Just 10% of those who play games actually finish them. This has always been a rather curious and somewhat unbelievable statistic for me over the years. Games are quite expensive as a piece of entertainment and so I’ve always found it a bit strange that people would walk away from such a significant investment of time and money. I mean, after investing $60 and a couple hours on a game, why walk away? This question recently crossed my mind once again because I now suddenly find myself in the majority. I am no longer finishing many of the games that I start. Why did this happen? Does this make me one of the gaming pariahs known simply and scornfully as…….CASUAL?
The majority of games today are mechanics-centric, not story centric. This is in stark contrast to TV, movies and books which live or die by the strength of their narrative. A game can have little or no story and still be adored by gamers worldwide. But that is one of the problems that I now have in motivating myself to complete games. Once I get the hang of the mechanics, unless the story is good, I’m no longer motivated to get to the end. One recent example is Tales of Graces f on the PS3. The combat mechanics are great, but after 50 or so hours in, they’re no longer challenging or engaging. In most other games in the series, I completed them because of the interesting characters and the way that this series tells its story. However, this time around, I am not all that interested in the story or the characters, and the game has become work. I’m almost certain that I will end up watching the ending on YouTube because every time I think about returning to the game, I feel like its Monday morning, and I’m reluctantly returning to work. There was a time when I would soldier on for the sake of that feeling of accomplishment that comes with seeing the end credits roll, but more and more, gaming for be has become more about escapism and less about honing skills or feeling accomplished. I’m less inclined to grind something out because my free time is more limited and precious to me. Pleasure is now more important than progress.
I once stopped playing Bravely default for similar reasons. After about 60 hours I had gotten accustomed to the mechanics and gameplay. However, at this stage, new classes were still being unlocked that needed to be leveled up. The game was designed to be a grindfest and confirmation of that came in the fact that the game can be played with the left hand alone. However, I realized that playing that game one handed while watching television or reading was a waste of time for me. I wasn’t enjoying either activity fully. Grinding no longer my idea of a good time - well, not in games at least. Many proclaimed Bravely Default as one of the best Final Fantasy games to not be called Final Fantasy. After playing it, I started to realize why the Western RPG had taken over in terms of appeal. I wandered Fallout 3 for over 100 hours easy (without the expansions). It never felt like work because for me, exploration beats mechanics and even story in terms of long term appeal.
Another quality of videogames that sets it apart from other entertainment mediums is the fact that it is skill based, and a lot of the experience is locked away. HBO does not stop Game of Thrones every 15 minutes to give you a quiz to determine if you can continue watching. Yet, some games do operate on a parallel philosophy. You may have paid $60 for an 12 hour romp, but if you can’t get past the first stage, then a lot of what you’ve paid for remains locked away from you. You are not allowed to experience what you have paid for – you are not worthy. We have all had this happen to us. For me, more recently, I played Super Mario Brothers 2 and had a great time until I realized that there was a secret bonus world that required a certain number of coins to access. This required me to backtrack to all the stages and collect them. I think not. I have better things to do with my time. There are too many games on my download list for me to trudge through all that for one bonus stage. Once again, YouTube comes to the rescue. I could have gotten a save file from someone who had beaten the game as well, but I really couldn’t be bothered. So yeah, a lack of skill, or in my case, the absence of a masochistic personality trait means that some games remain unfinished.
Following on from the last paragraph, another reason for the unplayed game is simply that there are so many of them to play now. Not only that, digital distribution has brought them at prices that are lower than I ever could have imagined. I now buy full games at prices where 10 years ago, it would have cost me more just to ship the game. We live in times of plenty. Any 1st year economics student will tell you that when something is acquired cheaply, there will be wastage. 10 years ago, when I could barely afford one game a month, I had to trudge through whatever hardship or misguided notions that the developer brought me. But now, when I’m paying $5 for a full game AAA, I can look at it and say “QTEs? In MY game? Hells no!” This would be followed by a rage quit and a journey into my ever expanding backlog of games. I actually did rage quit Splinter Cell Blacklist at the final boss because they decided that after hours of impeccable skill and patience on my part, ghosting every stage, they would round it off with some stupid QTE sequence. Nope, I was having none of that. I would give that game 9/10 if they took out that sequence. As it stands, I give it 7/10. Yes, I hated it that much and no, I cannot be reasoned with. The man who has everything appreciates nothing. I honestly believe that I enjoyed games more when I had fewer of them - or maybe that was just Stockholm syndrome.
Open World games are a very difficult proposition for me in terms of completion. Some would describe my gameplay style as capricious. Persons less concerned with my emotional stability cast aside such euphemisms and proclaim that I have the attention span of a monkey on meth. One minute i'm happily on my quest and then i notice something and i think "What that butterfly up to? Why is he flapping his wings like that? Is he trying to trigger a hurricane on another continent? Maybe he's the REAL villain of this story! I must follow him and find out!" Yes, I tend to be easily distracted in open world games. I think it was in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion that I spent 40 hours playing before I realized that I hadn’t played any of the main story missions. I played one and then never bothered with the rest. I just wandered around questing and stealing. That’s the problem with trying to tell a narrative in such games. There is very little control over pacing and it’s hard for anyone playing to follow the story thread. I never completed the main story in many games – Far Cry 3, Oblivion, Kingdoms of Amalur. Despite spending countless hours in these games, I never really got invested in what was going on. I honestly don’t think I would have had a better time if I did bother to main quest. But here is the thing to keep in mind. Even though I never finish these games, I poured countless hours into them. I put over 90 hours into Fallout New Vegas without ever finishing that. A lot of effort goes into crafting those main story quests in games, and I can’t help but wonder if those resources would be better spent creating a richer and more detailed world to wander around in.
Yet another reason for poor completion is the rise of multiplayer. A lot of people have no interest in single player. They buy games to play with their friends. They all buy the game day 1, log into the servers, and never look back. I found myself in that position with many games, but Killzone 2 stands out. I bought the game at launch and immediately started with multiplayer because I did not want to “fall behind the curve” in terms of multiplayer leveling up. This had happened to me in many games before, where I was late in joining in on the multiplier action, and found myself to be cannon fodder for higher level players. I put in countless hours into Killzone 2 multiplayer without ever touching the single player campaign. I did manage to finish the single player campaign though – a full 3 years after the initial purchase.
As a gamer, one of the things that worries me about the poor completion rate of games is the lessons that developers would want to take from these stats. Should a game be a meal or a buffet? Should they try to make a shorter, more focused and less challenging experiences like The Order 1886 or should they try to make a game comprised of multiple checklists like Assassins Creed. Hopefully, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. A “Something for Everyone” mentality is one of the reasons that I rarely watch TV or movies anymore. I love the overall story arc in the tv series “Arrow” but I just can’t stand all the relationship nonsense. There’s too much of it and I find it distracting and frustrating to endure, so I’ve stopped watching it. The great thing about the buffet style approach in games is that you are not always forced to experience it all. If you don’t want to run after pieces of paper in ASS Creed 3, you really don’t have to. As long as no crucial elements are locked away behind those tasks, there’s really no harm to the buffet. The Meal is the more difficult proposition as it is easier for gamers to feel cheated out of their money. This is what happened to The Order. This was a great experience in terms of storytelling and fluidity of animations and graphic fidelity. However, if you do not have an appreciation for these elements of a game, if you are more interested in the mechanics of the 3rd person shooter, then this meal is wasted on you. I, for one, would prefer an experience tailored for a specific audience rather than the one-size fits all approach, but from the looks of things, gaming has grown to the point where more than one approach is sustainable, and that’s a good thing. Shorter games are not the answer. The real question is what needs to change in order to give a more enjoyable experience. Mechanics, story, accessibility, gameplay and the world itself all weave together to form rope that pulls the player forward. It’s the integration of these elements that should be the focus, not the length of the rope.
Farbridge's upcoming VR RTS Homeworld: Vast Reaches will be available for Meta Quest headsets from 2nd May 2024.
You'll know of EGX. You'll know of MCM Comic Con. Today the two events have confirmed that they'll be coming together under one roof
Supercell has released its new squad-building action game Squad Busters in Spain, Mexico, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada, and Singapore. This game features characters from different Supercell titles, such as Clash of Clans, Brawl Stars, Hay Day, Clash Royale, and Boom Beach.
I'm with you on JRPG's these days. Grinding is just not fun anymore. A little bit of it is okay, but Bravely Default had way too much. I find the best JRPG's these days apply western mechanics effectively.
A huge part of why i'm not finishing games is the sheer amount of padding these days. Somewhere down the line people thought it was cool to have these weird walking cutscenes. It drives me crazy, the developer just wrestles away freedom of movement and expects you to be all "immersed" because you're walking around like a real person. It's funny because even people who say they're fine with walking cutscenes, all i have to do is look down and they're jamming on that sprint button, begging for the moment they can run again just like i am XD. This drove me crazy in The Order, and whenver i criticized the game people said i hated the length. God no, Metal Gear Rising is a 5 hour game but the depth of combat and score system made me put 30 into it. I'll never play The Order again because i spent most of the game passively walking or watching cutscenes or some BS. Just so boring...
The irony is, the most cinematic game i ever played is 13 years old, Resident Evil REmake on gamecube. It wasn't because it was realistic, but because the unorthodox controls allowed cinematic camera angles and because i felt exactly what someone in a creepy mansion would feel. And that game doesn't dissuade replayability by being cinematic, it's one of the most replayable games of all time.
I miss when games were just games, for the sake of being games. Not being a movie, making you cry, making a statement... that's cool too, but that's all i get nowadays. I just want some deep mechanics i can grapple on to and spend hours mastering, and it's not often games do that anymore :/
I find that I don't have enought time in between games to finish them all, I LOVE that more games are being released now but I also feel the urge to buy a game release week even if I am 1/2 way through another.
Sure I could wait, finish the current game I am on and then grab the next but I cannot control myself like that.
Its catch 22 in the best possible way, we are spoilt for choice.
for me i just finished up gta v (first one ever to beat) tomb raider remaster ps4, beyonetta 2, i told myself i wouldnt buy another game unless i started finishing them need to push through uncharted 3 now is next on my unbeatn list
I tend to finish/beat all the games I buy. I have to, it is my competitive nature that makes me love games.