Do you have trouble finishing games?

[Epona]

I sat down to play Ocarina of Time, got inside the Deku Tree and got the slingshot before this sense of dread came over me and I realized, I don't wanna play this. Then it was Wind Waker, got to the Forsaken Fortress (the 1st run, stealth shit) and decided I didn't want to play that either.

Started thinking about how I only played about 10 hours into Borderlands before getting bored. Started a new game of Oblivion, it took me longer to install it and get the DLC and mods ordered properly, than I actually played. I didn't even get out of the sewers.

I just can't finish a game.

I have several thoughts going through my head.

- I am burned out
- I feel like I am wasting my time to replay something I already beat even if it was years ago (Ocarina of Time)
- I feel like long games that I have never beaten (ex, Borderlands) get repetitive and boring after 10 hours or so

On the other hand, Portal can be started and finished in a hour and a half and I have played it over and over again in the last month.

Shigeru Miyamoto said something in 2005 that I would not have agreed with then but I do agree with now:

"There's not a lot I want to play now," the mind behind Mario and Zelda told Morris. "A lot of the games out there are just too long. Of course, there are games, such as Halo or Grand Theft Auto, that are big and expansive. But if you're not interested in spending that time with them, you're not going to play."

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6126957/miyamoto-todays-games-too-long

Anyway, thoughts?

 

[LookingGlass]

I sometimes have to push myself to finish games when I don't like them that much but I feel like I must finish them (because not finishing games I've started is just unacceptable). If it's a good game though, it doesn't tend to be much of an issue.

My suggestion to you would be to try some indie games or PSN/XBLA games. Assuming you pick something you're interested in, you have the advantage that:
- They're usually different to most other games out there, so the likelihood of getting bored is reduced
- They're usually fairly short
- They're cheap

Recently I've played through games like Trine, Capsized, Shadowgrounds, Limbo, Braid and Magicka... and they're all in the 3-7 hour mark. I enjoyed each of them right to the end.

 

[ShakesZX]

It's a mixed bag.

A game that you want to replay over and over has to have some replayablitity value to it. Portal has that replayability for you. It is just long enough and fun enough that you can handle going through it again and again. It might be the humor is funny or it might be that the challenges are rewarding enough that you keep coming back. On the other hand, those Zelda games just lack something for that replayability.

I have a friend who can't get enough Ocarina of Time. I have personally seen him beat the game, with 100% completion 3 times, and I know for a fact that he has beat it with less completion % than that many more times. It's all about the satifcation you get out of the game.

For me, I love newer challenges, but revel in older ones. I love to play newer games, but I find myself replaying their predecessors often, especially if they are part of a series.

 

[octafish]

Thats fair enough, I have a large list of supposedly "great" games that didn't interest me in the slightest (Oblivion is one of them, I shouldn't have played Fallout 3 before it I think).

This year I played through the single player of Frozen Synapse, completed The Witcher 2, I completed Alpha Protocol three times, while I didn't 100% it I beat the main progression through Need For Speed: Shift, I finished one DLC free playthrough of New Vegas, completed Mafia 2, and I don't think I'll abandon DXHR.

If a game interests me and is fun I'll still play it, there just are fewer games that actually engage me anymore. I don't mind spending a lot of time in a game if it is great fun, but if it is not great fun then I'll drop it like bag of vomit or at least plow through the main story ignoring side quests like I did with GTAIV and ME2.

 

[BiggyShackleton]

I think in terms of first time playthroughs I rarely struggle to finish, I keep playing till the end and while it might take longer (I'm struggling with Alan Wake, christ knows why, I blame Gears 3), I do tend to finish.

When going back to revisit old games however, I do have this problem. I must have re-installed Icewind Dale and Morrowind at least 5 times over the past few months. I had the same problem with MW you had with Oblivion. I install the mods to ensure everyone's not buttfuck ugly and by the time I've hit Balmora I'm bored. For me it's mostly down to some of the nostalgic moments I get before realising I've done it all before.

 

[Epona]

I sometimes have to push myself to finish games when I don't like them that much but I feel like I must finish them (because not finishing games I've started is just unacceptable). If it's a good game though, it doesn't tend to be much of an issue.

My suggestion to you would be to try some indie games or PSN/XBLA games. Assuming you pick something you're interested in, you have the advantage that:
- They're usually different to most other games out there, so the likelihood of getting bored is reduced
- They're usually fairly short
- They're cheap

Recently I've played through games like Trine, Capsized, Shadowgrounds, Limbo, Braid and Magicka... and they're all in the 3-7 hour mark. I enjoyed each of them right to the end.

Thanks I will look into those games and that reminds me, I own Bastion, should give that one a play too.

 

[vxicepickxv]

I'm on my third play through of Mass Effect 2, and it won't be my last one, either.

 

[Kae]

I only have that problem with RPGs the only one I've bothered to finish was Golden Sun 1 and I have a feeling that's only because it was only a fraction of the complete game, now with Golden Sun 2 I spent 4 days playing it non-stop and then got bored and never tried it again and this happened to me with other ones like Shadowrun, Final Fantasy VI/III, Chrono Trigger, KOTOR, now I mention these specifically because I love them and yet have not completed them.
[sub]I also finished KOTOR II but since that game was clearly unfinished and the ending felt weird with too many loose ends I don't know if it should count[/sub]

 

[Tharwen]

I think the same thing may be about to happen to gaming as happened to film making when Youtube became popular: a little sect of the industry splits off and starts making short, easily consumable games that take up no more than about 20 minutes of your day.

It's already happening on mobile devices, in fact.

 

[Steppin Razor]

The last game I can remember finishing was Alan Wake months and months ago. Before that, it was The World Ends With You last year sometime. I tend to play halfway through a lot of games and then take a break and never play them again. It happened with TWEWY, except that after about 6 months of not playing it, I picked it up again and finally got around to beating it.

I dunno, I just find it hard to motivate myself to bother finishing a lot of games, no matter how much I love them. Maybe I'm just in love with instant gratification. That might explain why my Killing Floor playtime constantly sits around the 60-90 hour mark for the last 2 weeks.

Edit
It might have something to do with how I could actually afford lots of games after I got a job, unlike when I was growing up where it was usually only a couple games a year to play, and play them to death I did.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

I have a really short attention span, so I don't finish most of my games. Heck, I haven't finished Deus Ex HR yet, and I had it since Day 1.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

I have a really short attention span, so I don't finish most of my games. Heck, I haven't finished Deus Ex HR yet, and I had it since Day 1.

 

[keideki]

It happens to me all the time. I over play a game (like FFX) and wind up setting it aside. It took me over a year to come back to FFX and almost as long to come back and finish Mass Effect.

 

[BiggyShackleton]

KOTOR (#1), played for a good long while, got bored and quit when I hit the water world.

So true, for a game that does so much right, the water planet really is a big pile of shit and really takes the motivation out from my KOTOR playthroughs.

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

I have trouble finishing them, but in a weird way.

If I'm really enjoying a game, say Dragon Age: Origins, then I don't want to finish it. Because then it'll be over. In the case of DA:O, I saw I was getting close to the end, so I tried to prolong the experience - sought out every side quest I could find. Created another five characters (one for each origin) so I could see those too. This is probably why most of my favourite games are long RPGs, like Bioware's or the Final Fantasy series.

I suppose it's not so much having trouble finishing them, it's not wanting them to end.

 

[GundamSentinel]

I'm not really a 100% finisher, but most of the games I play I finish. Only the few games that really aren't my thing get deleted before finishing and eventually I get back to them anyway.

 

[krazykidd]

I used to have that problem . Well not the same as OP , but i used to start 3-4 games within weeks of each other and never finiah them. My new years resolution this year was to finish all the games i own and it's going very well . I started the year with 40 games to complete . I now have 19 left . I decided that once i start a game i finish it . The only game that i am unable to sit through now is metroid other M . I will force myself through it but i can't play more than an hour without getting bored . I'm currently playing wild arms 1 on the ps1 and i'm loving it . Btw i started the year with 40 unplayed/finished games. But i bought new games throughout this years also so i'm going at a steady pace i think.