Gameguru Mania

[ggrobot]

An article in CCN Tech tells us how many gamers are just not finishing games anymore: of it unless they watch a clip on YouTube,\uot; says Keith Fuller, a longtime production contractor for Activision

That\'s a lot of unfinished games.

And it doesn\'t get much better when isolated to just avid gamers.
\u

Read more...

Source: GGMania headlines
GGMania.com - Daily Gaming and Tech news

[Csimbi]

Obviously these folks have no idea what they are talking about (and hence, they derive the wrong conclusion).

For the record, IMHO, Red Dead Redemption sucked on many levels - so I did not even pass the first level. Does it take any value from the game? No. It's only my opinion. Let that sink in. Really.

Just because you buy a game, does not mean that you will play it through (or, you intended to in the first place; chances are pretty good that you are a victim of a marketing campaign, a nice demo, a good discount, a coupon code, a bundle, or, you simply want to appear sympathetic to your friends for whatever reason). Let that sink in.
Just because you play a game does not mean you bought it (clueless mom/dad/granny/friend/etc bought it for you) - meaning that it's not what you wanted; it's merely what others thought you wanted. Let that sink in, too.

Only those will play it through from beginning to end who have actually enjoyed the game from beginning to end. If only 10% played it through, it means on 10% of your players (!=buyers) enjoyed the game 100%; the rest ditched it before (got disappointed, bored, too difficult, repetitive, etc).
Those who have actually enjoyed the game from beginning to end are likely to replay the game again (with different settings).

And most importantly: A game does not get 'game of the year' title because a lot of people play through it all the way.

A good, unbiased measurement would be: how many customers would refund the game (provided they could, without questions asked) and then see how many of those that kept the game played it through.
There are a number of titles in my closet that I would be happy to return (but I can't) and they are quite a few of them that I would never give away (in fact, I buy these again - on GOG - due to the convenience of being able to play anywhere without the disks).

[Kompressor]

This article was published August, 2011, and was posted in this forum around that time. What's with the repost?

[Rhagic]

I didn't play to the end of RDR partly because of the birth of my first child, and then when there was time to play, I'd accidentally read a spoiler about how the game finishes.

At that point I didn't want to complete it.


I stopped playing Skyrim after 92 hours in the game when following the story missions I was forced to spend a while going through a deep creepy cave where the only human interest was finishing a tragically dead-man's life's work or human slaves who attacked me on sight rather than being glad for their freedom.

So Skyrim was no longer somewhere I wanted to spend time, completely killed it for me. The creepy repetitive Oblivion Gates killed Oblivion for me completely too.

[ggn]

What I don't understand is why the article and the above posters just revolve everything about Red dead redemption. A sandbox game statistics is the only game they base their conclusion? Really?

Sandbox games are (imo) built for people to have fun with, regardless if they're following the script or not. You can wander around aimlessly for a long time, setting even your own goals and not caring about the main storyline. In the end people enjoy being inside the virtual city much more than being forced to do something scripted. Assuming of course they like the game, otherwise to the waste bin it'll go (basically what Csimbi said about the target group).

Let that sink in.

Let's have some percentages from other games like Limbo, Tintin, Bastion, Portal 2, etc. I'm pretty sure the results will show the opposite in most cases.

[Mojoman]

There's many factors to take into account. Many mentioned here (relative/friend buying it, repetitive game, difficulty, life's changes, etc).

And it's not because someone doesn't finish the game, it means he didn't enjoy it. An example that comes to my mind is GTA. I imagine many people didn't finish it and kept wondering around.

[Kompressor]

I'm a repeated victim of Steam marketing. Games go on sale, I buy it because it's a good deal, I never get around to playing it, and then if or when I do get around to playing it, the game is obsolete now.

[Csimbi]