CNN: Why people don't finish games they play...

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/17/finishing.videogames.snow/

Jeff Vogel (Spiderweb Software)'s response: http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-dont-finish-games-because-i-am-old.html

It sounds a bit funny for Jeff to agree, but what do you think?

Give me cute or give me...something?

I'm far from old enough to comment on Jeff's perspective but I do think that if you feel your days are numbered then they're too precious spending on the same game after Xen Syndrome sets in. Better move on to something else for a (relatively) fresh experience.

I'm definitely one of those non-game-finishers. Often i abandon one game to work on another, and then when i get back to the first one i just say F it and restart it from the beginning. I'm pretty determined to get to them all eventually though. I just picked up Metal Gear Solid 3 again, and was somewhat disturbed when i saw the save i was overwriting was made in 2007. Well, it's worth it to play again just to laugh at Ocelot.

Funny thing is? I tend to finish 40 hour epics like Dragon Age more often then shorter games. Sure, you have Modern Warfare and Halo that can be beaten in an afternoon nowadays but anything in between tends to slip between the cracks for me... Like Red Dead Redemption, as the article actually noted.

Bleye knows Sabers.

I do complete games o-o I might make long pauses because I get stuck or get another game, but I do eventually complete them.

No, I don't finish games because the end (and often mid)-games for modern ones are shit.

The last game I finished was Donkey Kong Country Returns.

I've been a bit too busy with the internet to care much about gaming, though I'll probably finish whatever 3DS game I get for my birthday in a couple months.

My problem with finishing games is that........I get a bit too attached to the world and characters of the game if it's a RPG.

If it's a non-RPG, it means I don't look forward to looking for another game to play.

edited 19th Aug '11 10:26:44 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

you can't make a statement like that without throwing out some examples.

XP granted for befriending a giant magical spider!

I know! I have taken to dragging out the play time for a few games just because i didn't want them to end. It sucks for me as a fan of obscure titles that often don't get sequels. I love sequels.

Bleye knows Sabers.

Aside from the 2008 Alone In the Dark, I've finished every game I've played. But I have no life, so whattaya gonna do?

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

I tend to marathon new games, which cuts down the likelihood of not finishing them. The only games I haven't finished are Amnesia (wimped out), Zelda II (didn't like it), and Final Fantasy VI (still in progress). That said, FFVI is feeling like more of a chore than other RP Gs I've played, so I may still just spoil myself silly and leave it to collect virtual dust.

Panhandling sign glued to hands. Need $5 for solvent.

I was having a conversation with my coworkers and one of them was like "Who even finishes games" and I was like "I do......... :("

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter

I'm really not seeing the thought process behind not finishing games unless they're really bad *coughAloneintheDarkcough* You paid money for it. Isn't it wasting money if you don't see everything in the game, or at least see the ending?

edited 19th Aug '11 11:41:38 PM by Mukora

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

Great. Shorter games. THATS what video games need right now.

The most popular of games right now (Call of Duty for example) are criminally short.

Most people play games when they come home from work/school. That's a limited amount of time, unless one sacrifices sleep.

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter

@Thorn: At least Jeff did say about shorter,cheaper games...COD is just Activison want to milk the cow dry...

edited 20th Aug '11 12:08:40 AM by onyhow

Give me cute or give me...something?

The legendary Half Life gave us the Trope Namer for Ending Fatigue in games, and even the best games are essentially just more of the exact same thing after the half way point when all the powers have been unlocked and the Man Behind the Man is revealed. Sure, many players are happy with that but it's not too hard to see it feeling stale to some.

Oh boy, that means gaming will become more oriented toward cheap ass flash games that I can play for free at newgrounds.

Yippee!

...if he's unable to finish games anymore...

wouldnt it be a good time to change to an occupation that isnt reviewing games?

He's a reviewer for CNN's tech portions. Not a video game reviewer (I mean who the hell would go to CNN for video game reviews?)

huh? i thought he was an ign reviewer. guess i should read articles more thoroughly

What I wonder is what happens to the players who don't even beat the introduction (e.g. the 11% of Trine players on Steam who didn't get the achievement for beating the first level.)

edited 20th Aug '11 3:41:09 AM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

This is a good thing. It means that competition is forcing developers to create content as long as players will see it, rather than padding out an already large game to make a LOTR style epic with filler. There's really no point to designing more content than the majority of players within your chosen niche will see, when you can just stop when they stop and sell the rest as DLC later. If the prices are lowered appropriately, as is the case with Avadon for example, then you're really getting the same content over time for no real added cost, just broken up into more chunks. Like eating loaded french fries instead of a loaded baked potato.

I love Baldur's Gate, and Wizardry 8, and Fallout 2, but there's plenty of mildly annoying filler you could have cut from all of them to have a game that was shorter but still just as good if not better. (Mind you, I did finish them all, despite.) Take the very concept of random encounters, for example. The definition of filler. Imagine what a good rpg would be like if every single encounter were hand-crafted.

As far as Trine goes, I bought it, then found out that my computer can't play it. I assume a fair few others are in the same boat there. To be fair, I didn't check the system specs because it didn't look very demanding, but yeah.

What I'm wondering is how this concept applies to mmorpgs, the definitively grindiest games ever.

edited 20th Aug '11 7:02:28 AM by Karkadinn

Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.

I finish every game I get. Or at least try to.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

I finished every game, except Persona 3, I cannot end the Answer

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Xan-Xan/