Some people like to start the day off with coffee, breakfast, and a quick multiplayer squirmish in "Call of Duty." And many of those with Xbox 360s Tuesday morning were horrified by the discovery that their Gamerscores had been reset to zero. The problem has since been fixed, claims Microsoft.
A Gamerscore is the total sum of points that a player has collected from performing significant actions in-game, better known as Achievements. Each title has its own individual criteria when doling out points, from completely innocuous actions, to feats that require much dedication and skill.
The numbers have long been used as a status symbol among other Xbox players, so not surprisingly, many were panic-stricken when they saw the culmination of so much “hard work" gone in an instant. Which may have been a factor leading to Microsoft's's very swift response. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBCUniversal.)
The first solution, according to the Xbox Support Twitter account, is to sign out and then just sign back in. When that didn't work for one person, re-downloading his profile was later suggested.
According to Kotaku, Microsoft says the issue is resolved, but some are still experiencing problems, which is indicated by all the queries that the Xbox Support Twitter account is currently busy handling. The Verge also notes that any points that were earned before the fix was put into effect will have to re-earned.
Granted, it's hard to imagine winning back a substantial portion of 100,000 points that some hardcore players have in just the 2-or-so-hour window that the problem existed, but getting such a high number to begin with speaks of game-playing skills that most of us can only dream of having.
Matthew Hawkins is an NYC-based game journalist who has also written for EGM, GameSetWatch, Gamasutra, Giant Robot and numerous others. He also self-publishes his own game culture zine, is part of Attract Mode, and co-hosts The Fangamer Podcast. You can keep tabs on him via Twitter, or his personal home-base, FORT90.com.
