How do you feel about unfinished games in your collection?

[MrPopo]

For me, I have three catagories for games.

Catagory 1: The game that I got but I didn't care for much. The game stays on the shelf and probably never gets played again, because I have so much other stuff to get through.

Catagory 2: The game that is basically all about the actual gameplay. Ikaruga, Ninja Gaiden 2 (NES bitches), Mega Man series. I'll play those until I get frustrated for whatever reason. I might pick it up again.

Catagory 3: The JRPGs and other games that have a heavy emphasis on the story. These I am compelled to eventually finish. And I've been having to make a point of NOT playing the remakes (even though I'll buy them) or play through ones I've already beaten, just because all the stuff I haven't finished in any form is piled up.

[Gamerforlife]

Most of the time I don't worry about finishing a game. I don't have a lot of time so I consider it a mark of a good game if I take the time to beat it. Mario Galaxy was the last one I played the story all the way though.

I have never cared about unlocking everything in a game or finding every secret.

The only time I get upset about a game is if it has a good story and I forget it. I got about 6 hours into Grandia 2 on Dreamcast and ran into that problem. I let it sit for a few months and then I wanted to play it over again because I didn't remember the story. So now I have a save at 6 hour and a save at 4 hours where I gave up the second time.

I have a similar issue right now with Final Fantasy Crisis core on PSP. I don't remember the story or combat system well enough to just pick it up. I was about 8 hours into it and I don't want to start over. So the game is just sitting unplayed right now.

Wouldn't you know it, I'm playing Crisis Core too. I am playing some other PSP games as well, but Crisis Core gets most of my attention being the more story driven title. As you said, it would just suck to get away from it for too long and forget important story details.

This brings me to another point, often when I play rpgs now I use faqs. Partially because I don't want to miss anything that cannot be obtained after a certain point in the story, but also because if I get stuck a faq will get me through. The alternative would be getting annoyed, putting the game down, getting back to it in a month or two after finally convincing myself to try again and then not remembering story elements or the combat system. I didn't always use to like using faqs, but sometimes it's easier just to put your ego aside and simply get through the damn thing. Especially when you just want to get on with the damn story.

No offense, but Crisis Core's combat system is pretty simple and intuitive(and beautifully implemented I might add). I don't see you having an issue getting back to it. The story however, well that's the real problem I guess

[Gamerforlife]

nikon_62,

Might I suggest this to get you back up to speed on the story:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/file/925138/50377

Get back to playing that game, it's too good to not finish

[philipofmacedon]

This year I made a serious and successful effort not to leave games unfinished. I spent about eight months going through a backlog of half-finished games. Now I'm just working on getting 00 on all the Goldeneye missions and playing Guild Wars.

The question you need to ask yourself is - Why do I stop playing games partway through?

I think there are several plausible answers.

1. The games I'm playing are artificially extended. There are a lot of mediocre twenty or forty hours games that could be classics if they were only half as long. I think this really applies to JRPGs and MMOs. There's simply too much padding. No matter how innovative the mechanics are or how thrilling the story, players eventually tire of it and need to see a resolution.

2. Some games are just crap. You play em for a while, and then just get bored. I wouldn't even look back on these games. I don't think of as unfinished as much as simply tested and found wanting. Once I put a game down for this reason it's not going to get picked up, because it's just work.

3. I'm impatient and undisciplined with games. I remember being a kid, and when I finally got a new game it was so exciting. I'd play it over and over, really mastering it and reaching a level of extreme competency. There's a more lasting form of entertainment in mastering a skill than rather simply being entertained by a constant bombardment of stimuli. I submit to you that the chess grandmaster or shmup savant enjoys playing games in a way that those who endlessly buy the next hot thing, play for a bit, and then get bored and move on, do not.

4. I'm a spoiled gamer (I have too many games.) This ties in with number two. As I've grown older my collection has grown to encompass many systems, not to mention the myriad of games that torrents afford. Increasingly there's a pressure to blast through games as quickly as possible in order to free up time for the next game. I found this attitude made it harder and harder to enjoy my play time, but it's so easy to slip into.

5. I really ought to be doing something else. This is the big one for me. Playing games, or any other form of entertainment, is an important part of remaining mentally healthy. Just working constantly leads to burnout and shut down. On the other side of the coin, just spending all our free time playing games is really not good. We should be out pursuing those passions and life goals which lead to some sort of lasting happiness, not just devoting ourselves entirely to this hobby.

I know I'm never happier playing a game than after I've done something productive. After coming home from work or being at the gym, it seems right and proper to reward oneself. When I've been unemployed it was impossible to really lose myself in games, I just felt that I had to focus on getting my life in order. If I frittered a day away in front of the TV I felt awful.

My point here is that when a game gets boring, it's a sign that you should go do something else. I bet a lot of you have good taste in games, and are good at picking out games you really enjoy. So the reason you've gotten bored with them is that you've overdosed. The solution is to go do something else, not rely on the thrill of a new game to combat the doldrums. Yet this is the cycle I think many enter.

I love reading. I realized that I had been neglecting this hobby lately. So now whenever I don't feel like picking up the controller I go and work on a book. Then, when the urge to play returns naturally, I go back to the game I had been playing.

Also I realized that it's just so hard to get back into a groove. You forget the story or what you were doing or how to play well, and then you might as well just start over.

That post got away from me. I've been thinking about this a lot and found a solution that works for me. Get the rest of your life in order, stay disciplined, and don't mistake the need to do something else for boredom with a particular game. I'm much happier gaming this way, savoring each game and looking at a shelf of victories, rather than seeing a row of failures.

[silverback]

about 95% of my games have never been completed, the ones that are tend to be racing sims.

A good 80% have never had any more than 5 or so minutes to make sure they work.

Not got time or the inclination to play them all through really.

[mobiusclimber]

It usually makes me feel sad when I think about games that I started playing and didn't finish. That is, if I liked the game. Sometimes I'll play a game and not like it, obviously, so I won't keep playing. Other times I'll play a game just for fun. When it gets to be too difficult, I stop playing, b/c the game was just meant to be fun. But if it's a really good game that I liked and I just stopped playing for one reason or another, it makes me sad to think about it.

When I was younger, I could only ever get one game at a time, and not for long stretches of time would I be able to get another one. Sure, sometimes I'd trade in stuff for a game, or whatever (I'd find ways to make the cash), but even then it wouldn't be that often. I forced myself to beat games even if I didn't like them, or at least squeeze as much playtime out of bad games as I could stand. These days I have so many games and get more in all the time, that I've just been nibbling of late. I've started to hunker down a bit more tho, so I plan on playing thru the games I start rather than jumping from one to the other. I have Lady Stalker, Inindo, Trauma Center 2, DQ Swords, Final Fantasy 2 (Dawn of Souls) and My Japanese Coach going right now, and I will play all of them either to the end or as close as I care to get (Trauma Center 2, I'm lookin at you right now).

[Haoie]

About 80% of my entire collection is unfinished.

That's the norm for me, ha.