Gamer Hits One Million Gamerscore

Achievements in video games have become a source of incredible insight into the habits of the modern gamer. Put in place to make us play (and pay) more, these exalted tallies of gamerscores and trophies have caused countless hours of frustration and heartache just to achieve that magical score of 100% completion…and for what? Free games?, Exclusive downloads? Nope, absolutely nothing. Nada. Zip. Bupkiss.

Not for one 360 gamer, though.

Ray Cox (better known by his Gamertag, Stallion83) made it his mission to achieve 1,000,000 gamerscore, come hell or high water. It only took him 8 years but a couple of days ago, he finally hit that magical milestone while playing Titanfall on his Xbox One. Coming from a fellow achievement addict, that must’ve felt incredible. I’ve been playing for about 7 years and I’ve yet to crack 50,000 GS, so to get to a million is no mean feat. The man hours he put in is staggering, clearly he devoted a big part of his life to attain the score.

I’ve been tracking his journey for a few years now using a site called True Achievements. This site ‘weights’ your achievements by how difficult they are to obtain, thus generating not only your real time score but also your ‘True Achievement’ score, ranking you among the other users on the site. It offers guides and walkthroughs from the gaming community and organises group sessions to beat those almost-unobtainable cheevos. It’s on this site that Stallion83 is the king, ranking #1 of its thousands of users, the king of all he surveys. By checking the newsfeed regulary, I followed Stallion83 on his journey, accompanied by wellwishers and critics alike.

As with any big milestone that’s hugely beyond the norm, he had his fair share of criticism. Some would message him saying that the rate his score was climbing was ‘impossible’ for someone working on their own and were certain that there was more than one person using the the same gamertag to run up more time scoring big. Also, he would be criticised for using imported Japanese versions of games he’d already completed, to earn a fresh 1000GS. Quick to dismiss these comments, Stallion jumped on his blog (www.1milliongamerscore.com) addressing the haters and reassuring the fans that he had quit his job and concentrated on the goal full time and that it was him and ONLY him playing. He set up a podcast to broadcast his latest achievements, what he was going to work on next and what he was having trouble with at the time, amassing a huge following. Oh, did I mention he’s a Guinness World Record holder? Yeah, since 2012 he’s held the highest score of ANYONE.

Having achieved the highest gamerscore for 6 years running, naturally the free stuff started to roll in as his efforts began to pay off. From limited edition consoles and games, to invites and press interviews at the biggest games expos all around the world. Even having a part in the Xbox One launch video, as his target grew ever closer.  With each achievement unlock sound, his goal became more attainable, more real to him that it had ever been.

What’s next for Stallion 83? Two million? Five? 10? Unfortunately, no. I just hope he hasn’t suffered from the profound sense of emptiness one can get from by attaining a huge life goal. The payoff is amazing, but what about the part that comes after…had he even thought that far ahead? Who knows.

For the rest of us, a gamerscore is just bragging rights and the knowledge that you have truly defeated a game. It means absolutely nothing, but if Stallion83 is anything to go by, that’s not going to stop us at all.