Achievement (video gaming)

In video gaming parlance, an achievement, also sometimes known as a trophy, badge, award, stamp, medal or challenge, is a meta-goal defined outside of a game's parameters. Unlike the in-game systems of quests, tasks, and/or levels that usually define the goals of a video game 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.

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 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-ups 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 (Example: Braid) or playing without killing any enemies (Examples: 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 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 pipe in Super Mario Bros.) or additional gameplay features (such as hidden weapons or levels in first-person shooters like Doom) 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 for Microsoft's Live Anywhere network, combining Xbox 360/Xbox One titles and also Games for Windows - Live supported PC Games; PSN ID for PlayStation Network (PSN); User Profile Achievement Showcases for Steam; Armory Profiles for World of Warcraft; and Lodestone Profiles for Final Fantasy XIV).

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