Why most people don\'t finish video games

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Gameguru Mania News - Aug,18 2011 -

Why most people don't finish video games - briefly
(hx) 09:51 AM CEST - Aug,18 2011 - Post a comment / read (10)
CNN has posted another hard hitting investigative report on why most people don't finish video games. Here's a taster: At the beginning of the 21st century, the average gamer was pushing 30 -- mid-to-late 20s, to be exact. They weren't playing as often as they did in their adolescence, but in between entry-level jobs, earnest slacking and higher education, there was still ample time to game.

Fast forward to today, and the average gamer is 37, according to the Entertainment Software Association. The average age of the most frequent game buyer is 41 -- nearing Just for Men-type levels. They're raising kids. In the middle of a career. Worried about retirement.

Not only that, but time is precious for gamers of all ages. "People have short attention spans and limited time now," says Jeremy Airey, head of U.S. production at Konami.

"The amount of digital distractions now is far greater than it's ever been before," he says. "People need time to check their Facebook, send a Twitter (tweet), be witty on their blog, play with their phone -- oh, and that game you made. If they feel as though the end is far away, they'll simply say, 'I don't have time for that' and stop playing."

In other words, the longer the game, the higher probability a player will abandon it. "Red Dead Redemption" takes upward of 30 hours to complete, according to howlongtobeat.com, and few players are willing to commit that much time.

last 10 comments:

Kompressor

(11:01 AM CEST - Aug,18 2011 )

I don't buy this BS. When a great game is released, everyone complains about how short it was even when it wasn't short, it just seemed short because it was so good and time flew by. People can't pull themselves away from a great game.

Then you have your other games that are good when they first start out but quickly become repetitive, so people become disinterested and stop playing. This isn't people's fault, this is the fault of a game not staying good in the middle and the end, not just in the beginning.

Sabot

(01:41 PM CEST - Aug,18 2011 )

This is one of those ; "No $hit Sherlock.." moments.
I've just sorted through my PC games from 20+ years ago, some of those titles; Shivers,Lands of Lore 1/2,Blade Runner,The Longest Journey, Fade To Black,Full Throttle,Day of The Tentacle, 7th Guest, Beneath a Steel Sky, The Beast Within and HUNDREDS more i have, Not to mention even games on the Megadrive (Genesis system) Starflight, Buck Rogers, Landstalker, Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force and Rings of Power all are played with $hit loads of graph paper -you had to hand draw maps and levels remember? You also had to make copious amounts of notes on loads and loads of notepads!!!!
Back then, we didn't have cell phones/mobiles, 28.8/56k was your dial-up connection to the internet -if you could afford it, since you paid per-minute!! User guides were NON-EXISTENT. You got stuck you JUST had to put the old grey matter through it's paces, no phone a games helpline or buy dozens of PC mags.
TV was LIMITED, we were out more and life in-general, was LESS complicated.
We recorded select films/progs on VHS. etc,etc.

This is like sayine "we used to have NO online purchasing, and ACTUAL games/record shops in the streets" No $hit Sherlock..."
I can and do, still put in 80/90/100+ hrs on games. Dragon Age1/2, GTA4 plus addons, Assassins Creed et al, Fallout 3.
Flight Sims are perpetual, BoB,F/A-18,Mig Alley for eg, eat into the 100hrs bracket.
The gamer today isn't, and NEVER will be, the gamer of yesterday.
You CAN'T live a life that you never grew up in.
Sure you can buy those games and experience them -just like B&W TV, but there isn't the same passion and thrill and slooooow life back then.
Go back to a 1mb graphics card then onto a 4mb voodoo and 32mb EDO Ram and a huge 1gig HDD. a 1024x768 output was considered luxury! videos were played in a tiny window and everything was cracking if it was SVGA lol. It cost twice the cost of a high-end rig of today, but boy did you get your money's worth out of the quality of the games!!!!!
No,no, forget graphics -3DFX patches came later. you made do with dinner sized pixels! but it was just so cosy- once you had installed the game off of 8 floppies! 8)

Case example; i used to drive 7mile in 9minutes, daily. That drive now is now up nearer the 1hr mark and will NEVER go down due to the volume of traffic on the roads -FACT.
Result is i bus it, and it's quicker than car now.
You CAN'T turn back the clock, you can go forward but it's a lot harder to go backwards :wink:

	(07:02 PM CEST - Aug,18 2011 )
Stumpus> TV was LIMITED, we were out more and life in-general, was LESS complicated. ...and cell phones didn't exist :-) Pretty good post!! And I fully agree with you!! What are some other things that didn't exist 20-25 years ago?

Kahn_Bloodbane

(07:07 PM CEST - Aug,18 2011 )

as usual they completely misunderstood it all. with age doesn't come lack of time, I am older, I'm 36 now, if I want I can muster the time required to finish a game, the fact is... I don't need to finish a game to enjoy it! THAT is the truth, I totally enjoyed oblivion, for example, a bit less than morrowind but still I played it for over six months, and what? I completely and totally ignored the main quest, I did manage to do ALL and I really mean ALL other quests including expansions, and ignored the game main quest for two reasons, 1) it were boring and 2) it would mean finish the game! if the game is good I don't want it to finish, I did lately play new vegas, fallout 3 and I enjoyed really much the main quest, I raced tot he end to see how it was and finished it.. and...
game over
WTF GAME OVER?!?
you aren't game overing my ass you punk! I WON I want to keep on playing! with the choiches I made in endgame!
so now I'm back playing new vegas, playing the expansions (old world blues totally cracked me up was too funny) and am going to ignore the main quest, as usual, until I didn't finish everything else and also had fun doing what I'm doing, it's not for the max level, it's not for being 'uber' it's about play in a really fun and well made imaginary world. like playing civilization, it's not the end, it's the journey. people don't finish games nowdays because there's the culture of MMO, yeah TONS of kids plays MMO to race to the endgame and do the same things over and over, older players, like me, instead enjoys the trip to the higher levels, getting more involved and going slow, same applies to single player.
about the time, I just spread out, a game I used to finish in 3 days I finish in 8-9 days now because I have less daily time (with work and all that)

Koogle	(08:22 PM CEST - Aug,18 2011 )
quote: CNN has posted another hard hitting investigative report :lol: lol ...so funny. quote: What are some other things that didn't exist 20-25 years ago? Less officialdom police state legal tyranny bullshit, fiddling in the lives others.

Csimbi	(10:35 PM CEST - Aug,18 2011 )
Dunno where this 'report' comes from, but I call bullshit. I know, I am exactly 37 and I have kids.

Baconnaise

(12:23 AM CEST - Aug,19 2011 )

34 with five kids and I have time for games that I enjoy. Honestly most of the games the past ten years have been garbage. I'm not going to waste my time playing a bad game. There are gems out there but compared to sheer amount of titles that are trash they are few and far between.

My kids and I both enjoy Minecraft which should tell them something. Graphics aren't game play! They play a ton of flash games not to mention prefer the older NES SNES games that I picked up from play n trade. I didn't even introduce the old super mario and nes games to them they found them online via flash game clones. The only MP game my older kids play are League of Legends.

The PC gaming market has gotten so bad due to console ports that I haven't played an FPS in years. They are way too slow and clunky for what I'm used to (Quake etc). Many of the newer FPS try to introduce realism to an extent and it's usually not fun in a game imo. My last bastion was RTS titles but after playing SC2 (only good for MP and the same game different coat of paint) and the newer Dawn of War titles I've lost hope.

Most people my age that I work with or know have at least played an MMO at some point in most cases. I've played most of the more known ones that weren't an Asian grind fest and even some of those too (Lineage 2 Aion etc.).

This report seems awfully ignorant of many facts and realities.

gx-x

(11:43 PM CEST - Aug,19 2011 )

well, I usually don't finish a game when the game changes direction in gameplay that is not to my liking. True, I do not like/want to wander around the map like I used to do when I was, say, 20y.o. but I can still do it and will do it if it is rewarding experience (i don't mean xp points lol).

Latest game I haven't (yet) finished is witcher 2. I got to chapter 3 (the last one) and I enjoyed game VERY much thus far, did every sidequest I could find and so on, BUT, in chapter 3 things got messed up. I can either follow the main story and finish the game in ~30 mins, perhaps a bit more, OR I can do sidequests like always. Problem is: sidequests SUCK HARD in chpt 3 :((( Map layout SUCKS to do point where I got aggravated and stopped playing the game. I am trying to do a simplest thing really - get to a point where I know I need to go and I couldn't find a way to it for about 2 hrs I spent running around like mad. (if someone is interested I stopped at this quest: http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/The_Gargoyle_Contract )

I also stopped playing Fable 3 after I became a king. HUGE dealbraker for me. I was playing to be evil and rotten to the core but I wanted to keep my promises to the people that I swore to keep so I did. Due to the retarded game mechanics, I had amassed around 16 million gold and I didn't need to raise taxes or cut back costs or anything for the final quest that requires only 3 million lol. The dealbraker was that I became GOOD, my moral raised to top, people started to like me and I have no way to return to being evil again. I can complete the game sure, but I am totally thrown out of character at this point and I just don't feel like it.

So I think these are some of the reasons (examples of them) that ruin it for me.

o, btw I'm only 31 :P

Csimbi

(11:44 PM CEST - Aug,19 2011 )

These alone sum it up, I can't agree more:
Baconnaise> I have time for games that I enjoy.
...
I'm not going to waste my time playing a bad game.
...
There are gems out there but compared to sheer amount of titles that are trash they are few and far between.
This is something I can very well relate to as well:
Baconnaise> The PC gaming market has gotten so bad due to console ports that I haven't played an FPS in years. They are way too slow and clunky for what I'm used to (Quake etc). Many of the newer FPS try to introduce realism to an extent and it's usually not fun in a game imo. My last bastion was RTS titles but after playing SC2 (only good for MP and the same game different coat of paint) and the newer Dawn of War titles I've lost hope.
As for this:
Baconnaise> This report seems awfully ignorant of many facts and realities.
Imagine that some people pay/get paid for these reports and some believe it has truth to it... It should be interesting to see who commissioned the report...

Koogle

(01:10 AM CEST - Aug,20 2011 )

"Latest game I haven't (yet) finished is witcher 2. I got to chapter 3 "

I lost interested somewhere in chapter 2, haven't gone back to it in weeks now. Think what put me off it the most was the surrounding environment outside the town area, was just so uninspiring compared to chapter1.. it wasn't even the quests really. Right now I still don't feel like playing it, almost like I would just feel bored with it right after loading up the main menu.

Borderlands was another game that I really enjoyed playing up until the repetition in levels got a little boring, then stopped playing it for while. However I did recently go back and finish it off, was an enjoyable game kinda surprised I left it incomplete for as long as I did.

For games that have a multiplayer and singleplayer parts. I tend to finish the singleplayer much faster without gaps (as in like days apart before playing again) at all really, I think the reasoning is that there is something else after the singleplayer that I can go back for, so I just go through it.

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