Anime Completionism is greed: a video game treatise

[Skinwalker]

It occurred to me that the impulse to get a 100% in every meter that your standard-issue Ubislop keeps track of (chivos, filling out the map, collectibles, points, etc) is largely the same avaricious impulse that drives billionaires to keep increasing their net worth, despite having more money they could ever spend in a hundred lifetimes.

It is normally called "greed", and is a disease of the soul. Here is another similarity: it is well-known that greed is something that leaves you empty inside after you "achieve" your lofty goals and realize it was all for nothing, and I've felt the same emptiness every time I cucked out and wasted hours of my life coompleting things.

Whether it's getting all the glowing dots in AssCreed 4: Black Fag, getting every single kurok seed in Legend of Yelda: Breast of the Wild Cunt, or currently fighting the urge to get 100% map exploration in Jedi: Fallen Order, it is always the same primal, meaningless *greed* behind it all. I don't in any way *need* to get MOAR of this useless stuff, but I still feel like a chump for not chasing after it... despite knowing that I'll feel like an even bigger chump if I do coomplete it. And that's why I won't give in to this impulse ever again.

At least I have never given a shit about achievements/trophies/oscars/participation awards. You'd be surprised at the number of "gamers" who will play the same game five times in a row because I JUST GOTTA GET ALL THE ACHIEVEMENTS!! The devs who set the goals for such achievements are just pure evil, and the concept itself reeks of MK-Ultra brainwashing.

 

[ind33d]

this is why AD&D had all the rules about hirelings and castles and mass combat, there's no reason to play the game in the first place unless there's a money sink for all the gold you're risking your life to acquire. is there any RPG where you can use your wealth to build a church or some kind of charitable work? I can't think of one offhand

 

[Vic]

I think it's mostly as a "badge" to show off to others. MMOs have a lot of achievements and I don't think anybody would care to do any of them if they couldn't brag and boost their ego with them, increasing their self-worth.

There are achievements that have an inherent challenge to them and I like to do those. But if it's something banal like "do this X times" then I don't bother.

Completionism is a thing tho. And some people are more OCD than others...

 

[Naraya]

Achievements are cancer.

 

[Iucounu]

Achievements are retarded, but can you also become greedy with looting and exploration? I often feel the urge to investigate every nook and cranny and loot every box just in case there's something of interest or value.

 

[Fargus]

I'm not really into autistic completionism, i hate collectibles. But i can 100% the game IF i like it a lot and it's not too tedious to do it. Or in case of an RPG where the quests are really good it compels me to spend extra time and finish all it has to offer. Like in Arcanum or Bloodlines, thankfully these games don't have achievements other than feeling good about playing them again.

Modern open world collectibles and shitty activities can go to hell. I've tried to 100% Mad Max from Avalanche before i realized how repetitive shit it was and gave up in the first zone.

And games with 9000 steam achievements are a disease.

 

[Beans00]

When I was in highschool we used to get into arguments over who had more xbox 360 gamerscore achievements.

I used to buy cheap 360 games from blockbuster just to beat them and get achievements.

Most 360 games kind of sucked so I sort of regret this.

 

[Squidhead]

I think completionism was valid back in the 90s when you still lived with your parents had 20 games in your collection.

Now games are discounted to 90 percent 3 months after release and given away in bundles for a dollar. There's a glut of games and too many to worry about getting 100 percent in each and every one.

I just play until credits and move on to the next game.

 

[Skinwalker]

Achievements are retarded, but can you also become greedy with looting and exploration? I often feel the urge to investigate every nook and cranny and loot every box just in case there's something of interest or value.

Only if you do it purely out of "must get all the loot so I know I got all the loot". If every nook and granny genuinely interests you, like me in Elden Ring, then it's not greedy.

 

[Skinwalker]

Modern open world collectibles and shitty activities can go to hell. I've tried to 100% Mad Max from Avalanche before i realized how repetitive shit it was and gave up in the first zone.

Oh, you gave up way earlier than I did. Only reason I didn't 100% that game is because I accidentally got sucked into the endgame in Gastown, and then didn't feel like playing after completing the story.

 

[Tehdagah]

When I was in highschool we used to get into arguments over who had more xbox 360 gamerscore achievements.

I used to buy cheap 360 games from blockbuster just to beat them and get achievements.

Most 360 games kind of sucked so I sort of regret this.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Some people just like the grind, same shit as with MMOs more broadly.