I Win!

A
Competitive Gamer Keeps Score

By Shayalyn

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Warp back in time
with me several years and picture the scene: my husband, 8 year old son
and I are seated on our couch in front of our shiny new Xbox, firing up
Gauntlet so we can play through a few more areas and get ever closer to
beating the final boss. Now, Gauntlet isn’t much of a game
(but we found it in the $10 discount bin--what’s not to
like?), but as a family we’re having some fun with it and
we’re not taking it too seriously.



Well, most of us are not taking it too seriously. My husband, the Red
Wizard, is hanging back away from danger, slinging spells like he
always does. He's a bit of a...cautious player. (Since our Gauntlet
days I've found that the word “wuss” upsets the Red
Wizard, so I refrain from using it.) My son, the Blue Knight, is
flailing away, and desperately trying to stay out front where he can
hack and slash effectively like a good little tank. The only problem is
that his mother the Green Archer (yeah, that’s me) is shoving
him out of the way and charging the front line ferociously, slinging
arrows (unlike some games, arrows in Gauntlet are just as effective at
close range as they are from afar) and racking up a massive bad guy
body count.



At the end of each round, the game would tally up who’d
scored the most kills. I, a model of poise and maturity, was known to
say wise things such as, “Who’s got the most kills?
Huh? Why, it’s the Green
Archer! Booyah, baby! Boo... style="font-style: italic;">yah!”
Never mind that we were supposed to be working as a team; it was all
about my kill count.



I've always been competitive in MMOGs, too. An EverQuest friend of mine
once made the brilliant observation, “You know;
you’re very competitive.”



My initial response after, “No, really...ya think?”
was to /duel him.



Which brings me around to scoreboarding. If you compete, eventually
you’re going to want to have a way to keep score. Most
full-on PvP games have leaderboards, but the trend hasn’t hit
big with MMOGs in general just yet. The only game with a method of
keeping score that I’ve played for any length of time was
EverQuest II, where various scoreboards were offered through the target="_blank"
href="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/player_swrankings.vm?serverId=">Station
Players website. There, I could at least keep track of my
kill count and try to lead the server. (I did a couple of times, albeit
briefly. I also lead the Most Kills per Death board a couple times.
I’m sure you all really wanted to know these gems of trivia.)




Of course, competing for kills with my family in our living room as the
Green Archer  is a bit different than going up against a whole
server and a bunch of hardcore gamers as Shayalyn the wood elf fury.
I’ve got a family and a career, so I’ve had to make
my peace with being a more casual gamer. Casual gamers don’t
top server scoreboards. Still, within my own casual guild I would
constantly claw my way to top position, and sulk (or make excuses) when
I wasn’t highly ranked as the Queen of Kills.



When it comes to Vanguard, we already know that Sony Online
Entertainment’s Station Players feature will be enabled.
We’ll be able to keep track of server rankings as well as our
rankings within our guilds. Normally, I’d be looking forward
to the competition, but I already know that I’ll be short on
time and that my guildmates will most certainly outrank me when it
comes to things like kill counts and the number of quests
they’ve completed. I’ll have to resign myself to
being competitive within my circle of friends. I can already see us
when we’re grouped. “Who got the killing nuke the
last four
times in a row? Why, it was Shayalyn!
Booyah, baby! Boo...yah!”



Are you competitive enough to want to claw your way to the top? Vote in
our poll and tell us about your aspirations in our forum.

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style="font-weight: bold;">VOTE IN OUR POLL

Will
you try to get a top position on the Vanguard Station Players
scoreboards?

• I’m as competitive as they come. I
  won’t sleep until I’m at the top.
• If only I had the time! I want to be at the top, but
  I just can’t put in the hours it’ll take to get
  there.
• It doesn’t mean that much to me.
  I’m happy if I’m on the scoreboards, but I
  don’t purposefully try to get there.
• What scoreboards? I could care less.
• Other