In the continuing series of articles that highlight the skills required to reach huge Gamerscores, lets look at Zero Point Achievements. This nasty little chestnut that does absolutely nothing to your Gamerscore. Stating the obvious I know, but this is an editorial comment reaching out to developers that insist on adding these pointless [sic] achievements...

 

There is nothing more annoying and condescending than to receive an Xbox 360 achievement with zero points. For it to rudely pop up and for the developers to call it an achievement, is surely an oxymoron. I am not talking about the achievements that you receive zero points for reaching Prestige level in Call Of Duty :  World At War  for example, I am talking about the negative ones that remind you that you suck.

 

In Command and Conquer 3 if you lose five multiplayer games in row, a zero point achievement unlocks and it is forever burned into your Gamercard like some ugly tattoo. What are the developers trying to tell me that I don't already know? I know I suck so there's absolutely no point in reminding me. In fact Mr Developer your game is broken IS the reason why I lost five games in a row, so there.

 

In the game Superman Returns you get a zero point achievement should you dare to use a cheat. How is that classified as an achievement? You have to use the cheats because the game blows and then the developer has the audacity to label you a cheat and inform all your friends. Surely that borders on victimization as why they supply the cheats in the first place. Nowhere else in the entertainment medium do you find a manufacturer or company telling your sensitive soul that you are a loser, with a capital L on your forehead. Imagine if the Wii Fit or any Kinect Fitness game  popped up with messages reminding anyone obesely over weight that they are living on a prayer. Or a DVD player that informs you are tool for putting in the disc the wrong way. There would be a public outcry and these companies wouldn't last very long.

 

If game developers actually allocated even one point to these achievements, then there would be justification for it to be called an achievement. Yet zero points serve no purpose other than the developers amusement at your expense. However, I must admit, whenever I see a zero point achievement on my friend's Gamercard, I cannot stop laughing for the next half an hour.

 

So the moral of this article is if you want to score high in Gamescoreland,  avoid these like the plague and lets us know here below. We will gratefully inform any developer that zero point achievements suck.