Curse of Completionism

I've been sitting for several hours this week trying to eek out those last few emblems for the Dreamcast uber-classic, Sonic Adventure. I'm not sure why I am doing this other than some emotional satisfaction as there are no rewards beyond that that I know of. Simultaneously, the Thrasher is in rare form (not rare for him, but for mortals) in doing his thing on 007: Everything or Nothing, achieving those remaining golds and platinums. Though there are rewards for completing those things, I am quite confident that he would be finishing these goals regardless.

Reflecting this phenomenon was an article on IGN, which can be found here: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/118/1186682p1.html

It asks the question, "When is a game complete?" This is much more difficult to answer than it used to be. What more can you do on Streets of Rage than perhaps completing it with all the characters? There are no tedious things to search for and collect, no Pavlovian beeping sound marking an achievement, no online play. It was easy to declare when you had finished a game.

Now things are different, and I can sympathize with the author of this article when he expresses a feeling of dread when encountering new games in that he knows that there will be a serious time commitment in completing all achievements (though not fully. I don't pay for X-Box Live so I cannot complete all achievements unless I am playing a fully off-line game).

How do you feel about this? I know for myself that a game that has had the fortune of becoming part of my collection will most likely stay a part of it (I cannot trade my games just as I cannot trade my children, if I had some. I have, however, lost some games but I can assure any potential suitor that I would not extend that parallel to potential offspring. They were Gameboy games, to be fair. Quite small). And being part of my long-term collection, it does seem that we should push our relationship to the furthest boundaries possible. That is how I feel.