I don't finish so many games. I'm very guilty of dropping them when I become bored of the game play loop. Sometimes if I'm lucky and I can see that I can potentially finish it by speed running the main quest I'll go for it but if not then I let it go and my never ending library continues to grow.
I feel like playing a mid or even bad game from time to time including playing them to completion actually works as a nice palate cleanser and helps make the genuinely great games stand out more. When everything is great nothing is, so the lower points help keep things in perspective.
im grateful for whatever part of my upbringing helped keep my brain from developing this particular compulsion. ive never made myself finish a game if i was getting bored or was frustrated from being unable to make progress its like people who will force themselves to finish a plate of food even if theyre already full or dont like the food. my husband was like this before we met, and it was crazy to me that he didnt realize he had the option to stop
It’s probably because you’re too young or rather young when it comes to gaming. Back in the day people would rarely have 6+ games meaning that it was almost an obligation to finish. However today with gaming subscriptions it’s almost expected to “taste games” and leave after the first session.
As a gamer in my early 50's it strikes me that we do have plenty of time to play games, if we choose to. 20hrs is NOT such a long time. I have about six gaming generations of backlog but hey, I move on when I move on. The idea presented in your video makes great sense and does go a long way to explain why I have such a backlog of not only games but books and shows/films. I'm not actively seeking the optimal experience with any of it as the best experience will happen by chance in my experience and you cannot know how you feel until you dive in.
As someone that has completed every mainline Zelda game and has the oracle duology as my favorites, I 1) wish you luck. 2) only clicked in the video because oracle of ages was in the title and thought I was about to make an enemy until you actuqlly made some good arguments that I agree with about ages. Overall good video
Hahah I'm not sure if the point of the video was to *inspire* people to finish crappy games, instead just explain why. But you go do that!! What crappy games are you thinking of? Thanks for the support it means a lot :)
That Zeigarnik effect really sticks to me. It's exactly like how fear and anxiety works, it's an innate psychological effect that helps humans avoid the problem. Kinda like PTSD, the event scars the brain so that the person wouldn't have to go through that event again. But for zeigarnik, it's the responsibility anxiety. My guess for games is to take a long break from ruminating and justifying the experience of the game. Anxiety is a curse, but it's not permanent. Either you face it or let it heal with time.
It should also help to remind yourself that not all games are really gonna "click" with you. You tried, you enjoyed it for a bit, but after the honeymoon it just doesn't keep you. Not every game is designed to keep a player forever.
Also add the concept of modding games and adding more and more mods to a game, literally spending more time preparing the game than actually playing it. Skyrim, fallout, stalker, when modding we are prolonging the time we interact with a game, delaying many times the point where we are supposed to actually finish anything.
@@faradiaulia5560 The problem with that is that I don't want to play a game I've already finished right after, so I'd then have to wait to mod it for at least a few months.
Great video. I love these types of videos on video game psychology and general video game analysis. You get the main points across without taking 30 minutes which is cool. Another reason why I finish games I don't enjoy is that sometimes they really do eventually get good. Happened to me in RDR2 and currently in Nier Replicant.
Thanks for the support! I love these types of video as well they're my favourite to watch on RU-vid. Yeah part of it could always be the hope that it gets good later.
Was relieved you were specifically talking about the following, I love dying light but the following brings me pain. Imagine having an amazing parkour game and giving you a car in a field
First things first, you kind of outdid yourself with this one, I expected that you'd be someone with 20, maybe 30k subscribers but I was quite surprised to see that you only have 9 subs, didn't expect that you'd go this deep with such a small fanbase Second, this was exactly how I felt about the half life series, for some reason I just didn't like them at all, I didn't hate them I just didn't enjoy playing it, but at first I was like "surely it'll be better later on" until I reached around the middle of the game, at that point I just quit the game and didn't want to play it again, I wanted to uninstall but then I thought to myself about the effort of getting the game downloaded due to my garbage internet, so I decided to play through all of it and honestly I don't regret it but I don't really think it was a good idea at the same time By the way, I came from the short you made, didn't expect to ever come to a video by a short because most of them are honestly kind of bad but this one I was interested in because it was relatable, thanks for the content man, appreciate it
Dude thank you so much this is such a nice comment. Getting messages like these make me enjoy creating videos! Consider subscribing of you wanna see more similar videos :D I had the same experience with Half-Life 1 I just didn't like it and dropped it halfway through. Im gonna play Black Mesa (the remake) instead but have been procrastinating it for ages. And yeah I didn't really think the Shorts would bring any viewers in but I'm glad to hear that it did! Thanks for the kind comment :)
now a days theres so many games that if im not having fun i just drop it. i also dont feel the need to complete the games and at the end of the day i dont HAVE to play these games. if i want to they are there but if i dont want to i can just ignore them. if i got bored with a game and dropped it i might go back and finish it when i regain interest if i do. gaming is a hobby, not a job. instead of calling it a backlog call it a catalog cuz thats what it is for most of us. we have a catalog of games we can choose from if we want to and not a backlog that needs to get done for some job.
Extremely relatable! This is something I've been encountering more and more often lately; I'll play a game that I've had my eyes on for a long time, and a couple of hours in, I realize that it's not as interesting as I expected. I remember that I had a much higher tolerance for flaws in games back in the days, but now that my free time gets shorter and shorter as my responsibilities pile on, I can no longer see myself finishing something that I don't fully enjoy. Sometimes, whenever I'm at the brink of dropping a game, I'll think to myself, "what if the game gets much better later?" The reality is that the games that actually become dramatically more enjoyable as you get further, so much so that they justify the time commitment you spend to get to that point, are exceedingly rare. While persevering through an experience you don't immediate find gratifying can be extremely rewarding, it doesn't always so, especially with video games. I've made peace with this fact and decided to take the fear of missing out over sacrificing even more of my precious time, time which I can instead use to play more fulfilling games that will stay with me for a long time. It is impossible to experience even a small portion of the games that pique your interest; missing out is just a part of enjoying things. You will probably miss incredible experiences by dropping games, you will probably even miss one of your favorite games of all time, but that's okay. You will find more great experience, and you will find another of your favorite games of all time. So, go ahead, drop that game you're not having fun with, and play something you truly care for!
I have quite a huge backlog. It grows more than it shrinks, but something I do is if I get the itch to play a game I’ll start playing it. But after a few hours if I’m just not feeling it whatsoever, I’ll put it on the bottom of my backlog list. Maybe I’ll get to it again, maybe I won’t, it’s great that I want to try games that’s out of my comfort zone, but you gotta have fun with the game. Because if not, it’s a chore, not a hobby. Plus, would you rather sit through a game that bores you to tears, or pick up the next game and possibly find your next favorite game? And if you’re afraid of what other people will think if you don’t love the game everyone else loves, don’t worry about it. We all have unique tastes.
I would like to see the follow up to this. Why you dont finish games you like. I do it all the time because i dont want the experience to end and then miss out playing them until the end.
Thanks for this. It makes me feel better about not wasting my LIMITED free time playing games I dont want to. I have abandoned 2 games recently and at first I felt guilty and even tried to finish them again but never ended up doing so. Not all games are meant for you and thats fine. Dont waste time dragging yourself like this!
Not finishing a lot of games in recent years is why I’m keen on just playing the same 3-4 games that I know I like and then every now and then pick up a new single player game that really catches my eye
So I think that for myself, it comes down to this desire to _want_ to like the game, that is the reason for me trying to force myself to play through it even when I’m not enjoying the experience. After a while of not playing something that I wasn’t enjoying, I find myself thinking about something in the game that I _did like,_ and it drives me toward wanting to give the game another go. And I sort of begin to convince myself that I was wrong about how I felt the last time I’d tried playing it, and if I went back and gave it another go I’d be able to give it a better shot now that I know what to expect. (Spoiler warning: that is basically never the case; I almost always end up right back where I was when I gave up on the game the previous time.) The thing about video games is that they’re very multi-layered in the content that they provide, and there are situations where you might enjoy some aspects of the game, but not like other parts of it. (The same could be said other forms of media as well, but I think this is especially applicable to video games.) As an example, I really came to like the story and characters of Tales of Berseria, which I bought back in late-2021, but I found it an absolutel slog to go through the game’s _extreme_ amount of micro-management. It felt like I spent 70% of the game sitting in menus trying to figure out which pieces of armor should go to which character, trying to build good combos for combat, struggling to understand the hundred different minor mechanics that exist in the game. And to boot, most of it ended up feeling largely inconsequential due to the fact that the game didn’t seem like it was actually all that deep or challenging. It just seemed like complexity for the sake of complexity; the developers think that having a million systems and parts to gameplay automatically makes the game better, which it doesn’t. But because I was invested in the story side of the experience, I was willing to try and put up with it. I was able to get through about 16 hours of the game before I finally gave up, which obviously isn’t a lot of time in the context of a JRPG - I’m pretty sure game was like 80-100 hours for a complete playthrough - but it was still quite a bit further than I would’ve been willing to go for a game that felt as tedious and exhausting to play, and the reason that I did was because there was that part of the experience that I was enjoying, and I wanted to see the rest of it. Even now, a little under two years later, I’ve kept Berseria on my backlog and am still intent on going back some day and seeing it to the end. (I’m sure others would likely say, “Well if you’re enjoying the story but not the gameplay, then just watch a playthrough on RU-vid.”, and yeah, I have considered that. But... I don’t know; I feel like if I am going to experience a game that I own, then I should play it for myself rather than watching someone else play it for me. I suppose that’s where the sunk-cost fallacy comes into play.) The other reason that I keep playing games after they stop being fun is that I like to try and give games a fair shot. As shown by my example above, I don’t like to write off a game completely just because I dislike part of it. Games can have elements that’re good and elements that’re bad, and so I want to play through them all the way so that I find and enjoy those positive moments as well. I feel like that’s a beneficial mindset to have when approaching a medium that you love. As Dunkey has put it: “You need a contrast to differentiate good from bad. Sometimes when you take a chance on a game you might not like, you end up finding something really unique and special.”
I feel the same about wanting to finish it just to see if I start liking it somehow. I just finished Nier: Automata yesterday which has insanely high reviews on backloggd and it's one of my friend's favourite games ever. But I just really didn't like the gameplay it was so ass honestly. I played through all 5 main endings to get the full experience because I don't want to drop a game halfway and write it off without experiencing it in it's entirety. I also kind of wish that I liked it as much as other people do but oh well. That dunkey quote is good too, I really like unique games.
Spectacular video! Genuinely made me feel better about dropping games that aren't resonating. I shouldn't be feeling guilty when I stop playing a game that doesn't vibe with me. Thank you!
I am sometimes guilty of pushing though. As a trophy hunter, I like to explore what a game has to offer. I started trophy hunting to revisit games. Sometimes it worked great, and I got an experience, that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. Sometimes, it isn’t worth, but it helps finishing the bigger picture. Finishing games, challengeing myself has taught me new skills, with which I could finish other games. It is a journey and it feels good to cross off games.
I have some real trouble finishing games, when games reach so sort of "grind" or where they lose what made them fun because I have been doing the same thing for 10 hours, I usually drop them for the next game.
I wouldn’t call Florence the best visual novel ever created, but it’s still a visual novel I really enjoyed. I adore how it explores relationships. It’s only like a hour or something next time you need something that short just make yourself a warm beverage, boot up the game and enjoy. Night in the Woods also isn’t a perfect game, but one I absolutely adore. Admittedly it steers way too close to just messing around with the characters then the actual mystery aspect way too much, but hey the characters are great.
Welp, this hits really close to home. I was watching this while getting all Achievements in Shotgun King - though I don't even like Rouglelites that much, nor am I having fun. But I'm just missing 16 out of 80 now, so I feel like I have to continue so I can be done with it.l This urge to complete stuff was something I noticed very early when I started playing games. On steam I have 40 Games in my 100% Completed folder, 11 in my completed folder and 19 (that are either not completed or multiplayer only games). To combat having to complete everything I have (or absurd stuff like getting all 171) HoI IV Achievements), I created a "Not for me" folder, so I can just remove games I don't like from my field of view. And for me, that has actually helped quite a lot. This division between "unfinished, but I'll complete it" and "I forgot I even had this game" is something I would also recommend to anyone who suffers from the same.
In 2007, I got my first xbox 360. I would eventually lose it to the red ring of death (microsoft replaced it), but before I did I got really into The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. I played it for a good 6 months, conquering every side quest storyline and DLC, getting every single achievement... almost. I only ever made it halfway through the main quest line. I did everything but beat the game. The last achievement I got before abandoning it was on March 8 2008, leaving 3 achievements unobtained. Well, I now have those 3 achievements, dated for January 16 and 18 2024. It's never too late to go back and finish something 😄
I completed Dark Souls Remastered after letting it sit at the bottom of my game pile. Video games are like books to me. I may put a book on my shelf, not genuinely understanding its contents, then I seem to hear it call my name a few years later and finally understand after reading it again. Dark Souls clicked with me at the time because I felt like I was in a cesspool of despair, and Dark Souls reminds the player that there is always a way forward and you just gotta get up. Ive lately also had Journey to the Savage Plant calling my name, so maybe its time I revist that.
I'm trying to get better about dropping games I'm not enjoying. I got countless games on my backlog, wasting time on something that doesn't spark joy is stupid and I'm mad at myself for doing it. I'm thinking about giving a game a set amount of time based on genre and if it hasn't wowed me after that time has passed then it goes into the bin.
You sound like the exact audience I was trying to reach with this video!! Was worried that it would reach the wrong people. Yeah I've heard other people say they will try a game for 1 or 2 hours and then if they still don't like it they'll drop it.
Im in the same boat but sometimes i come back to it in a year or two and it suddenly enioyable to me, the ones that come to mind are terraria, stardew valley and lobotomy corporation
Yeah. Buy things that you thing would like, or at least caught your eye. If it doesn't click, don't force it. But trying something now from time to time is also great.
It happened to me with Cyberpunk 2077. I needed to force myself to finish it because when i realised i wan't enoying it too much I had already been playing for about 10 hours The game's story and combat are decent but everything else is mediocre. Btw very nice video, hope you grow!
I played like 24 hours of cyberpunk on release but it ran so terribly on my PC at the time so I dropped it for a while to pick up later. I haven't played it fully yet though :P Thanks for the support!
Fr, even after the fixing, the game is just plain boring and limited. Almost nothing to do besides shooting and hacking enemies. Not to mention that the story is very short.
I can relate to this experience for sure, and I am always trying to move away from spending a lot of time on games I am not enjoying. Bad take on Oracle of Ages, though, for the record.
The Zeigarnik effect is striking me hard in gaming, either for completing games but also as you illustrated the situation where you need to pick a path. I hate games that are linear but with a lot of choices because they make me paralyzed. But I love extremely linear games or very open world games (especially sandboxes) because they are so open that it feels obvious to my brain that I CANT finished and explore everything, and it is obvious that it is definitely not the goal.
Heh wow thank you bro. I actually only had 9 subs when I made this video. My videos have been getting quite a lot of views in the past couple days! Thanks for the support :)
I'm genuinely surprised your channel doesn't have more attention. If it means anything, you've definitely earned a sub on my end and I'm definitely sharing this video. Hopefully the algorithm will smile upon you, man!
Thank you so much that does mean a lot! The algorithm has been nice to me with this video my sub count has nearly tripled. Thank you so much for the support :) More videos coming soon
@@mygameopinions If ya haven't played it yet, I highly recommend Dead Cells. It's a Rogue-Lite and one of the best games ever made imo. If you're interested, the game has several animated trailers out for both the base game and the DLCs.
Ooo yeah I have heard of dead cells but haven't tried it because to be honest I hate roguelikes. I am going to try out Hades sometime this year probably before the sequel comes out. I heard dead cells had a really good castlevania dlc
I've got such a back log im working my way through and i had fo ask myself, why am I acting like im being forced to do it? I can just come back when I'm ready, Learnt to just play what you feel like playing, enjoy yourself! Nothing should feel like a chore/job
Yo got yourself a new subscriber. I completely understand the Zeigarnik effect. As someone that own 1200+ games but has only finished less than 100, my backlog is hell on my brain. There are games I’ve bought but never even started. And so, I’ve been executing a plan to clear my backlog while still enjoying my games. I find that I classify most games in 4 categories: dropped, in-progress, finished and continuous. This allows me to better mentally kill a game once I am done with it. A dropped game simply allows me to trick myself into not playing it because I do not enjoy it after giving it a fair chance. Finished can mean either finished or completed. In-progress are the ones on my to-do list. And continuous are things like sports, mmos or grand strategy game where the only way to “finish” is to 100% all achievements which is BS. This allows me to notably reduce my backlog by understanding there are certain games I will never finish by their very nature. Now, back to finishing Bioshock Infinite (which is a rather average game IMO)
Play Outlast next, it’s such a banger. It’s so spectacularly yet tastefully gory and, if you get into it, really scary which is honestly just great. You know exactly what it’s set out to do and it delivers perfectly. On top you get an intriguing mystery story if you’re into that. Also good atmosphere: Just listen to the soundtrack
I used to be really big on finishing every game I bought. Now I'm getting older, if I'm not enjoying a game I won't force myself to play it, as long as I've given it a fair shot. I'm pretty big on replaying games I love too, so I'd much rather spend my time replaying a game I love then drag myself through a game I don't like. I would just much rather waste my money than my time at this point in my life.
I struggle to abandon games even though I'm not enjoying them. Most recently it was Far Cry Primal. Not a bad game. Just not very compelling. Still finished it.
@@mygameopinions I have this personal code, if you will, that I won't rate/judge a movie unless I've finished it. That may extend to my gaming too. Like… in order to have a credible opinion about the game, I need to have completed it. If I haven't finished it, I haven't earned the right to opine on it. There are probably some flaws with that thinking. But at least now I've earned the right to say “meh” about Far Cry Primal!
For me, I think my need to finish games I dislike stems from the discussions had in reviewer spaces about whether you can truly have an opinion on a game if you didn’t finish it. That’s bled out into gaming as a whole to the point that I feel like I NEED to roll credits in order to ever discuss having played that title with anyone else. Even though, let’s be honest, if I hated the experience 10 hours in, nothing will change my mind in the next 10 hours and I am ultimately not being paid to talk about the game.
tbf recently i’ve noticed that the amount of games i don’t finish - or even buy and don’t start - is starting to become overwhelming and i haven’t bought a game for about 6-8 months
Has only happened to me twice. One for the mirrors edge sequel. I would just do mission by mission until the ending came round unexpectedly. Other was AC origins. Just rushed to the final boss after not touching it for months. Still only unlocked like half the map too.
I absolutely hated Red Dead Redemption 2, I left it at the beginning of chapter 6 and while I did intend to go back to it at some point to finish it, I honestly do not want to anymore. After my bad experience with this game, I made it my mission to never play something I know I won't like. And I have never left a game unfinished ever since because I only play games I like.
This was a great video, really amazing work and something I needed to hear. It really helped me process my "fomo"... Most of the games I've pushed myself to finish kinda just fade away in my memory, so at one point I just realised "well then what's the point", hearing about the zeigarnik effect deffinetly explains that. I have a handful of comfort games I can keep playing forever, even if they get sequels I think I'll just stay where I am. Because the adventurer on the games I love eventually comes to the end of his journey, finds where he belongs and settles down as either a protector of its realm, or a retired veteran. And that's where I'll be, pushing carts on Badwater, mining and digging in Hoxxes, taking out my targets as a bald silent assassin and driving around Night City.
You might have noticed since you made this video, but on backloggd, if you sort your list by “random”, each page will give you a random selection of your total list, instead of going through a complete list page by page. If you look at the list you showed us, you’ll see there are several duplicates, and we’re not seeing all the 108 games 😊
you asked to recommend what to play next from your backlog, and I personally enjoyed The Wolf Among Us a lot. I have no idea if you'd like it , but if you're in the mood for an interesting mystery with a fun but twisted version of classic fables, you'll likely very much enjoy it. I enjoy your videos quite a lot and hope you can continue to find your audience.
This happens with 9 out of 10 games for me. Even a game like Elden Ring I'm still "hanging onto" because I know it's a good game - I just don't enjoy it.
Month late, but great video! Made me reconsider whether or not a game is worth sticking to if it means completing a larger goal or if you're just playing because you think you need to get your moneys worth. Game recommendation off your backlog: ace attorney trials and tribulations. Easily one of the best ace attorney games and a must-play if you played the first 2, the final trial hits every single high note and brings the trilogy to an immensely satisfying close; which ties pretty well with the video now that I think about it lol P5R as I'm sure you've heard is phenomenal as well but with such a time sink I'm sure it's a lot more daunting haha
I dont know if im just weird but I don't feel the need to finish games that I start and if I get bored of a game I just stop playing and eventually forget I even started it in the first place.
I set about years ago to finish all the classic Final Fantasy games. To that end, I bought FF 1-9 on PSP, and then on mobile. I was thinking of buying the bundle on my Nintendo Switch too, but I finally stopped. I finished 1 and enjoyed it. I was frustrated by 2, and 3, although fun, was just so big. I finished 7 and 8 as a kid, but should I do 9 or finish 2 and 3 first ? In all this befuddlement, how can I even consider playing newer Final Fantasy games or any other games period ? Creating this goal was a lot easier than undergoing it. I think the solution is to go back and do other things and maybe come back to this. Or maybe just play the games on the list I am most interested in. Afterall, gaming is supposed to be an escape for me, not a slog through a mundane task.
I've given this a lot of thought as well because I have over 100 unplayed/unfinished games in my steam library. I've made a lot of progress playing through my backlog and I've had some amazing game experiences, some mediocre ones and some terrible ones. The terrible ones have badly affected my positive feelings toward gaming so, in hindsight, finishing those games came with an unanticipated cost. I do have issues with depression so my experience won't be the same for many other people. The problem is that I've rarely had a clear sense of whether abandoning or completing a game is the best course of action. Gaming fatigue is a problem so if you set yourself an ambitious task you will likely be evaluating modifying it at some point when you see the reality of how it might be affecting you. I played through the Resident Evil series (1 to 8 and the two revelations games but not in that order) and at some points I was pushing through it with no interest and feeling fatigued. I like your unspoken reference to Atomic Heart. I found that it was a pretty meh sort of experience overall. From your backlog I can recommend the following games .. FarCry Blood Dragon, Outlast, Cyberpunk, Alien Isolation, A Plague Tail Innocence and Batman Arkham City. I would recommend against Maid of Sker.
7:54 me in pretty much every video game I'm playing 😂I love when devs think about this sort of stuff and let you revisit areas. Of course, this depends from game to game and whatnot.
Just take breaks. I've been playing the metro series in short bursts. Edit: also, protip: when you play games.. USE YOUR IMAGINATION.. You can only see so much from a firstperson/topdown/thirdperson view. Use your imagination. I did this with fallout 1 and 2, I imagined what I was actually roleplaying doing, coming out of cover, taking shots at the raiders coming after me. I did this with STALKER, too. Imagining a thirdperson view of what I, strelok, was doing. It seems weird when I type it out, but I can't help it. Maybe others aren't as imaginitive and are only trying to play a game, not experience something. Oh! And before I forget, I loved the metro series because of the way I could just turn on the game late at night, and start thinking about what was going on, roleplaying the voice in my head, as if I were actually Artyom.. It's hard to explain, but here's an example: "Oh. Wow.. Looks like Pavel is dead. I should probably get going now before the wanamingos or whatever they're called catch up to me.." This is always so damn fun. It feels like I'm actually there. It makes metro feel like more than just a videogame, and it also makes it feel as though it isn't just a mindless distraction either. I am actively thinking and processing what is before me in the world of Metro. I do this with every game now. I think you should too.
I tend to force myself through all games I’ve played since I went into adulthood. Once the sense of mystery and illusion disappeared it just felt like work to get through the game, completing tasks for fictional characters. However, that is not to say I don’t enjoy them overall. I find the games I learned something from (mostly philosophical or thought provoking games) with a deep and meaningful message behind it drove me to both finish the game and feel like the payoff was worth it. Eye candy with flashy combat and an empty predictable Hollywood story does just not cut it for me anymore, I need something new.
This is a great analysis! I used to stick it out through games I didn't enjoy when I was younger As an adult, I just don't have as much time to spend on a game I'm not enjoying. A few years ago, I started playing through Paper Mario Sticker Star and it just wasn't clicking for me, so I dropped it. I no longer can force myself to play a game that isn't for me. I actually had the same sentiment about the Zelda Oracle games. I loved Link's Awakening, but, for some reason, I just didn't like the sequels as much. I did complete them both as a Zelda fan, but they are probably some of the few Zelda games I probably won't play again.
For live service games such as Dead by Daylight, I grew to hate it over time, due to the community, the gameplay loop, and the boring yet favored Survivor-sided aspect of it. It took away a lot of time I could have spent doing my backlog, so I finally dropped it like a bad habit. The itch is still there, but I will NOT go back unless the game changes enough to snuff out my issues with it. Even then, I have to be careful with spending too much time on it; because unlike single-player games, live service titles don't have a conclusion.
Firstly, I really like that I'm finally getting a bit of the psychological side of video gaming on YT. Secondly, I played FFIX and did not like it, but I stuck through it because I liked Zidane from Dissidia and wanted to knock out a mainline FF. So I agree that sometimes playing mid to ass games are worth it, but depends on the reasons again like you said.
I always had 2 reason for this feeling. Most of the games i got bored if it was forced to be long. I started the whole ac franchise from the first episode. Rogue, origin, black flag, syndicate,revelation was insanely fun. It was short. It had side stuff that I did a few but like 5-10 % of them and beated them in less than 20 or 30 hour and had fun and it was cool. Now i'm at valhalla. I started the whole franchise because of this game. I bought the ACs that i did not got for free earlier. And I have 70 hours in it. Im at 85% with main game and I have 3 dlc to go but i grinded so much, the combat is so bad compared to older episodes, the game is so want you to stuck with this game and I overdid them that I don't feel to finish or play it for half a year by now but i forced myself not playing other stuff. Yesterday was the day i gave up and be like i perfectly remember what was I doing and I will get back to it once but right now i will play totally different games. I have game pass and it has insane indie games that I wanted to play for a long time so right now is mind clearing process has started and I hope i can jump back and finish before i start another rpg. . Second reason is hype. I fcking love cyberpunk i still love it. I played a tons of hours of it, i modded it but my little light up slowly went away and stopped it at some point even though i fcking love it. And now months later im just I don't wanna start to do where i left because i don't remember much stuff and played to much to restart so its staying almost finished as well because the hype in me stopped and left it for sometime but i really love it. First is the money i put in it, second is the actual love just no time and effort to finish it...
I fear the feeling of wasting my time at getting stuck, being bad at the game, or grinding for hours to level up just once and I really fear the set back penalty for losing to a boss, enemy, or stage. I know I must play the game and get better at them to get past those obstacles, but nowadays I just don't feel like I have the enthusiasm to do so. I don't have the time, energy, or reason to and the only reason I would is that I felt good playing the game throughout the entire playthrough. It's has to be something in the game that gives me satisfaction whenever I experience it again whether it being the gameplay, controls, story, characters, music, sound effects, special effects, or animation. The problem with me now is that I just don't feel like wasting my time and energy on gaming as much. I played and experienced games for so long that it's no longer new or exciting. The joy and fun I had for many of them has finally worn-out and the only thing I noticed when I do play them are the flaws, missed opportunities, cut corners, and when the game demands more from me. With me no longer in school I don't have the kind of friends that will keep me motivated on playing games. Friends was the only real world benefit I can get for being good at gaming, but now since that's gone it's almost entirely useless. I am now smart enough to realize that gaming companies are trying to trick me into making me believe I need to keep playing that particular game as if my life depends on it. Of course they need away to make money but in recent years they seems so greedy for it that they can't put much care into the products they are selling to us. The internet also ruined gaming for me for a couple of ways. Movies and helpful spoiler videos about a game's story and puzzles are a way to save me from playing them to the point where I would no longer have a reason to, and hearing people's highly recommended opinions and seeing them treat it like a well known fact "We All Have The Same Mind Set. You Are Stupid If You Reject. It Is Obviously The Best" can creat such unnecessary peer pressure and be so misguiding that I might end up be playing something that I don't like.
Sounds like you value your time a lot and don't want to waste it. Maybe play on easy if you fear the death penalty and setback that much. Also, maybe take a break from gaming or try some new types of games that don't have to be "the latest and greatest video game of 2023 that everyone is playing". Also picking up a hobby outside of consuming media is useful because it helps to step back from gaming which makes it more fun when you do come back to it. Being overly critical of games is something I do too, I want to be able to just enjoy a game for the experience but sometimes I can't stop thinking about the little nitpicky things that it's done wrong.
@@mygameopinions thanks for the advice. To tell you the truth I have found a few comfort games I like to play even with this kind of anxiety I have. One of which I don't know if I have an addiction problem to it or not, one thing is for sure is that I can't seem to experience burn out or feel any anxiety when I want to play it. In other words I could be playing this game at any given time with really no problems holding me back. That game is called The Legend Of Dark Witch 3. It was a 3DS eShop exclusive and I don't know how to recommend this game as there is really nothing that special about it, but somehow I managed to put in 350 hours into a game that shouldn take 15 hours to 100% complete. Idk. It just feels *right* for me to play it. I could go into extreme details explaining what worked but my comment is long enough.
@@mygameopinions it's a 2D action platformer that behaves somewhat like a Mega Man clone. It's really on the easy side of difficulty, but there is a way to make it challenging for yourself if you were looking for one. Sorry if I haven't responded in 5 hours. I got really sleepy.
Yup I am VERY guilty of forcing myself through average games. Now If I genuinely dislike a game I certainly wont. I will put it away or sell it or simply mark it as bad and and forget about it but when I think back to my list (I list every game I play/beat) I sometimes think that half the games I played over the last year were just......ok. I do think I waste too much time playing games I dont enjoy all that much. Worst part is I always forget this and it only really hits me when I play a game I really do enjoy a ton. Recently for example I beat hollow knight, tactics ogre reborn and zelda tears of the kingdom. All 3 I thoroughly enjoyed! Not a single second so I feel was wasted. I even find myself booting up these 3 games again as opposed to playing new stuff sometimes. When I compare how much I loved these games to how I enjoyed many others I played recently I cringe to myself. I need to set an overall higher standard for what is worth my time. I am guilty of still playing all the trails series even though I only thoroughly enjoyed the first few. I am still playing all the newer ones hoping they can recapture some of the magic. Anyway. Cool upload mate.
Hey that was a really good interesting video you made some good points and I learned a few things. Especially that Zagnut bar thing or whatever keep up the good work you got a subscriber
From 103 games you have recommend this (because i have finished and have fun with it): Bioshock infinite (dlc included) , Plague tale (both), re nemesis, ghostwire in tokyo, batman arkham city, re revelations 2, skyrim (with and without mods), far cry 3 blood dragon
I have actually played Skyrim I believe the version on my backlog is the VR one. Love skyrim its awesome. Far cry blood dragon looks super fun I've been meaning to play it for a few years now.
I've had the same problem with Oracle of Ages, but I played it before Seasons, so I had the motivation to beat it so I can play Seasons with the extra stuff from the passwords.
Really cool video. One of the main things that pushes me to finish a game even if i don't like it is the understanding of the medium. I like to think why I'm having a negative experience and if that was for the game itself or for my approach to it. Am I not getting the message the developer is trying to say? Is the gameplay simply bad, or am I approaching it in the wrong way? I think subjecting ourselves to negative experiences is the best way to develop critical thinking abound a certain medium (same thing in fact applies to books and movies).
If I get bored by it then I don't feel the need to finish it because if it's boring to me or it's not my kind of game, then I know I'd just waste my time trying to push further. But sometimes it happens that it's a game that I like but I just get distracted by something else. My backlog isn't big though, like a dozen games, because I only buy games that I know I'm gonna play, I'm not the "maybe I will play later so might aswell buy it now" type.
When I was 13, I played Zelda. Loved it. Then Zelda 2 came out & I absolutely hated it. I wasn't aware of a Zelda game again until OoT & MJ. Later I played Link to the Past & loved it. I have a point, keep reading. Many years later, I was told by many to try Zelda 2 again because I had been too hard on it. So I did. I was correct the 1st time about that game. It's terrible. I completed it & regret it. I'll never forget how horrible of an experience it was & how much better off I'd be if I had just left Zelda 2 where it belongs. In the past. Some things are better left unexperienced.
What helped me with my backlog is putting them on a spreadsheet. That way whenever I finish a game, I add it to the completed list and get the satisfying feeling of removing a piece of negativity from my mind. I also try changing genres to avoid burnout same with playing a couple of short experience after finishing a beefy one. As for backlog games to play, I recommend playing AI Somnium Files, Florence, and Donut County. :D
Changing genres is a very good advice, and since i started doing that ive been having way more fun, and actually completing more games. Also what i do is i organize my backlog by genre, and i put there only 2 games at a time. When i finish one, i do some research, and find a new one to put on its place. It works great for me, i always have 2 good choice of like 5 or 6 different genres, and i choose depending on my mood.
I have a pretty big backlog that I'm working through lately. But going through them i try to focus on what i do enjoy from them, and find myself really liking some mediocre games for it (ie terminator resistance)
Dragon Quest 11. I got 20 hours in and finally dropped it. I realized I didn’t like it around 8-9 hours but people online kept telling me “push through it gets soooo good later”. The outside pressure made me want to keep going, but I just couldn’t push forward anymore
The problem is we treat games as tasks that we have to complete indtead of focusing on enjoying and having fun. I also believe backlogs and lists are bad esp the long ones. Ideally i would remove all backlogs and maybe keep a short list of my next 5 -10 games or so just to not forget what i wanted to play.
I'm a little sad that you didn't like OoA because I really like the Oracles and I think they don't get enough attention. I first played them in the early 2000s when they first came out and I replayed them a bunch of times over the years and always thought they still held up. I've held off on replaying them in the last couple of years though, but that's because I'm still secretly wishing they'd get the Link's Awakening treatment. While I also prefer OoS, I still like OoA a lot. Both of them have so many unique elements within the Zelda series. The fact that they don't take place in Hyrule is one thing that I find really compelling about them and I wish happened more often in the series. One thing that I find noticeable in hindsight is how long it took me until I beat both of them back in the day. Granted, I was a kid back then, so I wasn't quite as quick as I am now, but I also had no backlog that I was trying to finish, so I didn't care how long it took me. I also wasn't commited to finishing every Zelda game, especially because there weren't even that many yet. So I think there was definitely a difference in mentality there and maybe that plays a role. However, whenever I hear these discussions around backlogs it sounds to me like it's not so much about enjoying a game for its own sake and instead it's more about the act of clearing the backlog first and foremost. And it seems to me to be a mix of guilt over having bought so many games in some sale and fear of missing out because everybody always keeps talking about the next hot thing. Did I have a phase where I tried to finish all the games that I started whether I liked them or not? Sure. But I also abandonded that mindset again after a while because it really wasn't bringing me much enjyoment. And incidentally I now look back fondly on some games that I didn't even finish. And I also have no qualms anymore about simply dropping a game if I'm not feeling it. Sometimes I come back to it later and suddenly it really grabs me. These days I don't think of my games as a backlog, but instead of as a library, or a collection. Whenever I am in the mood for a particular game, hey, maybe I already have it! I guess my point (if there even is one) is that one shouldn't have to feel compelled to finish a game just because. Sometimes you're not in the mood for it and other times the game simply isn't for you. That's both ok.
Very good point about treating it like a collection instead of a Backlog. Yeah I really liked OoS as well but I think it was just some external factors that made me not love OoA. Maybe burnout on the 2d Zelda formula.
@@mygameopinions Yeah, it may very well be burnout on the formula. Personally, I like to mix up the types of games that I play a little. So if I just played some lengthy AAA open-world action adventure with RPG elements, maybe the next thing I'm playing is some indie side-scroller. And I also don't force myself to be done with one thing before starting another. If I'm 20 hours into one thing, but then suddenly I'm in the mood for something else, I just start that, maybe I'll come back to the first thing eventually, maybe not. It really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. So sometimes I'll play two or three games in parallel, rotating every couple of days, but sometimes a game just grabs me so much that I'll play that exclusively and then go back to the other game later once I finished that. I know that this approach doesn't necessarily work for everybody, since there's some getting used to controls again and such or you might suddenly be a bit lost in terms of what's going on with the story. For me at least it works, and I guess everybody has to find out what works best for them. Maybe that even includes taking a break from games altogether every once in a while. Sure, it might be counter-productive in terms of clearing your backlog, but as I said, that shouldn't be the goal, instead it should be to have fun with the games you're playing.
I sometimes debate if I should go back to playing Yakuza 0. I stopped playing it b/c there's so much reading, and I have dyslexia. I didn't know there was going to be that much story in a beat'em up.
some people on the internet, mainly game forums, like to shame others for giving up on arkham knights riddler trophies. hearing your conclusion makes me feel a lot better for essentially giving up on them. thank you.
I think it's also worth mentioning the possibility of the game getting better and that being a reason to keep playing. I personally almost never move on from a game until i've completed it because i want to feel like i've experienced everything the game had to offer and feel the feeling of completion, also 100% but thats just bc im an achievement hunter
I usually end up not finishing video games I do enjoy, but if there is a game I dislike but is very popular I feel oddly obligated to finish the game even though I'm planning to never play it again.
Although its really illogical to do so, my brain just melts if i don't finish stuff, especially videogames. It may be a waste of time finishing that 3/5 game, but its a bigger waste of my mental health if i don't do so. I also like to discuss videogames a lot, and i dont really feel confident discussing aspects of a game i didnt finish, so that also pushes me into beating games, so i can have full confidence in my opinion of the media im discussing.
Hell, I usually doesnt even finish games I like! I'm a sucker for open world games but doesnt have much time to play anymore. I return to a game after a while and try to re-learn the buttons before realising I'm completely lost and don't know what to do. So I have 2 choices: start from beginning or start a new game...
yo i think the same about the oracles games and i did the same too, ages was so cryptic but for me it was worth it only for the final boss and to see the ending of the total story, in general tho i prefer to drop or shelf a game if im not in the mood because in the past i finished so many "mid" games and i was burned out, now i just play games i enjoy or i drop them
I think this exact thing happened to me with the EXACT same game (Oracle of Ages). My compulsion to finish it was based on it being both a Nintendo and Zelda game, and it definitely would’ve bothered me if I hadn’t. But no I wasn’t really feeling anything while playing it. Even worse I played seasons right after and that too I could’ve cared less about. Part of it is that I try to consume so much media within such a small time frame…I think it ends up burning me out. There are certain games that I feel an obligation to finish simply because they are extremely popular for their excellent stories or gameplay, and while I could just watch videos of this stuff, it must just give off a different vibe or sense of pride when I complete them on my own. Either way since I’ve been trying to get through older games recently (8 and 16-bit era) I’ve learned to just play a bit then leave them. Like I went through the splatter house trilogy and beat them all and that may have been the most miserable experience I have had in a while, so I’ve avoided trying to complete some of these games that I just find really hard or boring. Also wanted to mention that I found your channel via the backloggd video as a frequent user of the site and have enjoyed your stuff so far! Very well written!
mk11. this is my most played game. im almost like 500 hrs in. the grinding is tedious just to unlock all the skins and gears and most of them have schedule. thats the reason why i wont buy mk1. i dont want to subject myself on that same torture. metroid dread, in the other hand, i finished it pretty quick, i defeated dread mode, doing boss rush from time to time just because i wanted to do it. now im finishing the prequels, finished the prime remastered and i regarded the series as the best video games of all time. and im nowhere near 500hrs playing them collectively.
In my case, the games aren't the only exception, I also have this with books, films, anime, music and other pieces of media, If I don't complete or experience the content on a full scale, I can't abandon it, I can't switch to other things.
Woah! This is so weird. I'm playing OOA for the same reason. To finish all the zelda games. And I have been feeling the same way. It was fun at first, but right about the goron portion on the mountin I got really tired and started looking at a walk through. Just cause it felt SO tedious. I'm on the final dungeon now, and the last two parts of the game have been fun again, but that middle portion of the game dragged and was not fun for me.
Wow we're in the same boat! I haven't tried ocarina yet but it might be the next zelda game I play. I'm a majoras mask fan though so I've been putting it off because I think there's no way it could be better than MM.
When you get to that point take a break, you don't have to go straight through to say you best it. It's fatigue from the game, it's better to take a break. Season's is action based, Ages is heavy on puzzle's it was meant to be that way.. Back then you couldn't just get on RU-vid and see how to beat it.
@@packpock4369 So it's funny, I actually did take a break at that point. But it was for like a year, so when I came back to it, I had no memory of where I was or what I had been trying to do. So I actually started the whole game over. Breezed through to that portion of the game and then felt the fatigue kick in again. That time I took a break, but then came back after like a month. That was when I looked up some guides on how to get through the goron portion. I'm excited to play seasons next, but since TOTK is out, it probably won't be for a little while. :)
I get the Zeigarnik effect when exploring caves in minecraft. I'm always stressing to make sure I've explored every single nook and cranny of a cave before moving on
I’m going through this with assassins creed rn. I’m not even that big of a fan of the series but I’ve played a lot of them and have access to all of them, so I can’t help but feel like I’ve got to play them all despite not having the best time. It’s so weird, but this video describes it perfectly.
