The Achievement Machine: Understanding the Xbox Live Metagame

Mikael Jakobsson's paper examines achievements on Microsoft's Xbox Live service, arguing that they have created a "meta-game" in which individual titles become pieces of a larger system of collection, status, and community practice. Achievements and Gamerscore points, which developers define for each game (with a standard total of 1,000 points and up to fifty achievements per title), have become central to the console's identity and to how players and critics evaluate games. The paper frames achievements as both a source of community value and a point of tension, since many gamers believe they turn play into something instrumental, a tension reflected in the prevalence of the pejorative term "achievement whore."

The research rests on a year-long study of Xbox Live gamers, drawing on blogs, news sites, forums, podcasts, YouTube clips, participatory observation during gaming sessions, enthusiast and mainstream press reviews, and face-to-face interviews. Its theoretical basis combines game studies, internet studies, sociology of technology, and critical media studies. The author identifies recurring themes including socially and culturally embedded gaming practices, value negotiation, status and sign equipment, surveillance, productive play and grinding, and cheating or creative appropriation.

Among the empirical findings, the paper cites an EEDAR study suggesting that well-designed achievements correlate with higher review scores and stronger unit sales, which has encouraged developers to treat achievements as a commercial consideration. The paper also documents cases where achievements caused problems, such as a Turok achievement rewarding the killing of teammates that was later patched, and Mass Effect players delaying play until walkthroughs emerged to minimize playthroughs needed for full completion. Historical context is provided through Activision's Atari 2600 patches, which rewarded players who photographed their screens with fabric badges, presented as an antecedent of contemporary achievement systems.