The road to Shangri-La is paved with G's.

It occured to me last night that i haven't so much as switched on my 360 in the last 2 months and i pondered why. There was the slight technical faux pas with is burning gouges into all of my games but really stealthily so that i didn't notice.
That eventually culminated in me on my knees imploring my 360 why, after so much quality time spent together, it would stab me in the back like that. Et tu 360?

So yes, that soured relations between us slightly. Then it began to crash every so often - ordinarily it wouldn't be that much of a problem but i found that it would choose key times to decide to just give up. One example was on Fracture when i finally completed a level that i'd been attempting for ages only to get a mere inch from a save point and the 360 spitefully froze. This little quirk has certainly compounded matters in the 360 snubbing but there was something else, something more obvious that i just wasn't seeing. What was this niggling problem? This enormous bug-bear sat defiantly on my 360? Achievements.

Don't get me wrong, there was a time when i enjoyed the intrepid hunt of the G, when i would holler for joy at the little silver logo appearing at the bottom of my screen, but then it happened. One day, a few weeks ago, i was sat at my 360 playing Spidey: Web of Shadows and i'd been on the same part for almost an hour. I wasn't stuck, oh no, i was trying to get an achievement - for 40 minutes i'd been running around on a wall monotonously killing robots to try and get 20Gs for ending the life (albeit mechanical) of things on walls.
At that point i had an epiphany - what in gods name was i doing? I had become a G whore. I broke down in tears, the stark realisation of what i'd become hitting me like a hammer - i was neglecting quality games, games containing style and originality, for second rate tat just to fuel my craving for G's.

At that point i'd reached around 36,000Gs but it suddenly dawned on me that it would never be enough. Where would it end? I felt an enormous pressure to perform, as it was common knowledge how many G's i had as i was on-line i felt like i was competing with people that i wasn't even aware of. Suddenly gaming had turned from an enjoyable part of my life to one big competition - i was playing games i actually hated and encouraging the production of low quality crap just so i could get my G counter up! I felt ashamed. Something had to be done.

2 months, 3 weeks and one day ago i turned off my 360 and it has yet to be switched back on again. I'm no fanboy but i just find that my PS3 sustains my needs nicely and doesn't have a tendency to destroy disks, freeze up on me, generally implode and do its damndest to break me over its proverbial knee.
With the utmost clarity i know now that gaming isn't all about G's, in fact the never ending hunt for G's scuppers most gamers progress.
Why play King Kong on the 360 when you can play Okami on the PS2? Why flog a game that you hate to death when you could be playing something you enjoy that just happens not to have achievements?
Ultimately i believe achievements are there to enhance the gaming experience not to justify a games longevity.

Disagree? Comment me hommes.