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Scoring Points (view source)

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But, as games began to develop plot, even the [[Excuse Plot|excuse kind]], gamers changed. They became more interested in things like the ending [[Cutscene|cinematic]], the new areas and [[Mega Manning|powers]] to explore, [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|the new hookers to kill on every corner]], and [[One Hundred Percent Completion]]. Games became about adventure, or in some cases, simulation.
 
While today many games don't even keep track of score - and the ones that do keep track do it for no reason whatsoever - most [[Muggles|outsiders to the gaming world]] still believe points are our coke. The truth is, score was never a big deal. Even ''[[PacmanPac-Man]]'' players were more interested in what the new fruit in which level was.
 
About the ''only'' genres where scoring actually was--and still is--relevant to any significant portion of the player base are games with short, replayable levels, most commonly [[Shoot Em Ups]] and [[Rhythm Game|Rhythm Games]], where beating another's high score or getting a good rank/grade is one of the main points. Then there were the endlessly repeating games where score was the only practical way to measure success: Activision's Atari 2600 games always would have specific guidelines in their manuals for what score you should aim to attain to get their special patches or t-shirts for having become a pro at it if you could send them proof. Pinball is a good example that has survived (somewhat) into the modern age. [[Casual Game|Casual Games]] are also very score-heavy; you'd be hard-pressed to find a ''[[Bejeweled]]'' or ''[[Peggle (Video Game)|Peggle]]'' player who ''isn't'' trying to beat their best scores.
 
Games nowadays use "[[Cosmetic Award|achievements]]". Now ''those'' are [[Serious Business]]. They started with Microsoft's Xbox Live service. All online Xbox owners get an online account, and MS decided to design their system so that accomplishing specific objectives in a game would result in earning an "achievement" that can be viewed on that player's online account, by themselves and other players, even when not playing the game. The idea proved popular, and similar functions were added to the Playstation Network (where they are called "trophies") and Steam. A certain few gamers are hell-bent on getting as many of these as possible, but most understand that anyone can buy a crappy game and get the achievements for it, so for most gamers, it's used to simply compare one's stash of achievements with another, especially across the same game.
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* There is [[Pinball Scoring|some sort of inflation]] related to points. Killing one [[The Goomba|Goomba]] gets you a hundred points. You can't get less. Even from a technical standpoint, the extra zeroes are often phoned-in to save on memory; the goomba is technically worth one point, but there are two static zeroes after the score to give the illusion of more points.
** On some games, points are scored in multiples of 100, leaving the tens and ones for a different reason: a continue counter. Each time you continue, either your game-over score goes up by one point, or your score resets all the way down to one point per continue you've used.
* Points might, sometimes, add to something useful, [[Every Ten Thousand Points|like extra lives]]. But, as soon as [[Super Mario Bros.]], these were often substituted by another variable, [[One Hundred Coins|like "coins", "rings" or "crystals"]].
* On [[X Box]] Live and PSN, online leaderboards add a [[Player Versus Player]] aspect to single-player games.
** Some fansites are dedicated to recording scores manually, usually either when official leaderboards or internet ranking are not available or as an intra-community leaderboard.
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== [[Adventure Game]] ==
* [[Sierra]] had an age-old tradition of giving out points whenever the player did something positive, often for completely arbitrary reasons to inspire players to come back to the game later to try and get all the points. For their more comedic games, the developers would deliberately give goofy, arbitrary scores for some actions, most [[Egregious|egregiously]] in [[Leisure Suit Larry|Al Lowe's]] ''[[Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist]]'', which has a maximum score of 1,000 points, and you get 500 points for [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|opening a locked door at the very start of the game]]. Congratulations, you're already halfway done!
* If you use the cheat code to win in [[The Secret of Monkey Island]], the game tells you you scored 800 out of 800 points. This is the only reference ''ever'' the game makes to your score.
 
== [[Beat'Em Up]] ==
* ''[[Mad WorldMadWorld]]'' uses points to determine your progress in a level. At certain score plateaus, new areas or power-ups will be opened in the level. You need a minimum score to face the level's boss. The score itself is justified as being the scoring system of the [[Show Within a Show]] lethal game, ''Deathwatch''.
* The port of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time (Video Game)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time]]'' [[Embedded Precursor|included in]] ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare'' removes the score counter, reflecting how useless it was.
** Like the NES port of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Arcade Game (Video Game)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Arcade Game]]'' as well as ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project'', the Super Nintendo port had the points actually be useful, giving you extra lives at certain multiples. This certainly encouraged you to do the "throw the enemy at the screen" move as much as possible, as it was the highest-scoring method of defeating them.
*** There is a vitality bonus in the SNES ''Turtles in Time'' and the Sega Genesis ''Hyperstone Heist'' at the end of each stage after defeating a boss. So that certainly helped in grabbing for extra lives.
* Cash bags and gold bars exist to grant bonus points, and a high enough score earns you an extra life. In [[Streets of Rage]] 3, earning 40,000 points on a single life grants you a star, which upgrades your blitz attack. The harder the difficulty, more points you get at the end of each round. This applies to all of the games.
* ''[[The Warriors (Videovideo Gamegame)|The Warriors]]'' had points you could earn for just about anything you do. Punched someone in the face? Points. Smashed a window? Score. Mugged someone? Even more points. Smashed a bottle on the ground? [[Overly Long Gag|You get the picture]]. However, high scores are needed to unlock bonus content in the game. Luckily, if you happen to die and restart from a checkpoint, you still retain your score from that point.
 
== [[Fighting Game]] ==
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== [[First-Person Shooter]] ==
* ''[[Wolfenstein 3D (Video Game)|Wolfenstein 3D]]'', the [[Trope Codifier]] for the [[First-Person Shooter]], had [[Scoring Points]] and a [[Video Game Lives|Lives]] system as baggage from earlier video games. Later FPS games, starting with ''[[Doom]]'', removed these.
* Return of scoring points in first-person-shooters appeared in ''[[Serious Sam]]'' series. In Serious Sam XBOX and Serious Sam II and in certain co-op modes in ''III'', score actually provides the player extra lives.
* Points are used to determine the winning and losing team in VS mode in ''[[Left 4 Dead]]''. The infected team also gains points as they attack the survivors, but in the first game they contribute nothing to the competition, thus they are mostly for show.
** In the second game, it's a bit different. As it is much easier for both teams to get the exact same score on a level (if both teams make it to the end with everyone alive), the game gives an extra 25 points to the team that did more damage as Infected.
* ''[[Bulletstorm (Video Game)|Bulletstorm]]'' awards scores for crazy kills. You get points for any kill scenario you can contrive, with the more interesting and complex scenarios getting you more.
* Points in [[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]] are used to determine who the most valuable players in a particular round are and otherwise don't do anything unless the server settings are such that it determines the winning side based on points under certain circumstances. Other servers have a separate ranking system that's just there for the bragging rights.
 
== [[Four X4X]] ==
* The ''[[Civilization]]'' games generate a score based on factors such as difficulty level, land area controlled, technologies researched and year of victory/defeat.
** While generally pointless, they did give you an approximate idea of how your civilization compared to others. Also, if no other win condition was met, the game would determine the winner based on score.
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== Minigames ==
* Minigames usually have a scorekeeping system. That's usually because they are meant to evoke a vintage, arcade feel to a current game. Like ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' 's racing minigame.
* The entire goal of the ''[[Wario Ware (Video Game)|Wario Ware]]'' series once you've beaten the story mode is trying to get as many points as possible, with 1 point being gained for every microgame completed (or in some, survived with at least one life left afterwards).
 
== Miscellaneous Games ==
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== [[Platform Game]] ==
* The original ''[[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mega Man]]'' had a score counter, which was completely useless. (Particularly since the game was so [[Nintendo Hard]] that you'd usually get a few game overs, losing all your points.) It even had power-ups that did nothing but add points at the end of the level. For obvious reasons, later games in the franchise dropped the score counter entirely.
* Averted in ''[[Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game)|Sonic Adventure 2]]'', where the score defines the rating, from E to A. What gives the score some sense is the fact that the very last emblems require the player to get an A rating on [[Last Lousy Point|EVERY FREAKING MISSION]].
** Later 3-D Sonic games would also use the points as the basis for their ranking system (though there were often some cases, and even a few entire games, where the ''only'' thing affecting your rank is how fast you are - this ''is'' [[Super Speed|the Sonic series]] we're talking about!) 2-D Sonic games up until ''Sonic Advance 2'' [[Every Ten Thousand Points|gave you lives for every so many points instead]], until ''Sonic Advance 3'' did away with them entirely, then ''Sonic Rush'' brought them back and used them for a ranking system.
* The early ''Castlevania'' games tended to follow the same pattern: you'd get your first extra life when you got 10,000 points, and another extra life for each subsequent additional 20,000 after that. The first Castlevania had a ton of hidden treasures worth a lot of points to help you in this task, including one before you even enter the castle.
* [[Super Mario Bros.]] games award points for squashing enemies, for collecting items, and for time remaining on the clock at the end of a level. No one cared.
** Actually, although few remember this today, the game continued into infinity, as we were still in the Atari era of video games, people not only cared but often DID try to play for the high score, although, like in Frogger, it was secondary to completing as many levels as possible. After 8-4, you were challenged to a "more difficult quest", after completing the "more difficult quest", the game looped into infinity on the "more difficult quest" setting.
** ''[[Purple]]'' is the same case, and there's even a highscore table!
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* ''Captain Claw'' is an odd game, what with being a computer 2D platformer. One interesting quirk is that it's score, represented by the treasure you collected, aside from giving extra lives, was there to incite the player to find the secrets of the game since at the end of each stage the game specifically told you the treasures that you missed. The game was more than a tad harder if you went for the secrets, as each required equal parts non-human reflexes and calculations of non-intuitive reflexes to be reached.
* Parodied in [[Kirby Super Star]] after you beat the "Computer Virus" boss.
* [[Pac -Man World]] 2 had points--mostly on account of tradition. You ''did'' get an extra life for a certain amount of points, however, though the total was so high you actually had to do very, ''very'' well on any individual level to get it.
 
== [[Puzzle Game]] ==
* Unusually used in [[Boppin|Boppin']]. Long story short, the goal of the game is to clear the screen tossing alike blocks together, but with points you can exchange unwanted pieces without losing lives, and kill [[Big Bad|Hunnybunz]] faster (more points, [[More Dakka|more damaging]] [[Buffy-Speak|spike thingies]], less exposure-to-death time). Still, [[Save Point|being able to save the game anywhere]] just makes the task less daunting. Also more fun, if you are competing with someone.
{{quote|If you were able to solve all the screens before the final battle without ever having to continue, you could theoretically beat the boss in a ''couple of seconds''. Good luck.|[http://www.jenniverse.com/boppin%20instructions.html How to play Boppin', complete instructions]}}
* ''[[Tetris the Grand Master]]'' uses points as the basis for its grade system. TGM2, however, only takes points into consideration in its Normal mode; its Master mode (the ''de facto'' main mode of the game) use a hidden "grade points" system to determine your grade, and the other modes use completion and/or how many levels you complete to determine your ranking. In TGM3, score is just outright useless, being shown only at the end of the game and even then it does nothing to your grade. It's even useless in Easy mode as well, where the game sets off fireworks when you clear lines and the object is not to score points but instead score as many fireworks as possible.
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** ''DDR SuperNOVA'' then threw out the old, arbitrary point system altogether, sticking with the Oni system in all modes (''MAX2'' scoring in normal play, ''Extreme'' scoring in Nonstop and Oni modes). Your score in ''DDR SuperNOVA'' is just your dance point percentage multiplied by 10,000 and rounded down to the nearest integer. Starting with ''DDR SuperNOVA 2'', it's your dance point percentage multiplied by 1,000 and rounded down to the nearest 10, minus 10 points for every Perfect or Great (thus making the Marvelous count a tiebreaker).
* ''[[Beatmania]] IIDX'' has two different scoring systems. The more visible one (known to fans as the "money score") maxes out at 200,000 points per song and has a small combo factor that maxes out after 10 notes. Even though songs commonly have significantly more than 1000 notes, this is still enough to render the money score unsuitable for comparison. On top of that, there are several bonuses that may be awarded, including one for a full combo and one for completing the song with the '''minimum''' lifebar needed to pass. (Due to the mechanics of this game, it '''is''' possible to achieve both, and doing so while hitting the best judgment on every note would in theory net a money score somewhat over 210,000.) The other score (known as the "EX score") is based solely on judgments (2 points per Just Great, 1 point per Great) and determines the grade awarded. All rankings, official and non, use this score. Since difficulty in this game is largely about weathering a sudden spike of notes at the end, EX score is usually taken more seriously than whether or not you actually pass the song.
* ''[[Audiosurf (Video Game)|Audiosurf]]'' is entirely based on maximizing your score and trying to beat the scores of everyone else who's played a given song. The problem there comes in when you learn that you can generally only win in certain modes, while others (particularly Mono) are limited in how many points they can score, so they can never show up on the scoreboards.
** ''[[Video Game]]/Audiosurf'' has many other problems. As ALL tracks except the radio tracks are user generated, and it's based entirely on the tag of the track, you may be competing against others in a totally different track, or even just slightly different because one person uses a better quality sound file. Not to mention, the ridiculousness of a 10% penalty upon overfilling -- so a mistake 30 seconds in may cost very little, while one after 6 minutes of a fast track may cost 50K points just because you messed up there.
** When I overfill in Ironmode, it's game over. But the game's not done punishing me yet; it docks ''99999'' points from my score just to drive the point home.
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== [[Role Playing Game]] ==
* ''[[Final Fantasy X 2 (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X 2]]'' has a reference to "respect points". This is completely not gameplay-related, but an obvious parody of point systems.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XIII]]'' and ''[[Video Game/Final Fantasy XIII 2|Final Fantasy XIII 2]]'' had two types of scoring: A numerical score, and a [[Gameplay Grading|Battle Rank]], denoted by stars. Your numerical score determined what battle rank you got, and was calculated largely by your stat level and time battling during encounters. In the first game, Battle Rank determined the rarity of your drops and how many Technical Points you regenerated at the end of battle, but the sequel reduces their overall importance.
* ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (Video Game)|Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]]'' has a score on your trainer card, not that it matters much.
** ''[[Pokémon Black and White (Video Game)|Pokémon Black and White]]'' has the Battle Institute, which ranks a series of consecutive test battles with a score. In-game, they have yet to serve much of a purpose, but at special events, one can compare their scores to other players on a scoreboard for bragging rights.
* In ''[[Super Paper Mario (Video Game)|Super Paper Mario]]'', the points are certainly (generally) given on the magnitude of the early games in the Mario series, as though they were pointless, but they're actually a stand-in for XP.
* In the multiplayer mode of ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'', you earn points for killing enemies, assisting others with killing, and completing the wave's specific objective. In the first case, you earn more points the more powerful the enemy (killing an [[Boss in Mook Clothing|Atlas]] is far more rewarding than killing a random [[Mook|trooper]]). In the second, you earn more points depending on how much damage you did to the enemy. In the last, the amount of points a player can earn depends on the specific objective in that round. A player can also earn bonus points for certain tasks (''x'' kills, surviving ''x'' waves, ''x'' [[Boom! Headshot!|headshots]], etc.). At the end of the match ([[Total Party Kill|if you get that far]]), all players earn more points depending on the difficulty level of the match, whether you got a full or partial extraction, and whether you played an "Unknown Location" and/or "Unknown Enemy" match. These points do have a purpose: at the end of the match, every player's point total is added up, and that number of [[Experience Points]] is rewarded to their characters. This happens even if your party doesn't make it through to extraction, discouraging [[Rage Quit|rage quitting]].
 
== [[Shoot Em Ups]] ==
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** Amusingly, ''Undefined Fantastic Object'' had a bug in its initial release, causing the game to crash upon the player reaching one billion points. Until it was patched, players were forced to [[Do Well, But Not Perfect]] in order to get a high score without hitting the brick wall.
* ''[[Hellsinker]]'' probably have the most complex scoring system of any [[Shoot'Em Up]] to date while at the same time averting [[Pinball Scoring]].
* Later games in the ''[[Star Soldier (Video Game)|Star Soldier]]'' series have modes that let you test how many points you can score in just 2 or 5 minutes. These are the ''only'' modes that can be played in ''Star Soldier R'' (not counting a 20-second minigame).
* ''Computer Space'', probably the earliest to calculate score.
 
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== Non [[Video Game]] Examples ==
* Parodied in the comedy skit show "[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]." Drew Carey, the host, would randomly hand out various kinds of "points" (like Wonder Points, Low Fat Points, etc) during the show to the comedians on stage, guest comedians and even the audience and the viewers at home because it's "the show where everything's made up and the points don't matter." At the end of the show, the person with "highest" point total (entirely based [[Rule of Funny]]<ref>Everyone "won", and whoever's idea got the funniest result was aired.</ref>) would decide the type of skit they would perform for the ending act.
** It's carried over from the original British version, where the host would explicitly give and take away ludicrous amounts of points for no reason other than humor.
** Likewise, its spiritual successor ''[[Mock the Week]]''.
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