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Only 10-20% of people finish videogames
- Thread starter Humdinger
- Start date
Magic Carpet
Gold Member
I think I should have stuck with the main quests. I spent too much time exploring and looking for fox dens, hot springs, and composing Haikus, I followed every bird and firefly.
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Halo2redvsblue
Member
I did too, I completely finished the bottom area.
SAME THING happened to me when I played the Director's Cut on PS5. Ended up pushing through and accidentally running the entire DLC. Still have to wrap the game up but it will be another year till I have the interest.
A similar thing happened to me in Far Cry 4, I don't think letting someone complete an open world map JUST to show them a larger map with more of the same open-world activities is enticing.
Halo2redvsblue
Member
It was when it open world games came out but honestly with more and more games being open world and doing this, no it's not anymore. It's probably why the one of the biggest things I'm excited for Gears of War E-Day is they announced that it's not going to be open world. That made me so happy lol
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cinnamonandgravy
Member
almost always play till the end
almost always play one game at a time too
almost always play one game at a time too
KimDongHwan
Member
I am playing both FFVII Rebirth and Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth in parallel, and it feels like at least 3 months with very little progress and I play every day. It feels difficult to finish games for my playing style which is to get everything I see on the screen done
Dr. Wilkinson
Gold Member
There's way more to it than this, but above is definitely part of it. Also have to consider how they're even calculating it. Let's say they're talking about how many games this group of people bought vs how many were completed. Well, that's missing a key data point. A lot of people (myself included) buy games on sale, and have yet to even install them, let alone play them. They're on the backburner until I'm in the mood/ have the time to start them. So are those counted as non-finished? They shouldn't be, because otherwise the percentages would be heavily weighted due to that. They should only be counting games someone's started, and then out of that, what's been finished. And what does Finished mean? Platinum trophy? The vast majority will never do that, what's what makes it so elusive and something to brag about, to strive for. And what about games like Elden Ring or MH Rise that I've bought on multiple systems, to have a portable version on Steam Deck, but I played it for 75 hours on my Series X. Those other versions would be counted as un-finished but I actually did play a huge portion of the game.
Another major piece is like many, I enjoy a giant game like Skyrim or BotW, that I can be hooked on and play for 200+ hours in a single playthough, and yet not finish. I like knowing that when I play it again and start a new character, there's all this other stuff I haven't done yet, which will make the next playthrough fresh, and not just a repeat, like if I was playing Paper Mario again. So in cases like that, Skyrim, BotW, Elden Ring, Witcher 3, etc, I would argue it's a selling point and a big part of what makes those games so special, is that they are so huge, you'll play it three times over a span of 5 years, 100+ hours each time, and have new things come up you never saw before in each one.
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NecrosaroIII
Ultimate DQ Fan
I don't think that's a bad thing. Most games aren't worth finishing. And it's going to get worse. Games need to be shorter.
I only have so much time. It's a lot to expect someone to invest 40+ hours into a game.
I only have so much time. It's a lot to expect someone to invest 40+ hours into a game.
Astral Dog
Member
now i feel like a freak, i finish books as well
WitchHunter
Banned
It's like Apple phones. Oh, look we sold 10s of millions from it. Yet, they can't make a proper text editing UI for that overpriced shit. Nobody complains... they just swallow the shit. Do not complain, do not criticise... well, this is the end result. Also there is a giant chasm between what critics say and what people actually experience. I think most of the critics check what the other critics say and write their articles accordingly... Noone wants to steer away from the herd, because, oh, what will happen if you have a unique take.
RDR was a great example, it had a fucking boring story. What a fucking forced march that game was.
GOW3/GOW2018 is a perfect example how to pull people in. I think the latter has quite high completion ratio.
Maybe it's time for two day games priced for 30$ or so. 8 hours gameplay, with over the top visuals and content. Fuck, someone should ask the big publishers why don't they try other formats... since this is an article from 2011, lol.
RDR was a great example, it had a fucking boring story. What a fucking forced march that game was.
GOW3/GOW2018 is a perfect example how to pull people in. I think the latter has quite high completion ratio.
Maybe it's time for two day games priced for 30$ or so. 8 hours gameplay, with over the top visuals and content. Fuck, someone should ask the big publishers why don't they try other formats... since this is an article from 2011, lol.
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asdasdasdbb
Member
That must be it? It's the same on PSN.
Big One = 16.4%, Final Mission 16.8%. Even "Moment of Truth" (earlier Story mission) is 15%.
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Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Sometimes I just can't finish it happens to all guys why are you looking at me like that
WitchHunter
Banned
If you don't talk about it, then others won't expropriate it and then repeat it ad infinitum as their own thought. So simple
. Same happens in other circles. Someone outspoken speaks about something he says he talked about first/invented it, and then a scientist comes with his paper written 25 years ago... But the one with wider exposure will win. So that's why you don't talk about certain things, unless you want it to be disseminated, because the current status quo is unbearable, in this case, the fucked up AAA gaming landscape.
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VideoHideo
Neo Member
Yeah….yeah this is true.
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Men_in_Boxes, the scientist of NeoGAF.If you don't talk about it, then others won't expropriate it and then repeat it ad infinitum as their own thought. So simple
YeulEmeralda
Linux User
Tsushima is just like almost every open world game that ever came out. Copy paste.
WitchHunter
Banned
there are no limits to modestyMen_in_Boxes, the scientist of NeoGAF.
Humdinger
Member
Agreed. Someone else brought that point up earlier. I think it's been addressed, though. Specifically, the researchers refer to their subjects as having "started" games ("started but did not finish"). Unless the study authors are misrepresenting their own data, these are not cases like you're referring to - people who who merely download the game but never even boot it up or start it. I did not download the full article and examine the methodology closely, though, so I could be wrong. I'm just going by what they said.
No, that's been covered, too. "Finished" does not mean getting all the trophies or 100% completion. It means getting the trophy associated with finishing the main story.
Others have pointed out that there are some games where no such trophy exists (e.g., fighting games). Presumably, they excluded those games from the analysis, since there would be no way to track those games by this metric.
Yeah, I doubt they accounted for something like that.
That's right. A game like that would count as unfinished in this analysis, even though you put hundreds of hours into it.
A similar situation exists with multiplayer games like CoD, where people will play hundreds of hours of online multiplayer, yet never bother with the singleplayer. They would be counted as unfinished, too.
I made a similar criticism myself. I complained that I was being lumped in with the dirty "non-finishers" if I completed 95% of a game but bailed at the end because it got too frustrating for me and watched the ending on Youtube. I was being counted as "not finishing," even though I'd finished 95% of it. Shouldn't completing 95% of the game be good enough to count? But no, I get it. If "finishing" means finishing the entire campaign, then I didn't quite finish. Close only counts in horseshoes, as they say.
I can't really fault the researchers for that. They had to operationally define what "finishing a game" means. Using the trophy for finishing the main campaign seems like a simple, reasonable, and straightforward way to do that.
All research has limitations. But it does line up with the two informal statements from industry vets, though, quoted in the OP (one said 10%, the other 20%).
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semiconscious
Member
tsushima's an over-extended nature walk, with combat. it's a gorgeous game. &, for me, that's about it...
Rhazer Fusion
Member
I try to finish all of my games especially if paid for them. Admittedly, it can be difficult with the length of most modern games and the insane amount that come out now, but to me it’s like not finishing a movie or a book.
Starbuck2907
Member
Perhaps only 10%-20% are worth finishing.
CuteFaceJay
Member
Heck even when I did have that time I still didn't finish a game. Prolly why I've moved towards driving games in my old age.
nemiroff
Gold Member
It's an interesting topic even though it's been like that forever. I was playing in the arcades back in the days so I'm used to the idea of not finishing games.
- Some games are not made for being beat, like simulators, online games, arcade like games, pinball. card games etc. etc.
- Some games are not good enough to being beat
- Sometimes I don't need to beat a game to get done with it / getting my value out of it. Playing a game beyond that is a waste of time.
It's all par for the course.
- Some games are not made for being beat, like simulators, online games, arcade like games, pinball. card games etc. etc.
- Some games are not good enough to being beat
- Sometimes I don't need to beat a game to get done with it / getting my value out of it. Playing a game beyond that is a waste of time.
It's all par for the course.
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ShadyAcshuns
Member
That makes no sense. Who watches a terrible movie until the end? Why play a game you hate until completion? Who has time to waste doing all that?
Rodolink
Member
and that's sad to players like me that like single player well crafted games. Instead to appeal to the masses big companies gonna keep making battle royales and mmos.
Ironically big huge single player games with open worlds filled with silly things to do are still being made feeding more into the problem of people not finishing them xD
Ironically big huge single player games with open worlds filled with silly things to do are still being made feeding more into the problem of people not finishing them xD
HerjansEagleFeeder
Member
I finish about 80% of the books I start, and I read a lot, constantly tbh. However, games have a ratio of probably around 5% lol. I feel like it's a lot easier for me to pick books I'll enjoy than games.
LordBlodgett
Member
I'm a decently serous gamer and if you looked at all the games I've played vs what I've finished, the ones I have beaten would be a tiny fraction. I think this is probably pretty normal. Heck, there are even some games that I have put 50-200 hours into, games that I really enjoyed, that I have yet to beat for various reasons. Sometimes you get burnt out on something (Yakuza: Like a Dragon gets pretty sloggy near the end), sometimes you are waiting for extra content (Cyberpunk or Starfield for me), or sometimes you go through a phase were you fall in or out of love with a certain genre.
Negotiator
Member
Books are linear by definition, there are no hyperlinks or other distracting stuff (like open-world side missions/fetch quests).
YeulEmeralda
Linux User
Oh yeah I get that I'm a huge fan of Ghostwire just because it's set in Tokyo. If it was London or Paris I wouldn't even have played it.
semiconscious
Member
just so i'm clear: i was exhausted with tsushima even before the third area opened up. i mean, yes, it was lovely to look at. but only up to a point. even real life nature walks don't just go on & on & on, eh? which's what tsushima did, well beyond the point of adding anything new to the mix...
so, yeah, i was agreeing with you completely. imo, in many ways, tsushima was actually an inferior ubi open-world knock-off. I'm back replaying all the infamous games right now, & it's hard not to feel discouraged by just how much distinctive character & imagination was left by the wayside when sucker punch went from those games to tsushima...
ps: i really love ghostwire, too...
Negotiator
Member
Never understood why they abandoned the Infamous series... it feels like Sony studios are trying to erase their PS3/4 past. :S
Top-notch graphics on PS3 and very enjoyable open-world experience (not much busywork) on the PS4.
semiconscious
Member
yes!...
insufferably despicable zeke & deadly accurate snipers from hell aside, the games've turned out to be even more nuts/fun than i remembered them being. as always, maybe not for everyone, but, man, sucker punch were really on a roll with these games, imo. gems...