Are Game Completed Percentages Useful To You?

I've been playing through, struggling at points, Batman: Arkham Origins and before loading up the game it shows me percent completed. After glancing through a walkthrough I know I'm over halfway done but only 22% completed according to the game.

Of course the Batman games are known for their hidden items and side missions. But I can't help and feel like that percentage is a misnomer.

So when you're playing through a game do you always trust the % completed or do you just ignore the number completely?

Definitely. You haven't beaten Castlevania Symphony of the Night until you have 200.6% Completion.

I usually ignore it until after I've finished the main stuff. Then I decide if I wanted to clean up the rest of the game. It's helpful in that it lets you know that there is nothing left to do IMO.

They annoy me because they are basically telling me how much filler I haven't completed- I don't want to complete the filler but I want the number to be 100%. This is usually negligible, but in games like AC4 it feels like you should do the collecting stuff because you'll have more money or something and then in the end I ask myself why I'm collecting shit and then I only play it a couple (2) hours a day. In games that don't put to much priority on the collecting I tend to give up on it at some point and just finish the main game and start ignoring the percentage.

I don't want the filler to matter, game developers. Take note.

It's.... a number. Never knowing how it's calculated and knowing it's often calculated through all the BS side stuff I would only ever do out of boredom - in a gaming environment where I'm never quite bored - I tend to ignore it and use it as a general calculation of my progress through the main parts of the game.

Yes, I like knowing roughly how far through a game I am.

I think it's still a decent indicator of how much of the game is left. Collectibles seems to usually fall within the last 10%, so it's not like you beat the game at 60% and the remainder is just flags and multiplayer crap.

Unless you're playing something like Arkham Asylum that includes extras as percentage completed. I recently beat it with every single upgrade and was kind of stunned when the game just suddenly ended around 45% because of literally hundreds of Riddler trophies I hadn't bothered with yet. Or Far Cry 3 which I'm playing through now that seems to have an almost disgusting amount of side-content that counts towards percentage completed.

I don't see how their inclusion hurts anything, Spoilers maybe by implying how much is left to do.

In general I really like them, but then I do like stats quite a bit.

I'd like it if more games offered two percentages. Percent of the main game and percent of the entire content of the game. It would give a better frame of reference for my progress.

Do not care, really. I'm not going to do filler bits just to get a number up. Make your side missions enjoyable, and I might consider them.

Not especially, but I do always keep an eye on them. My goal is usually 80% in open world-type games, a good one tends to put most of the good stuff in that category and the real superfluous stuff in the extra 20% (see: GTA: VC, SA, IV, V).

Also, for all the things Watch Dogs did pretty wackily their progression wheel was pretty awesome. I loved the color coding, the clearly demarcated unlocks and progressions, etc. That was a neat way to present all the completion information.

I'm used to caring about percentages in open world games, which means they are pretty much useless as a gauge for how far into the story you are. I generally don't find them useful in more linear games. In fact, outside of being useful for 100% achievements, I think they do more harm. A short, linear game with a completion percentage could be a huge detriment to the player seeing how short it is ahead of finishing it.

Extremely. Not only do they help me acknowledge my progression, but they also help encourage me to continue. When I see the little number boost up a bit, or sometimes a lot, it really helps my morale in going forward. I've completed games solely on the aspect of being close to the end in terms of percentages when I would have otherwise given up.

I'm fine with those game percentages, since at least they're actually referring to items in the game to collect that usually do something. I'm not fine with percentages that are directly tied to game achievements, because sorry, I don't have the time to beat your game on all 5 difficulty settings individually, and I also don't have time to do a playthrough where I only use the pistol for the whole game, and also do a playthrough without ever upgrading my health, etc.

Usually. Open world games are usually ones I don't care about, because it boils down to just collecting things that have no impact on the story, and usually the core gameplay isn't fun enough to make that task enjoyable. But games like Devil May Cry and Tomb Raider are helpful when they tell me I've completed the entire game. It makes my Steam profile look good too.

I'd rather have em than not. I do wish there were separate bars for collectibles and for game campaign progress.

I like them, but useful? No. I would rather have a "Story Completed" percentage rather than an overall one. I actually find time more useful, like how long I've been playing the game.

At some point I see what worldwide collectible or two I have to hoard to get 100% and my interest drops to zero. I like to experience all of what I perceive to be "content".

I prefer this. I'm a story completionist by nature so that is the most important number for. Time is whatever but its meaningless on Steam

As a completionist with OCD, yes. Doesn't help that i play a lot of JRPGs. Its why i havent stopped playing Disgaea 3 after 600 hours cause i still havent gotten the damn platinum trophy. Only times when i dont do this are when the game is terrible and i stopped playing it immediately after a few hours.

I like it, but I wouldn't concider it useful as such. More stats the better really.

I would take a good ole' time played over a % complete though, all games should include this infomation.

Depends on the game and whether or not I care about the collectibles.

I'd really like to have two separate percentages - one telling me how close I am to the end of the game, and one telling me how close I am to gathering every little thing and doing every single sidequest and stuff. That's still a lot of work for something that I ignore in most games, so I couldn't really ask that of developers, but it would be nice. It's certainly better than games that go over 100% completion, an idea that is just really fucking stupid and doesn't tell me anything about the game.

Yeah, totally. I like having all sorts of weird stats in the games I play. And sometimes I might look at a percentage, see that I've done 90% of the extra junk in the game, and decide to do the rest because I know how much is left.

I dont care about the % until I beat the game then if I want to play more I'll complete it.

I don't care that much about it, but it's a neat little feature to have, and though I'm not a completionist by nature, It can sometimes push me to finish some side stuff I find interesting.

But more often than not, if I find myself looking to much at something like campaign progress etc, It's usually because I'm not having that much fun with a game in the first place, and I'm probably just rushing to finish it.

...Now games that have "hey, here's how many sharks you have punched!" etc - That shit I can easily get behind.

I actually kind of hate it. Like, I feel like knowing exactly how many missions I had left in GTA V kinda took some of the fun out of the game. I can't really explain why.

Not at all. Half the time completing the main story only yields 20 to 30 percent complete. What use is that?

No, because they're almost never accurate. And even if it was, I don't really like a game telling me that I'm almost at the end before the story does. It can potentially ruin plot twists.

It depends on the game, the amount of fun I'm having and how transparent the game is in putting that information in front of you.

Let's take Saint's Row 3 for example: I had a tremendous amount of fun in the game, there was a clear map with obvious "blind spots" where stuff was waiting to be discovered. Also, the progress I made in the game felt fairly accurately reflected in the percentage meter.

And then we have games like Batman: Arkham City. While Asylum had its fair share of collectibles, seeing the progress meter barely move when you've been playing for an hour is incredibly disheartening and will actually discourage me from actually completing the increasingly obtuse and stupid collectathon of riddles and knick-knacks.

of course game completion percentages are useful. forfty percent of people know that.

Definitely, so I can see my accomplishments.