Do You Finish Your Games?

It seems like the logical answer to this question should be a resounding yes. Surely the majority of gamers finish the games they play, right? While pondering the question, I was reminded of a statistic I saw many years ago where I read that only 10% of players finish the game they are playing. Of course, that news story is quite old by this point. I went looking for more recent information and discovered a news article from late 2017 which calculated how many people completed a game based on their achievements. While not as dire as the earlier news story, it does seem to show that a majority of gamers do not complete the games they start. Why is this?

An obvious answer would be that people give up games they are not enjoying. I know for sure that I have given up on games in the past because I was not enjoying them. Life is too short and time too precious to be spending time playing a game that you dislike (unless you are reviewing the game, streaming the game, doing research etc).

Another possibility is that the game was too difficult. Particularly in the past, when you couldn’t look up solutions or strategies on the internet or the speed was too slow (remember dial-up?), many people would encounter a puzzle or boss that they could not get past and give up. Even today with all of the answers at our fingertips, it is still very possible to end up in this situation.

However, these answers are deceptive and cloud the true reason for why people do not finish their games. When speaking with one of my gamer friends, I asked how many of the games that she buys does she actually complete. Her response was that she finishes some games (she even likes to platinum some games which, if you’re unfamiliar with the terminology, means to 100% their achievements/trophies) but, for the most part, she gets distracted by newer games.

I could certainly relate to this. Replaying games from my youth, I was horrified by how many I never completed. From Ty the Tasmanian Tiger to the original StarCraft and even many Final Fantasy games such as V, VI, VIII etc, I left behind a long list of games that I hadn’t finished as I became distracted by newer titles.

After I realized how few games I completed, I made a vow to finish the vast majority of games that I started. I imposed a limit on myself that I could only play up to 3 games at once to prevent myself from becoming distracted. If I wanted to move onto a new game, I had to either give up on a game (either because it was too hard, bad or uninteresting) or finish one of them. This rule has proved effective and I have found myself completing far more games than ever before (including many titles from my childhood).

While this strategy has proved highly effective for myself, I know it isn’t for everyone and it is ultimately up to you to decide the best method to finish games. Let me know how many of the games you play you end up completing and the methods you use to ensure this.

Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.