"(For those of you interested, scroll down.... this is a long one.)

'There is no path. Beyond the scope of light, beyond the reach of dark.... what could possibly await us? And yet, we seek it, insatiably.... such is our fate.' - Aldia, Dark Souls II

I used to be a completionist. As I write this in January of 2024, I pray that I am no longer that person.

In 2016, I set out with the goal of completing every game I had started on my Steam profile, and getting my game completion % as high as possible in every title I had already started. Nearly 8 years later, I consider that goal achieved. 200 games finished to 100%, with an average of 97% completion across a total of 239 games played.

At some point, I fell into doing the same thing on my PlayStation profile. (I didn't even realize it until checking just now, but I somehow wound up with exactly 100 perfect games over there as well. What a clean, providential number!)

During this period, I added dozens of new games onto both of my accounts, and with each one came the burden of rolling credits at a minimum, and most likely rinsing every achievement and trophy as well.

97%, 200 perfect games on Steam. 100 perfect games on PSN.

It's as far as I'm willing to go. Completionism on a meta scale like this isn't fun.

I have been looking forward to crossing this arbitrary finish line for a long time, because it has also been a burden for a long time. I've wanted to move on from this hunt for years now, but I don't easily quit when I set my mind to something. I've ignored the truth of the sunk-cost fallacy and soldiered on, just to be able to sit here today and write, "I did it." Well, I did do it. Only time will tell whether or not that becomes a regret one day.

Achievements have their advantages. On a case-by-case basis, they can motivate players to seek additional challenge they wouldn't normally tackle, leading to feelings of immense personal satisfaction. They can provide greater structure and clarity of objectives in games that are too easy or meander or feature easily missed side content. They incentivize engagement with DLCs and expansions, which are most often ignored by the average player (achievement unlock statistics prove this fact), and yet are very often a game's best content. Most players don't care about achievements and some even disparage those who do, but this is entirely hypocritical. The truth is, achievements are just another reward structure in games, and we all respond to those, whether they be level ups, gear drops, unlocks, or any of the countless ways games can hook you. Achievements are just one more ingredient in that dopamine smoothie.

But then there's the ugly side to the achievement hunt. Far too many achievements are implemented carelessly by developers. They may be easily missable, forcing you to replay large sections of uninteresting gameplay. They may require you to play through with a guide that ruins immersion. They may wedge you into specific choices in a choice-based game to unlock specific outcomes. They may have you play at different difficulties that don't correspond to your skill level, whether they be too easy or too hard. They may require you to engage with ancillary parts of the game that aren't any fun.

If you can ignore achievements that don't resonate with you, then they can still be a healthy part of your gaming life. But when, like me, you start to care about achievements on the macro level, when the game you're playing isn't even about the game itself and more about the meta game of completionism, that's when things go very, very wrong.

On all 3 major achievement platforms - Steam, PSN, and Xbox - as soon as you unlock even a single achievement, that game is registered onto your account forever. On all 3 platforms, this will generally show a low completion percentage, most often 1-5%, and you cannot delete it. It becomes a permanent black mark on your profile as you scroll through your played games. This issue is most egregious on Steam, where one of the main statistics displayed on your achievement profile, as you can see above, is the overall average of completion on your account, where the statistic naturally pushes you to reach for high completions on every single game you play, including those you may not enjoy so much.

Whether you're interested in profile statistics such as these or are simply trying to hit some form of a 100% goal on certain games you play, you are relinquishing your player agency and giving it fully to the developers. You let them dictate the terms of how you engage with their game. Optional objectives become requirements. Every ill-conceived, last-minute implementation of an achievement list becomes, itself, the game. Countless titles I've played - critically-acclaimed, popular, exciting, wonderful games - are let down by their achievement lists and made wholly inferior in the pursuit of their completion.

And the free time requirement is often unconscionable. Rinsing games will, on average, double the playtime of a game, and sometimes multiply it by many factors. I have only played a fraction of the video games that interest me, at the expense of this ridiculous meta goal. Mega grinds like Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Warframe sit in the highest tier of my playtime on Steam, despite being games I found frustratingly mediocre. And I freely admit to having sometimes neglected real-world responsibilities in this quest, or at the very least, not given nearly enough of my life's limited free time to higher pursuits and hobbies.

It's in the abolishment of all of these completionist tendencies that I can hopefully find a better balance and more enjoyment in my gaming life. I've finally reached the top of this mountain of my own making, and it was a mountain made of feces and diamonds. Moving forward, I am choosing not to care whether a game sits finished or unfinished, at 100% or 1%. I will no longer avoid good games with bad achievement lists. I will no longer permit myself to stay hooked for long hours on any task that doesn't make me feel good. I will feel comfortable with the phrase "I bounced off a game" without feeling sullied by it. I may still enjoy tackling certain achievements, but as long as I'm enjoying myself and moderating my playtime, it's all good.

If you've read this far, maybe you're in the 1% of players who are affected negatively by these compulsions as well. If so, I hope you can also find a better, healthier relationship with gaming.'

'Be safe, friend. Don't you dare go Hollow.'"