Does it really make you "less of a gamer?"

[Woem]

Spoiler

Alrighty Escapists, I have an idea to present to you. My friend and I got into a huge debate today and to be honest, it didn't really go anywhere...but this is what it was about.

He had said that if you start a game and don't finish it (unless it was just a bad game, then it's justifiable), then you cannot call yourself a gamer. So, if you get to a boss and it's like a brick wall so you give up on the game, you are not a gamer. If you simply develop a waning interest, you are not a gamer. If you are distracted by another game and play it without finishing the one you already started, you are not a gamer. You get the idea.

He also said that if you do not strive for 100% completion and all trophies (if it's PS3) in a game, you are not a gamer.

By his standard, I might as well play Cooking Mama or something. I've "dropped" games before for one reason or another, though I have gone back and finished some of them later. As far as completion goes, I rarely do it. It's nice for people that have a bunch of time, I guess but I get no extra satisfaction out of a game knowing I have all the items, weapons, outfits, or what-have-you. The only time I really do that is if I finished a game much quicker than I had expected and am not ready to be "done" with it yet, meaning I really like it.

(But the games like Final Fantasy and stuff? Those take forever to get full completion! I don't have the patience for all that.)

Just curious. What do you all say?
If you do not finish all of the games you own/start, are you "less of a gamer?"
If you do not get 100% completion in a game, are you "less of a gamer?"

How does your friend feel about cheating? Does cheating in order to get 100% accomplishment or beating a boss make you less of a gamer? Or does he think that is OK?

I thought games were about having fun. I'm not having fun if I have to drag myself through a game I find boring. I think your friend is very close-minded. I present him this gift:

 

[Trivun]

No way. you can quit a game whenever you feel like it, you're still a gamer. I mean come on does he even expect you to get all those flags in Assassin's Creed?

I did. Thanks to the miracle of the internet. Even so, I missed a single one in the Kingdom and had to trek all over the place going to every single place where they were hidden (according to GameFAQs) to check which one I'd missed. It took bloody hours.

I consider myself a gamer, I've been a gamer since the age of seven, and I'm now nineteen. So if someone like that came up to me and said "you never finished Final Fantasy X, you aren't a real gamer" just because every time I play it I get stuck on Braska's Final Aeon and quit at the end, then I'd probably slap the guy silly with a replica of Masamune. Assuming Sephiroth would give me one. Or he was real. Or I actually knew a guy who made replica swords so he could make me one.

Oh well. I guess there's no helping some people...

 

[Jonatron]

It would be the passion that you play with, not the success of your playing, which determines your gamerness.

I've got a lot of games not beat right now... Mostly because they are too freaking hard and I don't like being extremely angry at a game.
Two that are just so difficult are 'Barnyard Blast' and 'Henry Hatsworth' both for DS, and both old school platformers. I fail too much for a hard game untill I've already beaten it.

 

[faranor]

Might it be better to look at the fact that gamer is no longer just playing games but a hardcore gamer eat sleeps and breaths games. I mean everything you do revolves around getting done with what has to be done and start gaming. does it matter if you finish it all or even finish?
In my opinion being a gamer means you game allot. wanting to complete a game with 100% besides the reason you just want to is a neurotic twitch.

in conclusion I guess being a gamer in my opinion would be the fact that you game allot and not how well you do. how well you do depends on neurotic twitches and if you are a good or descend enough gamer.

 

[Flishiz]

I've never been able o actually finish a Final Fantasy game but at least their incredibly drawn out story gives me a good justification for quitting

 

[oppp7]

No. You might not like some games, or you might just be bad at the genre. And 100% completion may be boring to do.

 

[A random person]

As everyone here said, no, it doesn't make you less of a gamer, and that's horribly elitist. It's perfectly sensible to quit a game when it stops being fun (or crashes too much, in Fallout 3's case).

 

[Icehearted]

I've met people like that... if they focus too much on gaming completionism they end up alone when they die... not too happy a fate. tell him that, do him a favor and open his eyes to reality, completionists are great when they're neurosurgeons or in a general medical profession... or y'know hardware manufacture... or things that just don't bloody work if you don't perfect them to the extent of your being... but if you strive that hard in your free time, on your hobby, everyone will end up treating you like a nutcase... gotta be able to just let stuff slide, and chill on your off time, so you have more energy elsewhere...

so no not being a completionist does not mean you aren't a gamer. I would suggest quite the opposite, as the life of a gamer is never quite complete, and thus it's impossible to be both.

I would completely agree with you, but you kinda petered out at the last part. As a completionist gamer, I do not frown upon non completionists, but rather see my affliction for what it is. Feel free to look up my Gamertag "Thornheart" to see the misery I've put myself through just to find that sense of fulfillment. Normally, it used to be simpler. Collect all the hidden packages, unlock Tofu or Akuma, see all the endings. Achievements have padded these things further, not to extend my gaming dollar, but to arbitrarily pad the game's playtime. Perhaps people that thought the (Seriously) achievement have no concept of overstaying one's welcome.

If anything, consider it a blessing you lack the completionist's gene. I'm also OCD (severely/clinically), so for me, every time I fire up a game I despair. Worse still are all online achievements, as I'm also socially reclusive, so to me it feels like I'm being punished for not wanting to go online and get n-worded during GOW matches.

I miss the old days. At least in LAN parties anyone with a racist thought or idea of what I could go do to with my mother they wouldn't say it to my face.

 

[Jonatron]

allot

I hope you don't mind, it's 'a lot', two words.

The only time I can actually finish all my games is when I can't afford to get more...

 

[Break]

I'd tell him something along the lines of: "You play games to satisfy your completionist urges; the game is inconsequential. The games themselves are secondary to you - you are not a gamer.

No, wait, that's stupid, who even cares about some silly meaningless title. It's not a protected term or anything. You play games, I play games, my mother who plays Brain Training and Professor Layton plays games. Take it easy, why don't you?"

 

[joest01]

Well, sure, the guy is wrong. But I think you're all a little hard on him. I know where he's coming from. I have found myself obsessed with games. Trying to beat that last level to unlock that one thing you think is really important (the hand cannon in RE4, recently the sewer bat challenge in Batman). It feels like more of an addiction in those instances than I am having fun "gaming". Heck, I think I am playing Demon's Souls in part for that very feeling.

I feel sorry for the guy. If every game he plays is like that he needs help!

 

[Cilliandrew]

When i was younger and i was only allowed to buy 1 game at a a time, i would be sure to beat everything about that particular game..

Nowadays i play a game until i lose interest in it, which is usually around the first or second time that i actually die.

I still have a pretty good run of BEATING games, though not entirely 100%. It really takes a special title for me to go that far, now.

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

A gamer is someone who plays games not someone who beats games, tell your friend to go to a Linux convention, his retarded elitism will be welcome there.
[i/]OH SNAP I JUST STARTED A PC FLAME WAR EVERYONE GET INTO BATTLE POSITIONS![/i]

snip

I think calling a group of people "retarded elitists" constitutes as someone getting told.

 

[Da_Schwartz]

Being a gamer means you play Video games to enjoy them, and have a little fun. Being Hardcore, casual, or an online over competitive douche has nothing to do with it.

 

[katsa5]

No way. you can quit a game whenever you feel like it, you're still a gamer. I mean come on does he even expect you to get all those flags in Assassin's Creed?

Good point.
Its pure Elitism if one thinks "All in or None at all." Besides, has anyone really really ever gone to 100%? Maybe for one or two if you really really like the game: I'm working on that for KOTOR. Not going to do that for every game, I wanna live.

 

[badgersprite]

Your friend is entitled to his opinion, but I don't think it has any basis in reality. I'm not going to force myself to play games that suck. Forcing myself to do shit I don't like is what I have to do in real life. I play video games to escape that. If I had to play through games all the way to the end even when I don't like them, that would make it like a job.

Besides, there's this little thing called 'life' that has a tendency to get in the way. If I have to study for my exams (and I do) then of course I'm not going to be able to finish all my video games - I just don't have the time to devote to that. By the time I get free time again, I've probably got a new game.