Should all games make stats easy to track?

[Peench]

Let's face it, those of us who have played Halo have been spoiled by the stat tracking and sheer awesomeness and plethora of options available to us on Bungie.net. We can see what games we've played, track how many headshots we've had, how many times we've taken out Keezy, and now even view in-game photos. The ability to track these items on our PC has made it possible to further share our in-game experience with our friends in forums, at work or through email.

We all agree it is awesome so why aren't more games doing it? I mean, most games track statistics in-game right? Is it that much more difficult to add code that will pass those stats out to a server and allow us all to view the data and share it with others?

Well in a move that I personally hope others will follow, Rockstar appears to have realized how much we all love this feature and has announced the Rockstar Social Club for its upcoming GTA IV game.

This isn't a story about the Social Club, but some manner of explanation is obviously in order. The Social Club is intended to give gamers the ability to check stats from our games, compare stats with others, watch a police blotter to see commonly used items in-game, track how long gamers are taking to finish the storyline, and track all manner of in-game accomplishments (including shots fired, miles walked, etc.).

So why aren't more games offering this ability? Battlefield 2 and EA tried, but their servers were always down. Maybe that's the reason? I guess the Social Club is not yet tried, but I'm hopeful that it will be awesome.

And with that I ask the question: Should all games offer some sort of off-console stat tracking?

I think so, what do you think?

[MadBryan]

I think yes

[Gordon]

So long as I don't get spammed with people's scores like I do Facebook apps...

[Thornes70]

I used to be the biggest anti-stat tracking guy there was, because I thought it took away from the enjoyment of the game (everyone knows what a statwhore is and how they are more concerned with their stats than playing a team game, right?).

But what Halo3 has is pretty friggin' awesome. Even I gotta admit that... But I think it really comes down to how much cost they want to put into it. Halo was obviously going to sell buttloads, but is a dev really going to want to risk that for some game that may or may not be a hit? I doubt it.

[Gordon]

It works well with Halo, because they're willing to bring the "Ban Hammer" down. GOW didn't implement it because they believed it would cause cheating... But if you look at the all time leader boards for the game it makes you wonder.

[lovekeiiy]

I can't give a definitive answer on this one. Do I think it makes a game better, not really. GH3 has a site that tracks scores. It's cool and all. In my opinion, it's just a little extra icing. It really doesn't make the game experience anything different.

I haven't play Halo or checked out their stat site. But doesn't it change the game play? I assume not. Does it give something for us to talk about, sure.

So basically, it's just depends on the game. Would a stat site be cool for Lego Star Wars or Viva Pinata? Maybe, just depends how it's implemented.

Also, I think those sites work well because not every game has them. If they did, would it have the same impact?

[TheEman28]

I think it is cool to have stat tracking in games. I have always been a stats freak. I play Fantasy Football, I bowl on a league and track my stats with an excel spreadsheet, etc...

It is also a different way to see how you play a game. What are your tendencies in a certain game? Do you have more head-shots than explosive kills? Or how do you stack up against your friends in certain categories? I think COD4 has a great leaderboard for friends. (My son is kicking all of our a$$es in the accuracy category, LOL).

I like in game stat tracking and I would like to see more games have it.

[Thornes70]

You know now that I think about it - everytime I look at my own stats I just get depressed.

Screw stats!

[lovekeiiy]

I like the game stats and the ability to share stats. See my signature below. The problem becomes more an issue when almost every game starts offering it. As much as I like stats to give some guide how I'm doing, it doesn't mean anything if the game isn't fun. My concern is that some people will get so concerned about stats that it becomes the priority of playing rather than having fun, as we have seen with achievements.

With that said, some games just lend themselves to stats such as any sport game. Some it's a nice feature such as fighers like GRAW, Halo, and so forth.

What I would like to see more of is achievement status page like GRAW2 has. It really lets you know where you're at. Granted the ability to see how many kills one has does the same thing, but a percentage completed works very too.