History Main / ScoringPoints

* ''Arcaea''[='=]s scoring is based "out of" 10 million points, with the number of points per note being inversely proportional to how many notes there are in the chart. A PURE gives you 100% of the note's value, a FAR gets you 50%, and a LOST gets you nothing. Additionally, if you get an extra-accurate PURE (in fact, this is the ''only'' judgement you'll get when holding down Hold Notes and Arc Notes, other than a LOST), you'll earn 1 additional point. Thus, an all-Pure run, or a [[CallAHitPointASmeerp Pure Memory]], will almost always have a score of just slightly over 10,000,000.

* Creator/{{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 [[HundredPercentCompletion get all the points]]. For their more comedic games, the developers would deliberately give goofy, arbitrary scores for some actions, most {{egregious}}ly; in Al Lowe's ''VideoGame/FreddyPharkasFrontierPharmacist'', which has a maximum score of 1,000 points, and you get 500 points for [[MundaneMadeAwesome opening a locked door at the very start of the game]]. Congratulations, you're already halfway done! There were also points for picking up some items that would do nothing but kill you if you hung onto them, such as the spinach dip in ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 2'' and the unstable ordnance in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest 4''.

* ''TetrisTheGrandMaster'' 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.

* On XBox Live and PSN, online leaderboards add a PlayerVersusPlayer aspect to single-player games.

** Website/TheEscapist also has achievements (Badges), so that for example watching seven episodes of {{Unskippable}} awards "Fishy [=McSketcherson=]". Also, forumites are awarded journalism-themed titles from "Anonymous Source" to "Nobel Laureate" (15k posts), albeit paying members of the Publisher's Club can invent their own titles.

** One is used to determine win/loss status, as the game is a head-to-head game. You get 3 points for hitting a note with a JUST judgement, 2 points for a GREAT, 1 point for a GOOD, and -3 points for a MISS. In addition, when you perform a JUST REFLEC attack, you'll get 10 points, although since a JUST REFLEC can be done if and only if you get a JUST, this means you get 13 points total for the attack. On the other hand, miss a note that was JUST REFLEC'd at you, and you'll lose 10 extra points.

* ''Arcaea''[='=]s scoring is based "out of" 10 million points, with the number of points per note being inversely proportional to how many notes there are in the chart. A PURE gives you 100% of the note's value, a FAR gets you 50%, and a LOST gets you nothing. Additionally, if you get an extra-accurate PURE (in fact, this is the ''only'' judgement you'll get when holding down Hold Notes and Arc Notes, other than a LOST), you'll earn 1 additional point. Thus, an all-Pure run, or a [[CallAHitPointASmeerp Pure Memory]], will often have a score of just slightly over 10,000,000.

* ''Arcaea''[='=]s scoring is based "out of" 10 million points, with the number of points per note being inversely proportional to how many notes there are in the chart. A PURE gives you 100% of the note's value, a FAR gets you 50%, and a LOST gets you nothing. Additionally, if you get an extra-accurate PURE (in fact, this is the ''only'' judgement you'll get when holding down Hold Notes and Arc Notes, other than a LOST), you'll earn 1 additional point. Thus, a perfect run, or a [[CallAHitPointASmeerp Pure Memory]], will often have a score of just slightly over 10,000,000.

* ''Arcaea''[='=]s scoring is based "out of" 10 million points, with the number of points per note being inversely proportional to how many notes there are in the chart. A PURE gives you 100% of the note's value, a FAR gets you 50%, and a LOST gets you nothing. Additionally, if you get an extra-accurate PURE (in fact, this is the ''only'' judgement you'll get when holding down Hold Notes and Arc Notes, other than a LOST), you'll earn 1 additional point. Thus, a perfect run, or a [[CallAHitPoint Pure Memory]], will often have a score of just slightly over 10,000,000.

* While later SpyroTheDragon games featured gems that were actually used as currency, in the first game, they served no purpose outside of a point counter. The only times your gem count affected gameplay were as PlotCoupons- you needed a certain number to advance to some of the homeworlds, and also to access the bonus level- which contained nothing but more gems, and a few trick enemies you had to kill to get even more gems. Essentially, they were worthless unless you were striving for HundredPercentCompletion.

** Most later ''DDR'' games also have the option to enable "EX Score", in which Marvelous is worth 3 points, Perfect is worth 2, Great is worth 1, and everything else is worth 0, putting far more emphasis on getting Marvelouses and not Perfects.

But, as games began to develop plot, even the [[ExcusePlot excuse kind]], gamers changed. They became more interested in things like the ending {{c|utscene}}inematic, the new areas and [[PowerCopying powers]] to explore, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick the new hookers to kill on every corner]], and OneHundredPercentCompletion; Most games nowadays use "[[CosmeticAward achievements]]" to track these kinds of things. Those things are also sometimes measured in "points", but of the permanent kind; this trope is about a score counter that resets itself after each GameOver.

As games moved from the arcades to the home consoles and home computers, initially many games still had points there, even the ones that had endings, but as said above, players didn't care and went for the ending. It helps that in the home version, you couldn't show your high scores to everyone until the days of internet, and also, many games that came in cartridges couldn't even save your high scores after you turned off your console unless the cart had a save battery.

* Points might, sometimes, add to something useful, [[EveryTenThousandPoints like extra lives]]. But, as soon as SuperMarioBros, these were often replaced by another variable, [[OneHundredCoins like "coins", "rings" or "crystals"]].

[[quoteright:256:[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/high_scores.gif]]]]

* ''{{beatmania}} IIDX'' has two different scoring systems. The more visible one (known to fans as the "money score", since it actually was presented as a cash value -- the DJ's "pay" -- in early 5-key games) 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.

* Creator/{{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 [[HundredPercentCompletion get all the points]]. For their more comedic games, the developers would deliberately give goofy, arbitrary scores for some actions, most {{egregious}}ly; in Al Lowe's ''FreddyPharkasFrontierPharmacist'', which has a maximum score of 1,000 points, and you get 500 points for [[MundaneMadeAwesome opening a locked door at the very start of the game]]. Congratulations, you're already halfway done! There were also points for picking up some items that would do nothing but kill you if you hung onto them, such as the spinach dip in ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 2'' and the unstable ordnance in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest 4''.

* ''ToejamAndEarl'' gave the player 1 point for every tile on the map that's flipped over and 2 points for every present opened. The score actually served a practical purpose, though, acting as ExperiencePoints to let the player level up and increase their maximum health. ''Panic on Funkotron'' retained a practical scoring system, though this time it awarded the player extra lives EveryTenThousandPoints.

* Parodied in the comedy skit show "WhoseLineIsItAnyway." 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 the "highest" point total (entirely based on RuleOfFunny[[note]]Everyone "won", and whoever's idea got the funniest result was aired.[[/note]]) would decide the type of skit they would perform for the ending act.

* ''WiiSports'', but mainly because they are based on real sports that are point-based.
* ''BackyardSports''. In most games, the reason is obvious, as they are sports games. But in the minigames and ''Backyard Skateboarding'', the amount of points can unlock new things.
* ''TonyHawksProSkater'' always has a couple of score-based objectives for every level of Career mode. On competition levels, you're graded not only on score but variety and perfection (i.e. no bailing) as well.

* The ''TraumaCenter'' series uses a point system that determines your rank in every operation. Tasks such as stitching and extracting foreign objects can be done carefully or hastily, and such actions will be ranked either Cool, Good, or Bad with Cools getting the most points. In order to get the highest rank (either an S or XS rank), you must have a high enough score, as well as fulfill certain conditions such as no mistakes, beating the operation in a certain amount of time, having a high chain, etc.

** RoosterTeeth tracks Karma, which is reduced by "Lame" or "Flamebait" posts and increased by funny or clever ones. There is also a system of achievements (Awards) for participating in site activities, and sponsors of the site have small yellow stars next to their names.

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* Many RTS's, among them ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'', and ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'', award points at the end of the match. ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft}}'', for instance, bases them on units killed versus units lost, buildings destroyed versus buildings lost, and resources mined and consumed. The scores are purely cosmetic and don't really affect anything.

As games moved from the arcades to the home consoles and home computers, initially many games still had points there, even the ones that had endings, but like said above, players didn't care and went for the ending, it helps that in the home version, you couldn't show your high scores to everyone until the days of internet, and also, many games that came in cartridges couldn't even save your high scores after you turned off your console unless the cart had a save battery, as games progressed, they dropped scores.