Hey there readers! Since it seems to be “Gaming Confessional” week here at the ol’ Lusipurr.com, I figured now would be as good a time as any for me to delve into my own gaming conscience and explore why I, like so many other gamers out there, have a huge list of unfinished games.
This post's images (and slider) brought to you by games I own but have never played.
Unlike a great many other gamers, my problem is not that I cannot finish what I start, but instead the exact opposite: I have great difficulty bringing myself to begin anything. A disappointing amount of my game library is games that I have not even touched; indeed a few of my games are still sitting in the shrink-wrap. I see this in other hobbies as well – I have in my possession two complete anime series that I have yet to even really look at, much less finish. But why is it that I am so reluctantly to begin playing or watching? This seems to stem from my internal commitment to something; once I start a game I become hell-bent on finishing it. As I have mentioned to others in the past, the farther along I am in a game, the more likely it is that I will finish it. This is true both in first-time playthroughs and in replays, and I also frequently notice that games have certain roadblock points in them as well. I never know when I begin a replay of the first Kingdom Hearts if I will finish the game again or not, but as soon as I get past Atlantica I know I will see the game through to its conclusion. But I digress. My relatively newfound conviction to finish everything I start has spilled over into my hobbies, and rather than being a more productive gamer, it has instead slowed progress significantly. Gone are the days when I would think to myself: “I should play this game again”, then immediately pick it up and play through it, giving up halfway through. Instead, I find myself weighing the options, wondering to myself if I am willing to commit to a game long enough to see its end. I am significantly more focused on the three or four games which I am playing at the cost of completely neglecting all others.
I blame Steam sales for this one.
Gaming is a strange hobby, in ways. I have never heard an anime junkie or TV aficionado complain about giving up on too many series, nor have I heard of many avid readers lamenting their tendency to abandon a story midway through its telling. Perhaps the interactive nature of games is the cause here; it is certainly easier to slog through a boring novel than than a twenty-plus-hour game. Video games can be difficult, and a player’s ignorance of how to progress or inability to defeat a boss can keep them stuck at a particular story point for days or weeks at a time. Maybe this, then, is why we often have so much trouble seeing a game through to its end. As for me, my awareness of this difficulty has acted as its own roadblock, and I am rarely playing through more than three different games at any given time due to my reluctance to start something I feel I will not finish. I used to play five or six games at a time, but only finish one or two of them. Now, I play fewer games, but have a much greater tendency to finish them. Very rarely will I start a game I do not intend to finish. My increasing reluctance to start in on games pairs well with my indecisive personality, I guess. Oh well, I am afraid that is all I have to say on this matter. Am I crazy, or are there other gamers out there who do this as well? Let me know what you think, readers.
