the rest of the team.

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I was going to get on my high-horse and talk about how "your thumbs doing the work" doesn't always mean it's not cheating... but I see Xenocidic made my point already:

"boosting is "legit" ? hardly. the exact opposite, in fact.

when you boost you really detract from the whole point of achievements - it really trivializes the whole system."

I still love the blog, but your boosting is really lame Knuckles... no matter how you try to justify it.

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does boosting illegitimized a gamerscore? who cares! unless you're in a real contest with real rankings/prizes, the gamerscore is just a fun way to add new elements to a game.

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Personally, I agree with Knuckles philosophy on achievements. If your thumbs are doing the work on your controller, it's legit. Let's face it, how many online games do we all go into with friends, and while it's to have fun, first and foremost, it's also to help with our achievements.

I also don't see the problem with getting achievements on Vista, it's still the MS Live service, but can see Dj's point that they won't be attained while on the God Box 360. :-)

Anyways, that's my 2.489523 cents

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LOL God Box 360.

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My issue with boosting is when the other party might not know what you are up to. I picked up Shadowrun for $30 with the TRU Madden deal. I was really enjoying it until I noticed I kept getting sent into games where my team was trying to gain achievements. Round after round they would try to bleed out their own team so they could heal them or rez them.

It turned me off of the game...big time. Haven't went back and played since those three evenings. Plan on trading it in. You take away from the fun when a couple of people are off in a corner doing their thing just for achievements. But it isn't like you are the only cat doing that in that game.

As for Vista, it's all up to Microsoft and if they toss Vista and 360 game points in the same sandbox than it should be allowed and legit.

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While I respect xenocidic and burnsie's opinions on the matter, I still have to disagree, at least based on my personal experience in the 360 community. I can see where Xeno is coming from, especially after reading his Achievement guide on Shadowrun on the Xbox.com forums, where he repeatedly made his anti boosting opinions known.

Here's my perspective, which may be unique to my experience, or whatever: The first major Xbox 360 community that I was a part of was xbox360achievements.com (which later migrated to .org). That site promotes sessions of Achievement trading as a community, while at the same time shuns those who gamesave or other extreme acts of cheating.

Now, between playing the game straight up, or game saving, there are a bunch of shades of gray found in between.

Is simming in EA Sports games to get Achievements cheating, or turning the AI down to be drooling buffoons on the court/rink/field?

Is using in game codes to make the experience easier cheating (Tony Hawk AW or Blazing Angels 1)?

Is bringing friends into ranked games on Gears of War to stack a team against random players cheating?

There are a lot thresholds where one can draw a line in the sand of cheating and not cheating. The most definitive one that I see is when someone gamesaves or gets another person to do it for them in account trading.

That, and I was "brought up" in a community that a) prides itself in housing legitimate users and b) condones its users to play together to get Achievements.

As for nerrrrrrd's question of who cares. The reason why I care is because I'm currently setting/holding a world record, and I want a universal understanding on what is legitimate and what's not.

Regarding getting the majority of them legitimately, if the unlocking of Achievements was real-time, as opposed to the end of the game, I would have them. I know for a fact that I was robbed of triple nade kill and Master Thief based on the game dropping.

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@neon , in knuckles' defense, i believe that he performed this boosting in a private match.

(Shadowrun grants achievments in private matches as long as there's 4 actual gamertags per team).

so everyone in the game was on the same page.

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Before I purchased my 360 I was over at my friends place playing Geometry Wars on his Gamertag. I unlocked two achievements he hadn't already done and he was a bit upset.

To make it up to him when I did get my system I let him come over to my place and get those same two achievements on my Gamertag.

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I think my main issues with boosting, especially in Shadowrun and games like it, is if it's done in a public match it can really reduce the overall enjoyment for people playing the game legitimately. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people blow up half of their team members with the rocket launcher because they refuse to switch to a different gun because they "need ther cheevo."

If the gamerscore boosting was, in fact, done in a private match that does kind of change things from my perspective, because it's more of a "gentleman's(or gentlewomen's) agreement" among people you know. As long as you're not ruining somebody else's good time, it's less of a problem (though it still seems a little cheap).

That said, I see your points as valid as well Knuckles, even though I disagree with a couple of them. Thanks for keeping the conversation going, and taking the time to articulate your point-of-view. Keep up the good work.

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At this point, we'll just have to agree to disagree - I won't bring up the issue in the future. Thanks for elucidating.

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I am against boosting to detract from someone else's game enjoyment. It was annoying to go into a gears game and see someone only using the hammer of dawn, (while nade tags and pistol kills for example, were less apparent or infuriating).


You also have to consider that I've "been here" from the beginning, so my opinion of what's fair game may differ. Look at the Launch titles and their Achievements, most of them are a mess (cause most are sports titles). Coming from that line up, to getting Achievements every day since launch, I and other Achievement whores were leading the way in what was considered legitimate or otherwise.

Specifically with Shadowrun, there were many occasions where I turned down boosting matches because I wanted to play the game for what it is. I've gotten 100 legitimate kills with all the weapons (I stuck with sniping well after the Achievement unlocked, as it was very fun).

Basically, the last thing I would want is for people to associate myself and my streak with Barry Bonds and his record. There is a significant difference there and I find comparisons made to be both inaccurate and insulting.

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"Basically, the last thing I would want is for people to associate myself and my streak with Barry Bonds and his record. There is a significant difference there and I find comparisons made to be both inaccurate and insulting."

My suggestion if you want to avoid these types of comparisons in the future would be to err on the side of legitimacy and avoid boosting matches in the future.

While you can perhaps justify it to yourself, others are definitely going to hold you to a higher standard as you are the world-record holder for achievement streaks.

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I guess gaming is whatever you want to make it. You go ahead and boost up that gamerscore. In the end, it doesn't matter to anyone but you and those like you. Of course if you game because you like gaming for the fun of gaming, a gamerscore won't matter a bit. IMHO

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to be honest, when i read the column, i was kinda shocked that you admitted to boosting.

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