Topic: What's Your Philosophy On Game Completion?

Had this conversation with some friends lately, thought it would make a fun topic - what's your general philosophy on game completion?

Do you like to ensure you at least see it through to the credits, even if you're not enjoying it? Is 100%, including achievements, a must? Do you stop playing once it stops being fun? Or do you tend to just not finish games at all, instead finding that getting a taste for the game is enough to satisfy?

Personally, I'll usually try to finish a game unless I'm REALLY not enjoying it, and whilst I'll aim for 100% completion on games I particularly enjoy, I'll stop if I find I'm no longer really enjoying it and just doing it to say I did. This does seem to wind up some of my completionist friends - seeing I have a bunch of games at 98% complete & knowing I'll probably never go back to clean up the rest, but it works for me.

Same here. There are too many games so I don't see the point in wasting time playing something that I don't enjoy. Besides, it kinda goes against the point of gaming which is entertainment and enjoyment. That being said, when I do enjoy a game, I usually try to complete most of it. I rarely do a 100% completion but I do get somewhat close, like 70-90% depending on my enjoyment.

I'll go for 100% if i really like a game. I tend to not do this as much with open world games. Who wants to be stuck playing the same game for months? Not me. After a good 40/50 hours I've had enough! I feel like in most cases if you don't complete everything a game has to offer you're not really beating it. That bothers me for some reason. Now if I'm just playing to see the end and never touch it again that's different. If I'm not loving what I'm playing I'll rush through.

I would say I finish 90%+ of my games (credits), thegames I don't finish usually I play no more than a couple of hours when I just say "not for me, thanks" (ocasionaly 5-10h on JRPGs where Nino kuni and tales of Vesperia come to mind recently).
Completion is something I believe I have not done with more than 10 games on my life (3d platformers are the only ones I need to complete)

My philosophy is to ask not if you can complete a game - ask if a game can complete you.

I usually try to see a game through to the end once I start it before moving onto something else but I don't force myself to play something if I'm not enjoying it. I'm not usually concerned with 100% completion as I have too many games to get through to worry about that.

I usually consider a game beat when I see the credits roll. Occasionally I'll go for 100% (or close to it), but those times are rare. I have a pretty good grasp on what kind of titles I like, so I rarely drop a game before I'm done (I think Final Fantasy IX HD has been the only game I've dropped this year, and even then I may go back to it one day as I didn't hate it by any means).

I usually finish games unless I get very frustrated by them for whatever reason. I don't often get 100%, though I do try to find as many collectables as I can while playing through the game, then if I really like the game I'll go back for the ones I missed.

If I feel like I can accomplish 100% in a game without too much effort/whilst still enjoying myself; I will go for it. Otherwise, I will just beat the game instead, by which I mean I have reached an ending after a substantial amount of content.

For example, NieR: Automata has many endings. It is possible to get one of these endings within the first hour of the game; I do not count that as me beating the game, but rather getting a joke ending. I consider ending "A" to be good enough for beaten (though there is quite a lot more beyond that). In SMTIV, there is an ending <spoilers>where you agree with the The White and destroy reality as you know it</spoilers>. I consider that worthy of calling the game beaten as you have been playing for many hours and have quite a substantive understanding of the story and context as to why that choice is meaningful.

100% can be it's own beast though. I don't believe playing in the hardest difficulty is necessary for 100% unless it has a secret ending or something along the lines of that. I also won't count challenges that require multiplayer or an online component to count towards 100%. In the case of games on PS/Xbox/Steam which have achievements, I might also consider all achievements to be 100%, even if there is technically something that can be done in the game, because the thing you can do doesn't reward you with anything for doing it, or even an acknowledgement that you have done it for that matter. I remember when The Completionist uploaded his video on Persona 5, and he was playing through the game multiple times, just so he could obtain each Valentine chocolate and Christmas gift given to you by each of the female confidants, plus another 2 playthroughs for no girlfriend and cheat/multiple girlfriend variants. The only thing you get for this is flavour text. The items effects are not unique. I think the Completionist did half before getting fed-up since each playthrough was anywhere between 60-100 hours at a time.

It is all subjective though, so I understand if people disagree with what I use for my criteria.

Since I have limited gaming time, due to work family and just adult stuff in general if I am not enjoying a game I will stop playing it and move on to something else. If I am enjoying the game it's finished once the credits roll. Unless of course there is DLC afterwards like Borderlands 2 for example that you play after the main story.

I don't care about getting every single trophy or achievement of whatever they are called so to me a game is completed when you see the ending. Those people that say oh no you didn't complete it cause you didn't get all the achievements just bug me. Since honestly getting every achievement doesn't give you anything else.

I have to love a game to play it from start to finish. I rarely finish, complete, or 100% a game. Especially in a world where more and more games are becoming live services, games technically built to never end. If I'm not enjoying what I'm playing inside half an hour I stop, cast it aside, and move on to the next game.

I don't worry about 100% & it really depends on quite a few things how much I'll do.... Final Fantasy games, I'll generally do almost 100% but there'd be some bestiary entries missing & maybe other tiny details
Assassins Creed Odyssey, I did the optional story related stuff & the dlc but there's far too many others to do, so after 200 hours, I'm done

It depends.

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...there's no follow up point, it just depends. I usually just need some sort of reason as to why I'm continuing to play or not. If I decide "that's enough" then that's usually...that.

I will say the more time goes on, the more obvious it is that even games that don't have a ton of filler content or needlessly annoying tasks will have SOMETHING that makes getting 100% completely not worth my time, even if getting 98% is. There's like half a dozen Zelda games where I just didn't bother to do one specific thing, and thus technically I've not 100% it. I probably 100% LTTP but technically I didn't get full upgrades for the amount of bombs and arrows you can hold(as unnecessary as they get after a while), I missed 3 heart pieces in Majora's Mask, I missed a small handful of things in the Nintendo Gallery in Wind Waker HD, didn't do the medal streetpass whatever it was in ALBW etc.

@Raylax i still have'nt finished rick dangerous on the zx spectrum and i have been playing it for 28 years. but i am still trying to finish it.

Good topic. I tend to feel compelled to 100% most games. But the older I get the more I realize that's not always feasible. I probably have more games than what i could complete in my lifetime (damn lengthy RPGs).

I almost have all the furniture in Animal Crossing. Once I do that, I just have 4 other Animal Crossings to go.

It's extremely rare for me to 100% a game. I'd say I just 100%ed a few Kirby and Castlevania games.

It really depends on the game. Getting all the stars on SMG is fun. Hestu's gift in BOTW, is a ludicrously hard grind. Others may have different limits though.

I used to be quite the completionist, back when I had less games and more time. Being an adult has made my gaming time somewhat limited, so it's rare that I 100% anything. I used to try to 100% every Zelda game, but that stopped after I played Tri Force Heroes (I did make it to the credits, but no way was I gonna grind out all the outfits through janky online play). I highly doubt I'll 100% BotW simply due to how massive it is.

Unless I'm taking a chance, I know via research or franchise familiarity that I'll like the games I've picked up. Typically I'll at least see a game through to the end credits unless I dislike what I'm playing. Whether or not I play it past that depends on how much I've enjoyed the game up to that point. For example, I just reached the end credits in Super Mario Odyssey and do plan to search for more Moons now that I can unlock those moon cubes, but I don't intend to go crazy collecting them all. I'll comb an area to my satisfaction and then move on. Currently sitting at 385 Moons.

If I don't like a game, I don't finish it. There's too many good games out there to waste time on ones I don't like.
Fortunately, this doesn't happen very often as I tend to really look into games before buying them when it comes to new franchises I'm not familiar with (no need to waste money on ones I don't like, either).

100%.....very rarely. I find this content to be a lot of filler fetch/collectathon/search bizarre area type quests that I don't really enjoy doing just for the sake of it. Like I will never 100% BotW cause all those Koroks just seems overly tedious to me.

I just want end credits. I have too many games to 100 percent anything that isn’t Zelda.