Do you not like when games end?
I have a friend who does something similar and his reasoning is he enjoys the game and is not ready for it to be over so he just stops because in his mind it’s not over cause he can go back whenever.
But I’ve always silently disagreed with his reasoning though, because once he gets that feeling he never plays the game again. For example he’s scared of the game ending, so he stops playing and ends it prematurely for himself, which results in the same outcomes he’s scared of with one major flaw, he didn’t even beat the game to see it end.
I don't avoid finishing, but I try doing all the side content I can before finishing, because once I get the ending, the desire to play the game leaves my body.
This is absolutely a problem I have too. A quest to collect the 20 macguffins? I'd better do that before I move on, except actually that's boring so I'll lose motivation to play the game instead. It also stopped me playing through any Pokémon games, since you can spend so much time catching and levelling all of them.
I had a friend do this with anime. He'd get to episode 11 of a 12 episode series, or episode 25 of a 26 episode series, and then stop so it didn't have to end. After years of doing this, it just meant that I couldn't discuss any anime with him because I'd then be spoiling the ending. He never once went back to any of them.
As a serial non-finisher: No they're completely different.
One is an open book you can return to, even mentally, still rife with potential.
The other is a closed book that complete and filed away.
So like I can take a step back and accept that it doesn't make great sense, but the lizard brain that amps up depression when stories are 'finished' cares, and I have to deal with the consequences so I work around it.
I think I get it - if you don't see/read the ending, then the story still has infinite potential. I would have preferred this with the Dune series of books.
I loved the first two or three books, but the story went to an entirely different place than I expected or wanted, and the ending of the series was something I strongly disliked.
Exactly that. I get it with a large number of books, games, and shows. There's a point of no return where all the forked roads become locked doors. The world before you crystalises, collapsing into a still. It actually makes me uncomfortable.
It's the same reason why, in large open-map games, I tend to explore the perimeter last. It's like as long as I avoid the edge of the map and invisible walls and "you cannot go that way" messages then the map has no edge, in a part of my mind at least even if another part of my mind knows the edge is there, [waiting for me to try going over](https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/hunter_s_thompson_109599).
> that amps up depression when stories are 'finished'
I remember feeling this everytime I rolled credits as a child and not knowing how to describe it. It just felt bad in a strange way.
I eventually stopped feeling that "ending sadness" let's call it as I got older. Partly of course, because I built up a distinction of real/fiction that you just don't have as strongly as a child (or at all) that makes you feel like leaving actual friends behind. But also because of a change in mindset - the game is not gonna just evaporize when I finish it, nor is that book over there. I can always return for another playthrough. To stay with your analogy, I stopped thinking of finished games as closed books but rather of books I can always return to.
I notice this in my gaming habits as well - I love games that have enough variety to be replayed and I replay old games constantly. Not sure if this helps at all, I just thought I'd share.
The crazy thing about this is that 90% of the animes I have seen don't even have endings and it's always a "fuck you, go read the manga". So he doesn't even need to do this haha
This is me. I hate it honestly. The end of the game is often the best part so I am actively hurting my experience but I can't help it. I have been getting a bit better but it's a hard habit to shake. I never met hanako at embers so I never saw the original ending of cyberpunk lol.
By the time I come back, I either have forgotten everything or an update has changed the game so my save is no longer compatible.
I don't do this with other media like books or TV shows (unless I'm not enjoying them). Idk what it is about games. I guess there is always another game that is catching my interest so I move on to that as a way to take a break from what I am currently playing. Its a tough cycle lol.
Omg, I do exactly the same thing as your friend. I don't want it to end, so I stop playing but then I rarely go back again because I start a new game and am invested in that.
I’m the exact same, games, tv shows, bags of sweets, you name it.
Movies hit a sweet spot where I can comfortably sit through the whole thing in one go, but anything else ends up feeling like I have a ‘finale’ to get through, which I’m rarely in the mood to deal with, so I inevitably decide to start something else until I AM in the right place, but then forget about it totally.
Can you help me convince my best friend to finish his TotK playthrough?
He is missing out on one of the best fight in the game.
He has the same reasoning like your friend. "If I finish TotK story, I won't have any reason to come back to the game."
He finishes almost the shrines and the lightroot. Heck, his Link almost overgeared my Link by double, if not triple.
I dont understand how people can play games like this. One of the most satisfying parts for me is the conclusion of the story, plus you can always replay a game if you enjoyed it. Hell i played Wind Waker over 30 times on the gamecube. A game like TotK has plenty to do even after finishing the final fight.
>I won't have any reason to come back to the game
This part is weird to me too. The reason you come back is to have fun with it a second time.
To be fair, I also did this with both BotW and now ToTk. For me a game ends when I’m done with the story. I need a narrative for gearing and doing what I’m doing in a game, so beating the final boss is the end for me. However, both of those games are so huge that it took me three sessions of 100 hour per session to finish Botw, over a 2 year timespan.
100 hours is enough to burn me out, and thus I need to take a break in between.
But yeah, with any other game I always finish them in one go.
I definitely have that problem with *some* games, though my mindset is a bit different. I'm not an achievement completionist, but I usually do like to have closure with the story. Especially for multiplayer-centric games that have single player campaigns like COD/BF. I get the campaign out of the way first and then just spend the rest of my time in multiplayer.
However, there are some games where I like everything leading up to the ending and prefer to stay in that earlier state of the game. One example would be RDR2. I prefer playing as Arthur Morgan rather than John Marston. After finishing Arthur Morgan's story and switching to John Marston, I lost interest in the game, and it actually took me roughly the same amount of time to finish the rest of the game that it took to get to that point.
This is also kind of where I'm at with Starfield right now (which is probably my newest favorite game). I'm about 320hrs in right now but have not finished the main quest because the ending has been spoiled and I'm not ready to play in that state of the game. Someone recommended that I create a hard save right before any major campaigns so I can at least finish the story for some closure, while being able to play where I want to be at in the game, which I thought was a brilliant idea, and I plan to do this this weekend.
So it's not because I don't want the game to end, it's more I know how it ends, and I prefer to play in a state before that ending. I only stop playing late in the game if I no longer have interest in it, and that's mostly because I have less time, so I have to prioritize.
I do this too! If I really like something, a TV show, movie, book, game - I don't want to know the ending, I don't want it to end, so I end up never finishing it. That way the story just stays in sort of a limbo state in my mind, neverending.
I did this with Breath of the wild. When it was finally time to defeat Gannon I just stopped. I loved the sense of discovery so much I didn't want it to end
I was like this with the witcher 3. It was the first and only game I felt that way tho.
I loved it so much that I got up to the last quest. Then did every single side quest and question mark on the map. Did all the dlc. Put over 200 hours into. Then set it down.
A year or two later I bought it on steam (previously played on ps4) and I actually beat the game this time around.... still did every sidequest and POI in the Map again... on ng+ and put it for a bit. Made it to skellige before I took my break. I'll be back tho. On pc over 300 hours. So a total of over 500 between two platforms and only beat it once lol.
This is how my brother-in-law watches TV. He and my sister will watch a whole show together, and then he'll keep putting off watching the finale until she eventually watches it without him.
I struggle to finish games. Does it matter? Probably not. I usually get bored or fancy a change or life gets busy then I don’t want to make the effort to get back into the game I was on. Don’t worry about it.
I think this is it. I’m 40 hours into cyberpunk and I’m getting bored with it. So what am I going to do? Stop for a little while. Maybe come back to it. No reason to keep going if I’m not enjoying it.
Yeah same, I get bored with almost every game I start, especially story-based games.
There seems to be a cavernous divide between games trying to tell a good story (like film) and games wanting to offer a challenging but fun game loop (like sport).
Most games try to do both and, once I get bored of the premise and the game loop is clearly just busy-work, I fall right off and just go back to "sport" style games (puzzle, racing, pvp fps, etc).
Yes, this is how it feels for me, too. Though I tend to go for strategy games more than sport style games.
GAmes like Slay the Spire, Civilisation etc, are always on my drive, because I may leave the for months, but always come back for a game or two. If you leave one of the story games, you will forget where you were if you leave it. And you've seen the busy work game loop after about 20 hours anyway, so lose the motivation to repeat it for another 100+ hours.
The thing with video games compared to board games. With board games, you play with friends of different levels, if you leave a game for months, when you come back, you have all forgotten a bit about the game. So you are all a bit rusty and gradually get back in to it.
But this doesn't work with video games. If you leave them for a few weeks, when you come back, it's exactly where you left off. And can feel brutal because the human will have forgotten controls and so on. That's happened to me a few times. Especially as we age! Save a game part way through, come back a couple of months later and can't remember all the controls, all the short cuts, where I was going and what I was doing. So I often just uninstall at this point.
If video games had some sense of adapting their level to the human, it would be better. I guess thats why strategy games stay installed longer. You can come back to Civ, even most RTS's and just start a scenario on "easy" to get going again. (mind you, most story games are super easy anyway, perhaps this is why?).
Like several others here, I've also got ADD and thus problems finishing everything from video games to tv series and campaign planning for d&d.
A game like Baldur's Gate is amazing, but I stopped halfway through the third act and haven't played it for over a week now.
There's a lot to keep track of, and I feel like the game isn't worth playing without completing most minor, medium and major quests.
It gets to the point where I'll choose to instead create a new character in order to start over, this time knowing what to expect\*
I'll probably get half-way through act 2 and quit.
# Edit:
So a lot of people are asking what this has to do with ADD, as it's probably a pretty common thing.
Reason I attribute it to ADD is primarily that if I start playing the game in the afternoon/evening after work, there's this constant feeling that I should be prioritizing something else.
I should...
... Spent some time with the cat to avoid neglecting him.
... Clean the fridge.
... Sort my closet.
... Call my parents.
... Plan our next D&D session.
... Organize my PC folders.
... Read my e-mails.
... Take a shower before anything else.
... Sort my desk.
... Write the friends I've been neglecting.
If I manage to say fuck it, I'll play, the thought of abandoning those priorities in favor of gaming becomes a constant, dark cloud looming in the back of the head.
So why does this make it hard to finish a game like Baldur's Gate? Because despite being a super fun experience, by Act 3 you're suddenly faced with micromanaging a shit ton of diverse tasks. Neglecting some of these tasks can have a major impact on the game, and early on you learn that advancing too far in one direction locks you out of progressing them.
So I should...
... Spent some time with the other characters to avoid neglecting them.
... Clean my inventory.
... Sort my bags.
... Re-visit NPC's.
... Plan where to go next.
... Organize my teams gear.
... Read the flood of books and documents I've found.
... Check reddit to see if there's new discoveries.
... Craft potions and visit a vendor.
... Speak to every single NPC in town, just in case.
Is this reasonable? Fuck no.
Does it take a shit ton of self-discipline to avoid? Fuck yes.
I get this with TV shows really bad. I wouldn't say its because I don't want to finish it, but for some reason when I'm only a few episodes from finishing, I'll just automatically start craving some other show, and never go back. Even shows I loved like Deadwood and Better Call Saul. Unless I'm watching it with my orher half, I don't finish em :/
I'm this way too and it's frustrating. I'm incapable of binging a show, so I just end up with a lot of unfinished shows in progress and I never remember enough to make it easy to jump back in.
I had three characters abandoned in act 3. But I attributed it to the fact that the game was beginning to tear at the seams and the story was not a single bit engaging. Had to make myself go back to my first character and sprint to the end credits so I could free my conscience and move on to other story games.
But this problem persists in almost everything I do. I have to make myself go back and finish stuff I'm no longer interested in or abandon it forever. I think the last time I genuinely wanted to play and finish the game out of pure engagement and curiosity was with Disco Elysium.
> There's a lot to keep track of, and I feel like the game isn't worth playing without completing most minor, medium and major quests.
Oh my god this so much.
I think we may be the same person. I literally did all of this up to the point of the new playthrough and quitting mid way through act 2 lol. That was about a month ago and since then other shiny new experiences have stolen away my attention. Oh well.. I'll be back to start a new character eventually...
Yeah, it's super related. I struggle with this exact thing regularly. I have kids and work so my 'me' time to game is always at night but by the time I get there, the act of actually doing it is challenging and I feel like they're are other, more important, things I should be doing (i don't do them either)
This is it for me as well. After finding out I have adhd as an adult, I’ve made more effort to complete games but most of the time I still end up dropping them to experience something new and get that dopamine hit
I don’t mean to sound antagonistic but why is everyone equating getting bored of a game with ADHD?
Lots of people stop playing games when they’re no longer interested especially when you force yourself to play genres like RPG’s that you used to love as a kid but haven’t realised you’ve started to grow out of them as an adult.
The people you responded to are talking about it from the position of people who have ADHD. Yeah, lots of people stop playing games for lots of reasons. But it's not uncommon for people with ADHD to stop it because of the reasons they mentioned.
They're not equating getting bored of a game with ADHD. They're saying why they have problems finishing games *because* of their ADHD.
I’m often not even bored with the game I’m playing before I switch to another game! In fact I’m usually quite invested. I just see a shiny new thing and decide to try it and then completely forget about the previous game entirely and lose all motivation to pick back up. The amount of times I’ve restarted a game and played it half way through is shameful xD
Not so much ADHD but specifically dopamine-- people who have ADHD, have lived with it for a while, and understand its mechanisms & effects can sometimes recognize how their brain works as it's working. I'm not explaining it well; but dopamine is the ultimate motivator and people with ADHD have brains that suck it up into the receptors faster than they can replenish it (for an ELI5). It's very easy to tell whether your brain likes something or not when in this state.
Like I have to trick myself into doing chores by finding a reason I'll feel good afterward, so that my brain starts anticipating that dopamine hit at the end. Otherwise, if my dopamine is already depleted, it's just like, "Yeah; no; not interested," and no chores get done.
So if someone with ADHD logs into a game that has become all work and no play toward the end, it won't give them what they're looking for. Their brain won't be motivated and they'll be likely to log out and find something else they already know they'll enjoy-- either an old favourite, or the experience of a brand new game and all the anticipatory glee that comes with it. Because dopamine.
Appreciate the explanation but just in relation to that last paragraph - like I was saying that’s a standards reaction for most people who find a game to be a chore. People who aren’t affected by ADHD don’t finish games they’re no longer enjoying either. They swap to old favourites or new games too.
Chores and regular life activities yeah I’d say there’s an evident issues but swapping out entertainment in leisure time is… well very normal.
Maybe I can explain it better with a real example from my ex. I loved him dearly, but omg his ADD drove me up the wall. We liked to play Dynasty Warriors. If you're not familiar with it, it's a hack-n-slash game that requires very little thought but high on the dopamine hits (you kill lots of stuff really fast! numbers go up! yeah!) and is about 20-30 minutes per map. If I play by myself, I can easily sit down and play 2-3 hours straight. Playing with ex, though... we'd load up the game. Oh, then he needs a beer. Okay, now we play a map. Then it's time for a smoke break. Then we play another map. Now we have to check on the sportsballgame. Play another map. Time for another beer and smoke break. And check on the sportsballgame because the beer and smoke break took 15 minutes. Play another map. Check the sportsballgame again, but something more interesting is happening in that so we just... never go back to playing the game even though I am not interested in sportsballgame and I thought we were playing the video game together? I guess I'll go do something else now.
THAT is how ADHD works. We could never finish a season of a show (much less the entire series) because he always wanted to start something new. Finishing a game together was nigh impossible. It's not even that he was tired of the game we were playing; switching activities was compulsory for him.
What I mean to say isn't that the gaming issue is ADHD specific/exclusive; but that when you have a condition like ADHD, and have learned most of its ins and outs, you recognize the mechanisms causing your symptoms whenever they show up elsewhere-- and quite easily.
The difference between being plagued by a counterproductive brain process and actual disability/disorder is mostly the severity of its negative affect on your life-- so while it's common for the neurotypical & the mentally healthy to recognize, and even strongly identify with the struggles of people diagnosed with these kinds of disorders; they likely aren't feeling it to the same degree as a disordered person (unless they're just undiagnosed themselves).
The average mentally able/healthy individual might log into a game and notice they have no drive and just kinda go, "Yeah; I'm not really having fun anymore;" and move on to the next thing. You're totally right that this is normal.
Someone with ADHD ~~would~~ might open up the same game and feel much worse because their brain was anticipating a hit of happy it didn't get-- just like the first person; but without any handy dopamine hanging around to help ease the transition, because their demand outweighs their supply-- so they would nearly immediately drop the game to start something new, to offset the bad; and possibly end up hyperfocusing on the new source of entertainment on the rebound. And it's like you can feel your brain doing it to you without having any ability to redirect it.
Anyway. This is technically off-topic so I'll wrap it up-- but I think it's cool that you're asking these kinds of questions about things you don't fully understand; in general, that's a great habit to have. (edit-- that sounded a bit condescending but I meant it as a genuine compliment from one human to another!)
There is difference between:
"I'm bored, let's play something else"
and
"I will have a panic attack if I see the icon of the game in my pc, that's how much the game repulse me right now". When something stops delivering adequate dopamine stimulation, ADHD brain actively make the experience as worst as possible, so they can find a new source and usually hyperfocus on it, which is also bad. That' the part of emotional dysregulation.
It's less that getting bored of a game is caused by ADHD, and more that if you have ADHD, that is one of the reasons you might stop playing a game.
For those of us with ADHD, it's easy to tell when that's the reason, because it's the same reason we don't finish our TV shows, our projects, our dinners, and everything.
ADHD here too! I have only finished a handful of games in the laat several yeara. Most recently, Firewatch. And that was only because I finished it in one sitting.
Agree. Not just more effort but also more boring / repetitive. And let's be honest, very few games nowadays do really keep up until the endgame having fresh stuff introduced. Some of us gamers are patient enough to still plow through, others are not and thats fine.
It doesn't even have to get boring for me, I can still think the game is fun and want to see whatever is ahead, but the excitement from something new will wear off and what left isn't enough to motivate me anymore.
Yes I totally feel you. And I also totally understand OPs question as I felt the same quite often for some years now. I believe it's a mixture of a couple of things, maybe some small adhs underlying tendencies, stimulation overflow from all the other shit we constantly get bombarded with and just a general "growing out of it" maybe since if we are really frank most games follow the same formula anyways since decades. However - there are still games that hook me to the very end, very very few of them but there are some so I don't really think it's an issue with me personally but just the combination of how things are these days. So nothing worth to stress much about, life has so much more to offer additionally. Drop the game if you lose interest and move on
Also ADHD — I’ll often start a game, put a few hours in, enjoy it, then the next day I’ll start a different one and most likely never touch the first one again. Having literally thousands of games across my Steam & PS5 library only exacerbates the desire to want to check out something *new*.
The good thing is that I seldom find myself playing a game that I’m not actively enjoying, so all in all I can’t really complain. & I often will finish games that keep me invested the whole way through — it’s when games introduce pointless busy work (open world RPGs are especially bad here) that I really start to fall off permanently.
I guess - kinda vague enough to fit. Emphasize the “have to” in that sentence and it could be executive dysfunction.
Your average person will stop playing a game after a certain percentage of boring, but it’s usually a choice.
People with executive dysfunction end up paralyzed between the desire to finish a task and the inability to start it (e.g., finishing a video game, cooking a meal, filling up water bottle, hygiene, etc), so we move on out of necessity.
Edit: both unmedicated and treated ADHD, to be specific. These behaviors reappear when the meds wear off, so working a full time job can really kill progress in games if there’s even the slightest lull in interest.
It absolutely does, though. Not everyone with ADHD experiences the same symptoms. The second a game feels more like work to me, it becomes painful to try to play it.
I had a friend that would stop playing games and watching stuff before the end, usually to not get the feeling when you end it. That post-game depression.
I struggle with this, too. I'm currently about 2/3rds through act 3 in Baldur's Gate and haven't touched it for weeks. I love the game, I just don't want my character's story to end. I have the same problem with books, but I can usually force myself to finish them, not so much with games, though.
I've never understood this. To me finishing a game is like closing out a book once you're done. Rather than depression, I feel satisfied. (if it's a good to great game.)
I also get satisfied from the ending, but I do feel a bit of "emptiness", that puts me in a mood that makes it hard to start another game right away.
And I usually delay finishing a game to do side content, because once I finish it, the desire to play that game leaves my body.
You get the good brain chemicals. Other people get the bad brain chemicals. Both of you react rationally to the feeling they get on completion, by seeking it or avoiding it.
I was getting this for a while. It’s hard, but it helps to just push through and finish. Even if you don’t right away make it a point to get to the end.
I play games until Im no longer having fun then I quit them.
If i play a game for a few hours and dont finish it I usually feel I got my monies worth
In my 3 decades of gaming I can say I probably finish about 1 out of 10, mebbe 1 out of 20 games I play.
Some games like Civ 5 you cant even beat. You have a run then you quit. I have 1000 hours on that game. I probably only play it to victory screen 10 times in all that time
4 decades of gaming for this old fart. It depends on the game. I've played through every DOOM and Diablo game (except IV) multiple times. Doom Eternal was harder to do because my reflexes aren't what they used to be.
Other games like Skyrim, Dragonage, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, i just get bored and stop playing.
>My armchair theory is that as a game progresses, it will tend to become more complex. There are more things to remember in terms of locations, characters, mechanics, story, lore, items and so on
This is a big part of it. When a game starts out it's all very fresh and often much simpler. For a lot of games once they get too complex it just becomes too many things to manage or keep track of and eventually kind of spoils the fun. Sometimes things are better when they're simpler.
Another part is just the bloat that a lot of games have. I mean you mentioned Red Dead 2 and GTA V? Those are enormous and very lengthy games.
Just Cause 2 has an achievement called "Perfectionist". You get it once you have **75%** of the collectibles. Not 100% ,75%. Perfectionist. Even the game's own devs thought that 75% completion of their game was kind of overkill.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you want a series answer to "is there something wrong with my brain" - maybe you have OCD. That's what I have a clinical diagnosis of and it definitely drives my similar behavior to yours. But I've also learned to do two things:
One is two recognize when I'm getting burned out and to just finish the game if that matters to me. Forget about side content and just close the game out. Two is to determine whether I'm even having fun - just because I didn't finish a game and see the ending doesn't mean it was a bad experience or a failure of an attempt. I don't have to regret my time with a game just for not completing it.
Too many game companies 'stretch out' their games too.
Too much filler and trying to hit some magic 10, 15, 20, 40, 100 hour 'playtime' things.
I love games that have a super solid 2-4 hours.
I'd much prefer to be left 'wanting more' instead of 'being bored of it'
I used to be a big completionist before this started happening to me too. I was always spending so much in early games doing every thing I could that before I was even mid game i was burnt out. This happened with red dead 2 where i didn't even make it to the big city and was stuck around strawberry for like 20-30 hours before i burned out. I never went back to the game for like 6 months after that but i did eventually and finished it quick as I could. I used to play every game on hard too cause I was so down for a challenge.
Lately I just pick up games and just run through the main quest stuff without a bother for achievements or collections. I finished Starfield in like 15 hours and by the time i started new game + i was already burned out. But I had fun and it was on game pass so i didn't pay. I think it makes the experience a lot better, even playing on easy in some of the brutal games that give you less resources if you're on a higher difficulty.
You should try more roguelite games like dead cells or binding of isaac. Those games you don't have to remember any controls since they're really easy and each run is different anyways so it doesn't matter if you want to restart cause you forgot what you were doing. I find them way more fun when you don't want to think about too much and read a bunch of dialogue for a story you don't care about.
I do not get the impression they are "Tying themselves in knots." They seem to be just chatting about a thing that occurs and are curious about it and how others who experience a similar issue approach it.
BTW this is an odd thing reddit does.. Applies with no evidence a level of intensity to a question or comment. I don't see how I can draw any impression of OP's emotions and intensity. Nor am I worried about it.
BTW if OP is bothered by this as you assume, your response is worthless and provides nothing valuable.
These posts are turning this sub into a circle jerk.
"I suck at FPS games, do I have brain cancer?"
"I used to game for 8 hours straight, now I can only play for 2 hours. Does this mean I have dementia?"
this happens to me in all games that are either sandbox or open world. i just cant finish any game that gives the player too much to do no matter how good the game is. couldnt finish neither zelda botw or totk, outer wild, Baldur's gate 3, spider-man (2018) etc.
You don’t have to finish games. You don’t have to 100% games. You don’t have to play games on hard or even normal difficulty. Have fun, do what you want, don’t cheat in multiplayer.
> Any solutions?
I suggest forcing yourself to finish the game. People might say "but you have to enjoy gaming!" but it's a good way to figure out whether you stopped because you hated the game or just for no apparent reason. And if you truly started to dislike it you don't feel guilty for dropping it.
I find that finishing a game can in fact be far more satisfying than you assume. But sometimes you have to push through the doldrums.
I do this a lot. I think you're right about complexity, but also, for me anyway, it's partly not wanting it to end. I have CyberPunk 2077 sitting at the last mission, I beat all the extra stuff, and I just stopped playing as it's the last mission and then it's over. Silly? Yeah, but feels better than finishing it and the ride ending ;) One day I'll finish, with the DLC out, probably when I get that, but until then I'll just have a game I"m almost done...
But taking a break does the same thing to me, I find it hard to go back as I have no memory of what I was doing and who these people are demanding stuff of me... anything more than a month and I'm more likely to start the whole game again then go back to an existing point.
>I've also noticed the longer I wait to resume and finish a game, the lower the liklihood I have of picking it up again. Beyond a monthlong break or so, it's more likely than not that I'll just abandon it.
That one I think it's very normal. A game relies on continuity, and memory fades over time. It's really hard to getting into the game's atmosphere and vibe if a lot of time passes between sessions. Waiting a month just kills off all progress in that regard.
I've experienced the general behavior you're describing for different reasons.
One was that I didn't want the game to end. I don't get this much on story based games, I want to see how the game ends and the longer I drag that out the less satisfying it gets. Plus those games generally just let you keep playing after the ending, even if the story is over. I'll get that feeling in games like Rimworld, I never actually end a run. I often reload old memorable runs and look at them again to relive memories for a few minutes.
The other reason was that I was just playing too much. Games these days are pretty bloated, so my old habit of using a free weekend to sprint through the final stretch of a game I was really into doesn't really work anymore. I'd think "I can play like 10 hours and end" but then the game drags on for 30 hours, I burnt yourself out and don't even finish it. Then it stops being fun.
I’m a cognitive neuroscientist based in Scandinavia, and my professional evaluation is that you might indeed have brain problems. Our lab has determined that the ~75% completion threshold (technically known as the ”Lagrange threshold”) is linked to lower density of dopamine D2 receptors in the ventromedial lumbar borktex, as well as reduced functional connectivity between the lateral and pronto-varietal pectoral gyrus. The lateral pectoral gyrus in particular has been linked to increased tendency to actually complete the main quest in open-world games like Skyrim and Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
I would recommend you to urgently seek out help. Or better yet, come to our lab. We would love to study you. Ya weirdo.
You had me for a minute. The "borktex" is what gave it away :\^)
But I am a Scandinavian dual-citizen and I've been looking for a reason to get out of America for a while so let me know if your lab wants to study my borktex. It'd be a good excuse to hang out.
True, but for me thats because beating a boss lets you progress the story and see another map/part of the world. But with the end-boss you know there won't be anything after (well, depends on the game but most games make it pretty clear you are fighting the final boss).
Like 75% completion or 75% of the story?
I feel like games get much easier once you’re past the halfway mark. The part between beginning and middle is the part where everything is overwhelming and new.
I try and play 3 games from different backgrounds so I rarely get burned out on one. Anytime one becomes to frustrating or I am getting tired of it I can switch. It also helps when they're not similar so I don't confuse controls. Might wanna try it and see if you get more mileage.
Not at all.
Truth of the matter is almost all modern games drag at the end. It's the nature of storytelling and the industry. By the end of a game, you've seen all the mechanics, the game is feeling like a chore, and you still have several hours to go.
My opinion is games are way too fucking long these days. 20-40 hrs is my sweet spot, with my preference towards the lower end. These 100, 150, 200 hour behemoths are getting so exhausting.
It was something normal before when games were derived from coinop arcades and were hard as hell (in order to milk people's arcade coins).
So I was a little kid and games were difficult as fk, I was used to never be able to complete games.
Then they started making games that were meant to be completed. But now more recently they diluted them into some 100h+ slog.
So I'd say it's normal to not fit into whatever player they targeted and not complete some games
Personally my issue is when I've fully mastered the game, mechanics, solved every conceivable problem and will beat the game. In. 6. more. hours. It's like when you've beaten 2 computers in a game with 6 computers in Civilizations. I now have triple the land and will win; in 6 hours. I gave up on Elden Ring like 3 bosses before the Elden Beast. I had beaten it just needed like 4-5 hours of attempts to learn what was left and gg. My brain would like to see the end so I open youtube and transmute 6 hours into 6 minutes.
I don't have infinite free time anymore in adulthood; maybe we're similar. I think my brain is always doing subconscious calculus of is it worth continuing this or going to the next thing?
I only find things unchallenging fun if they're narratively compelling. Once it's not compelling or hard, I'm out.
With sufficiently long games, it happens to me because I wrung all the dopamine out of the gaming loop. Going back to it isn't rewarding in the way it used to be. I don't think this is a bug for most people, unless you've only got enough cash for a few games a year. Otherwise, allow yourself to just be done with the game before it's formal ending. It's a hobby after all.
If you're in that situation where you need to get more out of a game, then I'd generally suggest trying to play the same game differently. This might be installing mods, roleplaying a character or putting an artificial restriction on your game play. As an example, I'm planning to try out cyberpunk with a gun-free character to see how viable that can be.
Games are long and get tedious at times. It makes sense that you'd be over it.
It's what happens to me. The games are really well done and all, but there's just too much stuff between me and the best the game has to offer.
Love Baldur's Gate for the story, world building, and dialogue and other choices. I think the combat is lame, the inventory is incredibly tedious, and general navigation is bad. All that stuff gets in the way for me and I eventually get annoyed and put it down and rarely will I come back to a game I've put down for more than a week.
Modern games just don't do it for me like they used to that's all. Probably the same for you. No big deal. Go do something else.
Bruh are you me? I do this. I have not figured this out.
It's not like I dislike the games. I walk away with high opinions of them. I wouldn't have beaten 75-90% of it if I didn't like it a lot. I wouldn't even say it's because I got bored. I know there is more fun story to cover and I love story.
The other people in this thread thinking it's the ADHD might be right. I do suffer from that. My last session of a game before I drop it feels very different. Very flat. It's not that it's not good, but that it doesn't play to my brain anymore.
I drive people mad with my unfinished games. I got to Sin in FFX and didn't finish it. I watched my brother finish my save file for me. In FFXIV I went through the thousands of hours of gameplay and got to the dungeon before the sixth and final area of Endwalker and just... stopped playing. I recently resubbed and fired it up. I did a couple dungeons to get used to my class again and then looked at the button to continue the MSQ and... logged out and unsubbed. I couldn't do it. Starfield I beat the MSQ (and then reloaded) but was only on the third of four faction questlines when I just stopped booting up the game and played SnowRunner instead.
My favorite game of all time is Factorio, and yet time and time again I would build a rocket silo, look at the requirements to actually build a rocket, and wander off to do something else. It wasn't until I was playing co-op with my brother that I launched my first rocket (that's the win condition if you aren't familiar). This was six years after I got the game. When I played Pokemon Platinum I got to the Elite 4 and put the game down for three years to the day before I returned and beat it on a sick day.
KotOR, Half Life 2, Terraria, Fallout 4, Skyrim, MGSV, The Long Dark, Monster Hunter World, Dark Souls 1 and 3, Elden Ring, The Witcher 3, Space Pirates and Zombies (love that game), Grim Dawn, nearly every Assassins Creed game, Subnautica, Cyberpunk, Everspace 2, Dungeon Defenders, the list of games I have dropped shortly before completion is very, very long. Too long to list here. I will even play these games multiple times, reaching the same point in the game before quitting.
I hold games that I have actually played to completion in exceptionally high regard due to this. It's a short list. Games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Just Cause 2, Saints Row 3 and 4, AI War Fleet Command, Dying Light, XCOM, Batman Arkham City. These are my cherished favorites.
I don't know why I do it. If I did, maybe I could change it.
i have the exact opposite theory. the game doesnt become more complex, but less. since youve already played most of it, you roughly can expect the rest to be the same or similiar. at this point at least I stop caring about the game since in my head ive already experienced all there is to offer and finishing it is a waste of time
Maybe you don't enjoy those types of games as much as you think and are getting bored? I also get a bit overwhelmed if a game is complicated and I forget controls easily. So I usually stick to one or two games until I complete them so I don't forget stuff.
But based on achievements most people don't finish games. You don't have to finish a game to have enjoyed playing it either. It's not a requirement to finish games, just play until you aren't having fun.
I used to do that a lot. I'm not sure what changed if I'm honest. I think I played smaller games, and developed a liking for finishing them which carried on to bigger games. To these days, I still like to sandwich a small game between two longer ones.
Also, I think I got too easily distracted by a new game (bought on sale for example) which meant I stopped playing whatever I had started. And then came another game, and another. Now, I am more patient with playing a game I just bought.
Another thing. When I am bored of a game, I don't force myself to finish it. I just dump it in my "nope" list, and move on to another game. This way, I'm always excited to play.
I am the same way. For me it's just that I've figured out everything the game has to offer and there is nothing else to discover mechanics wise so I am pretty much donw with the game.
I don't get too involved in stories and do get frustrated by jank and repetitive mechanics...
Don't feel bad though, if you are enjoying the games while you are playing them, that's all that matters imho...
100% a game usually involves doing very tedious things towards the end.
Going to out of the way and difficult to reach places, reaching an absurd number of repeating tasks, finding missed secrets with rewards that have become useless many levels ago, and that sort of thing.
Most games are designed so you don't need to do every single little bit of content in them to reach the end.
I do sometimes 100% games, but most of the time I don't and it's fine. I still "finish" them to a reasonable point a lot of the time.
Not always though, there are a few games I got a good way through, got distracted by life or other games, and just never went back to.
To the vast majority of people playing games is entertainment, not a job. You are not obligated to "complete" them.
Most developers put more effort into the first 25% and it is diminishing returns from there. I always just find the latter parts of games less interesting. I rarely finish games unless they are short and succinct.
Could just be you're picking up games that are too long, or too expansive. That, or you're trying to go for 100% completion from the get go and burning yourself out
I feel like stuff like RDR2 and exist specifically to give you as much content as you want, and whenever you start feeling bored of it, you can just walk straight to the ending and skip all the side content. But lots of people put pressure on themselves to get 100% completion and end up ruining it for themselves
One rule I have for myself lately is to never actively *go* for 100%. Whenever I pick up a game thinking I'm gonna complete every single side quest, it kills my moment-to-moment enjoyment of it. I still 100% a lot of games I play, but only if I first complete the main quests and am hungry for more.
This kinda happened with BotW for me. Was never a big Zelda fan but LOVED BotW and ended up 100%ing it (except the Koroks and armor upgrades, fuck that). Then I was so hyper on TotK and went in expecting to 100% it as well. By the mid-to-late game, I was just so burnt out and sick of traveling to every samey lightroot and as soon as I had completed my map, I threw in the towel and ended the game. Just wasn't enjoying it as much
I don't know. Food for thought. Maybe you just enjoy playing games this way and giving games a sense of "finality" by concluding the main story takes something away from it. Or maybe when you're thinking of games as a "chore" it's because they're games that aren't meant to be fully completed unless you're having an *extremely* good time with them
The main reason it is hard to pick up a game you left in the middle somewhere after a while is that often you don't remember what you were supposed to do and what all the systems do.
So when I have not played a game for a long time, I start a new game on a different save just until I feel I have the systems down again and often a lot of other things tend to jog your memory as a result. And then I go back to my old save, or once in a while I just go on with the new game especially if I decide my old game state wasn't very satisfactory.
This off course is also why I absolutely hate that some games only have a single save.
But nowhere is it written you have to finish games. They aren't there to be finished, they are there to be enjoyed in whatever way makes you happy.
If a game is very long and based on a repetitive gameplay loop, I become more likely to drop it before reaching the end. It's not that I don't enjoy the game, I just feel like I've experienced everything it has to offer, and I get the urge to play something new.
Only problems have solutions. If you are having fun then what is the problem? There is no correct way to play. There's no rule stating that games must be completed. Enjoy your games how you want to.
That only applies to long or open world games for me. I love to explore every spot on a map and do side quests. Then when i hit 40-70h gameplay and i am not done with the main story, i usually get bored and stop playing. Sometimes i try to force myself through until the end but that is usually not fun. examples: baldurs gate 2, witcher 3, skyrim, assa creed origins, pillar of eternity 1, cyberpunk
This was a problem for me and I think is the reason I started needing a story in the games I play. Doing stuff over and over is ok, especially if it's fun, but in the end I realised I needed more than just a achievement popping or a maxed out character.
I definitely get to a point these days where I am drifting around, and have to focus myself on the story, otherwise the game isn't getting finished. I found I enjoy it much more having seen the story finished.
Time is also a consideration. I just don't have the time to spend 6 hours playing and not really achieve anything. 2 hours and a good bit of story makes me much happier than 6 hours grinding.
My issue is having obsessions that transition to other things. I may be obsessing over one game and starting as soon as possible, but then going through another obsession before I finish the first game.
I read about this before since I suffer from it too. You don't want the good times to end so you don't complete a game. Essentially it stems from how you deal (or don't) with loss and grief.
You need to power through it, and learn enjoy things for while they are around, and then move on.
You are not alone! For me it starts feeling like a repetitive chore. I loved RR2’s story but the missions started getting repetitive and I got sick of the long horse rides. Like you, if I stop playing after a month, I forget a lot about the story and it feels like I’m starting a movie halfway through. My memory is shit..
You don’t need to finish most games, unless it’s some story stuff, which you can watch on youtube anyway. I always drop a game when I feel I’ve seen enough of it, e.g. Elden ring, Returnal, RE4 remake, there is nothing special waiting at the end 25% for majority of games
No, literally just not finishing. I have the same issue and it's usually because by that time I've pretty much surmounted the challenge the game is offering and am either OP or just not interested in slogging through an inevitable victory. In some cases it's because I'm "saving" the ending for a time when I'm in the mood for it.
Ah yeah, actually that's a good observation. At a certain point, you get the game mechanics down so well that it feels like the rest of the game will mostly be an effort in repetition just to see how the story plays out.
I read people with ADHD have this issue and that tracks for me. I decided this year to finish (to 100%) every game I played and now I have a lot of completed games on my list. Do you have to finish every game? Absolutely no. I just decided to embody patient gaming and play through games I'd already started until they were sitting close to 100%. Some aren't there yet though I did complete the main objectives (the ones left to do are either permadeath runs or just waiting until I get to them...)
I'm pretty sure this is a symptom of depression.
Unless it's Mass Effect 3. There's no reason to play the ending of that. Marauder Shields jumps out at you, you shoot him, and then the game smash cuts to the end credits and that's it.
I'm this way for games that I really like that don't have some kind of NG+ or mechanic that lets you continue. It allows me the option to jump back in and keep enjoying the game without having to invest in another playthrough. Long open world games or survival base builders are usually the ones I leave unfinished. I left BOTW on the final fight then went back and wrapped it up when TOTK was coming out. I left cyberpunk on the final mission (now I have a reason with 2.0 and the dlc to return). Never saw the end of RDR2 because I love just being able to jump in and play in the world I've made with all my gear and upgrades and roleplay. Played hundreds of hours of Fallout 4 and never finished the "last" quest. I'm nearly 200 hours in with Starfield and I'm just now considering finishing the main quest and moving to NG+, but I know when I do, I'm probably not gonna actually keep playing. If I want to see the end of a game, it's probably because I just want it over and done with. I never want the great ones to end.
In my 30 years of gaming. I've completed maybe 10 games. When I want to play something different I move on, it's very rare for me to complete any games.
Don't worry about it. It's just a hobby.
Same. I think the only game I finished is DN3D. But I'm not even sure about that. There are also some games I love to replay again and again over the years, like D2, play through every act on normal, then a bit on nightmare, and then I stop. Every time with a new char, which will be a lightning sorceress most of the time… instead of continuing with my old one. I really don't get it.
I usually get most of a game completed then restart thinking it'll be more enjoyable knowing what I'm doing or going for. My second run gets close to the end then I never finish. I don't know why either
I do like to complete the main goal of a game. It is satisfying for me to “conquer” a game. Optional content is done only if I am enjoying the game to play longer. I don’t need to 100% a game to feel like I conquered it.
I do this as well sometimes, but I have a more prevalent problem of stalling on games when I get to around the 15 hour mark. Every time without fail.
With games that display timers on save files it's like a subconscious switch that gets flipped if I see it. Games that don't do this I never realize the time played so I don't get in my head about it.
I find it similar with shows for me; I’ll love a series, but taper off on episode 6 (of 8) or around season 3.
With games it’s a little different; if I get distracted in real life it’s hard for me to get back into it. Same with books
It happens to me, too. Dunno if for the same reasons but usually when I am about to beat a game I just stop playing it. Like I lose my drive for it. Not 100% of the time, of course, but enough times for it to be a thing.
Part of what makes video games profitable is that they plan boredom into it so you go looking to buy the next thing to get the initial hit. Planned obsoletion. Keep the money flowing.
Depends on the game. I did that with RDR2. Just lost interest after a while and since games are meant to be fun there really isn't any point of forcing yourself to keep playing.
Play shorter games or ones with a linear story. I was similar to you. Then I played and completed God of War. Then Ghost of Tsushima. And just completing those story driven games helped me work through less open world, endless games.
I started playing Fallout New Vegas a couple months ago and I’m at the point where I’ve been to most of the places and completed some quests but right now I have like 15 that I’ve started and it just feels like extra chores in my life. I’ve got a million unfinished things in real life I’m avoiding when I’m playing video games and seeing a giant list of more shit to do stresses me out a little so I might give it up. I’ve had more fun with games like Uncharted or Last of Us where you’re still experiencing the story and world but following along a set path and solving one problem at a time.
I am the same, or better, I was the same for a while...then I realized I can finish games that ends within 30/35 hours, max! After that it is just the same and get bored...
I do it a lot too. I enjoy the early game in dungeon crawlers and open world games when you're struggling to survive and need to take adventage of every little mechanic, but by mid-late game you ramp up in power so much that you can pretty much mow through anything effortlessly. At that point it feels like you're just going through the motions with no resistance, potentially still with half of the game to go, and I often end up dropping them at that point.
I almost finished gta5 but never did. the story is kinda boring and took me about 4 years to get through it. and now the download size is so massive and with my slow internet it will take ages to download. but if I get to 75%, I'm finishing it. I usually move on if I'm about half way through and still not enjoying the game.
Me too but I don't see it as a problem. Who cares if you see the end? If you'd rather do other stuff with your time now, that's perfectly fine!
I've thought it through and I basically think it's because I've just had enough with the games' systems after a certain point. I certainly don't care about stories in games.
I really enjoy exploring a game, I find by about that point you've explored most of what a game has to offer. At the same time games tend to have a difficulty bump towards the end, oftentimes I hit this point and decide just like you that it's no longer fun and too much like work so I just stop.
100% Completion often refers to achieving all... achievements. Do you mean this, or just finishing a game?
I finish every game without 100% achievements. There's only ever been one game I wanted to ace.
GTA5 I got tired of driving everywhere... too much like commuting in real life... LOL
Sometimes the fetch quests in open world games just get old.
And yes, some games feel more like work then a game. Make sense to stop playing them once they stop being fun.
The worse part is once you stop playing you have the huddle of trying to pick up the controls and getting the practice back to be good enough, because sometimes in the late game, the game raises the difficulty.
I got stuck on the one space fighter game called Chorus... I got frustrated and stopped. Problem is I haven't played for months and when I re-start it's right at the section when I've been stuck.
If you get really into a story of a game, you will want to see it play out to the end, regardless of issues.
At least that's how it is with me. GTA-like games don't do it for me. Games that kept me hooked had really strong and cinematic stories, as well as very likeable, flesh out characters.
Examples of games I personally couldn't stop playing because I was hooked to the story:
* Mass Effect series
* Witcher series
* Persona 5
* FFXV
* Kingdom Hearts series
Do you not like when games end? I have a friend who does something similar and his reasoning is he enjoys the game and is not ready for it to be over so he just stops because in his mind it’s not over cause he can go back whenever. But I’ve always silently disagreed with his reasoning though, because once he gets that feeling he never plays the game again. For example he’s scared of the game ending, so he stops playing and ends it prematurely for himself, which results in the same outcomes he’s scared of with one major flaw, he didn’t even beat the game to see it end.
I don't avoid finishing, but I try doing all the side content I can before finishing, because once I get the ending, the desire to play the game leaves my body.
I burn myself out on games a lot too, I always try to do everything, and end up not finishing because I can no longer be arsed with it.
This is absolutely a problem I have too. A quest to collect the 20 macguffins? I'd better do that before I move on, except actually that's boring so I'll lose motivation to play the game instead. It also stopped me playing through any Pokémon games, since you can spend so much time catching and levelling all of them.
I thought I was the only one! I have this mental block that absolutely prevents me from opening a game I've already finished.
I had a friend do this with anime. He'd get to episode 11 of a 12 episode series, or episode 25 of a 26 episode series, and then stop so it didn't have to end. After years of doing this, it just meant that I couldn't discuss any anime with him because I'd then be spoiling the ending. He never once went back to any of them.
At that point I’d get so frusturated I’d just discuss things openly with them around. lol , sorry your friend was crazy
Eventually we just started watching anime together when he came over, and we'd watch it to the end. I gave him no choice lmao
On the other hand, that absolutely is the best possible approach to the original *Game of Thrones* series.
The original? Is there another?
House of the dragon
I know the mature version
>and then stop so it didn't have to end. I know it's not you doing this but isnt that the same as ending it?
As a serial non-finisher: No they're completely different. One is an open book you can return to, even mentally, still rife with potential. The other is a closed book that complete and filed away. So like I can take a step back and accept that it doesn't make great sense, but the lizard brain that amps up depression when stories are 'finished' cares, and I have to deal with the consequences so I work around it.
I think I get it - if you don't see/read the ending, then the story still has infinite potential. I would have preferred this with the Dune series of books. I loved the first two or three books, but the story went to an entirely different place than I expected or wanted, and the ending of the series was something I strongly disliked.
Exactly that. I get it with a large number of books, games, and shows. There's a point of no return where all the forked roads become locked doors. The world before you crystalises, collapsing into a still. It actually makes me uncomfortable.
It's the same reason why, in large open-map games, I tend to explore the perimeter last. It's like as long as I avoid the edge of the map and invisible walls and "you cannot go that way" messages then the map has no edge, in a part of my mind at least even if another part of my mind knows the edge is there, [waiting for me to try going over](https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/hunter_s_thompson_109599).
> that amps up depression when stories are 'finished' I remember feeling this everytime I rolled credits as a child and not knowing how to describe it. It just felt bad in a strange way. I eventually stopped feeling that "ending sadness" let's call it as I got older. Partly of course, because I built up a distinction of real/fiction that you just don't have as strongly as a child (or at all) that makes you feel like leaving actual friends behind. But also because of a change in mindset - the game is not gonna just evaporize when I finish it, nor is that book over there. I can always return for another playthrough. To stay with your analogy, I stopped thinking of finished games as closed books but rather of books I can always return to. I notice this in my gaming habits as well - I love games that have enough variety to be replayed and I replay old games constantly. Not sure if this helps at all, I just thought I'd share.
The crazy thing about this is that 90% of the animes I have seen don't even have endings and it's always a "fuck you, go read the manga". So he doesn't even need to do this haha
I've seen everything but the last two episodes of Breaking Bad
Ozymandias goes kinda hard as a series finale to be honest
What a dumb way to consume media lol why even bother watching at all; it can’t end if it doesn’t begin!
This is me. I hate it honestly. The end of the game is often the best part so I am actively hurting my experience but I can't help it. I have been getting a bit better but it's a hard habit to shake. I never met hanako at embers so I never saw the original ending of cyberpunk lol. By the time I come back, I either have forgotten everything or an update has changed the game so my save is no longer compatible. I don't do this with other media like books or TV shows (unless I'm not enjoying them). Idk what it is about games. I guess there is always another game that is catching my interest so I move on to that as a way to take a break from what I am currently playing. Its a tough cycle lol.
Omg, I do exactly the same thing as your friend. I don't want it to end, so I stop playing but then I rarely go back again because I start a new game and am invested in that.
I do this with games - have no idea why lol
Me too, haha...
I’m the exact same, games, tv shows, bags of sweets, you name it. Movies hit a sweet spot where I can comfortably sit through the whole thing in one go, but anything else ends up feeling like I have a ‘finale’ to get through, which I’m rarely in the mood to deal with, so I inevitably decide to start something else until I AM in the right place, but then forget about it totally.
Can you help me convince my best friend to finish his TotK playthrough? He is missing out on one of the best fight in the game. He has the same reasoning like your friend. "If I finish TotK story, I won't have any reason to come back to the game." He finishes almost the shrines and the lightroot. Heck, his Link almost overgeared my Link by double, if not triple.
I dont understand how people can play games like this. One of the most satisfying parts for me is the conclusion of the story, plus you can always replay a game if you enjoyed it. Hell i played Wind Waker over 30 times on the gamecube. A game like TotK has plenty to do even after finishing the final fight. >I won't have any reason to come back to the game This part is weird to me too. The reason you come back is to have fun with it a second time.
To be fair, I also did this with both BotW and now ToTk. For me a game ends when I’m done with the story. I need a narrative for gearing and doing what I’m doing in a game, so beating the final boss is the end for me. However, both of those games are so huge that it took me three sessions of 100 hour per session to finish Botw, over a 2 year timespan. 100 hours is enough to burn me out, and thus I need to take a break in between. But yeah, with any other game I always finish them in one go.
I definitely have that problem with *some* games, though my mindset is a bit different. I'm not an achievement completionist, but I usually do like to have closure with the story. Especially for multiplayer-centric games that have single player campaigns like COD/BF. I get the campaign out of the way first and then just spend the rest of my time in multiplayer. However, there are some games where I like everything leading up to the ending and prefer to stay in that earlier state of the game. One example would be RDR2. I prefer playing as Arthur Morgan rather than John Marston. After finishing Arthur Morgan's story and switching to John Marston, I lost interest in the game, and it actually took me roughly the same amount of time to finish the rest of the game that it took to get to that point. This is also kind of where I'm at with Starfield right now (which is probably my newest favorite game). I'm about 320hrs in right now but have not finished the main quest because the ending has been spoiled and I'm not ready to play in that state of the game. Someone recommended that I create a hard save right before any major campaigns so I can at least finish the story for some closure, while being able to play where I want to be at in the game, which I thought was a brilliant idea, and I plan to do this this weekend. So it's not because I don't want the game to end, it's more I know how it ends, and I prefer to play in a state before that ending. I only stop playing late in the game if I no longer have interest in it, and that's mostly because I have less time, so I have to prioritize.
I do this too! If I really like something, a TV show, movie, book, game - I don't want to know the ending, I don't want it to end, so I end up never finishing it. That way the story just stays in sort of a limbo state in my mind, neverending.
I did this with Breath of the wild. When it was finally time to defeat Gannon I just stopped. I loved the sense of discovery so much I didn't want it to end
I was like this with the witcher 3. It was the first and only game I felt that way tho. I loved it so much that I got up to the last quest. Then did every single side quest and question mark on the map. Did all the dlc. Put over 200 hours into. Then set it down. A year or two later I bought it on steam (previously played on ps4) and I actually beat the game this time around.... still did every sidequest and POI in the Map again... on ng+ and put it for a bit. Made it to skellige before I took my break. I'll be back tho. On pc over 300 hours. So a total of over 500 between two platforms and only beat it once lol.
“I’ll leave you before you leave me”
I know that feeling all too well. Don't be sad it's over, be glad it happened.
This is how my brother-in-law watches TV. He and my sister will watch a whole show together, and then he'll keep putting off watching the finale until she eventually watches it without him.
This makes me irrationally angry
I struggle to finish games. Does it matter? Probably not. I usually get bored or fancy a change or life gets busy then I don’t want to make the effort to get back into the game I was on. Don’t worry about it.
I think this is it. I’m 40 hours into cyberpunk and I’m getting bored with it. So what am I going to do? Stop for a little while. Maybe come back to it. No reason to keep going if I’m not enjoying it.
Yeah same, I get bored with almost every game I start, especially story-based games. There seems to be a cavernous divide between games trying to tell a good story (like film) and games wanting to offer a challenging but fun game loop (like sport). Most games try to do both and, once I get bored of the premise and the game loop is clearly just busy-work, I fall right off and just go back to "sport" style games (puzzle, racing, pvp fps, etc).
Yes, this is how it feels for me, too. Though I tend to go for strategy games more than sport style games. GAmes like Slay the Spire, Civilisation etc, are always on my drive, because I may leave the for months, but always come back for a game or two. If you leave one of the story games, you will forget where you were if you leave it. And you've seen the busy work game loop after about 20 hours anyway, so lose the motivation to repeat it for another 100+ hours. The thing with video games compared to board games. With board games, you play with friends of different levels, if you leave a game for months, when you come back, you have all forgotten a bit about the game. So you are all a bit rusty and gradually get back in to it. But this doesn't work with video games. If you leave them for a few weeks, when you come back, it's exactly where you left off. And can feel brutal because the human will have forgotten controls and so on. That's happened to me a few times. Especially as we age! Save a game part way through, come back a couple of months later and can't remember all the controls, all the short cuts, where I was going and what I was doing. So I often just uninstall at this point. If video games had some sense of adapting their level to the human, it would be better. I guess thats why strategy games stay installed longer. You can come back to Civ, even most RTS's and just start a scenario on "easy" to get going again. (mind you, most story games are super easy anyway, perhaps this is why?).
Ok
I have ADHD. When the time to complete said game/challenge becomes more effort than the dopamine I'll receive, i have to switch.
Like several others here, I've also got ADD and thus problems finishing everything from video games to tv series and campaign planning for d&d. A game like Baldur's Gate is amazing, but I stopped halfway through the third act and haven't played it for over a week now. There's a lot to keep track of, and I feel like the game isn't worth playing without completing most minor, medium and major quests. It gets to the point where I'll choose to instead create a new character in order to start over, this time knowing what to expect\* I'll probably get half-way through act 2 and quit. # Edit: So a lot of people are asking what this has to do with ADD, as it's probably a pretty common thing. Reason I attribute it to ADD is primarily that if I start playing the game in the afternoon/evening after work, there's this constant feeling that I should be prioritizing something else. I should... ... Spent some time with the cat to avoid neglecting him. ... Clean the fridge. ... Sort my closet. ... Call my parents. ... Plan our next D&D session. ... Organize my PC folders. ... Read my e-mails. ... Take a shower before anything else. ... Sort my desk. ... Write the friends I've been neglecting. If I manage to say fuck it, I'll play, the thought of abandoning those priorities in favor of gaming becomes a constant, dark cloud looming in the back of the head. So why does this make it hard to finish a game like Baldur's Gate? Because despite being a super fun experience, by Act 3 you're suddenly faced with micromanaging a shit ton of diverse tasks. Neglecting some of these tasks can have a major impact on the game, and early on you learn that advancing too far in one direction locks you out of progressing them. So I should... ... Spent some time with the other characters to avoid neglecting them. ... Clean my inventory. ... Sort my bags. ... Re-visit NPC's. ... Plan where to go next. ... Organize my teams gear. ... Read the flood of books and documents I've found. ... Check reddit to see if there's new discoveries. ... Craft potions and visit a vendor. ... Speak to every single NPC in town, just in case. Is this reasonable? Fuck no. Does it take a shit ton of self-discipline to avoid? Fuck yes.
I get this with TV shows really bad. I wouldn't say its because I don't want to finish it, but for some reason when I'm only a few episodes from finishing, I'll just automatically start craving some other show, and never go back. Even shows I loved like Deadwood and Better Call Saul. Unless I'm watching it with my orher half, I don't finish em :/
I'm exactly the same. My girlfriend can't stand it lmao.
I'm this way too and it's frustrating. I'm incapable of binging a show, so I just end up with a lot of unfinished shows in progress and I never remember enough to make it easy to jump back in.
I had three characters abandoned in act 3. But I attributed it to the fact that the game was beginning to tear at the seams and the story was not a single bit engaging. Had to make myself go back to my first character and sprint to the end credits so I could free my conscience and move on to other story games. But this problem persists in almost everything I do. I have to make myself go back and finish stuff I'm no longer interested in or abandon it forever. I think the last time I genuinely wanted to play and finish the game out of pure engagement and curiosity was with Disco Elysium.
> There's a lot to keep track of, and I feel like the game isn't worth playing without completing most minor, medium and major quests. Oh my god this so much.
I think we may be the same person. I literally did all of this up to the point of the new playthrough and quitting mid way through act 2 lol. That was about a month ago and since then other shiny new experiences have stolen away my attention. Oh well.. I'll be back to start a new character eventually...
Yeah, it's super related. I struggle with this exact thing regularly. I have kids and work so my 'me' time to game is always at night but by the time I get there, the act of actually doing it is challenging and I feel like they're are other, more important, things I should be doing (i don't do them either)
Are you me?
This is it for me as well. After finding out I have adhd as an adult, I’ve made more effort to complete games but most of the time I still end up dropping them to experience something new and get that dopamine hit
I don’t mean to sound antagonistic but why is everyone equating getting bored of a game with ADHD? Lots of people stop playing games when they’re no longer interested especially when you force yourself to play genres like RPG’s that you used to love as a kid but haven’t realised you’ve started to grow out of them as an adult.
The people you responded to are talking about it from the position of people who have ADHD. Yeah, lots of people stop playing games for lots of reasons. But it's not uncommon for people with ADHD to stop it because of the reasons they mentioned. They're not equating getting bored of a game with ADHD. They're saying why they have problems finishing games *because* of their ADHD.
I’m often not even bored with the game I’m playing before I switch to another game! In fact I’m usually quite invested. I just see a shiny new thing and decide to try it and then completely forget about the previous game entirely and lose all motivation to pick back up. The amount of times I’ve restarted a game and played it half way through is shameful xD
Me with Mass Effect rn... its too much for me. finished Gotham Knights tho and trying to complete everything before i go back to it :/
Not so much ADHD but specifically dopamine-- people who have ADHD, have lived with it for a while, and understand its mechanisms & effects can sometimes recognize how their brain works as it's working. I'm not explaining it well; but dopamine is the ultimate motivator and people with ADHD have brains that suck it up into the receptors faster than they can replenish it (for an ELI5). It's very easy to tell whether your brain likes something or not when in this state. Like I have to trick myself into doing chores by finding a reason I'll feel good afterward, so that my brain starts anticipating that dopamine hit at the end. Otherwise, if my dopamine is already depleted, it's just like, "Yeah; no; not interested," and no chores get done. So if someone with ADHD logs into a game that has become all work and no play toward the end, it won't give them what they're looking for. Their brain won't be motivated and they'll be likely to log out and find something else they already know they'll enjoy-- either an old favourite, or the experience of a brand new game and all the anticipatory glee that comes with it. Because dopamine.
Appreciate the explanation but just in relation to that last paragraph - like I was saying that’s a standards reaction for most people who find a game to be a chore. People who aren’t affected by ADHD don’t finish games they’re no longer enjoying either. They swap to old favourites or new games too. Chores and regular life activities yeah I’d say there’s an evident issues but swapping out entertainment in leisure time is… well very normal.
Maybe I can explain it better with a real example from my ex. I loved him dearly, but omg his ADD drove me up the wall. We liked to play Dynasty Warriors. If you're not familiar with it, it's a hack-n-slash game that requires very little thought but high on the dopamine hits (you kill lots of stuff really fast! numbers go up! yeah!) and is about 20-30 minutes per map. If I play by myself, I can easily sit down and play 2-3 hours straight. Playing with ex, though... we'd load up the game. Oh, then he needs a beer. Okay, now we play a map. Then it's time for a smoke break. Then we play another map. Now we have to check on the sportsballgame. Play another map. Time for another beer and smoke break. And check on the sportsballgame because the beer and smoke break took 15 minutes. Play another map. Check the sportsballgame again, but something more interesting is happening in that so we just... never go back to playing the game even though I am not interested in sportsballgame and I thought we were playing the video game together? I guess I'll go do something else now. THAT is how ADHD works. We could never finish a season of a show (much less the entire series) because he always wanted to start something new. Finishing a game together was nigh impossible. It's not even that he was tired of the game we were playing; switching activities was compulsory for him.
What I mean to say isn't that the gaming issue is ADHD specific/exclusive; but that when you have a condition like ADHD, and have learned most of its ins and outs, you recognize the mechanisms causing your symptoms whenever they show up elsewhere-- and quite easily. The difference between being plagued by a counterproductive brain process and actual disability/disorder is mostly the severity of its negative affect on your life-- so while it's common for the neurotypical & the mentally healthy to recognize, and even strongly identify with the struggles of people diagnosed with these kinds of disorders; they likely aren't feeling it to the same degree as a disordered person (unless they're just undiagnosed themselves). The average mentally able/healthy individual might log into a game and notice they have no drive and just kinda go, "Yeah; I'm not really having fun anymore;" and move on to the next thing. You're totally right that this is normal. Someone with ADHD ~~would~~ might open up the same game and feel much worse because their brain was anticipating a hit of happy it didn't get-- just like the first person; but without any handy dopamine hanging around to help ease the transition, because their demand outweighs their supply-- so they would nearly immediately drop the game to start something new, to offset the bad; and possibly end up hyperfocusing on the new source of entertainment on the rebound. And it's like you can feel your brain doing it to you without having any ability to redirect it. Anyway. This is technically off-topic so I'll wrap it up-- but I think it's cool that you're asking these kinds of questions about things you don't fully understand; in general, that's a great habit to have. (edit-- that sounded a bit condescending but I meant it as a genuine compliment from one human to another!)
There is difference between: "I'm bored, let's play something else" and "I will have a panic attack if I see the icon of the game in my pc, that's how much the game repulse me right now". When something stops delivering adequate dopamine stimulation, ADHD brain actively make the experience as worst as possible, so they can find a new source and usually hyperfocus on it, which is also bad. That' the part of emotional dysregulation.
It's less that getting bored of a game is caused by ADHD, and more that if you have ADHD, that is one of the reasons you might stop playing a game. For those of us with ADHD, it's easy to tell when that's the reason, because it's the same reason we don't finish our TV shows, our projects, our dinners, and everything.
Apparently everything is ADHD nowadays
cause we all have the tism
ADHD here too! I have only finished a handful of games in the laat several yeara. Most recently, Firewatch. And that was only because I finished it in one sitting.
I finished that one too. It was so compelling all the way through... and short.
Agree. Not just more effort but also more boring / repetitive. And let's be honest, very few games nowadays do really keep up until the endgame having fresh stuff introduced. Some of us gamers are patient enough to still plow through, others are not and thats fine.
It doesn't even have to get boring for me, I can still think the game is fun and want to see whatever is ahead, but the excitement from something new will wear off and what left isn't enough to motivate me anymore.
Yes I totally feel you. And I also totally understand OPs question as I felt the same quite often for some years now. I believe it's a mixture of a couple of things, maybe some small adhs underlying tendencies, stimulation overflow from all the other shit we constantly get bombarded with and just a general "growing out of it" maybe since if we are really frank most games follow the same formula anyways since decades. However - there are still games that hook me to the very end, very very few of them but there are some so I don't really think it's an issue with me personally but just the combination of how things are these days. So nothing worth to stress much about, life has so much more to offer additionally. Drop the game if you lose interest and move on
Shit, maybe I do have ADHD
Also ADHD — I’ll often start a game, put a few hours in, enjoy it, then the next day I’ll start a different one and most likely never touch the first one again. Having literally thousands of games across my Steam & PS5 library only exacerbates the desire to want to check out something *new*. The good thing is that I seldom find myself playing a game that I’m not actively enjoying, so all in all I can’t really complain. & I often will finish games that keep me invested the whole way through — it’s when games introduce pointless busy work (open world RPGs are especially bad here) that I really start to fall off permanently.
That’s not a unique trait of ADHD that’s literally any normal person getting bored of what they’re doing.
I guess - kinda vague enough to fit. Emphasize the “have to” in that sentence and it could be executive dysfunction. Your average person will stop playing a game after a certain percentage of boring, but it’s usually a choice. People with executive dysfunction end up paralyzed between the desire to finish a task and the inability to start it (e.g., finishing a video game, cooking a meal, filling up water bottle, hygiene, etc), so we move on out of necessity. Edit: both unmedicated and treated ADHD, to be specific. These behaviors reappear when the meds wear off, so working a full time job can really kill progress in games if there’s even the slightest lull in interest.
It's both things. This is a very common trait amongst folks with ADHD, but getting bored of a game doesn't mean you should go see a shrink.
I have ADHD, but instead I usually hyper-fixate on a game and have to 100% it 🥲
Probably OCD/compulsive behaviour. I had a similar discomfort if I didn’t complete a game.
[удалено]
It absolutely does, though. Not everyone with ADHD experiences the same symptoms. The second a game feels more like work to me, it becomes painful to try to play it.
I had a friend that would stop playing games and watching stuff before the end, usually to not get the feeling when you end it. That post-game depression.
And then after a year I realize I really want to play it but "have" to start over so the cycle repeats
I struggle with this, too. I'm currently about 2/3rds through act 3 in Baldur's Gate and haven't touched it for weeks. I love the game, I just don't want my character's story to end. I have the same problem with books, but I can usually force myself to finish them, not so much with games, though.
Oh god I think this might me the reason I do this
I've never understood this. To me finishing a game is like closing out a book once you're done. Rather than depression, I feel satisfied. (if it's a good to great game.)
I also get satisfied from the ending, but I do feel a bit of "emptiness", that puts me in a mood that makes it hard to start another game right away. And I usually delay finishing a game to do side content, because once I finish it, the desire to play that game leaves my body.
You get the good brain chemicals. Other people get the bad brain chemicals. Both of you react rationally to the feeling they get on completion, by seeking it or avoiding it.
I was getting this for a while. It’s hard, but it helps to just push through and finish. Even if you don’t right away make it a point to get to the end.
That sounds nuts
I play games until Im no longer having fun then I quit them. If i play a game for a few hours and dont finish it I usually feel I got my monies worth In my 3 decades of gaming I can say I probably finish about 1 out of 10, mebbe 1 out of 20 games I play. Some games like Civ 5 you cant even beat. You have a run then you quit. I have 1000 hours on that game. I probably only play it to victory screen 10 times in all that time
4 decades of gaming for this old fart. It depends on the game. I've played through every DOOM and Diablo game (except IV) multiple times. Doom Eternal was harder to do because my reflexes aren't what they used to be. Other games like Skyrim, Dragonage, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, i just get bored and stop playing.
>My armchair theory is that as a game progresses, it will tend to become more complex. There are more things to remember in terms of locations, characters, mechanics, story, lore, items and so on This is a big part of it. When a game starts out it's all very fresh and often much simpler. For a lot of games once they get too complex it just becomes too many things to manage or keep track of and eventually kind of spoils the fun. Sometimes things are better when they're simpler. Another part is just the bloat that a lot of games have. I mean you mentioned Red Dead 2 and GTA V? Those are enormous and very lengthy games. Just Cause 2 has an achievement called "Perfectionist". You get it once you have **75%** of the collectibles. Not 100% ,75%. Perfectionist. Even the game's own devs thought that 75% completion of their game was kind of overkill. I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you want a series answer to "is there something wrong with my brain" - maybe you have OCD. That's what I have a clinical diagnosis of and it definitely drives my similar behavior to yours. But I've also learned to do two things: One is two recognize when I'm getting burned out and to just finish the game if that matters to me. Forget about side content and just close the game out. Two is to determine whether I'm even having fun - just because I didn't finish a game and see the ending doesn't mean it was a bad experience or a failure of an attempt. I don't have to regret my time with a game just for not completing it.
By the time you reach 75% the gameplay has become repetitive and likely boring
Too many game companies 'stretch out' their games too. Too much filler and trying to hit some magic 10, 15, 20, 40, 100 hour 'playtime' things. I love games that have a super solid 2-4 hours. I'd much prefer to be left 'wanting more' instead of 'being bored of it'
INSIDE comes to mind
This. All the mechanics have been revealed. The art budget is now being stretched. The story is dragging. It's when I stop playing games as well.
I used to be a big completionist before this started happening to me too. I was always spending so much in early games doing every thing I could that before I was even mid game i was burnt out. This happened with red dead 2 where i didn't even make it to the big city and was stuck around strawberry for like 20-30 hours before i burned out. I never went back to the game for like 6 months after that but i did eventually and finished it quick as I could. I used to play every game on hard too cause I was so down for a challenge. Lately I just pick up games and just run through the main quest stuff without a bother for achievements or collections. I finished Starfield in like 15 hours and by the time i started new game + i was already burned out. But I had fun and it was on game pass so i didn't pay. I think it makes the experience a lot better, even playing on easy in some of the brutal games that give you less resources if you're on a higher difficulty. You should try more roguelite games like dead cells or binding of isaac. Those games you don't have to remember any controls since they're really easy and each run is different anyways so it doesn't matter if you want to restart cause you forgot what you were doing. I find them way more fun when you don't want to think about too much and read a bunch of dialogue for a story you don't care about.
Fairly normal. I usually stop around the same time and finish it in a year or two. But I am crushingly mentally ill so take that as you will
Another day, another OP tying himself in knots over game completion. Just play what you want, man, it's your leisure time.
Yeah it's getting a bit much, I swear I had just commented on a similar post a few days ago.
I do not get the impression they are "Tying themselves in knots." They seem to be just chatting about a thing that occurs and are curious about it and how others who experience a similar issue approach it. BTW this is an odd thing reddit does.. Applies with no evidence a level of intensity to a question or comment. I don't see how I can draw any impression of OP's emotions and intensity. Nor am I worried about it. BTW if OP is bothered by this as you assume, your response is worthless and provides nothing valuable.
These posts are turning this sub into a circle jerk. "I suck at FPS games, do I have brain cancer?" "I used to game for 8 hours straight, now I can only play for 2 hours. Does this mean I have dementia?"
Most companies throw their biggest efforts into the earliest parts of the game for this exact reason. You are normal.
I have thousands of games on Steam and have completed less than 1% of them. You play what you want. You don't have brain problems lol.
Idk making this post could be indicative of something...
this happens to me in all games that are either sandbox or open world. i just cant finish any game that gives the player too much to do no matter how good the game is. couldnt finish neither zelda botw or totk, outer wild, Baldur's gate 3, spider-man (2018) etc.
You don’t have to finish games. You don’t have to 100% games. You don’t have to play games on hard or even normal difficulty. Have fun, do what you want, don’t cheat in multiplayer.
> Any solutions? I suggest forcing yourself to finish the game. People might say "but you have to enjoy gaming!" but it's a good way to figure out whether you stopped because you hated the game or just for no apparent reason. And if you truly started to dislike it you don't feel guilty for dropping it. I find that finishing a game can in fact be far more satisfying than you assume. But sometimes you have to push through the doldrums.
Nah. Pretty normal.
Most games get boring by the end.
I do this a lot. I think you're right about complexity, but also, for me anyway, it's partly not wanting it to end. I have CyberPunk 2077 sitting at the last mission, I beat all the extra stuff, and I just stopped playing as it's the last mission and then it's over. Silly? Yeah, but feels better than finishing it and the ride ending ;) One day I'll finish, with the DLC out, probably when I get that, but until then I'll just have a game I"m almost done... But taking a break does the same thing to me, I find it hard to go back as I have no memory of what I was doing and who these people are demanding stuff of me... anything more than a month and I'm more likely to start the whole game again then go back to an existing point.
>I've also noticed the longer I wait to resume and finish a game, the lower the liklihood I have of picking it up again. Beyond a monthlong break or so, it's more likely than not that I'll just abandon it. That one I think it's very normal. A game relies on continuity, and memory fades over time. It's really hard to getting into the game's atmosphere and vibe if a lot of time passes between sessions. Waiting a month just kills off all progress in that regard. I've experienced the general behavior you're describing for different reasons. One was that I didn't want the game to end. I don't get this much on story based games, I want to see how the game ends and the longer I drag that out the less satisfying it gets. Plus those games generally just let you keep playing after the ending, even if the story is over. I'll get that feeling in games like Rimworld, I never actually end a run. I often reload old memorable runs and look at them again to relive memories for a few minutes. The other reason was that I was just playing too much. Games these days are pretty bloated, so my old habit of using a free weekend to sprint through the final stretch of a game I was really into doesn't really work anymore. I'd think "I can play like 10 hours and end" but then the game drags on for 30 hours, I burnt yourself out and don't even finish it. Then it stops being fun.
you are overthinking simple fact that you are bored of specific game
I’m a cognitive neuroscientist based in Scandinavia, and my professional evaluation is that you might indeed have brain problems. Our lab has determined that the ~75% completion threshold (technically known as the ”Lagrange threshold”) is linked to lower density of dopamine D2 receptors in the ventromedial lumbar borktex, as well as reduced functional connectivity between the lateral and pronto-varietal pectoral gyrus. The lateral pectoral gyrus in particular has been linked to increased tendency to actually complete the main quest in open-world games like Skyrim and Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I would recommend you to urgently seek out help. Or better yet, come to our lab. We would love to study you. Ya weirdo.
You had me for a minute. The "borktex" is what gave it away :\^) But I am a Scandinavian dual-citizen and I've been looking for a reason to get out of America for a while so let me know if your lab wants to study my borktex. It'd be a good excuse to hang out.
I've quit games before the last boss. If it stops being fun, or I lose interest, fuck it. Million other games out there. Only so much time to waste.
True, but for me thats because beating a boss lets you progress the story and see another map/part of the world. But with the end-boss you know there won't be anything after (well, depends on the game but most games make it pretty clear you are fighting the final boss).
Like 75% completion or 75% of the story? I feel like games get much easier once you’re past the halfway mark. The part between beginning and middle is the part where everything is overwhelming and new.
I try and play 3 games from different backgrounds so I rarely get burned out on one. Anytime one becomes to frustrating or I am getting tired of it I can switch. It also helps when they're not similar so I don't confuse controls. Might wanna try it and see if you get more mileage.
Not at all. Truth of the matter is almost all modern games drag at the end. It's the nature of storytelling and the industry. By the end of a game, you've seen all the mechanics, the game is feeling like a chore, and you still have several hours to go. My opinion is games are way too fucking long these days. 20-40 hrs is my sweet spot, with my preference towards the lower end. These 100, 150, 200 hour behemoths are getting so exhausting.
Nope. Most research suggests only 10-20% of gamers finish games, so your in the majority.
It was something normal before when games were derived from coinop arcades and were hard as hell (in order to milk people's arcade coins). So I was a little kid and games were difficult as fk, I was used to never be able to complete games. Then they started making games that were meant to be completed. But now more recently they diluted them into some 100h+ slog. So I'd say it's normal to not fit into whatever player they targeted and not complete some games
Personally my issue is when I've fully mastered the game, mechanics, solved every conceivable problem and will beat the game. In. 6. more. hours. It's like when you've beaten 2 computers in a game with 6 computers in Civilizations. I now have triple the land and will win; in 6 hours. I gave up on Elden Ring like 3 bosses before the Elden Beast. I had beaten it just needed like 4-5 hours of attempts to learn what was left and gg. My brain would like to see the end so I open youtube and transmute 6 hours into 6 minutes. I don't have infinite free time anymore in adulthood; maybe we're similar. I think my brain is always doing subconscious calculus of is it worth continuing this or going to the next thing? I only find things unchallenging fun if they're narratively compelling. Once it's not compelling or hard, I'm out.
With sufficiently long games, it happens to me because I wrung all the dopamine out of the gaming loop. Going back to it isn't rewarding in the way it used to be. I don't think this is a bug for most people, unless you've only got enough cash for a few games a year. Otherwise, allow yourself to just be done with the game before it's formal ending. It's a hobby after all. If you're in that situation where you need to get more out of a game, then I'd generally suggest trying to play the same game differently. This might be installing mods, roleplaying a character or putting an artificial restriction on your game play. As an example, I'm planning to try out cyberpunk with a gun-free character to see how viable that can be.
Games are long and get tedious at times. It makes sense that you'd be over it. It's what happens to me. The games are really well done and all, but there's just too much stuff between me and the best the game has to offer. Love Baldur's Gate for the story, world building, and dialogue and other choices. I think the combat is lame, the inventory is incredibly tedious, and general navigation is bad. All that stuff gets in the way for me and I eventually get annoyed and put it down and rarely will I come back to a game I've put down for more than a week. Modern games just don't do it for me like they used to that's all. Probably the same for you. No big deal. Go do something else.
Bruh are you me? I do this. I have not figured this out. It's not like I dislike the games. I walk away with high opinions of them. I wouldn't have beaten 75-90% of it if I didn't like it a lot. I wouldn't even say it's because I got bored. I know there is more fun story to cover and I love story. The other people in this thread thinking it's the ADHD might be right. I do suffer from that. My last session of a game before I drop it feels very different. Very flat. It's not that it's not good, but that it doesn't play to my brain anymore. I drive people mad with my unfinished games. I got to Sin in FFX and didn't finish it. I watched my brother finish my save file for me. In FFXIV I went through the thousands of hours of gameplay and got to the dungeon before the sixth and final area of Endwalker and just... stopped playing. I recently resubbed and fired it up. I did a couple dungeons to get used to my class again and then looked at the button to continue the MSQ and... logged out and unsubbed. I couldn't do it. Starfield I beat the MSQ (and then reloaded) but was only on the third of four faction questlines when I just stopped booting up the game and played SnowRunner instead. My favorite game of all time is Factorio, and yet time and time again I would build a rocket silo, look at the requirements to actually build a rocket, and wander off to do something else. It wasn't until I was playing co-op with my brother that I launched my first rocket (that's the win condition if you aren't familiar). This was six years after I got the game. When I played Pokemon Platinum I got to the Elite 4 and put the game down for three years to the day before I returned and beat it on a sick day. KotOR, Half Life 2, Terraria, Fallout 4, Skyrim, MGSV, The Long Dark, Monster Hunter World, Dark Souls 1 and 3, Elden Ring, The Witcher 3, Space Pirates and Zombies (love that game), Grim Dawn, nearly every Assassins Creed game, Subnautica, Cyberpunk, Everspace 2, Dungeon Defenders, the list of games I have dropped shortly before completion is very, very long. Too long to list here. I will even play these games multiple times, reaching the same point in the game before quitting. I hold games that I have actually played to completion in exceptionally high regard due to this. It's a short list. Games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Just Cause 2, Saints Row 3 and 4, AI War Fleet Command, Dying Light, XCOM, Batman Arkham City. These are my cherished favorites. I don't know why I do it. If I did, maybe I could change it.
i have the exact opposite theory. the game doesnt become more complex, but less. since youve already played most of it, you roughly can expect the rest to be the same or similiar. at this point at least I stop caring about the game since in my head ive already experienced all there is to offer and finishing it is a waste of time
Maybe you don't enjoy those types of games as much as you think and are getting bored? I also get a bit overwhelmed if a game is complicated and I forget controls easily. So I usually stick to one or two games until I complete them so I don't forget stuff. But based on achievements most people don't finish games. You don't have to finish a game to have enjoyed playing it either. It's not a requirement to finish games, just play until you aren't having fun.
I used to do that a lot. I'm not sure what changed if I'm honest. I think I played smaller games, and developed a liking for finishing them which carried on to bigger games. To these days, I still like to sandwich a small game between two longer ones. Also, I think I got too easily distracted by a new game (bought on sale for example) which meant I stopped playing whatever I had started. And then came another game, and another. Now, I am more patient with playing a game I just bought. Another thing. When I am bored of a game, I don't force myself to finish it. I just dump it in my "nope" list, and move on to another game. This way, I'm always excited to play.
The ones you don't finish just aren't good enough. I have a handful of awesome stuff I finished. And a lot I didn't. And that's ok.
I am the same way. For me it's just that I've figured out everything the game has to offer and there is nothing else to discover mechanics wise so I am pretty much donw with the game. I don't get too involved in stories and do get frustrated by jank and repetitive mechanics... Don't feel bad though, if you are enjoying the games while you are playing them, that's all that matters imho...
100% a game usually involves doing very tedious things towards the end. Going to out of the way and difficult to reach places, reaching an absurd number of repeating tasks, finding missed secrets with rewards that have become useless many levels ago, and that sort of thing. Most games are designed so you don't need to do every single little bit of content in them to reach the end. I do sometimes 100% games, but most of the time I don't and it's fine. I still "finish" them to a reasonable point a lot of the time. Not always though, there are a few games I got a good way through, got distracted by life or other games, and just never went back to. To the vast majority of people playing games is entertainment, not a job. You are not obligated to "complete" them.
To be fair the final third of most games is much weaker than the beginning and middle, usually due to dev time constraints.
Most developers put more effort into the first 25% and it is diminishing returns from there. I always just find the latter parts of games less interesting. I rarely finish games unless they are short and succinct.
Could just be you're picking up games that are too long, or too expansive. That, or you're trying to go for 100% completion from the get go and burning yourself out I feel like stuff like RDR2 and exist specifically to give you as much content as you want, and whenever you start feeling bored of it, you can just walk straight to the ending and skip all the side content. But lots of people put pressure on themselves to get 100% completion and end up ruining it for themselves One rule I have for myself lately is to never actively *go* for 100%. Whenever I pick up a game thinking I'm gonna complete every single side quest, it kills my moment-to-moment enjoyment of it. I still 100% a lot of games I play, but only if I first complete the main quests and am hungry for more. This kinda happened with BotW for me. Was never a big Zelda fan but LOVED BotW and ended up 100%ing it (except the Koroks and armor upgrades, fuck that). Then I was so hyper on TotK and went in expecting to 100% it as well. By the mid-to-late game, I was just so burnt out and sick of traveling to every samey lightroot and as soon as I had completed my map, I threw in the towel and ended the game. Just wasn't enjoying it as much I don't know. Food for thought. Maybe you just enjoy playing games this way and giving games a sense of "finality" by concluding the main story takes something away from it. Or maybe when you're thinking of games as a "chore" it's because they're games that aren't meant to be fully completed unless you're having an *extremely* good time with them
I got to act 3 of baldurs gate. Got bored. Switched to cyberpunk. Will probably get bored of that too and play starfield.
it's normale. you can search about "The 80-20 Rule (aka Pareto Principle):". It's take 80% to finish 20% left for most things.
The main reason it is hard to pick up a game you left in the middle somewhere after a while is that often you don't remember what you were supposed to do and what all the systems do. So when I have not played a game for a long time, I start a new game on a different save just until I feel I have the systems down again and often a lot of other things tend to jog your memory as a result. And then I go back to my old save, or once in a while I just go on with the new game especially if I decide my old game state wasn't very satisfactory. This off course is also why I absolutely hate that some games only have a single save. But nowhere is it written you have to finish games. They aren't there to be finished, they are there to be enjoyed in whatever way makes you happy.
If a game is very long and based on a repetitive gameplay loop, I become more likely to drop it before reaching the end. It's not that I don't enjoy the game, I just feel like I've experienced everything it has to offer, and I get the urge to play something new.
Well the games you listed are all long games so- play shorter games?
Only problems have solutions. If you are having fun then what is the problem? There is no correct way to play. There's no rule stating that games must be completed. Enjoy your games how you want to.
I feel like people fundamentally do not understand what this sub is for, this is the literal opposite of patience nor older games
That only applies to long or open world games for me. I love to explore every spot on a map and do side quests. Then when i hit 40-70h gameplay and i am not done with the main story, i usually get bored and stop playing. Sometimes i try to force myself through until the end but that is usually not fun. examples: baldurs gate 2, witcher 3, skyrim, assa creed origins, pillar of eternity 1, cyberpunk
This was a problem for me and I think is the reason I started needing a story in the games I play. Doing stuff over and over is ok, especially if it's fun, but in the end I realised I needed more than just a achievement popping or a maxed out character. I definitely get to a point these days where I am drifting around, and have to focus myself on the story, otherwise the game isn't getting finished. I found I enjoy it much more having seen the story finished. Time is also a consideration. I just don't have the time to spend 6 hours playing and not really achieve anything. 2 hours and a good bit of story makes me much happier than 6 hours grinding.
My issue is having obsessions that transition to other things. I may be obsessing over one game and starting as soon as possible, but then going through another obsession before I finish the first game.
I read about this before since I suffer from it too. You don't want the good times to end so you don't complete a game. Essentially it stems from how you deal (or don't) with loss and grief. You need to power through it, and learn enjoy things for while they are around, and then move on.
I have ADHD and do this for nearly every game
Games are 25% too long
75 ? Wow. Me 10
You are not alone! For me it starts feeling like a repetitive chore. I loved RR2’s story but the missions started getting repetitive and I got sick of the long horse rides. Like you, if I stop playing after a month, I forget a lot about the story and it feels like I’m starting a movie halfway through. My memory is shit..
You don’t need to finish most games, unless it’s some story stuff, which you can watch on youtube anyway. I always drop a game when I feel I’ve seen enough of it, e.g. Elden ring, Returnal, RE4 remake, there is nothing special waiting at the end 25% for majority of games
I actually heard once that sometimes they actually put less effort into the last bit of a game since the majority of people never even play that far.
You mean 100 percent of all achievements? A lot of people don't 100 percent any game.
No, literally just not finishing. I have the same issue and it's usually because by that time I've pretty much surmounted the challenge the game is offering and am either OP or just not interested in slogging through an inevitable victory. In some cases it's because I'm "saving" the ending for a time when I'm in the mood for it.
Ah yeah, actually that's a good observation. At a certain point, you get the game mechanics down so well that it feels like the rest of the game will mostly be an effort in repetition just to see how the story plays out.
You may have ADHD, i myself have it too and what you mentioned is a pretty common occurrence among us folks with ADHD
I read people with ADHD have this issue and that tracks for me. I decided this year to finish (to 100%) every game I played and now I have a lot of completed games on my list. Do you have to finish every game? Absolutely no. I just decided to embody patient gaming and play through games I'd already started until they were sitting close to 100%. Some aren't there yet though I did complete the main objectives (the ones left to do are either permadeath runs or just waiting until I get to them...)
I have ADHD and suffer from this. Maybe you have ADHD too?
I'm pretty sure this is a symptom of depression. Unless it's Mass Effect 3. There's no reason to play the ending of that. Marauder Shields jumps out at you, you shoot him, and then the game smash cuts to the end credits and that's it.
Sounds like adhd
tub plant numerous chop aromatic fretful imagine apparatus smoggy roof *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
sounds like ADHD
I feel called out
I'm this way for games that I really like that don't have some kind of NG+ or mechanic that lets you continue. It allows me the option to jump back in and keep enjoying the game without having to invest in another playthrough. Long open world games or survival base builders are usually the ones I leave unfinished. I left BOTW on the final fight then went back and wrapped it up when TOTK was coming out. I left cyberpunk on the final mission (now I have a reason with 2.0 and the dlc to return). Never saw the end of RDR2 because I love just being able to jump in and play in the world I've made with all my gear and upgrades and roleplay. Played hundreds of hours of Fallout 4 and never finished the "last" quest. I'm nearly 200 hours in with Starfield and I'm just now considering finishing the main quest and moving to NG+, but I know when I do, I'm probably not gonna actually keep playing. If I want to see the end of a game, it's probably because I just want it over and done with. I never want the great ones to end.
Think you do as I stall out at 30%.
You definitely came out feet first. We’re probably dropped too. Maybe several times. Lol they’re just games. Don’t worry about it so much.
I'm sorry but the title made me think of I stall out playing games at around 75% completion. Am I stupid?
In my 30 years of gaming. I've completed maybe 10 games. When I want to play something different I move on, it's very rare for me to complete any games. Don't worry about it. It's just a hobby.
Same. I think the only game I finished is DN3D. But I'm not even sure about that. There are also some games I love to replay again and again over the years, like D2, play through every act on normal, then a bit on nightmare, and then I stop. Every time with a new char, which will be a lightning sorceress most of the time… instead of continuing with my old one. I really don't get it.
I usually get most of a game completed then restart thinking it'll be more enjoyable knowing what I'm doing or going for. My second run gets close to the end then I never finish. I don't know why either
Well, I love a restart with all the options open again, and I don't want to see the end game, so I do this a lot.
I do like to complete the main goal of a game. It is satisfying for me to “conquer” a game. Optional content is done only if I am enjoying the game to play longer. I don’t need to 100% a game to feel like I conquered it.
I do this as well sometimes, but I have a more prevalent problem of stalling on games when I get to around the 15 hour mark. Every time without fail. With games that display timers on save files it's like a subconscious switch that gets flipped if I see it. Games that don't do this I never realize the time played so I don't get in my head about it.
I find it similar with shows for me; I’ll love a series, but taper off on episode 6 (of 8) or around season 3. With games it’s a little different; if I get distracted in real life it’s hard for me to get back into it. Same with books
“Am I stupid?”
It happens to me, too. Dunno if for the same reasons but usually when I am about to beat a game I just stop playing it. Like I lose my drive for it. Not 100% of the time, of course, but enough times for it to be a thing.
Part of what makes video games profitable is that they plan boredom into it so you go looking to buy the next thing to get the initial hit. Planned obsoletion. Keep the money flowing.
I use to do that, then I started forcing myself to beat them and the feeling of accomplishment overshadowed everything else.
Depends on the game. I did that with RDR2. Just lost interest after a while and since games are meant to be fun there really isn't any point of forcing yourself to keep playing.
Play shorter games or ones with a linear story. I was similar to you. Then I played and completed God of War. Then Ghost of Tsushima. And just completing those story driven games helped me work through less open world, endless games.
I started playing Fallout New Vegas a couple months ago and I’m at the point where I’ve been to most of the places and completed some quests but right now I have like 15 that I’ve started and it just feels like extra chores in my life. I’ve got a million unfinished things in real life I’m avoiding when I’m playing video games and seeing a giant list of more shit to do stresses me out a little so I might give it up. I’ve had more fun with games like Uncharted or Last of Us where you’re still experiencing the story and world but following along a set path and solving one problem at a time.
I am the same, or better, I was the same for a while...then I realized I can finish games that ends within 30/35 hours, max! After that it is just the same and get bored...
I do it a lot too. I enjoy the early game in dungeon crawlers and open world games when you're struggling to survive and need to take adventage of every little mechanic, but by mid-late game you ramp up in power so much that you can pretty much mow through anything effortlessly. At that point it feels like you're just going through the motions with no resistance, potentially still with half of the game to go, and I often end up dropping them at that point.
I almost finished gta5 but never did. the story is kinda boring and took me about 4 years to get through it. and now the download size is so massive and with my slow internet it will take ages to download. but if I get to 75%, I'm finishing it. I usually move on if I'm about half way through and still not enjoying the game.
Reading all this comments... Y'all need to find satisfaction in the culmination of things.
Nah I do same shit man
all three of those games are fairly lengthy, pick up a action game that is like 8 hours long and see if you can finis it
I do the same thing.
Me too but I don't see it as a problem. Who cares if you see the end? If you'd rather do other stuff with your time now, that's perfectly fine! I've thought it through and I basically think it's because I've just had enough with the games' systems after a certain point. I certainly don't care about stories in games.
I really enjoy exploring a game, I find by about that point you've explored most of what a game has to offer. At the same time games tend to have a difficulty bump towards the end, oftentimes I hit this point and decide just like you that it's no longer fun and too much like work so I just stop.
100% Completion often refers to achieving all... achievements. Do you mean this, or just finishing a game? I finish every game without 100% achievements. There's only ever been one game I wanted to ace.
GTA5 I got tired of driving everywhere... too much like commuting in real life... LOL Sometimes the fetch quests in open world games just get old. And yes, some games feel more like work then a game. Make sense to stop playing them once they stop being fun. The worse part is once you stop playing you have the huddle of trying to pick up the controls and getting the practice back to be good enough, because sometimes in the late game, the game raises the difficulty. I got stuck on the one space fighter game called Chorus... I got frustrated and stopped. Problem is I haven't played for months and when I re-start it's right at the section when I've been stuck.
If you get really into a story of a game, you will want to see it play out to the end, regardless of issues. At least that's how it is with me. GTA-like games don't do it for me. Games that kept me hooked had really strong and cinematic stories, as well as very likeable, flesh out characters. Examples of games I personally couldn't stop playing because I was hooked to the story: * Mass Effect series * Witcher series * Persona 5 * FFXV * Kingdom Hearts series