Tendency to start a game and never finishing it at all?

ArrogantBastard · Post by **ArrogantBastard** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 8:55 pm

I just realized that I've discovered a tendency to start a game and never finishing it at all lately.

I'm not sure why, but I guess I've just become less motivated to finish the game compared to when I'd play any games non-stop and finishing it in few sittings 10+ years ago. It's probably because I've become too tired of the same ol', same ol' stuff that the market is diluted with the stealth-style, GTA-style, and plotless / meaningless crap-style games rather than the ones that used to have style and substance back in the olden days when you had to actually work hard and didn't require you to be wowed by the graphical that lain within the cartridge / CD / DVD.

It sucks because I love video games. What about you guys?

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 9:29 pm

Depends on the genre for me. I don't finish most RPGs. I finish most action games.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 10:05 pm

landshark wrote:Depends on the genre for me. I don't finish most RPGs. I finish most action games.

Me too. I have started FF7 3 times and have still never completed it. I did finish Lunar: SSSC, but haven't completed the epilogue of Lunar 2: EB yet (owned a copy for over 4 years). I also have Soul Reaver for PSX that I never finished as well. In addition, I do have several shmups that I've started but haven't been able to complete in any fashion (not even credit feeding), and some I haven't 1CC'd yet (though that is the eventual goal).

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:51 pm

in the past year i can count most games i have cleared on one hand. they would be Ninja Five-0, Oddworld Stranger (cheated). so apparently one hand minus a few fingers.

although to be fair i don't play much more than shmups and i know i won't be clearing any of those in the near future. however, this does tend to be my natural tendency. i used to buy a lot of stuff for the basic experience of it, not necessarily the completion though.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:56 pm

I do this a lot, but considering my "play style" (for lack of a better term) I'm not surprised or bothered by it. When I buy a game I don't tend to play it to death for awhile and then never touch it again, but rather, after playing a bit to get familiar with it, put it with the rest of my titles and pull it out again when I feel like it. Not exactly hardcore gaming, but hey, by now methinks no one's expecting it, heh.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:59 pm

BulletMagnet wrote:Not exactly hardcore gaming, but hey, by now methinks no one's expecting it, heh.

i don't know bulletmagnet, you seem to be quite the fount of knowledge with battle garegga. i don't want to say you're betraying your roots of mediocrity but... well, there it is.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:03 am

captain ahar wrote:i don't know bulletmagnet, you seem to be quite the fount of knowledge with battle garegga.

Wherever he is right now, and whatever he's doing, Rando has either burst into hysterical laughter or else is feeling a mysterious, stabbing pain someplace.

Most anything I know of Garegga comes from Icarus's ST, heh. And most I know of any other games comes from someone else's ST. As far as "roots of mediocrity" go, nah, I haven't betrayed them...heck, i haven't even REACHED mediocrity yet.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:52 am

i pretty much always finish games, unless they become boring.

latest was chaos legion a couple weeks ago, interesting game but brain numbingly boring after 6 or so stages, couldnt bother to go further, and its HARD, so you have to restart over and over doing the same shit over and over...ZZZZ

that's maybe because i stick with one game until i complete it, i dont like playing 3-4 games at a time.
but there's a catch, i play "long ass games" and "arcade games", for long ass games, i have this habit, but for arcade games, i like having many to play, and playing whatever im in the mood for.

i also have a tendency of not finishing games when i play them for a second time, often i just loose interest after a while.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:57 am

It really depends on the game.

Let's take Earthbound for example. I find that I can make my way through the entire game without losing too much interest.

Some games however, tend to get boring after a while. I may never finish GT3 because I don't feel like going 20 mind-numbing laps in a stupid Toyota Vitz, however, I like to collect the cars and take the Formula 1's out for a spin.

I also lost interest in Gradius V and have been playing alot of R-Type Final. I'm pretty sure I'll go back to Gradius V once I unlock all the ships in Final.

Actually, I tend to phase in and out of games. I may play one game for a week and let it gather dust while I play another the next week. I guess I rotate my games around.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:39 am

I'm really bad about this. I finish games roughly once in a blue moon. Until recently when I managed to finish off Kirby Canvas Curse, the last game I had finished before that was something like Jedi Knight 2. I've got a whole shelf full of games I got bored with and will probably not bother playing again (heretofore known as the Shelf of Oblivion.)

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:01 am

I'm really bad for doing this with my Xbox stuff. Awaiting completion right now (amongst others) are Project Snowblind, Thief III (and I really wanted to play this through), Halo 2, GTA: SA, Psi-Ops, Project Zero, PD Orta, and a few others I can't quite remember. Advantage is, by the time I'm through with all those, the stuff that's out that I'm interested in right now should all be down to £15-£20.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:24 am

I haven't touched Otogi in months. And don't know where my Lunar EB save Ram file is in my computer. I don't know if I'll ever be able to finish Might and Magic 3 on the TurboGrafx CD. It's so freaking huge.

Platypus[gEc] · Post by **Platypus[gEc]** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:49 am

Yeah... I had the same problem when i was a PC gamer (except voor MAME and Quake2 no PC for me anymore) and i told myself things would be different when i bought my Cube. Erm... nope! Of the 30+ titles i own i've completed 0
I just tell myself that i'm saving them for a rainy day (especially all those lovely RPG's)

Gozer · Post by **Gozer** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:35 pm

I have a habit of doing this as well. There are some games that I own that I know I'll never finish. Final Fantasy X-2 for example. Then there are games that I'm angry at myself for putting down. I really want to finish them and I will at some point. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are two examples.

Icecap Veiwin · Post by **Icecap Veiwin** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 5:32 pm

Gozer wrote:I have a habit of doing this as well. There are some games that I own that I know I'll never finish. Final Fantasy X-2 for example. Then there are games that I'm angry at myself for putting down. I really want to finish them and I will at some point. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are two examples.

Eh, I sold FFX-2 before I completed the first mission. You're not alone.

But yeah, in response to another poster; I seem to have this same problem: I'll play a game for about a week, get far in it, then rotate to another game. Right now I'm on Guilty Gear X2 and AC: Nexus. For GBA I'm on Megaman Battle Network 3 and Super Mario Land 2. I'll probably be switching around to other stuff next week.

dai jou bu · Post by **dai jou bu** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:16 pm

I don't really know what motivated me to finish Tales of Symphonia. I felt that the story was a complete mess, the skits were unvoiced (not that it mattered much since I didn't like most of the English voice cast to begin with), and the character designs were (dare I say it) not that interesting, even if Kosuke Fujishima did them.

But that's another 40 hours I'm not going to replay unless I'm with a group of people who're willing to play it with me.

Actually, I stop playing a particular game the moment I get my hands on a new one.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:28 pm

Gozer wrote:I have a habit of doing this as well. There are some games that I own that I know I'll never finish. Final Fantasy X-2 for example. Then there are games that I'm angry at myself for putting down. I really want to finish them and I will at some point. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are two examples.

Yeah, Paper Mario's on my list too. I'm about halfway through the third crystal star now. At least those types of games I get back to eventually (On the Cube I've also got both Viewtiful Joes, Starfox Assault and Metroid Prime I need to finish off also.)

Otogi's another one I got about halfway through before I got completely stuck on one of the missions (the one where you had to go through the arches with magic constantly draining. Basically it's one mistake and you're restarting.)

marcus12024 · Post by **marcus12024** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 8:20 pm

I used to never finish anything, back in high school, when I was high more than I was in school

I would start a game, play for a few days, buy another game, play it for a few hours, etc. never going back to the original game(s).

Nowadays I'm much better, I tend to buy way more than I can play (my backlog is sitting somewhere around 300 games!) but I do finish most everything that I start. When I get a new game, I'll check it out for a half hour or so with my roommate, then I'll go back to what I was playing before. More often than not he'll start playing the new game, as we've got two full gaming setups back-to-back in our living room!

I do tend to have several games on the go at one time. Usually I'll have one RPG, a few shmups, and an action game or 2 (FPS or maybe a platformer). Then when I finish one, I add another game to the "now playing" pool. This setup works well for me, as I was starting to feel like I never played anything I bought.