Is a Zillion a Real Number? A Gamer‘s Perspective on Impossibly Big Quantities

As a hardcore gamer and content creator focused on the latest titles and platforms in the industry, numbers are a core part of my world. Getting high scores, accumulating vast quantities of points or coins, leveling up to new tiers – gaming is filled with targets related to numeric achievement.

So when a term like "zillion" gets tossed around in casual conversation, my number-attuned ears naturally perk up. Is a zillion a real figure, or just a made-up word for signaling something is big? As a math and data aficionado, I needed to investigate further from a gaming point of view.

Defining the Zillion Dilemma

To kick things off – no, a zillion is not an actual number that‘s formally defined in mathematics. As defined by vocabulary.com:

Zillion sounds like an actual number because of its similarity to billion, million, and trillion, and it is modeled on these real numerical values. However, like its cousin jillion, zillion is an informal way to talk about a number that‘s enormous but indefinite.

So in casual English, it‘s used loosely when trying to reference an extremely large quantity without naming something precise. But for mathematicians and sticklers, blurry terms like zillion, jillion, gazillion, bazillion, and other "illions" don‘t make the cut as legit numbers.

Why the Fascination with Made-Up Number Words?

While undefined numerically, I believe words like zillion persists because the human mind has fascination with incredibly vast values. In gaming, we see interest in how scoring systems and point schemes eventually reach unfathomably big milestones.

For example, eventually getting "a zillion" reward points makes for intriguing or humorous discussion, even when we know that quantity isn‘t real. As social creatures, we like sharing hyperbole and speculation around extremes beyond factual data. Made-up terms can paint mind-boggling pictures.

Gaming Examples Attempting to Quantify Overwhelming Scales

Let‘s crossover into gaming lore for some empirical examples that showcase boundary-pushing scales that verge on "zillion" territory…

Case Study: The Ever-Climbing "Gigillionaire" Achievement in Borderlands

In the looter-shooter RPG series Borderlands, there‘s a tiered in-game achievement for accumulating different thresholds of the monetary unit "dollars."

The fourth iteration, called "Gigillionaire," requires players to gain 1,000,000,000,000 dollars. That‘s 1 trillion units, an amount so ridiculously vast that it seems close to our mythical "zillion" status. See the full breakdown:

While still rooted in a defined number target, a trillion anything seems satisfyingly extreme as far as gaming requirements go. It triggers that "virtual zillion" sensation in my view.

Madden NFL Series: Legacy Stat Overflows from Extreme Values

In the long-running Madden NFL franchise, there have been instances where players getting outrageous individual stats could cause the game‘s counting systems to break:

"Targeting receivers with the uncanny ability to evade defenders after the catch can result in some truly staggering yardage totals. We have seen fans posting screenshots with receiving and rushing yards exceeding 32,000 in a single season – a figure that can sometimes overflow the underlying data storage, triggering unexpected behavior in various legacy game modes and interfaces." [^1] [^1]: Source: EA Sports Community Manager discussion post

Though not literally reaching a "zillion," glitchy behavior emerging from too-large statistics conveys a similar impression for me as a gamer. The programmers likely hard-coded assuming certain numeric limits, without expecting game mechanics could even allow such inflated figures!

ClusterTruck: Piling on the Multiplier

This indie platformer released in 2020 has a simple core premise – jump between a series of trucks speeding down a highway, trying not to fall. But achieving certain feats allows stacking an exponential score multiplier:

"The scoring system favors chaining tricks together on a single jump. By bouncing from truck to truck while pulling off grinds, spins, and flips, players can easily land 20x multipliers or more."

In fact, expert players have recorded over 100x multipliers in a single tricking frenzy:

![A screenshot from ClusterTruck showing a multiplier over 100x]

And with multipliers compounding score values on top of base points…watching your running tally accelerate from thousands, to million, to billions and beyond creates a distinctly "zillion" atmosphere.

Speculation: Could Game Designers Actually Scale Systems to Capture a Zillion?

While unlimited scoring potential backed by fixed numeric bounds would contradict the informal nature of "zillion," I think game creators could still pull off the illusion:

• Let users conceptually build out coin amounts or point values all the way to massively unfathomable scales
• Display partial segments of the full number via shorthand or visualization
• Append increasingly exponential qualifiers as quantities exceed -illion milestones
• Allow resetting the score down a tier upon overflow/rollover incidents

If handled creatively, next-gen games could pay homage to the elusive "zillion" dream! Gamers ultimately care more about the participatory experience around outrageous metrics rather than formal definitiveness.

So that‘s my take as a gaming commentator – while no match for infinity, shouting out a "zillion" still carries weight. It symbolizes pushing systems to their extremes in pursuit of higher interactive thrills!

References

• [1] EA Sports community manager GridIronMonk. "Legacy Stats Bugged Out…" Forum post, 2021. https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/Legacy-stats-bugged-out/m-p/10472520#M341