(4 days ago) c1396 said: this is a cursed comment it will unfortunately repeat for as long as humanity stands this comment will come back and already has come back multiple times in different eras and different realities and dimensions this comment was created by an unknown entity long dead.If you find this comment you have already made your demise you will be cursed with the same fate. Achievement Unlocked, a free online Puzzle & Skill game brought to you by Armor Games. Who needs gameplay when you have ACHIEVEMENTS? Don't worry about beating levels, finding ways to kill enemies, or beating the final boss. Focus solely on your ultimate destiny. Doing random tasks that have nothing to do with anything. Metagame yourself with ease! Self-satisfaction never.

• Achievement Unlocked 2watermelon Gaming Chair
• Achievement Unlocked 2watermelon Gaming Headset
• Achievement Unlocked 2watermelon Gaming Pc
• Achievement Unlocked 2watermelon Gaming Mouse

One of the great aspects of games is that they allow you to be whoever and whatever you want to be. In the virtual worlds of the games we love, players can take on the role of any kind of character and do pretty much whatever they want. The same goes for multiplayer games, where it doesn’t matter what you look like or where you’re from.

Yet, the gaming community is often not seen as one of tolerance, as it has had its fair share of toxicity and controversies that have received significant media attention over the years. We, as gamers, don’t feel that this paints a complete picture of what it means to be a gamer and want to shine a spotlight on some shining beacons that represent just the opposite of the stereotypical toxic gaming community.

Indeed, gaming is an activity that unites people from all over the world, regardless of their sexual orientation, creed, gender, age, origin, or other categories. In a way, games can provide a sense of belonging to many people.

Becoming more inclusive

Gaming has become a massive phenomenon. It permeates all parts of society and connects gamers all over the world through the power of the internet. It unites all of us. We can easily find likeminded people and bond with them through the joyous experiences we share in the games we play.

It has been shown, for example, that, when a group achieves success in MMORPGs, it positively effects their self-esteem. Also, such experiences strengthen social bonds between the players (Gabbiadini, et al 2014). As gaming erases the danger of being judged for stereotypical characteristics, only the performance of each player counts.

Overcoming stereotypes in gaming

Some players have translated their online fame into the analogue world thanks to their excellence. The most well-known one is probably Dominique McLean, better known as SonicFox. He is a fighting game pro signed to EchoFox who successfully competes in multiple titles and has won championships in Dragon Ball FighterZ and Injustice 2.

He openly talks about his sexual orientation in his own social media channels and is really proud to be representative of people with non-heteronormative personalities.

The disabled CS:GO streamer Adam “Loop” Bahriz received much support when being bullied online. This was not because people intended to overprotect him due to his genetic condition, but because he’s an amazing player regardless of his sight and hearing impairment.

Another positive example for tolerance in video games is Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn. The StarCraft 2 player made a name for herself in Blizzard’s RTS as one of the best players ever. She is much respected in the scene and has become one of the most acclaimed female pro gamers ever. What is more, her being a transgender person isn’t an issue at all to her peers – as it doesn’t matter.

United by gaming

Parking manialoads of cool games multiplayer. In a matter of seconds, you'll be racing to park cars in city lots, on side streets, and even in special garages. In all of these games, your driving and parking skills will be put to the test, as you'll race against time to park in straight, slanted, and parallel spots. Gameplay in parking games varies from one game to another. Parking Mania at Cool Math Games: This is the original car parking game, Parking Mania. Use the arrow keys to steer and drive the car forward and backward. The goal is to park the car in the parking space. Just don't crash into anything! Sports Games Loads Of Cool Games: Parking Mania. Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.

The sense of belonging is incredibly high in the gaming community. The hobby we all love provides us with common stories to tell and goals to achieve. This makes gaming such a great tool to achieve tolerance.

Source

Gabbiadini, Alessandro, Silvia Mari, Chiara Volpato, and Maria G. Monaci. 2014. Identification processes in online groups: identity motives in the virtual realm of MMORPGs. Journal of Media Psychology, 26(3):141-152

There’s so much more within, so make sure to stay up to date on what’s happening over on Facebook and Twitter.

Achievement Unlocked 2watermelon Gaming Chair

Find out how our products can awaken your Gamer Within right here >
Read more Gamer Within articles >

In video gaming parlance, an achievement, also sometimes known as a trophy, badge, 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 and have a direct effect on further gameplay, the management of achievements usually takes place outside the confines of the game environment and architecture.^[1] Meeting the fulfillment conditions, and receiving recognition of fulfillment by the game, is referred to as unlocking the achievement.

Purpose and motivation[edit]

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^[2]), 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 (e.g., Braid^[3]) or playing without killing any enemies (e.g., Deus Ex: Human Revolution^[4] and Dishonored^[5]), 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).

The motivation for the player to gain achievements lies in maximizing their own general cross-title score (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'.^[6][7]

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 that can be equipped. Team Fortress 2 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[edit]

Single-game achievements[edit]

The idea for game achievements can be traced back to 1982, with Activision's patches for high scores.^[8][9] 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, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, and at least one title on the Commodore 64 also included similar instructions with patches as a reward.^[10] 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.^[11] 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 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.^[12]

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 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.

Achievement Unlocked 2watermelon Gaming Headset

Platform (multi-game) achievement systems[edit]

Achievement Unlocked 2watermelon Gaming Pc

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^{[by whom?]} to be Microsoft's Xbox 360 Gamerscore system, introduced at E3 in 2005.^[13] 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 platform, eventually capturing a wide number of Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and SteamOS based games.^[14]

In 2008, Sony followed suit by offering Trophies for the PlayStation 3. 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 its games.^{[15][better source needed]}

Apple added achievements to Game Center on October 12, 2011 with the release of the iOS 5, for mobile platform for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.^{[16][better source needed]}

Achievements are available on Android via Google Play Games.

Microsoft's mobile OSes, Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8, included Xbox Live support, including Achievements when first launched worldwide on October 21, 2010.^{[17][better source needed]}

Amazon Kindle provided the GameCircle service starting July 11, 2012, which tracks achievements and leaderboards for some games adapted to the Kindle platform.^[18]

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.'^[19]

Game achievements as satire[edit]

The advent of achievement-driven gaming was satirized in the Flash game Achievement Unlocked.^[20] 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.

Achievement Unlocked 2watermelon Gaming Mouse

Achievements as part of gamification[edit]

NSA information-gathering program XKeyscore uses achievements awarding 'skilz' points to assist in training new analysts as a form of gamification of learning.^[21][22][23]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Hamari, Juho; Eranti, Veikko (January 2011). 'Framework for Designing and Evaluating Game Achievements'(PDF). DiGRA '11 – Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play. DiGRA/Utrecht School of the Arts. 6. ISSN2342-9666. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
2. ^'AStats - High On Racing - Game Info'. astats.astats.nl. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
3. ^'AStats - Braid - Achievement: Speed Run'. astats.astats.nl. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
4. ^'AStats - Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Achievement: Pacifist'. astats.astats.nl. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
5. ^'AStats - Dishonored - Achievement: Clean Hands'. astats.astats.nl. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
6. ^Wilde, Tyler (February 9, 2016). 'The life of a top Steam achievement hunter'. PC Gamer. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
7. ^Hernandez, Patricia (March 18, 2016). 'Steam's Hardest Achievements, As Told By A Top Achievement Hunter'. Kotaku. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
8. ^Hilliard, Kyle (October 26, 2013). 'Activision Badges – The Original Gaming Achievement'. Game Informer. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
9. ^Thomasson, Michael. 'Activision Patches (Atari, Colecovision, Intellivision)'. Good Deal Games. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
10. ^'Collector's Corner - Activision Patches Atari 2600'. Digital Press. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
11. ^'Pitfall Harry Letter to Achievement Hunter'. Activision, Inc. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015 – via Game Informer.
12. ^'E-Motion - Cheat codes & cheats'. Lemon Amiga. Retrieved September 21, 2012.
13. ^Jakobsson, Mikael (February 2011). 'The Achievement Machine: Understanding Xbox 360 Achievements in Gaming Practices'. Game Studies. 11 (1). ISSN1604-7982. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
14. ^'Steam Achievements (Concept)'. Giant Bomb. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
15. ^PlayStation Vita
16. ^IOS 5
17. ^Windows Phone 7
18. ^Brian, Matt (July 11, 2012). 'Amazon launches GameCircle for Kindle Fire to rival Apple's Game Center'. The Next Web. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
19. ^'English FAQ'. Kongregate. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012.
20. ^McWhertor, Michael (December 19, 2008). 'Achievement Unlocked: The Game: You Have To Unlock The Achievement'. Kotaku. Retrieved September 21, 2012.
21. ^Robertson, Adi (August 12, 2013). 'NSA analysts earned 'skilz' points by training for XKeyscore surveillance, says new report'. The Verge. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
22. ^Mirani, Leo (August 12, 2013). 'To learn spying software, NSA analysts 'unlock achievements' to win 'skilz''. Quartz. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
23. ^Poitras, Laura; Rosenbach, Marcel; Stark, Holger (August 12, 2013). 'Ally and Target: US Intelligence Watches Germany Closely'. Der Spiegel. Translated by Sultan, Christopher. Retrieved November 14, 2020.