I hate to tell you, but it no longer matters what type of car you drive, what type of clothes you wear, what your SAT scores were, your GPA, or even what your IQ level is. Nope, the only social symbol now is your Xbox Gamerscore. So get playing those games, rack up some points, because you aren't anything if you ain't got a high Gamerscore.

From the article:

There's nothing new about rewards programs. People were saving S&H Green Stamps as early as 1896. The one thing they and frequent-flier miles and Mypoints.com points and Web dollars and e-coupons all have in common is that eventually you can cash them in for ... something.

But, in 2005, the marketing folks at Microsoft had a brainstorm. The Xbox 360 console had just been released and, to sell more games, they decided they would start doling out "achievement points." Play enough games, collect enough points, and you could cash them in for ... nothing, nothing at all. What a concept!

Nobody was more surprised than Aaron Greenberg when the achievement points program exploded and became the phenomenon it is today.

"You never quite know how people are going to react to these sorts of things," observes Greenberg, the group product manager for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. "But we were very pleasantly surprised when it took off like wildfire. The gaming community is crazy about them."

Read the full article over at biz.gamedaily.com