What's the deal with random XBL friend requests?

[antares]

OK here's my "problem":
I get at least 4 or 5 friend requests on my XBox every week from people I have never heard of. When I check their profile they rarely share even a single game with me as I don't play any mainstream games. So why do these people send friend requests to me? How do they even know my gamertag?

It's no big deal, I just ignore these messages but still I'd like to have an explanation for this. Anyone else has this problem?

[Ruldra]

Aren't you the guy who's on top of the Arkanoid Live scoreboard? Probably that's where the requests are coming from.

I got a bunch of them too since I'm #2 on Thexder Neo.

[Smraedis]

I get a ton on PSN since I got #1 on DeadStorm Pirates, so it makes a lot of sense.

[antares]

Well yes I'm placed near the top in two or three games and sometimes get requests because of this.
But as I said most of the time those people haven't even played any of my games so what's the deal with them I wonder?

[drauch]

You are their hero!

[Davey]

Maybe they're friends of friends?

I got a couple random ones, but I suspect they're from the Crazy Taxi leaderboard.

I work with a guy who signed up for XBL very early on. He has some highly coveted Gamertag, and thus gets several messages/friend requests per week from strangers. He said some dude once offered him $1000 for it.

[drauch]

I work with a guy who signed up for XBL very early on. He has some highly coveted Gamertag, and thus gets several messages/friend requests per week from strangers. He said some dude once offered him $1000 for it.

And he didn't take it!?

[Davey]

And he didn't take it!?

That was everyone's reaction here when he told us about it. His reasoning is that $1000 is replaceable, but his Gamertag isn't. I guess I see his point, but I'd rather have the $1000.

Plus, you have to take it with a grain of salt when a stranger on XBL offers you $1000 for any reason.

[Elixir]

I rarely get any, despite being in the Top 5 for every leaderboard of Hitogata Happa on PSN, Top 20 for Bomberman Live, Top 10 for Deathsmiles MBL 1.1, Top 20 for Tales of Vesperia and rank #1 for Castlevania HD.

Kind of disappointed in the lack of invites for Castlevania HD, it's one game where online co-op is necessary.

I actually did meet a few nice people through my Hitoga ranks. One of them even signed up to this forum.

That was everyone's reaction here when he told us about it. His reasoning is that $1000 is replaceable, but his Gamertag isn't. I guess I see his point, but I'd rather have the $1000.

It would be nice if Microsoft pruned the dead accounts for Live. There's a lot of names that haven't been used since before the 360 was even around, and nobody can access them.

They should set up something where accounts are pruned after 5 years of inactivity or something.

[Specineff]

I'm reminded of that South Park Episode "You have Zero friends".

[nZero]

It would be nice if Microsoft pruned the dead accounts for Live. There's a lot of names that haven't been used since before the 360 was even around, and nobody can access them.

They should set up something where accounts are pruned after 5 years of inactivity or something.

http://majornelson.com/archive/2011/03/ ... -dead.aspx

[Never_Scurred]

Well yes I'm placed near the top in two or three games and sometimes get requests because of this.
But as I said most of the time those people haven't even played any of my games so what's the deal with them I wonder?

Perhaps they think you're hot?

[Elixir]

It would be nice if Microsoft pruned the dead accounts for Live. There's a lot of names that haven't been used since before the 360 was even around, and nobody can access them.

They should set up something where accounts are pruned after 5 years of inactivity or something.

http://majornelson.com/archive/2011/03/ ... -dead.aspx

Nice, I'll have to keep an eye on this.

[Heartwork]

I never get any of these, and I'm not on any leaderboards, so I assume there's a correlation.

[TodayIsForgotten]

Well yes I'm placed near the top in two or three games and sometimes get requests because of this.
But as I said most of the time those people haven't even played any of my games so what's the deal with them I wonder?

I get this too. I've asked the people who have no games that i've played before how they got my name? They said they played the demo of the game and saw my name on whatever board. Not sure I buy it. I used to play a lot of digital titles and these guys have no XBLA games.

As to Davey - I would definitely take the 1k. If someone wanted to buy my account for the silly gamerscore i'd part with it if the price wsa right. I'd just change my name and give them the account. Then i'd make another account, assuming this is possible and name it the old account that i "originally" sold.

[Ganelon]

For me, the requests were definitely because of leaderboard positioning. When I was #1 on the PSN Super Street Fighter II Turbo Remix leaderboard back when the game was fresh (before the stat reset), I got dozens of FRs and challenges from random accounts.

And $1000 for an account? Yeah, I wouldn't take it either, just like I wouldn't sell my real name. Note also that some accounts are actually worth more than $1000 due to purchased DLC.

[iconoclast]

It's most likely due to leaderboard position, as everyone has said. Even if they don't own the game, they could still play the demo and check the leaderboards, so that's probably it.

I get these friend requests from time to time as well, usually due to Ninja Gaiden 2, Vanquish, or Bayonetta. But what's strange is I occasionally get messages (from random people) asking simple questions... Most recently, someone asked me how to unlock the Tactical Challenges in Vanquish. Do I look like GameFAQs?

[antares]

I once asked a guy (from the US) who was sending me several requests why he wants to be in my list and he answered 'because you are german' (which I'm not btw) - I really can't make any sense out of it.

[DJ Incompetent]

I got hit up a lot for Omega 5, Rez, Pinballs, bomberman, and random FPS encounters.

If you make it to the first page of a leaderboard standing or you play in close multiplayer matches without drops or drama, a friend request usually follows.

Most people have very small friends lists, so these things are easy to throw around.