News - GDC devs highlight that most gamers never finish their games

[HEXUS]

Figures, based on Steam Achievements, show most only get half the way through a game.

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[Jonj1611]

Hmm, I will complete most games I get to the point that a game can be completed. Ie its not a game that never completes like some sports games etc.

However, basing their information on achievements is a bit pants in my opinion, I certainly don't go back and play the game again or sections just to get achievements, achievements don't really mean that much to me when playing a game, if I get them during the game then so be it but certainly don't go out of my way for them.

I have lots of games I have "completed" the single player portion of it but only have a 42% completion rate for instance, lego games are a great example of that.

[LeetyMcLeet]

For me, I won't complete a game because it was bought for the multiplayer experience. Still haven't played the BF4 single player and probably won't lol. Then other games, like Tomb Raider, I've completed 3 times because it was awesome, but the MP sucks balls.

Another reason is the old time to amount of new games coming out ratio.

[Jingee]

Guilty as charged.

[krazy_olie]

Completion is a vague term, these days, I don't want to go around a world looking for some pointless tokens after I've killed the boss.

[Biscuit]

Yeah i have loads of games i haven't quite finished

[Holythief]

I generally try to finish any game i start, but i tend to just randomly stop and never touch it again.

[badsyntax]

It depends on the game. Some of them (Hi there Skyrim) have really buggy achievements that just fail to trigger. I'm not going to create a new play-through to complete a major story arc just to gain a virtual badge.

[slipthemonkey]

I am certainly guilty of not finishing every game that I own, but then I own 300+ games and with Humble Bundle throwing titles at me quicker than I can log in to PayPal I can't see that subsiding. I'd like to think that if I have started a particularly story driven game then I will see it through.

I am a sucker for starting games and, if I do have to put them down for any sustained period of time, starting again form the beginning as opposed from picking up from where I left off, mainly because I want to make sure I am still up to speed with what on earth is going on.

[Torashin]

I haven't played half of my games, never mind complete them!

[rootminus1]

Completion is a vague term, these days, I don't want to go around a world looking for some pointless tokens after I've killed the boss.

Agreed. 100%ing a game is pointless as there are so often achievements you can only get by playing through 3/4 times, completing the Ravenholm chapter using only the gravity gun being one.
I really hope they tracked this by main storyline achievements only, but what really shocks me is how could people not complete Portal? I did it first time in a single playthrough

[crossy]

I am a sucker for starting games and, if I do have to put them down for any sustained period of time, starting again form the beginning as opposed from picking up from where I left off, mainly because I want to make sure I am still up to speed with what on earth is going on.

Glad you said that - same here. Although the usual reason for "dropping" a game is that either something in the house or work-related intervenes.

It really annoys my missus - "I thought you'd finished that!" being an oft-heard complaint. One of these days I really must get around to finishing Fable2 and Deus Ex:Human Revolution. And don't get me started on the slew of Assassin's Creed games (got AC2 onwards and have only completed AC2 - oops).

Actually it's usually the "headline" FPS' I complete - but I'm thinking that this time around I might break with tradition and NOT finish that last Call Of Duty - mainly because I'm finding the campaign story line about as involving as a video on tiling.

[Jimbo75]

I was really bad for this while playing WoW or other MMO's. After I quit WoW I went back and completed a lot of them. In the past couple of months I've finished Dragon Age 1, Half Life 1 and Mass Effect 2 (which I had quite twice already just before the final mission).

I think I probably quit ME3 right before the end too, but definitely going back to finish that one before long.

[stevie lee]

that steam achievement list is very flawed . it doesn't update your achievements if you play in offline mode and turn off steam cloud sync with the games.

from my experience it only shows the achievements on my online profile if I load up the game when logged in, otherwise it doesn't update them. so how does valve know whether i've finished them or not?

maybe everyone is just playing those single player games on the list in offline mode, because what the point in logging in to servers when its single player?



out of my games the ones I haven't finished are:

borderlands - not got the dlcs, doesn't feel as fun playing without them (sisters got dlc's on hers)
mace griffin - got to a difficult level, rage quit
etherlords - end boss got down to 1 health, then he cast loads of healing spells, I died. rage quit
universe at war - not got round to installing it yet. had it 4 years or so.
nexus Jupiter incident - not installed yet, had 6 years.
kknd extreme - last played about 14 years ago

theres a few more on steam that I haven't finished, mainly because I keep getting distracted by other games that launch from steam.
whats more exciting - Pid, magicka II or dragon age origins? just by the name...

hence why ive finished dragon age, but not Pid or magicka

the other few hundred or so PC games (too many to mention) yeah well, you have a lot of free time when unemployed



compare that to old style gaming on the C64 back in the late 80's. bubble bobble, mickey mouse, batman caped crusader, that's it, theyre the only 3 I finished out of the hundred or so games.

I think games have gotten easier. going on those Lans I went to, my game play ability hasn't gone up, its pitiful and amatureish at best, so the only logical reason is that game are easier now than what they were 25 years ago.

[=assassin=]

I tend to complete the main story quests of around 99% of the games I play. Very few I've not done, with those tending to be horror games that are also boring, so double incentive not to continue if I'm dreading carrying on with a game

I try and visit most areas, if not all, of a game world, and will try and do most missions depending on how fun and varied they are. I did pretty much everything in Skyrim, for example, and that game is huuuuge.

[aidanjt]

If your criteria for 'finishing' a game is collecting all the achievements then sure. In reality nobody thinks of achievements as anything more than epeen.