Finishing A Game (or not)

Looking back at the Nintendo era, I was young, impatient, and my imagination was pretty much limited to Transformers. I didn't finish any NES games until I got a new one a few years ago.

My next console was the PlayStation. With the exception of Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics, I finished pretty much every game I played.

A few years into owning PlayStation2, I became less interested in finishing games with actual storylines. I wasn't sure precisely why and blamed it on my need to explore and collect things in-game. Truthfully though I think it's because there's little to no point to finishing a storyline anymore as you can read about it online at any time. Yes, those of us who want an unspoiled experience can put on horse blinders and try to avoid any information about the game, but it's just not a realistic solution. Honestly, there is no solution. There's no way to prevent spoilers about the story, so you either retain interest in seeing it for yourself... or you just don't.

That ends up being part of the reason I just don't finish any game anymore. There's no point in rushing to the end when I already know what happens. I may as well stop and take a look around. Who knows? I may stumble onto something everybody else missed... or not.

Well, to me reading a synopsis and actually experiencing it in-game are two vastly different things, which is why nowadays I always finish games, whether or not I have been spoiled beforehand.

My general issue with finishing games is a combination of time management and it just being easier to get back into a game you know and like than to try out a game you "might like". I'm usually better about finishing games if the title in particular fascinates me and makes me obsessive about it.

As for spoilers, it really depends on how clever the story is. I already knew the twist about Silent Hill 2 before playing it, but it's one of those twists that is so good it just makes knowing the info enhance the game more. On the flip side, I kind of blame this partly on why SH3's plot just hasn't grabbed me yet cause I already know the twist.

For the most part, I avoid most spoilers if I'm interested in the title from the onset. I usually only spoil myself if the title in question is interesting but hasn't quite grabbed me yet.

I actually find it really easy to avoid spoilers for stories...?

I rarely finish games anymore.

I think it's just because of my free time becoming less and less as I've got older. I find that a lot of games these days just don't capture me the way they did back when I had all the free time in a world. There's so many games in my collection that have maybe 1-3 hours played on them and then were never touched again.

I think it's also partly due to so many multiplayer F2P or B2P games out there that friends vye for my time with. When it comes to singleplayer games I'm very story driven, so if the story hasn't hooked me within the first few hours, it's likely not getting finished. Likewise if it's a vastly open world experience, it's probably not getting finished either. I think FFXV is the only "open world" (ish) game I finished, and that's purely because a friend badgered me into it so we could talk about the ending. Normally with open world games I get too hung-up on side quests and menial busywork that I burnout and stop playing, then come back to the game months later, can't remember what I was doing, and stop playing again!

But yeah, I'd wager around 80% of the games I buy these days (which isn't many anymore tbh) don't get finished.

Usually if I’ve put a few hours into a game, I’ll end up finishing it if it’s story driven. As a kid, I finished most rpgs I played. I probably didn’t finish a lot of platformers though. I wasn’t very good at those.

I do buy a lot of games that I’ll only play for a few minutes or not even touch though.

When I was younger I used to buy plenty of games and play them for a short while, unless they grabbed my attention then I would normally finish them. Now, I'm picky on what I buy as my money is spread out to bills, kids, gas for cars, etc., Having said that, if it's a game I know I will play a lot of and get my rupees worth then I'll buy it and not look back. Anything else I'll either rent or borrow from a smuck, I mean friend, whom has bought the game already.

When I was a kid I hardly finished many games unless it was an RPG, Action platform or FPS, in my adult life not many RPG's are that great to me and can't seem to force myself to finish, most platform games are still interesting and FPS has grown much since 20 some years ago.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

Well, to me reading a synopsis and actually experiencing it in-game are two vastly different things, which is why nowadays I always finish games, whether or not I have been spoiled beforehand.

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Don't forget the YouTube videos that spoil the ending and every cutscene.

It's occurred to me that like with certain film compilations and television series, I can tend to become spoiled on the plot because of online discussions about things like lore, easter eggs, real-world connotations and so forth. Like for the Kingdom Hearts series, I would have liked to own BBS, but the screen on my PSP broke and I never found a place to fix it and didn't want to buy a new PSP since only the screen broke (made play impossible though). Knowing pretty much the whole story from the internet means it's one less game I have to dwell on playing. Of course I could get the 1.5/2.5 collection. BBS is supposed to be on there, right?

Anyway, my point was there are some games that seem interesting at first but become a drag to play for various reasons. Not the least of which being that the story, which is nearly 90% reason for all who play single-player games to play and complete them, can be found in its entirety online. Not a bad thing. But just another reason to've stopped playing.