In video gaming parlance, an achievement, also sometimes known as a trophy, badge, advancement, award, stamp, medal, challenge, cheevo or in game achievement, is a meta-goal defined outside a game's parameters. Unlike the in-game systems of
quests, tasks, and/or
levels that usually define the goals of a
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...
and have a direct effect on further
gameplay, the management of achievements usually takes place outside the confines of the game environment and architecture. Meeting the fulfillment conditions, and receiving recognition of fulfillment by the game, is referred to as unlocking the achievement.
Purpose and motivation
Achievements are included within games to extend the title's longevity and provide players with the impetus to do more than simply complete the game but to also find all of its secrets and complete all of its challenges. They are effectively arbitrary challenges laid out by the
developer
Developer may refer to:
Computers
*Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications
* Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games
* Web de ...
to be met by the player. These achievements may coincide with the inherent goals of the game itself, when completing a standard milestone in the game (such as achievements for beating each level of a game), with secondary goals such as finding secret
power-up
In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chose ...
s or hidden levels, or may also be independent of the game's primary or secondary goals and earned via completing a game in an especially difficult or non-standard fashion (such as
speedrunning a game (e.g., ''
Braid
A braid (also referred to as a plait) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing two or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair.
The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-strande ...
'')) or playing without killing any enemies (e.g., ''
Deus Ex: Human Revolution'' and ''
Dishonored''), playing a certain number of times, viewing an in-game video, and/or beating a certain number of
online
In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" ...
opponents. Certain achievements may refer to other achievements—many games have one achievement that requires the player to have gained every other achievement.
Unlike secrets, which traditionally provided some kind of direct benefit to the player in the form of easier gameplay (such as the
warp
Warp, warped or warping may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Books and comics
* WaRP Graphics, an alternative comics publisher
* ''Warp'' (First Comics), comic book series published by First Comics based on the play ''Warp!''
* Warp (comics), a ...
pipe in ''
Super Mario Bros.'') or additional gameplay features (such as hidden weapons or levels in
first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...
s like ''
Doom
Doom is another name for damnation.
Doom may also refer to:
People
* Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed
* Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist
* Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher
* ...
'') even though they might have criteria similar to achievements in order to unlock, the narrative-independent nature of achievements allows them to be fulfilled without needing to provide the player with any direct, in-game benefit or additional feature. In addition, the achievements used in modern gaming are usually visible outside the game environment (on the Internet) and form part of the online profile for the player (
Gamertag
The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system on November 15, 2002. An u ...
for Microsoft's
Live Anywhere
Live Anywhere is an initiative by Microsoft to bring the Xbox Live online networking service to a wide variety of platforms and devices including Xbox, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, Zune, and more.
LIVE-enabled platforms
The mo ...
network, combining
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
/
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
/
Xbox Series X, S titles, PC games using
Games for Windows – Live and Xbox Live on Windows 8 and Windows 10, and Xbox Live-enabled games on other platforms; PSN ID for
PlayStation Network (PSN); User Profile Achievement Showcases for
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...
; Armory Profiles for ''
World of Warcraft
''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azer ...
''; and Lodestone Profiles for ''
Final Fantasy XIV'').
The motivation for the player to gain achievements lies in maximizing their own general cross-title
score
Score or scorer may refer to:
*Test score, the result of an exam or test
Business
* Score Digital, now part of Bauer Radio
* Score Entertainment, a former American trading card design and manufacturing company
* Score Media, a former Canadian ...
(known as
Gamerscore on Live,
Trophy Level on PSN, and the Achievement Showcase for Steam User Profiles) and obtaining recognition for their performance due to the publication of their achievement/trophy profiles. Some players pursue the unlocking of achievements as a goal in itself, without especially seeking to enjoy the game that awards them—this community of players typically refer to themselves as "achievement hunters".
Some implementations use a system of achievements that provide direct, in-game benefits to the gameplay, although the award is usually not congruent with the achievement itself. One example of such an implementation are "challenges" found in the multiplayer portions of the later ''
Call of Duty'' titles. Challenges here may include a certain number of headshots or kills and are rewarded not only with the completion of the achievement but also a bonus
item
Item may refer to:
Organizations
* ''Instituto del Tercer Mundo'' (ITeM), the Third World Institute
* ITEM club, an economic forecasting group based in the United Kingdom
Newspapers
* ''The Item'', an American independent, morning newspaper ...
that can be equipped. ''
Team Fortress 2
''Team Fortress 2'' is a 2007 multiplayer first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video game), Quake'' and ...
'' features 3 ''milestones'' for each of the nine
classes. When a milestone is reached by obtaining a specific number of achievements for each class, the player will be awarded a non-tradable weapon unique to that class.
Origins and implementations
Single-game achievements
The idea for game achievements can be traced back to 1982, with
Activision's patches for high scores. This was a system by which game manuals instructed players to achieve a particular high score, take a photo of score display on the television, and send in the photo to receive a physical, iron-on style patch in a fashion somewhat similar to a
Boy Scout earning a
Scout badge. This system was set up across many Activision titles regardless of platform, and though most of their games were on the popular
Atari 2600, games on the
Intellivision
The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. In 198 ...
,
ColecoVision,
Atari 5200, and at least one title on the
Commodore 64 also included similar instructions with patches as a reward. Patches would be sent with a letter from the company, often written as if from a fictional character, like
Pitfall Harry, congratulating the player on the achievement. By the end of 1983, Activision's new games no longer included these achievements, but the company would still honor the process for their older games.
The game ''
E-Motion'' on the
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...
from 1990 was one of the earliest games that had some form of achievements programmed into the game itself. The game called these "secret bonuses". The game had five such bonuses, for achievements such as completing a level without rotating to the right, or completely failing certain levels.
A number of individual games have included their own in-game achievements system, separate from any overall platform. Most modern
massively multiplayer online role-playing games have implemented their own in-game system of achievements; in some cases such as ''
World of Warcraft
''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azer ...
and
Final Fantasy XIV'', these achievements are accessible outside the game when viewing user profiles on the game websites and the game may offer an
API for achievement data to be pulled and used on other sites.
Platform (multi-game) achievement systems
Although many other individual games would develop their own "secret bonuses" and internal achievements, the first implementation of an easily accessible and multi-game achievement system is widely considered to be Microsoft's Xbox 360
Gamerscore system, introduced at
E3 in 2005, and implemented on the 360's launch date (22/11/05). Microsoft extended Gamerscore support to the Games for Windows – Live scheme in 2007 by including support for Achievements in ''
Halo 2''.
In 2007,
Valve became the second large publisher to release a platform-based, multi-game achievement system for their
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...
platform, eventually capturing a wide number of
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...
,
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lap ...
,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...
, and
SteamOS based games.
In 2008,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
followed suit by offering
Trophies for the
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
. There was no Trophy support for the
PlayStation Portable, even though the device does have PSN connection capability. By 2011, the successor to the PlayStation Portable, the
PlayStation Vita, and all PlayStation Vita games had universal support for the Trophy system, as well as the later PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 and their games.
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...
added achievements to
Game Center on October 12, 2011, with the release of the
iOS 4, for mobile platform for
iPhone,
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, ...
, and
iPod Touch.
Achievements are available on
Android via
Google Play Games
Google Play Games is a multi-platform gaming experience built and operated by Google featuring seamless gameplay across PCs, Chromebooks and mobile devices.
Google Play Games for PC Beta launched in 2022 with a curated set of Android games opti ...
.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
's mobile OSes,
Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8, included
Xbox Live support, including Achievements when first launched worldwide on October 21, 2010.
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store. ...
provided the GameCircle service starting July 11, 2012, which tracks achievements and leaderboards for some games adapted to the Kindle platform.
Kongregate, a
browser games hosting site, features Badges, which earn the user points, similar to Xbox Live's Gamerscore and PlayStation Network's Trophy system. Much like PSN's Trophies, points work towards increasing a player's level. The site FAQ explains, "Your level will automatically rise as you earn points. We're still working out the details of what kind of privileges and potential prizes that points and levels could be used to unlock."
In 2012,
RetroAchievements started to retroactively add achievements to old game-systems for use in
Emulation software like
RetroArch. Users add indicators which trigger when a certain value changes in emulating the
ROM.
Game achievements as satire
The advent of achievement-driven gaming was satirized in the Flash game ''
Achievement Unlocked''. The game is a simple
platformer; it takes place on a single non-scrolling screen, and has only simple walking and jumping controls. It has no clearly defined victory condition aside from earning all 100 achievements, from the trivial ("move left", "click the play field") to the complex ("touch every square", "find and travel to three particular locations in order"). The game spawned two sequels.
Achievements as part of gamification
NSA
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collec ...
information-gathering program
XKeyscore uses achievements awarding "skilz" points to assist in training new analysts as a form of
gamification of learning.
See also
*
Xbox Live
*
PlayStation Network
*
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...
*
Game Center
*
Google Play Games
Google Play Games is a multi-platform gaming experience built and operated by Google featuring seamless gameplay across PCs, Chromebooks and mobile devices.
Google Play Games for PC Beta launched in 2022 with a curated set of Android games opti ...
*
Unlockable (video games)
Unlockable content refers to content that is available in video games but not accessible unless something is performed by the player to get access to it. Different genres of games have different styles and options of unlockable content that is st ...
*
New Game Plus
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Achievement
Player progress tracking in video games
Video game terminology