What is an “Accomplishment”, “Achievement”, or “Trophy”?
An “Accomplishment” is the general term for a goal within a video game that is identified and granted to the player once they meet some specific criteria within the game based on gameplay, the awarding of which does not otherwise alter the in-game experience. Common examples of accomplishments include “Achievements” for the Xbox 360 (and Xbox Live) and “Trophies” for PlayStation 3 (and PlayStation Network). Achievements are most widely used on the Xbox 360, where the awarding of achievements is centrally recorded within the player’s Xbox Live account and points are awarded based on the difficulty of the achievement, the total amount of which are called the player’s Gamerscore. Some games on other systems also award achievements, but most are not generally tracked in a central location, as with Xbox Live. Trophies are most widely used on the PlayStation 3, where the awarding of trophies is centrally recorded within the player’s PlayStation Network account and experience points are award
