Is score keeping as strong of a gimmic as it once was?

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Do you believe that score keeping is as important as it once was or do people play mostly for other reasons in today's society? I know we all value our scores but it seems that many people play just to survive. They have scores in some platform games but do people really care about scores anymore?

[Pirate1019]

Yes

[Twiddle]

It's as relevant as it is today as it is yesterday, just in different fields.

For example, Counter-Strike players care more about their k:d ratio instead of team wins.

World of Warcraft players hoard DKP and then go into a hissy fit when they are not given priority on UBER LOOT in favor for guild need reasons.

[wiNteR]

Counter-Strike players care more about their k:d ratio instead of team wins.

Noob games don't count. I am not much of a counter-strike player but clan victories are way more important (actually the only thing that matters) than individual stats.

[Pirate1019]

Counter-Strike players care more about their k:d ratio instead of team wins.

Noob games don't count. I am not much of a counter-strike player but clan victories are way more important (actually the only thing that matters) than individual stats.

I have to say, I used to play CS quite alot and i'm afraid He is right. Clan victories are more important, but people almost always put their kill ratio first. Especially if you're not playing a clan game.

Score is still important, it just seems to take a back seat to being able to survive well in a game. After you can survive in a game reasonably well, then the higher scores will come naturally. You will either get bored of beating the same game over and over and decide to play for points as a change of pace, or the score comes in tandem with the ability to survive. Either way, you have to be good at the game first. You have to be able to jump from 'just making it through' to 'let's go for score now'.

This can be applied to other games besides shmups. Even games without a score coutner. Most games nowadays don't have a score in the form of points. They have achievements instead. Examples include unlockables, side-quests, and those XBoxLive gamer achievements or whatever. Instead of giving the player a number score, they show that he has accomplished these things that are either hard to do or entirely unnecessary.

[Frederik]

They have scores in some platform games b

I was thinking about doing a score run in Super Mario Land since that game is so easy to beat playing it for score might actually work. Although I have to say, my impression is that score display in many jump`n`run games are a relict from arcade-heavier days.

Oh, and if it isn`t score, it`s time (I am thinking of beating staff ghost in Mario Kart DS here), or doing well in those Bemani games. So yeah, there is still a lot of score/skill based gaming around, though the forms have changed a bit.

[Ganelon]

The only reason score was ever important was because they were the only way of measuring overall game superiority between one person and another without directly facing off each other. In an arcade, a score and initials were the symbols of your status and fruit of your play. So when the age of fighters arrived and games moved away from arcades so that gaming was decentralized, the meaning behind score was essentially rendered obsolete.

Now, score only exists in genres that still try to maintain competition but that have shunned 2-player competitive play (I like to refer to this difference as "passive competition" compared to "active competition"). And it's for this reason that the ratios in FPS games at its base aren't really similar to score at all besides as a means of being competitive.

Even racers, puzzlers, and music titles generally have the ability to play directly against others so time/score gets marginalized to a certain degree from what it used to be. The concept of solo endurance playing, that held up scoring as its raison d’être, has also been killed as newer gamers and critics both have found that type of play incredibly repetitive (replaced by MMOs that offer as monotonous a gameplay but with no emphasis on score but rather on people).

Remember that back in the day, even stuff like Sierra's adventures and Sir-tech's RPGs had tried to adopt score into their games, which was quite awkward. Now, no game voluntarily adopts score due to its perception as an archaic feature; and games also try to shun away from time limits (except in active competition where to reduce evasion and ties, a time limit is required), which are viewed the same way. Nowadays, as Pirate1019 points out, achievements and the obvious rewards for those achievements are what most gamers play for.

[Pirate1019]

I might also add that I believe another reason I think the 'achievements' thing on Xbox works because it is more definate, in the players eyes. In old games, or old fashioned games (shmups for instance), you simply get a number. Numbers are boring. Players would rather boast about how they finished a really difficult level, or beat a really hard boss, instead of just throwing out a number. Especially since numbers in games like shmups tend to fluctuate rapidly from game to game. Take Giga Wing for example. You can get scores up into the...what? Do numbers even go that high? Compare that to, say, Gunbird for example. I'm not sure what an optimal score is in Gunbird, but I know its limited to at most a 7 or 8 digit number.

It's simplified too. No scoring 'gimmick' or system to learn. You just take each 'acheivement' one at a time.

[JJG]

The problem with the Xbox live Achievements thing is that it doesn't go into enough detail. Yeah you beat the last boss but how many continues did you use, what weapons. I think every little scoring thing included in the game should be listed in your achievements for that individual game.

[Pirate1019]

The problem with the Xbox live Achievements thing is that it doesn't go into enough detail. Yeah you beat the last boss but how many continues did you use, what weapons. I think every little scoring thing included in the game should be listed in your achievements for that individual game.

It's all about simplification (Is that a word? ) Like I sort of hinted at above, Players these days don't want to be bothered to remember thses things, much less strive to better them. Therefore, they put all of those micro-achievements and lumped them into one big achievement. They simplify it so anybody can use it.

personally, I'm with you. However, that would probably make the gamer card or whatever it's called, extremely cluttered. It would be nice to include everything that happened when you acheived whatever you did, but until more people want in depth information and until they find a good way to universally track it and record it, we're out of luck.

[Blade]

I kinda wish Scoring branched out a bit...like for instance keeping track of chains along with score, like being able to have a high score and not necessarily a high chain, or vice versa.

[Gungriffon Geona]

Methinks that scoring gimics are dull unless they really give a point to the game. I've always played by the "blow everything up, collect that crap going across the screen, and don't die" principle since I started playing games of the genre. though personally I do find gimmicks based around sheer destructive power to be interesting. (Zanac Neo's chaining system has been my favorite.) Honestly, we need a scoring gimmick based around not firing like an absolute nut and holding back charge weapons and bomb charges, or completely cleaning a stage of everything it had in inventive ways. (I for one want a game where you get points for knocking scenery and background objects down on your enemies instead of the direct approach.)

[dai jou bu]

I like how Senko no Ronde Rev. X puts up your Score Attack results online to compare with everyone who has this game. I can't seem to break into the top 20 with Changpo just yet, but I've gotten close. =\

Methinks that scoring gimics are dull unless they really give a point to the game.

Yeah, I just want a scoring system that makes sense in the context of the game's universe. Border Down was trying too hard:

Commander: USE YOUR BREAK LASER NOT TO BLOW UP THE BOSS AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, BUT TO ABSORB AS MANY BULLETS AS YOU CAN BEFORE YOU DESTROY IT AND BEFORE YOU COMPLETELY DRAIN YOUR WEAPON WHILE ON RED BORDER!
Pilot: What in the world is that supposed to prove? I thought blowing up these things as fast as possible was enough evidence for efficient progress, and aren't we wasting money by destroying our prototypes needlessly? Bureaucracy these days...

So was Perfect Cherry Blossom:

Yuyuko Saigyouji: Can you develop something so we can give the players a nearly impossible task of not using the slow button even though you design our danmaku to be so tight that they'd intentionally die trying to NOT use it?
ZUN: Will the Cherry Point system work?
Yuyuko Saigyouji: (looks over it) Sure! But isn't that a little bit overboard?
ZUN: As long as I can do it on Lunatic difficulty, it's not impossible, right?

[Pirate1019]

I thought we were talking about scoring systems in general...If it's scoring GIMMICKS we are talking about then I have to say that only the ones that work really well (very few) are worth mentioning.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

I just wanted some discussion about where scoreing stands in today's games thanks for all the discussion.

[Pirate1019]

Ok, well scoring is still important as most have said, but gimmicks are alive and well in all the videogame genres, if not used for scoring.