why most people don't finish video games

You have to remember that people my age (I'm 33) and a bit older are essentially first generation gamers. Most of the people I know my age play games and have done since Atari kindof times. The reason the average is higher in that bracket is a lot of people that age have kids, so not only do they buy FPS games and MMO games for themselves, they buy Ben 10 games for their sons and so on.

No matter how great a game is, if it's level after level of basically the same thing, then of course players will get bored. Also you can't trust Game of the Year or critical acclaim anyhow. Reviewers are either carried away by hype into furthering said hype or just bound by NDA agreements into being polite about games. There's very few places I'd trust for reviews and none of those decide on awards and things like GOTY.
 
^Shame really, because back when i was in my early teens, reviews and tags on games like GOTY were actually true.
 
I rarley do not finish a game, but recently i have started quite a few which i just couldn't be bothered to finish such as Mafia 2, Arkham Asylum, Medal of Honor, one of the Prince of Persia games(don't know why i bought it tbh), Metro 2033. I just got bored of them really.

I'm all about the story really though, so if the story doesn't hold me then i might not stick with it
 
HangTime said:
Anyway lots of valid points made in this thread as to why people don't complete games, I think the key factors are:

1) Gamers are getting older and thus getting richer, combined with a fall in the price of games in real terms. We can afford to buy more games so we don't feel like we need to get full value out of every one we buy.
2) Online gaming sucks up a fair amount of gaming time.
3) Online activities in general suck up time; 15-20 years ago being sat at a PC meant singleplayer gaming, not surfing and social networks. Basically if you were sat around at home seeking solo entertainment you had a choice of watching terrestrial tv or playing games.
Click to expand...

I think part of the reason I don't complete many games is due to the fact I end up 'wasting' most of my available gaming hours on stuff you cannot complete like MMOs, Counterstrike or Quakelive :p
 
Not sure if this has been said but I think the main reason people aren't finishing as many games is.....marketing is getting better.

More and more people are getting caught up in the hype machine and buying a game they won't actually enjoy, therefore won't finish.
 
Another things is I dunno bout you gusy but when I was a kid I was lucky to get 5 or 6 brand new games per year.

Now with budgets, platinum, having a job and making money, piracy, old games, online dsicounts, online downloads etc..etc....I am gettign 5-10 new games per month.

Mayeb they make more games nowadays also.

Sometimes I just get a game then start a new game then a new game then a new game without completing them. Its just fun to start a new game. Back when I was a kid. I might be stuck on the same game for 2 montsh before I even got a new game...SOmetiems I only got games at xmas/b-day.
 
If a game is good like Portal 2 then I'll finish it.

If it's not any good like Black Ops, then I wont.

MP gaming also limits the time I play SP.

I'm 42.
 
subbass said:
The simple fact is people generally don't finish games because the game is crap and repetitive.
Click to expand...
it doesnt help when the big devs are spamming out games that feel like youve already played them before aswell...
every fps of the last few years could almost be the same game.. need more epic games like morrowind/oblivion but i guess the publishers who fund the games dont want to spend all the money because its not as good a return :rolleyes:

gaming is to much about busisness and not enough about making games right now hopefully some of the indie developers can make a bit of money and start making the projects they are likely dreaming about, maybe they will have the sense to not let EA/activsion buy out their company and crush them like they have done with so many others..
 
I am 33 and can say that I finish only the games that draw me in for example

Witcher
Witcher2
Recently replayed KOTOR as the game is still excellent

Not finished

Deadspace 2
Bioshock2 ( but finished 1)
Batman Arkam

That could well be my taste in games tbh but if I am going to spend my time playing them got to hook me in from nearly the start with the story tbh.
 
I've got 10 games on hold, 5 of which I haven't started. One is called 'Keepsake', a difficult point and click adventure, and my last save game is dated 2004, lol.

I really want to get stuck into them, but in the last year and a half or so, most of my gaming has evolved around F1 2010, NFS Shift and Shift 2 time trials. The thing with me is that I actually don't find it a chore to repeat something over and over. I do it till my hands almost bleed.Tiring yes, but I'm driven to achieve the best result I can, or to make sure I eventually get to the next level in the story. It's really satisfying to put the effort in, which is, yes, work, but still fun. Problem is, I don't really have the time or energy to play any of my other games after spending countless hours trying to beat my best laptimes. In 3 weeks time, season 2 finishes for the Shift 2 time trial, and then I'll get stuck into either Crysis 2 or Amnesia, or Gray Matter, or, I don't know which. There really aren't enough hours in the day! :p

There's only been 3 games I never finished, and that was because the save games got messed up. I never find a game so boring that I wouldn't finish it.
 
"The average age of the most frequent game buyer is 41" all the kids are pirateing because they cant afford to drop £40 minimum on latest games. And those kids also know that the £40 they are spending is for 2.5 hours of already seen before gameplay...

People stop playing a game mid way through because they get bored. Not because their attention span is so low, or they are busy. We have save features now in games so we can save the game to go check facebook etc and come back and resume :P and the reason we dont come back is because we got bored of a game that wasnt fun or bringing anything new to the table.

most of my play time now days is ArmA2 in a realism clan, as such most of the guys im gaming with are older 20-50. some as much as 67 :)

also we game on PCs so we can jsut alt tab to check facebook etc :P
 
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Does anyone else find it tremendously comforting that the average age of a gamer is around 37 – 41? I’m 34 and while my gf is great, once we move in together, get married, kids etc. I was dreading the impact it might have on my gaming life. This makes me feel much better about the whole thing :)
 
It's odd to think that people of around 30 (I'm nearly 27) have lived through the early days of the Commodore64/ZX Spectrum (my earliest memory is trying to play Thomas the Tank Engine on the ZX Speccy), through the SNES/Master System/Megadrive era right up to the current Crysis2/BF3 offerings we have today.

No other generation will have such a varied range of experiences of gaming. It's just going to be updated graphics and microtransactions from here on out.

That's kind of depressing if you think about it...
 
was the average age gamers in general or specifically pc gamers?
I can't believe it's for 'generic platform' gaming??
Certainly I would expect the pc to have a greying gamer in front of it.

I try and maintain a strict discipline to finish games unless it's utter tosh. Then I un-install and Steam is great in this respect.
If it's getting boring, for the sake of 'game closure' I resort to cheating to hammer thru it. At least I can then put the game to bed and move onto a new one.
I tend to campaign my games by choosing RPG's which I break up with a quick shooter. I can then get a game looking and running sweet and mod it up for the long term and if I feel it's grinding then a shooter is like a shot in the arm. Most shooters these days are so short that 2 or 3 nights determined gaming will see you thru.
Of course mix in work/wife/kids/social life/other hobbies and it can take years to complete a good RPG!
At least pc's offer this flexibility and allow means of intervention, be it modding or cheating.

I must say im feeling a bit overwhelmed at present as there are so many good games about and Steam sales really don't help me here! I have a backlog to keep me going for years!

One aspect of gaming I can't do these days is serious multiplayer (in a clan type thing). The hours of practise and comps + swearing at your mates down the headset is just not compatible with my family life.
The latest shooters though are so intense though that I don't miss it.......too much!

My pop's is 70 now and always getting nagged for playing games to much my my mum. the kids love gaming with the grumpy gramps though. Since my wife thinks im a chip off ther 'ol block I can look forward to gaming into my twighlight years:cool:
 
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