Exclusive Interview with DJHUNTERD - a gamerscore of over 55,000 and counting

Achievements. They are, in my opinion, one of the best ideas Microsoft had for the Xbox 360 (and like any good idea, Sony decided to copy them). It gives you something more to strive for, and some make you play in ways you otherwise wouldn't. Developers have freedom over what they want their achievements to be, and can have up to 50 achievements and 1000 gamer points per game (up to 12 achievements and 200 points for Xbox Live Arcade titles). Some are easy, while others are quite difficult, and there are some pretty creative ones too. But one thing is for sure, getting one of the highest gamerscores in the world cannot be easy. Even so, DJHUNTERD has managed to have the 4th highest gamerscore in the world, and the highest in the United Kingdom. Here, I have an exclusive interview with him covering how and why he does it.


Q: First of all, what do you do for a living and who are you?
A: I am from Sacramento, CA currently in the Air Force stationed overseas in the UK.

Q: What's the reason for your Xbox Live gamertag?

A: I always used Hunter as my name for all games and I call myself “D” for the simple fact that my last names pretty hard to say. Add that to the fact that I DJ house music and there you have my gamertag.

Q: When did you decide to try and be one of the people with the highest gamerscore?

A: I would have to say it started when I met my good live friend Fixell. He was like at 15k and I was at roughly 10k. We became good friends and did ALL boosting together for every game and eventually my quest to surpass him and for a higher score came to be.

Q: Why do you do it?
A: My love of games and it keeps me busy than doing other things which could get me in trouble.

Q: How long do you think you can keep it up?

A: As long as games steadily come out I can go till the next gen.

Q: What are some of the hardest achievements you've gotten?

A: PDZ Dark agent, Quake 4 General completed.

Q: Which games had the easiest achievements?

A: Take your pick of almost any sport game… LOL!!!

Q: What achievements are you working on now?

A: Samurai Warriors 2 and Bulletwitch.

Q: Is there anyone in particular you have a rivalry with?

A: Not really but I think a couple of people think I am with them though ;p

Q: What's an achievement you'd like to see?

A: A single achievement worth 1000 GS. Like 100% game or something…

Q: Do you think you'll pass RANCE6 (the gamer with the world's highest score) anytime soon?

A: NOPE…. He has the incredible advantage of knowing Japanese.

Q: How much time do you play Xbox 360 daily, and how much of that is dedicated to getting Achievements?

A: I try to play a few hours everyday and on days I have off as much as possible. Almost all of it is time for achievements but I do play FPS with friends still for fun.

Q: What game are you most looking forward to?
A: I am looking forward to Gears of War, The Darkness, and of course Halo 3!

Q: Do you have any tips for getting achievements?

A: Pick the genre which you excel in (like mine is action/adventure/FPS) and go for all the points you can. Also, play all the sports games as they net you easy points. And my last bit of advice is if you don’t have a “dedicated” boost buddy who’ll do games with you… get one A.S.A.P. or it’ll be harder finding random people and getting those achievements.