Are achievements in video games actually failures?
the "hopelessly lost" aspect of the matrix bears here. You are disinclined to doubt the reality of a game that you are successful in. Without that doubt you won't escape it. So success becomes failure because it directly increases your lostness.
Video games lack that "hopelessly lost" aspect. I mean, nobody mistakes them for reality and never comes back. (Right?). So I'm excluding them.
I don't even know what you're trying to say
Except for poetry. When you wake up from your dreamcoffin you'll still have your poetry skills and a few memorized poems.
If the benchmark of success is having the skills to do something in the "real world", everything you do with a "real world" component would be successful including Mathematics, Creative writing, language skills, critical thinking skills, etc.
