this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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Well I’m happy for you if owning so many games makes you happy as it supports a hobby I love.
Personnaly, I think that not finishing so many of your games shows some kind of problem, but I’m not a psychologist. Owning so many too..
I might even have the inverted problem as I feel like it’s an obligation for me to finish a game unless I don’t like it.
If they've played 23%, that's a lot of games, as in, well over 1k. Thy said nothing about how many they've finished, but I don't think "finishing" is all that important.
What I'm more interested in is how much time they have for playing games. What's they're lifestyle like that they can play nearly 2k games while also accomplishing other life goals? It's not an unreasonable amount, just sufficiently high that it raises some eyebrows.
If OP isn't finishing any games, yeah, I agree. But there are a ton of games that I don't find worth finishing, in any sense you define that, but that I still find worth playing.
For example, I didn't finish Brutal Legend because I really didn't like the RTS bits at the end. I still love that game and recommend it, but I only recommend it w/ the caveat that the ending is quite different from the rest of the game and it's okay to bail. That type of game isn't going to have an amazing ending, so the risk of not seeing the ending is pretty small (and I can always look that up on YT or elsewhere if I want). I did the same for Clustertruck because the ending had an insane difficulty spike on the last level and I just didn't care enough to finish it.
However, other times I have pushed through, such as Ys 1 Chronicles, which has an insane difficulty spike on the final boss. I am happy I pushed through, because I really liked the world and the ending, which feeds into the next game (in fact, on Steam, it automatically started Ys II after finishing Ys 1). I ended up not liking Ys II as much (still finished), but I really liked the tie-over from the first to the second.
So yeah, I don't fault someone for not finishing games, but I do think they're missing out if they never finish games.
I’m lucky enough to work for myself at home, do things in my own time. More importantly, my work is entirely data driven—I rarely interact with people.
It is not exciting work. Actually, it’s quite boring. But it puts food on the table, pays bills, and gives me time to do things I enjoy.
That sounds awesome!
I chose a bit of a different life path with different rewards and caveats. I'm glad you found something that brings you joy. :)
Why should anyone be compelled to finish a game?
Nah, finishing games is overrated. By the time you're halfway through a game, you've seen a lot of what it's going to offer in terms of style and gameplay. For sure, you'll miss some amazing stuff if you don't get to the end, but it's hard to believe you miss as much as the new other game you could have half-completed in the same time.
There are exceptions, and I defintely think completing at least a few games is important. But if I had the choice of only having fully played 20 games in my entire life, or 40 halfway, I'd defintely have learned more, experienced more and enjoyed myself more with the half-assed approach.
Well for me it’s like starting 40 books, 40 movies or 40 songs and not finishing them.
If it’s a story driven game, I would never picture myself not finishing it unless I don’t enjoy it.
Also I see the starting something and not finishing it as a result of the short attention spans generation, but I might be getting old at 38😅
I'm older than you my friend, and it's acurallt only something that I came to terms with in my 40s. When I was younger I did feel that pressure and expectation to complete stuff. Now I have no issue switching a movie off after an hour or stopping a book before the end. Life's too short! And sure a story game I'm really enjoying, why wouldn't i finish it? And play the sequel! But if I've played 100+ hours of skyrim without geting close to the end, and I don't think it reduced my enjoyment. And if I'm getting bored of a metrovania I don't see the point in grinding til it's done.
I tend to not finish games because I don't always have as much time to commit to some games, loose steam a bit. then I jump into the next game that my friends want to play together. It can be frustrating sometimes but I think I have accepted it as my cycle now.
I’m older than you.
I also grew up in an age when arcades were all the rage—and games weren’t meant to be completed. The goal was simply to get the high score.
That’s still my mentality to gaming. Most of the time, I don’t care about stories. When there’s cutscenes, I usually skip them.
I guess for arcade games it’s logical, but it doesn’t apply to games like Heavy Rain, Last Of Us, Uncharted or Final Fantasy.
But I guess every one behaves differently and enjoys different things.
I’m just worried when I see my 8 year old son trying a new game every time he faces a challenge in the previous one.
Of the games you’ve listed, I only own two of them.
I have Final Fantasy VII, which is the first game I ever bought on Steam. I’ve put in around 30 hours into it.
The other game is Heavy Rain, which I just bought last month. Haven’t started it yet.