Gaming guilty pleasures, the allure of Achievement Unlocked

Life, for a gamer, is usually filled with those triple A, blockbuster titles. If you could take a snapshot of a every persons gamer profile on XBox.com, you would be hard pressed to find a person that has not played Halo 3, Call of Duty, Project Gotham Racing, any of the numerous Madden titles. You might be thinking to yourself what kind of point I am trying to make by stating the obvious. If you will indulge me, I’ll get this train into that station eventually.  We all know and love these titles, for that is what makes us gamers.  However, lurking under the surface are those things that many try hard to bury.  Some are sucessful and their guilty secrets never see the light of day. While still others let those embarassing entries show because they are not concearned about the reaction of their fellow gamers. Or maybe it is because they choose to view those games as a sort of badge that screams “I am a gamer, I care not what you may think of me by the games that I keep!”

Part of being in the public eye, perhaps a tad more then the typical gamer, I wear my gamercard like a badge.  I fully admit to being an achievement whore and enjoy seeing my gamerscore climb.  Given a choice between systems on a multi-platform title, the 360 will always be my console of choice.  Sure, I tell people the reason is because I like the Live experience and its ease of use and ability to quickly see what friends are doing and/or invite them to my game. But deep down, I want the achievements and that little sound that they greet me with as they pop-up up their message on my screen. Achievement Unlocked, indeed.

There is just something that is infectious about that sound and visual display.  It drives many to play games that they would be embarassed to have found in their collection.  With the 360 being just over three years old, there is a vast library of games out there from which to choose. The other great thing is that some of the gems released in previous years are now at bargain prices and require less of a financial commitment.  For instance, Bioshock can be found for $19.99 or less at most stores.  One of my favorite games on the 360 is now one third of the price I paid for it. You cannot go wrong.  This has also led to many lesser titles, also bargain priced, to flood the market and allure gamers with the promise of that sweet, sweet siren song and visual cue.

My Gamercard will usually display Halo 3, Call of Duty and usually Burnout Paradise somewhere in there in the five most recent games. Other games will vary based on my mood or what other people might be playing at the time.  Now, you might be wondering where the mention of those games that make me guilty of being an achievement whore are. Well.. I’m going to leave that as an exercise for the reader.  I don’t want to give away all of my dirty secrets.    I will say, however, that most of my games have been ones that should not be cause for scorn… And some of the titles in my list were played purely because of a morbid sense of curiosity, Dash of Destruction XBLA game, anyone?  Others were played for a gaming competition designed to increase gamerscores. That is how one of the titles, Cars, ended up in my list. While mainly aimed at children, the game did have some depth to it and it was quite challenging in some spots. It helps that the Cars Pixar movie was really well done and that translated to a decent video game adaptation.

So, what is your dirty little gaming secret?

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