Don’t know why, but there feels like there’s this expectation to beat every game you buy to the point where it’s idk “shameful” to have not? I’m becoming more and more comfortable with the idea of letting a game go, but it still bothers me occasionally, I also get annoyed when I feel a game is taking me, not the game itself even if it’s still fun, too long to beat.
If we don’t count backlogged games…
My Steam library has a category I called “Done With It”. It’s games I have played in earnest, but never beat for whatever reason, and don’t plan to revisit. Highlights include Doom 3, Dragon Quest XI, and Enter the Gungeon.
This is of course outside console games I know I played and never beat. I guess I just get to a point where I’m satisfied and I believe the ending/conclusion doesn’t intrigue me enough to finish it.
2 Likes
This is where I’m at too. I never had the completionist gene. Achievements and trophies don’t do anything for me. Here’s the list of all the games I’ve ‘100%ed’ on steam:
(The one and only achievement in Void Stranger is unlocked when you start the game. The The Walking Dead games are 100%ed by finishing the story and 100%ing Milk took a total of 28 minutes, lol)
But I at least always had the desire to at least beat the games’ story or main mode if such a thing existed. It got harder and harder for me to do that over time because my life got busier and games got longer. I also spent quite some time in games you can’t finish (Strategy games like Civilization for example).
I eventually realized that I was beating myself up over not finishing all the games I bought and eventually came to the conclusion that that’s a pretty useless thing to do. Especially since a lot of games just don’t respect the players’ time very much so why should I feel bad.
I now have redefined ‘finishing’ a game as either beating the game or deciding that I’m done with it. And by that definition I now aim to finish all my games in the sense that I don’t want to start a game and then keep it in limbo forever. I’m happy with that arrangement even though the old habit still pops up again every now and then. But whenever a thought enters my mind that I really ought to finish game X I remind myself that a) no I don’t and b) if I don’t want to beat it it’s perfectly fine to just declare it as finished right there and then.
5 Likes
I haven’t even beaten some of my favorite games of all time.
I think it’s good to go in with the expectation you will beat it, but in practice it’s good to quit when you feel like you have gotten what you wanted from the game. As someone who likes RPGs of the 40+ hour variety it’s increasingly unrealistic to expect to beat stuff, and a lot of times quitting halfway through means I will forget what I’m doing and not be able to easily return. I think it’s good to accept it and still appreciate the art without having seen it to its full intended conclusion.
8 Likes
I beat about half the games I get. Some of my favorite games, I’ve never beaten.
Final Fantasy VIII? Love it. Played it several times. Last time I played it, I got to that big confusing area at the end and didn’t beat it. I’m that way with at least half the Final Fantasy games I’ve played, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
I also set aside some games I’m more ambivalent about and unlikely to replay. Borderlands II goes into this category. Tried it a decade ago, stuck with it for some hours, but I wasn’t really feeling its vibe.
4 Likes
of course not, and I obviously feel anxious and shameful about it
Even if I’d like to let go the feeling of “needing to finish it” and be more open minded about it. I’d still would love to finish a bit more games.
Specially when after a while you have already dropped off the game but haven’t asumed yet. You don’t know where you where or how to play. I feel like those are the ones who sting the most.
Looking at you Persona 5 and FFXIII.
1 Like
I try to beat at least the games I buy for the newest hardware.
As for the old games, it really depends, but usually no, they end up in the collection and that’s it.
1 Like
I buy games for lots of different reasons, sometimes just because I am glad games like it are being made and I want to support that - even if I don’t feel a pressing urge to play it in the moment. I have already bought far more games than I could realistically even play in earnest, let alone beat.
I do try to beat the games I decide to play, but I have really forced myself to endure long and unpleasant game experiences with that mindset. Lately I am working hard to remind myself that gaming is something I do in my free time for personal fulfillment/enjoyment, and if a game is not delivering that for me I should just move on.
For me, it’s a delicate balance as I do get satisfaction from setting myself goals around a game and then achieving those goals… even some games I have had to work really hard to get into have ultimately been memorable, positive experiences.
1 Like
I would say I actually finish maybe 5% of the games I put time into lol. I fall off of games extremely easily, and rarely actually go back to them if I walk away.
4 Likes
I’ve never been great at beating games I buy, especially long RPGs. With those I can sometimes get like 75% of the way through and decide I need a long break from it because it’s just not holding my attention anymore. Used to feel bad about it but I’ve been opening up to being okay with shelving something if I can’t hang with it anymore, or if I feel like it’s not something that’s fulfilling my wants right now.
But games that hit that <12 hour spot? I’ve been ripping through those the last few years. I used to think of those as games that don’t outstay their welcome, but I’m starting to see it as just getting a stronger sense of what sorts of narratives really hold me over time over others.
2 Likes
Some of the games I buy are for me to play; others are “for the collection” so to speak. Like I’m probably not going to play my SFC version of Final Fantasy VI when I could play my SNES copy of Final Fantasy III, for instance.
However, most of the games I buy are ones I intend to play someday. (I just realized I said “play” throughout instead of “beat” because they are synonymous for me in my mind. It’s very rare that I don’t beat a game.)
3 Likes
I tend to buy games to complete a collection I don’t like to own just one game in a series for some reason, think that stems from when I collected albums I liked to own a discography, so I end up with a ton of games that I realistically will never play or even have an interest in for the sake of “completion” in the collection sense.
Truthfully, I am trying to do away with the word “backlog” in my vocabulary and treat it more as a wide selection spanning decades of some of the best entertainment ever made that I have my pick at, though that’s harder to do than I expected. I don’t know why I just can’t stop caring, my mental health would be far better off for it. I realize I likely take gaming too seriously and care too much what other people think of my completion number, like so what if I just play a couple games in a year and finish one or none even, if I had fun that’s what matters.
sorry for the word vomit, been mulling this over for a while.
3 Likes
Back when my Steam library was small and I still believed in maintaining a backlog, I didn’t beat hardly any of the games I bought because the thought of strapping myself to a chair and playing that crop of games for the rest of my life just to get my money’s worth honestly depressed the shit out of me lol. I realized it was dragging me down at the time, but I still forced myself to play many dozens of hours of the most insipid trash simply because it was there.
It’s hard to describe how I grew out of that mindset because, as I recall, I just cycled between months-long stretches of compulsion and brief moments of clarity for about eight straight years until finally it sunk in that I’m much happier letting go of things I don’t care about. Nowadays not only do I naturally finish more of the games I play, but I also take a lot of guilt-free joy in games I can’t finish, like fighting games (i.e. the best games), arcade games, strategy games, and simulation games.
I do like to think those eight years weren’t a complete waste, though, because after injecting my brain with poison for so long I developed a kind of superpower, which is the ability to determine if a game “has the sauce” in under ten minutes, with 99% accuracy (I’ve run the numbers)
7 Likes
I’ve had too many Steam sales, Humble bundles and itch.io charity packs to even entertain the idea of beating everything I buy. It’s quite liberating.
4 Likes
Oh hell I forgot about the itch bundles…
1 Like
This is so me to a T when I was achievement hunting. The trash I have waded through to see my competition percent go up, honestly, shameful. I did find some diamonds in that rough but boy there was a whole lot of manure to get through to find it.
2 Likes
You always beat
the games you buy
the ones you shouldn’t beat at all…
2 Likes
I’m lucky to complete the first stage of most games I own: removing the shrink wrap.
As an adult, I just compulsively buy any game I think I’ll like that is at a reasonable price. Usually $30 or less. As a kid never being able to find a copy of Chrono Trigger or Earthbound at the stores and then the fact they became prohibitively expensive was frustrating. So I’ve compiled way too many games in an attempt to not miss out on games I think I will enjoy.
5 Likes
I’ve always tried to beat everygame i pay actual money for, but I have this fondness for 100 hour games that require lenghty sessions of play, so i have stuff bought that i don’t see when i will finish.
So i end up just playing f2p gacha…
1 Like