Auf dem Blog von Major Nelson hat sich Cierra McDonald, Programmmanager für den Xbox-Live-Achievement-Service, ausführlich über die Neuausrichtung der Gamerscore geäußert. Im Zuge der Xbox-One-Veröffentlichung würden Teile des Achievement-Systems grundlegend geändert.

Zunächst würde es zusätzlich zum vorhandenen (und auch unverändert übernommenen) Gamerscore-System in Zukunft auch möglich sein über Achievements u.a. Artworks, Maps oder Charaktere freizuschalten. Dies sei dabei nicht nur auf Spiele beschränkt: auch Video- und Musikanwendungen seien nun in der Lage Achievements zu nutzen und darüber neue Inhalte anzubieten. Gamerscore bliebe allerdings Spielen vorbehalten.

In Zukunft würde es zudem zwei verschiedene Arten des Metagamings geben: Auf der einen Seite die zeitlosen Achievements, wie sie bereits heute in jedem Spiel für die Xbox 360 und PS3 ("Trophäen") zu finden sind. Auf der anderen Seite so genannte Challenges, die zeitbasiert seien, keinen Gamescore erzeugen würden, titelübergreifend funktionierten und auch Community-Aufgaben beinhalten könnten.

Außerdem sei es Entwicklern jederzeit möglich neue Challenges und Achievements hinzuzfügen. Dies würde das Spielerlebnis aufwerten und den Entwicklern erlauben auf die Community zu reagieren.

Dazu der originale Blogeintrag:

"In addition to Gamerscore, which will remain as a critical part of the Xbox gaming experience (and yes, your Gamerscore from Xbox 360 will carry forward to Xbox One (ab 199,95€ bei kaufen) – there’s only ONE Gamerscore (see what I did there?)), consumers can now unlock digital artwork, new maps, unlockable characters, and temporary stat boosts via achievements. And this is not limited to games! Other Xbox One applications such as video and music apps can now use Achievements to bring you awesome sneak peek content, early access, or subscription extensions. Only games will give you Gamerscore.

Cool, you can earn cool stuff with Xbox LIVE Achievements. Let’s talk about how they work.

There are now two types of Achievements: achievements and challenges. An achievement is probably already familiar. There’s a goal or activity you must accomplish and a reward that you receive upon completion. You can unlock an achievement at any time, be it on a game’s launch day or 3 years later. I guess you can say an achievement is like a promise in that sense. A challenge, on the other hand, is more like an opportunity – better grab it while you can! It is also comprised of a goal and a reward; however, challenges are time-bound (as in, real life time). That means you can only unlock during its eligible time window, and if you get close but don’t complete the goal when it ends… *Kanye shrug*

Achievements and challenges are both officially considered Xbox Live Achievements, so they inherit many of the same benefits:

• You can unlock them and win their rewards;
• Once unlocked, they are saved to your achievement history;
• They each have an icon to visualize the cool thing you did;
• They often are associated with a Game DVR capture to show your friends that you are better than they are
• Developers can release more of them after the game’s initial release (more on that in a bit).

There are also some notable differences between them:

Challenges are time based. As just noted, challenges are only available for a certain period of time. Only your activity during that timeframe will count toward unlocking the challenge. Achievements do not expire, so you can unlock them at your leisure.

Challenges do not give out Gamerscore. We want everyone to have the same shot at increasing their Gamerscore to its highest potential. Since challenges are intentionally temporary (an opportunity) and achievements never expire (a promise), only achievements may offer Gamerscore as a reward.

Challenges may cross titles, but achievements cannot. Achievements cannot be shared across titles whereas challenges are allowed to span multiple titles.

Challenges can be unlocked by the community. Community challenges are typically goals that exceed what a lone player can accomplish in the given period of time. Imagine, for example, a game releases a headshot weekend challenge that requires players to cumulatively headshot 1 million baddies in a 3 day period. And every person who participates and meets the challenge’s goals gets the unlock on his or her achievement history and reaps its reward.

[...]

It makes it possible for developers to add new achievements and challenges after their game is initially released. Why is that good for you?

1) It means you can get new achievements without always being required to buy new content (read: free!) or download title updates

2) It allows developers to learn from and respond to user activity and focus on adding stuff that you’ll find fun. For example, let’s say a certain game is known on community forums to have a fun little sub-game of kicking chickens. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the game developers noticed the community enjoying an unintended aspect of the game and creating a challenge around it, with a reward to boot?

3) It empowers developers to involve the community (that means YOU) in the achievement creation process. If they so choose, a developer could run a contest for users to submit and vote on challenge ideas, for example, with the winning idea being released to the public as a legitimate Xbox Live Achievement. Not too shabby!"

(Quelle: Majortom.com)