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Why don't people finish video games?

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I've been diversifying my video game playing over the past few months on Steam. I check achievements and from the look of it not many people finish games as in beat the final boss, not achieve every achievement.

I can understand not finishing a game in open world such as GTA 4 and Fallout 3, where the point of the game is to really do what you want, but why other games?

Are they terrible? Do they get too challenging in later levels? Do people just get bored of them once they sink so much time in or is it something new and fresh comes along to play?

While game makers might not care, because once you've bought the game, they have your money, but then there are sequels that progress the story or buyers might say eh I never finished the last one, why would I want the next one?

What are your thoughts?

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Sometimes I end up not finishing a game because I just sorta stop playing it. I don't start not liking it I just quit playing it for some reason.

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Romero said it in his 20th doom anniversary. Make the first level last because by then you're really good at making levels. The rest of the game usually doesn't hold up to your first impression of it. That's what the developers want you to see. If you aren't totally thrilled by the first minute or two, you're better off cutting your losses because nothing more impressive is going to come if you stick it out.

I know not all video game developers believe in this philosophy, but if you're in it for the money and the publicity like most games that have a competitive position in the market, this is the way to go.

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From my own experience, it has more to do with wanting to go to the games you know are favorites than anything else. I have a few on my shelf that I haven't beaten yet, not because they're "bad" per se (in most cases), but because they didn't grab me enough to distract me from (re)playing or modding for particular favorites. I plan to finish them "someday" but like the rising of Cthulhu, the stars have to be right.

As an aside, what 40oz said I think was one of the contributing factors to the fall of the shareware model; developers made the first episode best to hook people in and then the registered levels would disturbingly often feel like a bit of a ripoff, but by then you'd given them your money.

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I stop playing most games after the first try heh. Often I actually have some fun on that try but on the next day I wake up and simply don't feel like I want to continue. Kinda hard to explain why, maybe I don't see any reason to play something else when I already have perfect games like Doom and Elma Online. They are just better than almost everything else.

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I can only recall deliberately giving up and not merely losing interest once, and that was on Deus Ex: Invisible War. "Not a great DX game, but still a good game" my ass, it was just bad in general. The controls felt incredibly clunky in movement, in weapon use, and especially the menus. Loading times were abysmal for such tiny maps, and the environments were generally shallow in both gameplay and visuals. The character animations looked awful, their eyes were perpetually popped out (very scary looking), and the ragdolls moved in the most bizarre and exaggerated manner. I didn't find the story particularly interesting, though it was at least competent, unlike the rest of the game.

In general, I think the reason most people don't finish certain games is because they doesn't manage to retain engagement and interest.

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usually if i realy like a game i will finish it, it has to suck me in to a point of no return and then i will keep playing it for roughly a year or sometimes much longer.

but many games just lose me, it is not easy to put into words. i freak on them, play them like there is no tomorrow and suddenly, i restart from the beginning or just simply do not feel like ever playing them again even though i realy liked them.

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I once was in a brief phase of where I was like "I need to finish every game I have before I die" Which caused me to rush through games and not really enjoying them. Then after a month I just decided to take my time and enjoy the games I play through.

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Short attention span for me, largely. A lot of games require a serious time investment, and if I go more than a couple of minutes without some kind of action, I start to get bored. Another thing that gets me is sometimes you'll reach an area where the difficulty just shoots up and it kinda takes you out of the experience. Finally, there's the issue of, "Oh, I haven't played this game in a couple of months," so I load up the save file and realize I have absolutely no clue what I'm supposed to be doing.

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I think this a matter of game design, not really a player fault. There are games that hook you and you can't stop playing it until its finished; they are very rare, unfortunately. These are the classics. (on the other hand, there are classics that you keep replaying the first levels, without ever being able to finishing them). The other ones, they are simply not interesting enough for you to get past the hard sections; then they are abandoned.

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lots of games reach the point where you spend more time grinding than reaping the grind's rewards, and when I notice I hop off the bus

also Ultima Underworld is my favouritest ever game and I usually stop playing after I beat the 7th level of the Abyss because everything else is just fetch quest city

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I start some games just out of curiosity of how they play. I don't finish them simply if they don't impress me much. Applies for both smaller (old, or flash) games and for modern high-budget games (which I usually don't even buy to begin with, I quite happily stick with Doom mods). There's also another factor - whether or not I currently have lots of free time and nothing to do. Otherwise I probably wouldn't spend that much time with Avatar : The Game several years ago. The important is, whether the game appeals me enough that I want to achieve making it to the end to see everything the game can provide.

So, despite I was very interested in these games at first, I didn't get it far in Rage, Portal 2 (and I like logic puzzles, mind you), RoTT 2013, old RoTT and other old Apogee games and Raven Software games (Heretic and Hexen).

Regarding Doom mapsets, it's similar. But thanks to my sympathy to this game's gameplay, the probability that I'll finish playing a wad is a little higher, even if quality / my impression is lower. Still, I've got really many megawads that I haven't finished playing yet.

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I always try to finish game, even if it turns out to be horrible or difficulty level goes too high. Only games I haven't finshed must be bounty hunter for ps2 because of horrible last level and episode 1 for ps1 because of screwed savedata just before darth maul battle, those games still haunt me and I have to finish them after all these years.

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I used to give games I newly got a quick go before continuing on with the one I'm currently playing, but as my backlog is so huge now I've stopped that. I do occasionally either completely not bother with a game (original ROTT and both Blake Stone games come to mind, as they feel unplayable to me) but otherwise I do stick at games no matter how long it takes to satisfy me that they're beaten. The hundreds of hours I put into Forza 3 and 4 are probably my most extreme examples, taking about a year (on and off, obviously) each.

I'm currently on Midnight Club LA, which I've found incredibly addictive and have beaten 80% of in about 30 hours over 4 days. This is a rarity with me, as usually Doom and other activities would break up my free time usage. If I had to float a theory on why games generally aren't beaten, it's a combination of new ones causing distraction (especially in longer games), people losing interest due to playability and difficulty (unforgiving games, particularly older ones, really put me off) and the fact that there is other stuff going on in life.

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Some games become boring and repetitive; I only finished Doom 3 because the Hell section sucked me straight back into the game. It was a very late-game reveal to enter that defaced corridor with blood everywhere, that should have happened within the first hour or less, and there was too much trudging around. Doom 3 is the rare example of a game that actually gets better further in.

I play lots of other games but tend to get so bored after spending hours exploring (Fallout 3, GTA5) or the gameplay boils down to stealing bread and fighting the same three monsters with crap weapons (Oblivion).

The only games I play consistently are Terraria and Minecraft because you can play them with friends and just have fun. Terraria in particular offers a ridiculous amount of content that is ever growing, way beyond expectations. Minecraft is rather dull in comparison but is better to relax and listen to the music.

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Not all the weapons in Oblivion sucked, Umbra, Shadowrend, etc. One problem with Fallout 3 was the low level cap, there was more DLC than there was level ups so you couldn't benefit from them.

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Typically there are 2 things that make me stop playing a game:

1. The gameplay starts to feel stale and nothing new or exiting happens. This makes me lose interest in the game and thus I stop it before I finish it. This is less of a problem if the game isn't too long.

2. The game has some kind of a horrible part that causes you to get stuck or lose over and over until you just give up.

nr1 is much more common. There are simply far too many games where the core gameplay isn't good enough and the story not interesting enough to make you want to keep playing after the first couple of hours.

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i tend to not finish games at times because i'm weird and get tired of them. i haven't completed a number of RPG games that way because i got bored of them and played something else.

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40oz said:

Romero said it in his 20th doom anniversary. Make the first level last because by then you're really good at making levels. The rest of the game usually doesn't hold up to your first impression of it. That's what the developers want you to see. If you aren't totally thrilled by the first minute or two, you're better off cutting your losses because nothing more impressive is going to come if you stick it out.

I know not all video game developers believe in this philosophy, but if you're in it for the money and the publicity like most games that have a competitive position in the market, this is the way to go.

Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....

Ha! ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....

heheheheheh!

Sorry, I've been playing Daikatana recently. I can only assume he made the above statement after learning how not to do it via Daikatana; a game with one of the worst opening levels ever.

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40oz said:

Romero said it in his 20th doom anniversary. Make the first level last because by then you're really good at making levels. The rest of the game usually doesn't hold up to your first impression of it. That's what the developers want you to see. If you aren't totally thrilled by the first minute or two, you're better off cutting your losses because nothing more impressive is going to come if you stick it out.

I know not all video game developers believe in this philosophy, but if you're in it for the money and the publicity like most games that have a competitive position in the market, this is the way to go.


I heard that podcast too and yes I wholeheartedly agree. As I've said on another thread, I hated Duke Forever's first 2 hours of gameplay and I have a feeling that they made that last just because it crammed every element you'd ever do into a short time to the point of annoyance.

The sad part for me is TF2 is so damn entertaining instantly and 100% of the time like Doom used to be for me. Problem is TF2's design leads to never having to wander or get lost, yet there is room for exploration taking alternative paths and so on.

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