Acid for Blood

I don't grasp the importance of the concept of one's 'score' on 1UP.com. Why should I care if someone has more points than me? More to the point, why should I care if I have lots of points?

Perhaps those are stupid questions, as many video games are inherently comepetitive and incorporate a scoring system. They assign you arbitrary numbers based upon the successful completion of tasks in-game. A connection is created between success in the game and the awarding of points. Ergo, more points are more desireable.

I suppose the points on this site are desirable in a social context. More points, more activity, more page views, a more interesting rank, more friends, means that the individual is more popular, more read, possibly more respected, etc. And people tend to look upon popularity positively. As this is a social site, more socialisation or activity is awarded with more points. People then associate a higher score with popularity, thus making more points desireable.