High Scores

by laurenz88

High score tables and those high scorers, doesn't it just bug you sometimes how they get on them and you don't? After carefully studying high score tables, diligently taking notes and interviewing whoever I could get off them I have found the answer.

Now, before we rush into this whole mystery of high scores thing, what exactly did I do? Well, on two different occasions I wrote down certain information about the top 17 score in four of Neopia's most popular games. Chute, Meerca Chase, Destruct-O-Match and Codebreakers.

I'd always thought that these high scorers were like totally awesome NeoPets players (which some are) but I found out many of them are just you're average Neopian. Not like the people who I'd thought would be on 1 year, have great scores in practically every game, trophies galore and the best pets you've ever seen.

The average Codebreakers high scorer those days had only been on NeoPets for 4.9-5 months. The highest time I found was 1 year and the lowest was only 1 month! The average amount of trophies awarded previously were 2. (Mainly Cheat! , previous Codebreakers games or Go, Go, Go) And the average amount of scores suitable for high score tables was 11.

Now, let's not just look at Codebreakers, this is one of Neopia's hardest games, this was the game that most matched up to my expectations.

Secondly I did Destruct-O-Match, this game had an average of 3.4 months, though many had only been around for about 3 weeks! The average amount of trophies was only 1 and there was an average of 7 games which they had scored very well on.

Doesn't this make you feel better? Maybe average Neopians do have a chance!

Thirdly looked at the high scores for Chute. Now, before looking into this we must note Chute is much like Tetris, a commonly known game almost everywhere; this could have slightly affected the numbers because of previous experience, but let's push that aside for a moment.

The average number of months spent in Neopia for these high scorers was 3.2 months. Trophies averaged at only 1.5-2 and high scores averaged 9.2 games. (See what I mean about the Tetris thing throwing all of this off)

Chute is fairly new to Neopia but we're finally starting to see even some Newbies scoring, even though the average months were fairly high.

Lastly I looked at Meerca Chase, this game had highly unusual results. The average number of days spent at NeoPets was a mere 2 months! (The lowest yet! ) Many of the scorers on the first day were Newbies, the average on the first day was only 37 days! The average Meerca Chase high scorer had only 2 trophies average to name (I'm suspecting there was a throw off here, one person ruined my average with an amazing 15 trophies! ) The average number of other games with good scores was only 4!

See what I mean? Shesh, this is starting to make me look stupid isn't it?

Meerca Chase is another NeoPets game much like a game many people have played before called Snake. It's a great game, it seems to be one of the easiest to score high on doesn't it?

Now, I'm gonna bet you a Ransaurus Steak that you're feeling much more confident, but there still are a few details left to explain, including my conclusion to high scores!

While studying these scores I looked closely at 4 randomly chosen high scorers (1 from each game) and 4 of the people with the top score at the time. Surprisingly these people didn't quiet respect my questions, some thought that I was trying to get their "secret" to winning the game. Two however were kind enough to give me a comment.

"well i don't have many gaming habits... i just play when i have nothing to do or i am needing NP so i play to get some extra money... actually i wasn't wanting to be the top player in destructomatch i was just playing for fun all of a sudden BAM! i was the top player..."

--bbee245

Upon checking my Neomail for reference to this quote I discovered something quiet unpleasant, bbee245's account has since been frozen, though I would still like to thank her for answering me truthfully.

"LOL I probably do spend more time than I should playing games.... but I wouldn't say I was an addict LOL I am naturally pretty good at those type of games (arcade games are my worse), chute type games have always been my favourite. No fluke, I could have gone on forever... but I just wanted to be 1st place."

--sirzimzadi_

Thanx to sirsimzadi_ for answering my questions, lol, I'm in debt! Now then, continuing my article, I found that these peoples pets we're really superstars, the average level of these 8 (for the highest pet) was 5-6. Days were only 43 and games scored on were 7.

***

In all I think that the main way for people to get high scores is luck. Pure and simple, if you're not great at games but not horrible play games that aren't challenging but do take some chance, like Meerca Chase, if you're not great but you still get 5 fish Neggs you're still gonna get high!

Gaming Tips:

-Pick what you're good at! If you've always had a knack for video games with lots of coordination and quick thinking involved then most action games are a great choice! Likewise if you've always liked brainteasers, then go for Puzzles

-Games with pure chance aren't great for NP, it's just to risky to gamble with Neopoints, unless you've got a lot to play with

-Stick with something, if you keep playing Chute for a long time you're sure to get good at it! Don't give up easily and be sure to pick a game that suits you and what you like, learn strategies for the games you play

I hope this article expanded your thinking about high scores... Now get out there and start gaming! See you on the high-scores table!