How long before you decide

[Pumpkin]

That you don't like a game? Do you play the whole game? Only a few hours worth? Turn it off almost instantly?

[Ayen]

I don't need long to decide when I'm not going to like a game. That happens when I'm not having fun playing it. If I'm not having fun playing it, which is the most basic requirement a game should fulfill, why should I keep playing it? Answer: I shouldn't. So I turn the game off and go back to games that I do enjoy.

[Karifean]

Depends.

If it's a game where people have told me it's good I will continue to reserve my judgment until I'm done with it. I like to be able to understand why people call it good even if I disagree myself.

If it's a game I picked up myself without hearing any positive second opinions I'll be prone to dropping it much more quickly. Even if I don't plan on dropping it, the lack of a second opinion I trust means that I really need good motivation to continue and as soon as that goes unfulfilled I just won't pick it back up. This also happens if I get outright bored with a game. Doesn't happen often, but nothing kills motivation more than that.

That said, since I almost exclusively pick the games I play based on recommendation and good reputation I have rarely encountered the latter case. Whenever it's a game or VN people talk passionately about, I commit to finishing it in its entirety. I've been witness to too many instances where the last 2-3 hours of game time completely changed everything.

[Mirage]

If the game isn't actually fun to play after around 2-4 hours, I'm not likely to finish it at all.

[Pike]

Depends on the game. Usually I give it a few hours. Sometimes I'm determined to finish it anyway just so I can say I did. 30 hours into Oblivion :stare:

[Fynn]

I actually very rarely drop games. It's something I spent money on - Imma stick to it. Unless I get sick. I mean literally. I could not finish Morrowind because I started feeling nauseous while playing it for some reason, and I really liked that game :(

[Polnareff]

Sometimes I will play through games I don't like just so that my opinion isn't refuted by somebody because "I didn't beat the game." Yes, I know it's kinda stupid to do that, but you should see the reactions I get. :monster:

Although if I hate a game enough, I'll still force my way through about half of it, at least. Unless it's a really bad RPG. Some games are hilariously bad, so this helps.

[Rez09]

It depends on what I don't like about the game, really. If it is something story related, like Star Ocean 2, I generally won't decide I don't enjoy the title until it becomes unbearable, which can be fairly late in. On the other hand, if the issue is mechanical it usually shows up early and I'm unfortunately quick to turn away from a title if that's the case, usually within the first hour.

[Bolivar]

I can tell within the first few hours from the overall personality and feel whether a title clicks with me or not. I usually stick with it, though, as I haven't encountered a truly unplayable game since the NES days and I only buy games that I know have something interesting to string me along for the ride. The only time I will really drop something is if I bought it for pennies on a Steam sale out of sheer curiosity and I'm finding that it's just not worth the time.

[Madame Adequate]

Some games don't grab me at all. I played about half an hour of Bioshock Infinite. Some games I give a lot more time to. Sometimes I power through things anyway, though not often anymore. Some games only reveal their weaknesses after a considerable amount of time (Endless Space is a good example of this).

[Laddy]

About two to three hours in Dark Souls had killed my interest. On one hand, I can certainly see the appeal and would argue it's a very well-designed game. I love difficult games, but I think had Dark Souls been more about character advancement and strategy rather than simple trial-and-error and reflexes, I would enjoy it much better.

[Psychotic]

I dropped Okami like it was hot after an hour or two but I've actually completed games I didn't like just to get my money's worth!

[Vyk]

There are games that just don't grab me, but I don't usually drop them for not being good. Just not being my style, and they don't tend to leave any taste in my mouth to remember for discussions on this topic. And yet there are bad or disappointing games that I'll play a good 5 or 10 hours of before finally deciding that they suck.

Something like Halo, to me is just meh. I gave a couple of them a try. I beat the first one. But on the whole they're just not for me. And generally you'd never hear me say much about it other than that. Unless I'm in a space where a bunch of people are jizzing about how awesome it is, then I might pipe up and explain that they're not really that great

Then there's things like Star Ocean - The Last Hope where I was genuinely interested and invested, and the game just totally let me down. Those are the games where I sink 10 or so hours in, hoping and praying they'll turn around and make the investment worth it. Those are the games where I'll go on a rant about how wasteful they were with all the potential they had. I rarely complete games that I think are bad, but for some ass-backwards reason, those bad games that offend me are the ones I sink the most hours into before giving up. Bleh

[Polnareff]

I dropped Okami like it was hot after an hour or two but I've actually completed games I didn't like just to get my money's worth!


That legitimately breaks my heart, because it's not only one of the best looking games ever created, it's also very rewarding once you get past the first couple hours.

Plus, it stomps all over every Zelda game after OoT. :colbert:

[Madame Adequate]

I dropped Okami like it was hot after an hour or two but I've actually completed games I didn't like just to get my money's worth!

Same! Bayonetta too.

[Vyk]

Two games I legitimately want to get into since I missed the first sailing of them. Interesting

[Shlup]

I dropped Okami like it was hot after an hour or two but I've actually completed games I didn't like just to get my money's worth!

Same, except I didn't play Okami. I don't typically like games that aren't easy to control either, though I'll push through it if I like the rest of the game enough because I know I'll get used to the controls. Like how shitty I was at driving for the first few hours of GTAV.

[Quindiana Jones]

I played Bioshock Infinite for a startlingly long time before I was forced to come to the conclusion that it is not a good game. The start was genuinely interesting, but then nothing happens for an hour, and then for the next hour nothing happens in a different place, and then some more of nothing happens in another slightly different place and... ugh.

[Ayen]

I played Bioshock Infinite for a startlingly long time before I was forced to come to the conclusion that it is not a good game. The start was genuinely interesting, but then nothing happens for an hour, and then for the next hour nothing happens in a different place, and then some more of nothing happens in another slightly different place and... ugh.

Sounds like the same experience I had in the original BioShock.

[Madame Adequate]

Yeah, it was similar, but at the time it was new and exciting enough that I stuck with it.

I wish I hadn't. Only good Shock game was System Shock 2.

[Sephex]

Case by case basis for me, but I can usually tell very quickly how I'll feel about a game in a general sense.

[escobert]

Depends on the game and what I don't like about it! Although I'm pretty damn picky about games and I don't even play ones I do like :p

[Leigh]

Anything with a generic story. I feel like I have kind of grown out of gaming really, since it generally involves too much time doing the same repetitive thing. I'd find games like Dark Souls, Skyrim, Diablo - mostly RPGs would be a waste of my time today. If a game focuses on you to kill baddies to collect virtual weapons and level up an avatar then I just don't see the point anymore. If I'm going to 'work', then I'd rather grind my way through a textbook and I might have a decent certificate at the end, with the chance of a new career pathway. =P

I mostly revolve my gaming experiences today to those you can just pick up and play. I'll save the idea of storytelling to formats that deliver it on a grander scale like movies. So I'm sticking to racing games, and I'll play some of the free ones in my Playstation Plus subscription for 5-10 minutes.

[Pike]

I am the exact opposite, Leigh :p If I don't like the gameplay mechanics then it doesn't matter how good the story is, I'm probably not gonna finish it. See: The Bioshock games.

It's interesting that you brought up Skyrim; it may not have the best story in the world but when it comes to lore and the world I maintain that you cannot top The Elder Scrolls. To be fair though I think you need to have a sort of "base" in the elder TES games to see that, because it's kind of buried.

[Mirage]

Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I still think the prime ingredient of a game is the gameplay :p. It's nice to have everything else too, but if it's a chore to play, it won't be played. If you make a game that is a chore to play but has a good story and everything else, then maybe you should have made a movie or at most an interactive story. I'm not even against things that are interactive stories, it's perfectly fine to like that sort of thing too, but I think it's easier if you just call it what it is :p.

Another thing is that I think an interesting world with interesting lore is going to do more for my immersion than the story of the game will. I'm pretty interested in the whole immersion thing.

[Pike]

Definitely agreed with your last paragraph. I do like stories in games but for me gameplay is first, followed by world/lore (so I can invent my own story and characters!)

[escobert]

Definitely agreed with your last paragraph. I do like stories in games but for me gameplay is first, followed by world/lore (so I can invent my own story and characters!)

best part of dayz! Its all your story. If you choose to have a story. But that's why I pay on role play servers.

[Leigh]

Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I still think the prime ingredient of a game is the gameplay :p. It's nice to have everything else too, but if it's a chore to play, it won't be played. If you make a game that is a chore to play but has a good story and everything else, then maybe you should have made a movie or at most an interactive story. I'm not even against things that are interactive stories, it's perfectly fine to like that sort of thing too, but I think it's easier if you just call it what it is :p.

Another thing is that I think an interesting world with interesting lore is going to do more for my immersion than the story of the game will. I'm pretty interested in the whole immersion thing.

It'll be no surprise to you then that my most favourite game in the past 10 years is Heavy Rain then? :P

I would love to be more like Pike, because I imagine I would find video games a lot more enjoyable. But I find the lore so dry. Skyrim for example was a massive world, but it didn't feel particularly alive. But most WRPGs are based on high fantasy-fiction, usually set in a setting inspired by our own vision of the middle-ages. High Fantasy literature makes me cringe at the best of times though, so that is just my personal preference on my reasons I dislike Skyrim. Skyrim still feels very much like a 'quest' orientated experience though.

- Go To Cave
- Kill stuff in cave
- Return with 10 mysterious spider legs
- Recieve shiny armour or magick sword.
- Visit the temple of Heimdallr.
- Talk to Völundarkviða
- Repeat Kill Stuff In Cave...

As for discovering the lore in the form of random books scattered around the land - there is only so many virtual pages I can suffer before my eyes gloss over with sheer boredom. :( I don't know about you, but I am a bit sick of the whole 'For creating character names in Fantasy, refer to Old Norse orthography...

Ironically, I have no problem reading textbooks on our own history. Haha!

People can play games however they want, as long as they get happiness from it. I would just have though that for people wanting to create their own story and characters, wouldn't RPG maker suit you better?

[Pike]

See, this is why you need to play Morrowind. It's a fantasy world filled with giant bugs, false gods, Hindi mythology, volcanoes, Arabic architecture, giant hollowed out crab shells, and vaguely Welsh names. :love:

Honorable mentions go to Planescape Torment, Deus Ex, Diablo and Fallout.

Actually thinking about it I don't think any of my favorite RPGs are "generic Western fantasy". I tend to find that setting pretty boring. World of Warcraft is maybe an exception but WoW is still filled with things like interdimensional spaceships and giant mechas. Elder Scrolls is similar (there's tons of "space lore") but to be fair you're not gonna find it if you just play Skryim. It's stuffed away pretty tightly in the older games.

[Leigh]

I think the only reason I like jRPGs was because they are hardly like RPGs at all. Hehe! I'm more interest in how characters interact with each other. Many RPGs feel more like you're interracting with colleagues. You're hired or voluntary help. When all is said and done, I find human interest stories more interesting rather than environment stories. It wouldn't have mattered to me if Lord of the Rings was a fantasy epic about destroying an evil ring, or if it was set in modern day Manchester and a man's struggle with borderline personality disorder. It's the virtues found in the interaction between the characters and how they deal with these events. Skullbashing undead skeletons not so much! =P Psychology - Emotions - Love conquers all, blah blah blah! :P

This
62221

Vs

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I choose the first one... =P

[Madame Adequate]

Well clearly, you've not installed anything from Loverslab to make Lydia's breasts the size of Solitude and cause them to dynamically increase and decrease in size as you milk her.

[Pike]

:stare:

[Leigh]

Well clearly, you've not installed anything from Loverslab to make Lydia's breasts the size of Solitude and cause them to dynamically increase and decrease in size as you milk her.

This sounds amazing just like when I used to mod 'The Sims' back in the day to meet the needs of my own deviant sexual depravity. It's fun at first, but then I end up having a full blown existential crisis. :(

[Dat Matt]

I guess it depends on the games. The games i actually go out my way to buy, I tend to play for quite a bit. The only game I have intentionally shelved in recent memory is Super Paper Mario Sticker Star and that was after 3 worlds, all of which I had to look up strategy guides to figure out how to continue (e.g. that castle in the first world where you had to stick two randimg stickers on some vents away off in the distance in order to progress),

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I rarely play games I don't get enjoyment from. The only one I can really think of that I just didn't like from the get go is Unlimited SaGa. That one I just turned off immediately, traded back in, and never looked back. If I don't beat a game, usually it just means I got distracted by something else.

[Mercen-X]

I played a few minutes into Final Fantasy Tactics, Chaos Wars, RPG Maker, Phantasy Star and Phantasy Star Universe, Threads of Fate, Dark Cloud 2, Orphen, InuYasha, Unlimited Saga, YuYu Hakusho, Disgaea and Phantom Brave, Shin Megami Tensei, Super Robot Wars, CoM, X-Men Legends, and Falling Stars before losing interest.

[maybee]

It really depends on the game. It's either straight away disgust, or about 7- 6 hours of playthrough.

I think I gave Jak and Daxter 2 about 6 hours before ending up using it as a Frisbee in frustration.