Poll: For how long do you typically play a game you enjoy?

[Kguillemette | 1,569]

I tend to finish games I start if i am enjoy them. Only a couple games where I gave up because of a hard as nails final boss/final level. Ratchet and Clank comes to mind. After like ten tries against drek, I gave up. It sucks since its like a 10 minute battle with him and you need to be perfect!

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

If I enjoy a game I will definitely make a point to finish it. Unless it's just terrible, I will try to beat/finish it at least once before moving on to something else.

[AstralSoul | 506]

I suck at finishing games most of the time but if I really really like a game I will finish it. It has to really grab me though. I can enjoy a game and not finish it though, sometimes I just get distracted halfway and forget to go back. Or it will be such a huge game that there's no way I could finish it in a few weeks. I get bored if I play the same game for too many days/weeks in a row, I need variety. But if I really love the game I always come back to it eventually.

[MeganJoanne | 365]

Okay, some of this may not be coherently put together, all random thoughts of whatever comes to mind, so it may jump around a bit.

It used to be I'd try to beat all kinds of games, even if I sorta don't like them, or they are really hard, or other issue, I used to be very determined (Back to the Future II & III for the NES is one game that comes to mind first). But, even if the game isn't very good, I still have to be getting some kind of enjoyment, even just a little out of it, otherwise I won't bother. But those were NES games and the such. And I beat a lot of NES games! But there were ones like Ikari Warriors, Athena, X-Men for exemple that there is no way I am wasting my time or stressing myself out over because they are the worst of them. No redeeming qualities at all, though it makes me wonder why I ever had them in my collection back when I did, guess like every game I had there was always that hope, and really I did give them some chances once in a while, but stressed very quickly, took that garbage out of my system and played something better.

Earlier this year I was playing a bunch of NES hacks for Castlevania, Metroid, Zelda II and did finish several of them, the ones that were actually worth finishing, one example being Castlevania The Holy Relics, that game was really good, and another being Over the Moon, a Metroid hack that didn't even involve Samus or anything from the Metroid universe. But many times like some game producers, the one creating a hack misses the mark, in what makes a game fun, enjoyable enough that someone, just not a few elite, would play their game all the way through to the finish, instead opting for making it super difficult or at worst cheap, congratulations, if your game were actually a legitimate release it'd fall in with those on the crap list.

Now current, err last gen when I had a 360 I didn't really care if I beat a game or not, I finished several of them, but one I was disappointed with and hated was Tomb Raider Anniversary, those quick time events ruined what could have been an okay game (Underworld on the 360 was a near masterpiece and Angel of Darkness for the PS2 was actually pretty decent), and while I tried a few times to play it, to find some enjoyment, some redeeming quality out of it that would allow me to endure the crap, if it hadn't been a download I would have threw that piece of @#$% across the room.

Got to the end of Skyrim twice ever, but most of the time I refused to be the Dragonborn and came up with my own story for my created characters and played however I wanted, beating that game was not even a concern, it was the experience I was getting out of the whole world and the things I was able to do. Last time I played that one though I decided to do something different and challenge myself. I was in the middle of playing a shield only game, and killing things without getting credit for it such as bashing them off of ledges to fall and die, or luring them into traps or having another enemy kill them or such, sort of the type of challenges I would and have done with NES games. Ever since playing the open world games beating games hasn't been so important to me, thus also find it harder to see a game through to the end too unless that game is really good.

It used to be, if a game even went longer than a few hours, even if it was really good it would be hard for me to stick it through. I remember long ago playing Alundra for the PS1, I struggled to stay with it going on 30 hours, for me at the time, that was already way too long, but did beat it, some many hours after that, but there is no way I would have ever played all the way through again, puzzles and challenge a bit too high for me, I like my puzzles light, not heavy, too much thinking hurts my brain. Yet I can play ones like Skyrim, Fallout 3 and State of Decay near endlessly, or until I run out of things for my particular character to do, or just feel like starting over with another. But found it amazing how I could wander around in these games for so many hours and repeat the next day and day after and so on and find I am addicted, that was unprecedented before for me.

Heck long ago before the open world games became a big thing, the longest games I ever played were RPGs, and back then if anything went up to 20 hours, that was already long enough, time to wrap things up, guess that is why I was never heavy into those sorts of games, it was always the games that I could beat within a half hour, hour or in some cases a few hours for some of my favorite nonlinear choices. Yet, I got addicted to Skyrim and State of Decay, something I did not even expect while the more linear stage based games on the 360 had nothing to offer me after a short time, unlike those on earlier consoles, which I still find kind of strange.

I recently beat Zelda : Link's Awakening for the Gameboy, that one was good at first but halfway through I started to get bored, and as I was closing in on the end I just wanted it done. I would say sometimes when playing it felt more like I was playing Alundra than Zelda, while good and having creative puzzles, sometimes it was too much and was lacking in the freedom of the earlier titles on the NES and SNES, the island world feeling too closed up with too many roadblocks everywhere to have to go around.

A long time ago after seeing my brother play through Ocarina of Time I gave it a try because he kept insisting that I really need to play it for myself, got through all of the boy Link's dungeons, and gave up on it, I didn't enjoy the game from the start and just found playing it annoying. "Link, listen!" No, and shut the frog up! And same thing with Mario 64 which I never liked, but then along came Banjo*Kazooie and that one was entertaining and enjoyable all the way through to the end, played better than Mario 64 and cute without being annoying.

A lot goes into what keeps one playing a game, and the game does not even have to be all that great, just have the right balance of various elements you enjoy. I remember a time when I thought Castlevania Symphony of the Night was the greatest game I ever played, though I think it helped that I had the Japanese version so there was more going on than simply playing it, the studying Japanese at the time I think kept it lasting longer than it probably would have otherwise. I had actually downloaded that one for the 360 a while back, couldn't finish it, bored the hell out of me for the same reasons it started to fail after a time on the PS1, unbalanced, too much stuff, too easy (yet, Castlevania II on the NES is also very easy, but is one of my favorites, go figure), and an assortment of other issues later perfected in later Metroidvania games on the GBA.

I can go on and on, but I tire and am getting hungry.

[Tanooki | 4,971]

Your poll lacks an answer that works for me sadly.

I just don't have good consistent time to play anymore, and I have quite a few unfinished games that are this generation Switch so that hurts too as I like messing with the old as well.  I find that I don't buy much anymore, yet I don't finish much of anything and it eats at me.  Sometimes I can if it's short enough, and honestly I think it's a lack of motivation/demotivation issue as I want to do it but can't make myself basically flip the switch and it's not intentional either.  Recently when it came out I got Ghostbusters, played it off and on for a week and did clear it, and that felt nice.  Yet I've recently put a few other games up for sale on Switch because I can't get the time on some, others I got fed up.  I know if my time were really there I'd keep Tales of Vesperia, but it's on the block.  It almost would be easier if I had the backbone to just sell a ton of stuff off to remove the distraction but I don't think it would solve anything.

[Ghost Soldier | 24]

I try to finish games that I enjoy. The games that hook me will get a 100% of everything (Costume Quest).

[cj_robot | 557]

On 10/26/2019 at 4:44 PM, Kguillemette said:

I tend to finish games I start if i am enjoy them. Only a couple games where I gave up because of a hard as nails final boss/final level. Ratchet and Clank comes to mind. After like ten tries against drek, I gave up. It sucks since its like a 10 minute battle with him and you need to be perfect!

Lol I feel better knowing I'm not the only one that had trouble with Ratchet and Clank! It drives me absolutely insane when I get all the way to the final boss of a game and can't finish it.

[LtCasual | 27]

I will usually finish a story or campaign, then if there's interesting or fun trophies to get after the fact I will spend some time getting those.

[Kguillemette | 1,569]

21 hours ago, cj_robot said:

Lol I feel better knowing I'm not the only one that had trouble with Ratchet and Clank! It drives me absolutely insane when I get all the way to the final boss of a game and can't finish it.

Drek was no joke! If you miss a few shots you are gonna run out of ammo and game over. Very unforgiving final boss. Dr nefarious in Up Your Arsenal was tough as nails too, but there was this portable shop item in a hidden room I happened across I could buy more ammo mid boss fight. Even with that item he was tough, he was impossible without it!

To this day he's the only time I gave up on a final boss.