So I'm playing Top Spin 2 last night, and I decide to play some matches over Live - a) because my free month was ending at midnight and b) I can destroy the computer in career mode by now.
I lose my first match 4-3, 0-3, 0-3, but it was a good match and I made the guy work for it, so I'm pretty happy with it. My second match starts and something really weird happens - the guy I'm playing isn't returning my serves.
Puzzled, I try to go into the guide to send him a message and see what's up - if he's not ready or something like that - but the game keeps playing while I'm futzing around in there, so I go back and try to play some more. I can tell there's somebody actually playing on the other side, as he's serving quicker than if the game was automatically doing it, but he's not doing anything after I return his serves either.
I am literally flabbergasted by this point, keeping up a running commentary of "What the hell is going on?" to my gf. Finally, at 2-0 in the second set, I decide that two can play at this game, and I stop returning his serves. I wanted to play, for pete's sake!
In response - and here's where it started getting funny - he starts deliberately missing risk serves, constantly double-faulting, and running haphazardly around the court like a rabid squirrel. At this point I just give up and take the win. I sent him a quick message afterwards, saying "wtf? I would have liked to play" but he doesn't respond, and it wasn't until a few minutes ago that I figured it out.
See, two of the achievements in Top Spin 2 are connected to Live play - "win 25 matches" and "play 50 matches". My best guess is that the guy had already won 25 matches (he had a pretty good rating), so he was just trying to finish off his 50 matches played as quickly as possible. (With that in mind, he probably got really pissed off when I started throwing the match as well!
)
I really don't think this was what MS had in mind when they designed the whole Gamerscore thing, but I guess it makes sense. After all, the only people that are going to see his Top Spin 2 stats are other TS2 players, and unless you're in the top 10 on the leaderboard or something, no one's going to really care where you are. Your gamerscore, on the other hand - anyone you play online with will be able to see that, and I guess some people care about inflating it by whatever means possible. (Of course, I haven't really given the whole gamerscore thing much stock ever since I saw that Gamespot article where one of the reviewers shows you how to get like 6000 points without really doing anything.)
Guess it just goes to show that if a system can be abused it will be, and some people actually derive more enjoyment from beefing up some arbitrary number than from doing the actual activity that's supposed to beef up said number.
Weird.
I lose my first match 4-3, 0-3, 0-3, but it was a good match and I made the guy work for it, so I'm pretty happy with it. My second match starts and something really weird happens - the guy I'm playing isn't returning my serves.
Puzzled, I try to go into the guide to send him a message and see what's up - if he's not ready or something like that - but the game keeps playing while I'm futzing around in there, so I go back and try to play some more. I can tell there's somebody actually playing on the other side, as he's serving quicker than if the game was automatically doing it, but he's not doing anything after I return his serves either.
I am literally flabbergasted by this point, keeping up a running commentary of "What the hell is going on?" to my gf. Finally, at 2-0 in the second set, I decide that two can play at this game, and I stop returning his serves. I wanted to play, for pete's sake!
In response - and here's where it started getting funny - he starts deliberately missing risk serves, constantly double-faulting, and running haphazardly around the court like a rabid squirrel. At this point I just give up and take the win. I sent him a quick message afterwards, saying "wtf? I would have liked to play" but he doesn't respond, and it wasn't until a few minutes ago that I figured it out.
See, two of the achievements in Top Spin 2 are connected to Live play - "win 25 matches" and "play 50 matches". My best guess is that the guy had already won 25 matches (he had a pretty good rating), so he was just trying to finish off his 50 matches played as quickly as possible. (With that in mind, he probably got really pissed off when I started throwing the match as well!
)I really don't think this was what MS had in mind when they designed the whole Gamerscore thing, but I guess it makes sense. After all, the only people that are going to see his Top Spin 2 stats are other TS2 players, and unless you're in the top 10 on the leaderboard or something, no one's going to really care where you are. Your gamerscore, on the other hand - anyone you play online with will be able to see that, and I guess some people care about inflating it by whatever means possible. (Of course, I haven't really given the whole gamerscore thing much stock ever since I saw that Gamespot article where one of the reviewers shows you how to get like 6000 points without really doing anything.)
Guess it just goes to show that if a system can be abused it will be, and some people actually derive more enjoyment from beefing up some arbitrary number than from doing the actual activity that's supposed to beef up said number.
Weird.
[url=http://profile.mygamercard.net/Twxabfn][img]http://card.mygamercard.net/gbar/360/Twxabfn.gif[/img][/url]
