How my girlfriend tricked me into taking a little time off

I don’t really like to spend a lot of time on the couch doing nothing. Given the opportunity, I’d rather work on this or that for as much of the day as I can. But everyone needs to relax and waste a little time now and then, and I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I have a little trouble giving myself permission to do that. It’s lame, but there you are.

When I turned thirty back in October, Kate was kind enough to give me an Xbox as a gift. At the time, I didn’t know what a brilliant move it actually was. But once I found out about gamerscores, I realized I was in for a whole new world of productive goofing off.

A gamerscore is basically a measure of all the achievement points you’ve gained in all the games you’ve played. The more you “achieve” in one game after another, the higher your score gets. Not only is it a great way to sell more games, but it’s also a great way to trick yourself into thinking you’re really accomplishing something every time you cross off another achievement.

Not that I take it as seriously as other gamers have been known to take it. Back in 2008, for example, inflating one’s score with external tools was apparently such a widespread problem that Microsoft chose to fight back against gamers who had been caught doing it by erasing their scores and permanently branding them as cheaters. And then there are the addicts who spend hours a day playing games they don’t even like just to push their scores higher (link courtesy of Funkaoshi).

I’m not as serious as all that. But I have to admit that I do feel better about spending an hour or two playing video games if I end up having something to show for it, even if it’s just a slightly higher number than I had before. In retrospect, I really ought to hand it to Kate for the thoughtful gift.

Mind you, she found out about Fable II a few weeks ago, and now her score is much higher than mine. I guess I should probably do something about that.

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