Japanese Gamers Discuss Their Game Completion Habits

How many of the games you buy do you actually complete? Some games you finish the main story and move on to the next, some games you get bored of and drop out of midway through, some games you go for a full achievement score, and some games haven’t even had the package seal broken weeks after purchase.

On Japan’s major online billboard, 2ch, one user opened up a thread asking, “When you buy a game, do you all play it to the end?” saying that, “These days, I quit before completing and move on to a different game.” The thread was filled with gamers giving their answers, from specific titles to broad examples. Here are some of their responses:

“If it’s a sh*t game, I’ll quit playing.”

“I only buy one game a month, if that, so I’ll play a game to the end. I don’t really do all the collecting achievements stuff, though.”

“I tend to stop playing right before the ending. I tend to buy games for the uniqueness of gameplay, rather than the story.”

“Sometimes I’ll buy a game and end up not playing it.”

“I bought Final Fantasy XII when it was released, but haven’t touched it in a year since reaching chapter 12. I bought Sim City but still haven’t installed it.”

“Unless it’s a piece of garbage, I’ll play to the end.”

“While it’s normal to play to the end, unless you’re poor, you tend to move on to the next game.”

“Once I got a job, my play time decreased. I don’t have the time to play, but I’ve got the money, so I end up buying more.”

“RPGs: Finish the story, but no trophy completion. Tactical RPGs: Once I’m good enough to get to the second stage without reloading, I’m satisfied. Adventure games: Full complete. Fighting games: I get bored after 3 hours. Racing games: I play until mastery. Simulation games: I get bored at about halfway.”

“Leave for a while and forget where I am → Feel I need to complete all sub-events so I restart from the beginning → Get bored and play something else for a while → Leave for a while…”

“I end up playing 5 games at the same time. I have no idea when I’ll be done.”

“Unless it’s a huge pain, I try to complete all achievements too.”

“Recently, I’ve gone back to my roots and have been playing the NES all the time.”

“I feel I get bored easily these days. I got Far Cry 3 but got bored of killing people and have been playing Kingdom Hearts instead. I used to clear FPSs without straying to other games.”

So, what about your game completion habits? Personally, I tend to feel obligated to complete a game once I’ve purchased it, but the sheer number of releases and games I’m interested in results in a constantly growing stack of games I haven’t touched while I try to burn through whatever game I happen to be playing so long as the game mechanics aren’t so infuriating as to make me want to break my controller.

It’s taken years, but I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that I’m never going to be able to play all the games out there that I want to and have gotten better at not immediately jumping on the latest flashy new title when I’ve still got games in my queue… Better, not perfect.

お前らって買ったゲーム最後までやってんの？ [2ch]

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