Crispy™ How often do you stop playing an RPG and then start over?

[TripJack]

only rpg ive quit multiple times and come back to is morrowind

 

[Sigourn]

Rarely. I've dropped games because I hated them, never because "I don't like my character". And if I drop them because of that, it will be a while before I restart them.

I simply don't understand how people can restart a game immediately (unless it is to first get acquaintanced with the mechanics). There's a higher chance I'll drop the game entirely out of tedium because of replaying what I've already seen.

 

[mbv123]

most of the time tbh
the cycle goes like this
>start an rpg
>get to a certain point where I just get bored because I'm burned out of the game or something like that
>stop playing for months
>when I start the game again, I've already forgot what I was doing or what happened so I restart with a new character
>repeat
this goes for other games too, not just RPGs
This is why I only finish like 5%-10% of the games I played

 

[Invictus]

Happens from time to time, I might play a game like Dungeon Rats and feel my build wasn’t very good, I have no food and screwed up the crafting system so a restart is in order to go for a better build or try something else
Or I might pick up a game, play the tutorial or first chapter and then stop to get back to that huge ass backlog only to return later
Frankly I rather replay the games I enjoy the most than try new games... Dark Souls, Stalker series and Iron Tower studios pretty much are all I need (plus Grimoire)

 

[HeatEXTEND]

I will often restart once I understand how things actually work. Then I can reframe the experience to match what I wanted to see happen in the first place. Like if I wanted a character to be a great burglar so I optimized him for Lockpicking, but then I found out that Climbing is the skill you really use the most for breaking & entering, I might start over and rebuild accordingly.

qft
Same thing with boardgames, couple goes to get a feel, discuss pitfalls, then play the game. Saves a lot of frustration/kingmaking down the line.

 

[The Old Kiwi]

Sometimes it's just because I don't like my build or party and will just restart if I've only played a couple hours... How often do you just stop playing an RPG and why? I wonder if this is a common thing because even Obsidian mentioned this during POE2's campaign re: Berath's Blessings..

I feel like I do this more often than not, tbqh...

Actually, I've seldom got much further than 1/3 way into a cRPG without wishing I'd made some other choice(s) for my character(s), and half the time I follow through on starting over again. Those games that really tickled my senses, I've actually finished more than once with varying player character(s).

Might and Magic VI was the one I completed at least seven or eight, or more, times.

 

[mbv123]

Sometimes it's just because I don't like my build or party and will just restart if I've only played a couple hours... How often do you just stop playing an RPG and why? I wonder if this is a common thing because even Obsidian mentioned this during POE2's campaign re: Berath's Blessings..

I feel like I do this more often than not, tbqh...

Actually, I've seldom got much further than 1/3 way into a cRPG without wishing I'd made some other choice(s) for my character(s), and half the time I follow through on starting over again. Those games that really tickled my senses, I've actually finished more than once with varying player character(s).

Might and Magic VI was the one I completed at least seven or eight, or more, times.

when I realize my build sucked, I just roll with it to see what happens, it adds to the random factor and challenge of your first playthrough imo, which is more interesting than just META it and making the game unbalanced and easy as fuck because you broke it with some overpowered shit

 

[Zombra]

when I realize my build sucked, I just roll with it to see what happens, it adds to the random factor and challenge of your first playthrough imo, which is more interesting than just META it and making the game unbalanced and easy as fuck because you broke it with some overpowered shit

Out of about 25 different people who've replied to the thread, only one has expressed optimization /desire to ruin the game as the reason they restart.

 

[The Old Kiwi]

when I realize my build sucked, I just roll with it to see what happens, it adds to the random factor and challenge of your first playthrough imo, which is more interesting than just META it and making the game unbalanced and easy as fuck because you broke it with some overpowered shit

Out of about 25 different people who've replied to the thread, only one has expressed optimization /desire to ruin the game as the reason they restart.

Well -- as to my reasons for any restart, it's almost always because my character just hasn't developed into as enjoyable of a PC as hoped for. Admittedly, I experiemented along lines of maximizing power back when cRPGs were fairly new, early 1980s, Bard's Tale, and the Gold Box version of PoR. I created some amazing characters, practically blindly, using a hex editor.
.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Hey it's not like I'm against min-maxing the party. But I don't ever do it on a first playthrough. The first playthrough I go full head on chaos mode. I absolutely refuse to use any outside resources, build advice, tactical tips, I don't read forums to find out where some good items might drop or how should I optimize my guys. It's just me and the game, and playing with that kind of uncertainty adds tension and danger.

If I like the game enough, I may do another run. And this time I go full min-maxing autist mode. I do extensive research on the internets and use every cheese and metagaming trick I learned to just absolutely destroy the game. But on the first run any of that stuff would kill the fun entirely as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Ovplain]

279 hours in Underrail, never finished.
250 hours in Wasteland 2: Director's Cut, never finished.
240 hours in Dead State, never finished.
237 hours in Witcher 3, never finished.

I pretty much always do this. I start up an RPG, play quite a bit for a couple weeks, grow tired, stop. And then 6 months or a year later I repeat the whole cycle again.

Hate it. Terrible habit, character flaw. No idea why I can't just pick up where I left off, never put much thought into it.

 

[Vorark]

I'll hardly return to a dropped game. Don't wanna spend time on activities I don't find engaging.

 

[mondblut]

Out of about 25 different people who've replied to the thread, only one has expressed optimization /desire to ruin the game as the reason they restart.

Good honeypot, OP, we've got all the larpers exposed.

 

[the_shadow]

279 hours in Underrail, never finished.
250 hours in Wasteland 2: Director's Cut, never finished.
240 hours in Dead State, never finished.
237 hours in Witcher 3, never finished.

I pretty much always do this. I start up an RPG, play quite a bit for a couple weeks, grow tired, stop. And then 6 months or a year later I repeat the whole cycle again.

Hate it. Terrible habit, character flaw. No idea why I can't just pick up where I left off, never put much thought into it.

Burn-out with longer cRPGs is pretty common I'd say. It's doesn't help when there are sudden difficulty spikes (eg. Wasteland 2), the quality of the first half of the game is better than the latter half (eg. Dead State), and/or the main plot isn't very compelling (Wasteland 2).

 

[T. Reich]

I used to restart most of RPGs I play at about 25% progress mark because by then I'd figure out the game system and how to play it for maximum personal pleasure (=powergaming, baby!).

These days I barely do so, because now I research the game systems first even before starting the game. It ain't an RPG if you can't metagame the shit out of it.

 

[Theldaran]

I'm never satisfied with my party in Icewind Dale 2.

The farthest I have gone is Chult. And that was with a non-optimised party.

When I played Baldur's Gate 1 I didn't finish the game with my first character, though I got to the latter chapters. I just rolled a better character with the knowledge I had built up. Like, "I will now do this thing this way", "I'll go get X that's at Y", and so on.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Next to never I guess, mostly because if I drop a game (an extremely rare event) that game has to be either a very boring piece of shit or bugged beyond repair.
Only recent game that happened was Raven's Cry I think. Stay away from it if you value your sanity.

Even if my character/party suck I somehow manage to finish games. Even it means I have to "cheese" a bit.

 

[Daedalos]

I suffer from bad cases of min-max syndrome seen in many autists.

I wanna play the most optimal/efficient way/build, so I find myself restarting a number of times, if I feel my character is off.

Other than that, I might restart just because of missing out on content, and I don't wanna replay the entire thing, just to experience some early game choices.

If the character creator is sufficiently complex and offer alot of choices, I like building a char and trying out different shit, before completing the game.

This is especially true in games such as AoD and Underrail, which both feature excellent character building.

 

[Stavrophore]

Did the same thing with Tides of NumaNuma where I played for like 2.5 hours and then gave up because it was shit but then a few months later started over because I was really bored...

The fact that you started the game again when you were really bored is telling

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

This thread reads like one of those group therapy sessions.

 

[Shackleton]

The first game I actually bought when I got my first PC was Baldurs Gate, not that long after it came out. I knew nothing about D&D really and made a fucking paladin with like 16 Dex and 14 Int. Khalid was my main tank and I knew shit about PC RPG's. I just wandered through the game running from fights I couldn't beat and thinking I'd leave stuff until later. Amazingly, I managed to get to the part just before Sarevok, where you go through the wooden tunnel section to get to the underground. I could not touch those skeletal lord (?) mofo's. I literally could not scratch them and they just chewed through my incompetently built party like elder gods squashing woodlice. I distinctly remember trying to invis everyone past them but even that didn't work for some reason.

So instead of giving up I went right back to the start, rolled a min/max fighter, read up a bit on this new 'internet' thing I'd found and munchkinned my way through the game, being amazed all the time how much I'd missed and how easy all the fights I'd ran from were. Unfortunately now I'm short of time compared to those days, it's meant I tend to read up a bit on char creation before I commit to a party so it loses some of the magic, but I think that was the only time I've ever gone back and restarted a game straight away.

 

[Bohrain]

I suffer from bad cases of min-max syndrome seen in many autists.

I wanna play the most optimal/efficient way/build, so I find myself restarting a number of times, if I feel my character is off.

I do this a lot and the worse thing is that I rarely play on a difficulty level that would warrant it.

 

[Xeon]

I stop playing a lot now that I am older and if I decide to play again I always restart, I just find it a lot better to restart since I won't be remembering much about my progress and I get to familiarize myself with the game a lot better if I restart.

 

[DraQ]

Constantly, mostly because of character build/concept reasons.

 

[SkiNNyBane]

I've come to terms with the idea that there is no need to finish games as most games you pretty much get the maximum enjoyment out of it somewhere by mid game after which its same old same old and there is no need to force yourself through when there is so much other shit to do.