Completionists: Why are you doing that to yourselves?

I mean, on a world of worthless stuff, being a completionist on a videogame is quite possible one of the most worthless things to do.
I like to consider myself being a half completionist though in the sense that I will do every single side quest and maybe just maybe pick up some of the collectible shit if I feel like it.
The only games in which I completed all the achievements are HL2 and both episodes, and man those had some shitty achievements (I'm looking at you dumb ass fucking garden gnome, no I won't be missing you, you little shit). For other games, I just can't be bothered. What's the point after all? you don't get anything out of it but a minor super temporal sense of accomplishment (no pun intended... well just a little bit maybe).
What I consider base completion is to just do all the quests in a game, not necessarily pick up or find collectibles.

Ultimately, I just don't have the patience nor the will or the time anymore, especially when I keep reminding myself it's pointless. Playing the game for the story gives me something, a good or a bad memory, but picking up collectibles gives me absolutely nothing. I will forget about them after 15 minutes, whereas the story can possible stay with me, ideally, for ever.

Because... there might be something epic in that chest or down that path or in the tree... I HAVE TO KNOW.

I don't go for 100% achievements though because... eff that.

I do most of those things but "platinum" completely takes the fun and nuance away from the concept of gaming. There was a uy whom I played with on PS3 that only played games for that and when he hit plat he'd move on to something else. Why play videogames if all you want to do is check off a list of redundant things for the sake of a digital trophy?

Wow. GodAIist, much?

I thought I knew you, Arcadia.

I just want to know if there’s something cool I might have otherwise missed.

I’m not completionist all the time, but if I’m into a game it bothers me if I’ve left stuff undone.

For me I just need to finish any sidequests. If its collectables I will only do it if related to a quest or if it has some sort of ingame reward to it. Why I despise the Riddler trophies from the Arkham games being related to his quest..I hated collecting all of those!! But i couldn't help myself lol

I am completionist in the sense that I want to see all of the gameworld and all of the little stories and lore in it.

That is, here's what I usually do...

*I do all sidequests, unless one is dramatically out of character.

*I enter and fully explore all maps in one playthrough. I usually don't do extra playthroughs just for content I can't get in one, but most games I find interesting enough to complete I also find interesting enough for more than one playthrough.

I do this because exploring fictional worlds is one of my main motivations for reading books, playing games etc.. If someone saw my epitaph in POE they may get an idea of how it feels to me to have a universe of fictional worlds and their stories in my head. It's also very enjoyable, and not at all like "doing things to me".

And here's what I don't usually, or don't always do...

*Open all chests. Well, this is sort-of automatic if I explore all maps, but I don't tick off a mental chest list or consult a guide in order to make sure I haven't missed anything, and I certainly don't necessarily go for all secret locations by, say, going over all maps in scouting mode in POE or something. I once opened all caches in TW3, ending my game with a map void of question marks (which obviously has quite a bit of appeal for an explorer-type like me), but only in one of three playthroughs.

*Pick all herbs. Eh, they usually respawn anyway. I do things like collecting all King's Sorrel in Gothic 2, but that's because you need those for permanent stat increases, which you might need in order to use the better weapons - and there they do not respawn.

*Collection tasks if they're not lore-related. I did them all in DAI because I felt they added to the world in small ways, but in MEA they were so boring that I didn't bother, even though I hate leaving task entries open.

*I don't try to speak with every unnamed character in the gameworld. If I miss out on something that way, so be it. Should I come to know that one is significant, however, I will not pass them again in subsequent playthroughs.

*Maxing my characters and equipment I do if it doesn't mean extra work beyond doing all quests and exploring all maps. So in many games, it's sort of automatic as well, but not in all of them. I'm reasonably sure I could've coaxed a few more praxis levels out of my DX:HR playthroughs, but that would've meant optimising my XP on all maps, and that would take the fun out of the game. Having said that, it did happen that I considered some item as particulary important for how I want my character to end up, and I spent quite a bit of time saving and reloading in front of chests with random content. That was an exception rather than the rule though (it was in DAI, btw, in the days before the crafting schematics accumulated across all your playthroughs).

*All achievements. I usually won't even attempt that since there are almost always some which would be no fun at all to complete, such as "complete the game in the hardest difficulty setting", or related to stuff I don't do at all in games, such as multiplayer-related or certain fighting-related achievements like "kill x enemies by doing y". The only game where I got them all in DX:HR, and that's because all but one of them fit into my preferred playstyle, and the last one was a challenge I couldn't resist and didn't require an extra playthrough.

And I don't even know what "platinum" means in the context of playing video games. Can anyone explain?

There is power in control. There is wisdom in harnessing the strengths of your enemy.

I define "completeness" myself. I don't need the game's suggestions to gauge it.

Once I looked at Skyrim map and was like: Here, the north is unexplored. I could use this road to travel up and then I go ice Khajit along the coastline. Was great expedition. Skyrim point of interest system is so much better for exploring than minimap question marks. I turned these off in TW3 - they were just too gamey.

Really depends on the game, generally I don't bother with achievements unless I think they sound like fun to attempt or if I know they will provide some worthwhile in game reward for completing them.

We destroy them or they destroy us