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The Guilt of not finishing.

taxalot

I'm a spicy fellow.
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Codex 2013 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
'Sup codexers.

One might like video games, whether they be adventure or RPGs and not exactly be stellar at them. Such is the case for me for action games, for example.
Recently, I have been playing Wing Commander I , and have been unable to finish it. I tried as I might, changed strategy all the time ; but there always comes a time when strategy doesn't matter and twitch reflexes and luck do the trick. I am not as patient as I was when a kid, and I can't spend months playing a single mission until the Great Randomizer God of Luck allows me to win a mission.

So I gave up on WC1.

And each time I give up on a game, I _HATE_ that feeling. My ego suffers. Why, no online review mentions that Wing Commander is supposed to be hard ! It's official, I must suck!

Sometimes, it's RPGs I can't complete. I have been playing Ultima V on the side for MONTHS. As of now, I have no idea how I will complete it. I refuse to read a walkthrough, FAQ, or anything. Some other games are almost downright impossible without them (random riddle solutions, zombie situations in adventure game where you lost but don't know it, etc). So yes, there comes times, sometimes, when one has to give up on a game.

And my question to the codex is : How do I cope ? Am I the only one to get those guilty feelings ? Do you ALWAYS try until you finish it ? Do you cheat? Do you uninstall and forget this ever happens?

Doesn't it leave a hole in your soul?
 

Multi-headed Cow

Guest
Doesn't really bug me, but I've been a horrendous game hoarder all of my life so I'm constantly bopping between games. Bought a few cases full of hundreds and hundreds of pirated Atari games, then when I did more PC there was the occasional piracy and buying a whole lot of shovelware jewelcases and bargain bin rooting. And now I buy tons of cheap crap from things like Steam. I'll usually attempt to finish a game but sometimes I just lose interest in something and stop playing it. Most recent game that immediately springs to mind is Stalker Call of Pripyat. Not a bad game at all, just lost interest in playing it and stopped.
 

ohWOW

Sucking on dicks and being proud of it
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I never finished vanilla HoMM3 campaign.

It haunts me all the time.
 
Self-Ejected

Excidium

P. banal
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Just check a walthrough or something. No shame on taking a peek sometimes when you get stuck.
 

Metro

Arcane
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First off, WC1 is a great game and you should finish it. To the topic, not really. Especially now when we live in an era where games are dirt cheap. If I'm not enjoying something I just stop playing: e.g. Superbrothers Swords and Sworcery, LIMBO, Vessel, etc. That said, I'm a lot more stringent on what I buy regardless of the cost. If a game looks totally unappealing I won't even spend $1 on it.
 

Raapys

Arcane
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
4,960
Rarely finish games these days. I just play them until I 'feel' finished with them. What keeps me playing is usually the story or the gameplay, sometimes both, but if the story is or has become boring and the gameplay has lost its appeal, then there's really no reason to keep going. Can't be bothered wasting time on something I'm not enjoying.
 

AngryKobold

Arcane
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Aug 12, 2012
Messages
534
I haven't finished many recent games. Usually the gameplay is boring, annoying or tiring, which leads to ragequit and uninstall. No second thoughts, I'm quite happy not playing shit.

There were some titles I felt really bad after I had to give up or cheat my way through. Mostly older games, but it's more about the quality of gameplay than nostalgia. Sometimes after a fuck- up of majestic proportions, ruining XYZ hours of game. Other time due to a game- breaking bug, unexplained dead end, loss of saves or whatever else. I could tell you some creepy stories about games like Reunion or Betrayal at Krondor.

I believe Youtube significantly lowered the importance of actual finishing a game. I don't care if I'm unable to see the end of a game, as long as I can watch it on YT... you get the point.
 

Xor

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Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Finishing a game only really means something to me with more arcade-like games. I'll often give up on story-based games if they're bad or boring. I've only ever finished 4 Final Fantasy games, despite having played nearly all of them until 11. On the other hand, I've been trying to beat Mega Man 2 for months and I still haven't given up, although I don't play it very often.
 

Hobo Elf

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The only game that haunts me to this day is MM4 & 5. I don't know what it is about that game, but I never can finish it even though I love it to bits. I can even finish MM3 just fine. So what is it about 4 & 5 that I can't get myself to finish it even though it's basically the MM3 that I know and love, except on roids?
 

deuxhero

Arcane
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Honestly, most of my games are "mostly" complete instead of complete. I get so involved in finishing up everything optional I don't actually go knock over the final boss who is now piss easy.
 

Wyrmlord

Arcane
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Messages
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How do I cope ? Am I the only one to get those guilty feelings ? Do you ALWAYS try until you finish it ? Do you cheat? Do you uninstall and forget this ever happens?

Doesn't it leave a hole in your soul?
I don't care.

You cope by not caring.
 

mondblut

Arcane
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Aug 10, 2005
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Ingrija
Recently, I have been playing Wing Commander I , and have been unable to finish it. I tried as I might, changed strategy all the time ; but there always comes a time when strategy doesn't matter and twitch reflexes and luck do the trick.

Don't play twitch shitgames. Play the monocled ones where numbers are doing the twitching for you.

And my question to the codex is : How do I cope ? Am I the only one to get those guilty feelings ? Do you ALWAYS try until you finish it ? Do you cheat? Do you uninstall and forget this ever happens?

The games are there to be enjoyed, not completed. All the greatest games are technically un-completable by design anyway. One plays them for as long as it remains entertaining, and stops the moment it becomes boring.
 

Wyrmlord

Arcane
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Feb 3, 2008
Messages
28,886
The game is there to work for you.

You are not there to work for the game.

So feeling guilty about doing injustice to a game is totally backwards.
 

Hobo Elf

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The game is there to work for you.

You are not there to work for the game.

So feeling guilty about doing injustice to a game is totally backwards.

I must be the biggest pussy compared to everyone else in this thread. I sometimes have nightmares over not finishing a game; usually if it's a particularly hard and good game. I woke up covered in sweat over Nocturne once. I dreamt that I couldn't beat Lucifer.
 
Self-Ejected

Ulminati

Kamelåså!
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The only games I don't finish are the ones where I grow bored halfway through. I have no regrets over those. If I'm curious about the ending I will look it up on jewtube.

I also tend to play on "normal" difficulty first time through a game, so that may have something to do with it. A game has to be disgustingly easy before I restart it on hard, since "hard" difficulty these days seems to be "monsters take twice as long to die".
 

Admiral jimbob

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Wasteland 2
I still feel guilty about never finishing Geneforge 4. And now that I'm playing through the whole series, I'm... thinking I might have to skip 4 again to avoid burnout :( but... but...

I'm also currently playing RoA 1, and honestly finding it a bit boring. Keeping going in the hope that it shapes up, but I really want to skip to Star Trail. Hurgh.
 

Konjad

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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I feel bad if I don't finish the game and I want to come back to it sometime later, replaying it and finishing, even if it wasn't a good game.
 

Carrion

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Back in the mid-90's when I first started buying games, I could afford maybe one game every couple of months or so. Occasionally I got a copy of a game on floppy disks or a burned CD from a friend, but I still preferred an actual copy if the game was particularly good. The closest game store was 10 kilometers away from my home, and there was also a good chance that the store didn't have that particular game unless it was a recent release. So, when I bought a game I usually played it for quite a while before moving on to some other game, and as a result I always finished it at least once, usually two or three times (or five or six or twelve, if it was a really good game). If I got bored, I could go back to some older game and finish it again before returning to the not-yet-finished game. I guess finishing the games I've started became somewhat of a principle.

During the last few years I've been slipping a bit, though. I still always finish those games I have physical copies of, but digital copies are another thing. Instead of just concentrating on one game I usually play at least two or three games at a time because it's so easy to get distracted when getting a new game only takes a couple of clicks and it usually doesn't cost you 60€. If some game doesn't quite grab me I may forget about it for a few weeks or even months, and after that it's pretty hard to get back into it. I have a dozen or so gog.com games that I can't really see myself even starting in the near future, but if playing a game starts to feel like work I know that I'll have a ton of other games I can just instantly pick up. I do feel kind of bad about that, but that's how it goes.
 

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