Gamer Score = 5,485, Value = $0

In the past few days, there's been a number of studies out in the news regarding how people play video games because of the sense of accomplishment and joy they receive when playing video games. I think any study is pretty much a waste of time as the results are usually obvious before scientist even study anything. Needless to say, I definitely agree with the sentiment that I play games for the sense of self accomplishment.

I specificially wanted to write today about the amazing development by Microsoft of Gamer Achievement Points. As you can see in the top right of my blog, I currently have 5,485 gamer points. Yes, I'm a tremendous dungeon and dragon geek, but I love my gamer points and love showing them off. They mean absolutely nothing, hold absolutely no money value and mean nothing to anyone outside of the crazy gamer, but they definitely are important to me.

I've never been a big replayer of games. Once I beat a game, I pretty much put it up on eBay for sale and then buy another game with my proceeds. Well, with the development of Gamer Points, I have not sold very few Xbox 360 games on eBay. Now because of Gamer Points, I don't sell the game, but rather replay it on the harder difficulty just to get the extra gamer points. Again, MS Gamer Points hold no cash value whatsoever, but still I don't sell the games that I have been. And I know definitely that I'm not the only one with this philosophy, as I know a lot of other people who do the same thing.

It's crazy. It's insane. It doesn't make any sense at all. But still Gamer Points are the new fad. There are a ton of website and other blogs just dedicated to Gamer Points, so you know that I'm not the only crazy person out there.

Kudos to Microsoft for developing a great system that makes people want to buy more games just to get fake gamer points. I'm definitely not "cashing them in" for anything any time soon, so I'm at a lost on why they mean anything to me. But they definitely do. ...