Features of Achievement Systems

Achievements and Achievement systems are recognized as important elements to increasing the profitability and success of games titles. Achievements can influence a player’s buying decisions and can even increase a player’s motivation to continue playing a game. Despite their growing importance to game players, designers, and promoters, little attention has been paid to them by the academic community. In order to better understand these games elements, there exists a need to better understand Achievement Systems, their features and the opportunities offered by them. To this end, this paper will consolidate current knowledge and provide an overview of the features of today's Achievement Systems, exploring the common features of the most popular systems and highlighting points of differentiation designed to better engage players and increase distributor revenue.