lionheart25

@Humanity: I actually enjoy that you keep referring to Bioshock 2, because that was one of the few games that I actively decided not to pursue 100%. I loved the first Bioshock. It practically changed my life and how I viewed games, which isn't something that happened in a long time at that point. I played that game countless times over and 100% it on separate occasions. That was a game I loved.

No matter what, I knew I had to finish Bioshock 2 before I played it. I was either going to love it or hate it, and I told myself before I inserted the disk that I have to play this and nothing else until the end, only because I had so much investment and passion from the first.

I ended up not feeling strongly either way. I appreciated it for what is was, and what I at least thought it was trying to do, but I don't really steer anyone to play it either way as much as I favor Bioshock. When I beat it, I did replay it once more for the different ending, and after that I was done. I decided to continue on with my other games and it was at least the first time that I had such a fulfilling experience with a game I didn't love, or even like that much. I am sort of indifferent about the game now.

But at least I can be comfortable with that feeling. I won't ever try to 100% it now because I don't have to. I got what I needed. And that is the experience I want to have with all my games. I'm glad to know there are others out there who seek out similar experiences with their games, because it can be very rewarding and have a positive influence on our gaming lifestyles.

@MordeaniisChaos: A lot of people have been bringing up Skyrim in relation to this topic, and it will be interesting to see if and when I do get it (might have to complete a few games before then) and see how I feel about it. I was a little overwhelmed with Oblivion; that was another game that ended up in my Hall of Shame, because I barely played it and ended up trading it. At the time, I was intimidated by the amount of stuff in there to do and I had bought too many games around it that I knew I was never gonna come back to it.

I do not want to make that mistake with Skyrim. I also don't want to make the mistake of having to just complete it for completions sake. I am going to play it and let my enjoyment dictate my course of action.

@Three0neFive: To an extent I would both agree and disagree with your comment, only because of how I like to enjoy my games. I don't mind that games fill up their worlds with treasure troves of unlockables or collectibles. As long as I feel it's really rewarding ad fun, I'll be more than happy to explore them. Case in point: trying to find every pigeon in GTA IV versus the survivalist/treasure hunter challenges in Red Dead Redemption. Finding those pigeons in GTA IV was, for me, like finding a needle in a haystack. The city was so detailed and intricate you cannot do it without the aid of a map. The challenges in RDR might seem as daunting at first, but because of the design of the world, it actually made it easier to complete those tasks, and for me it was more fun and rewarding because I did not have to resort to a guide for a single one.

Now that leads me into your comment on this generation being full of baby games. I think skill is relative, not only to the game you play, but also who you are as a player. Sometimes I'm shocked at the lack of skill I see people have in let's say Halo Reach, but also I've been playing Halo since day one of the original Xbox so that gives me an advantage. In fact, I think the reason why we might feel that games are too easy these days (we meaning gamers who have played games for at least 10-15 years) is because we have seen it all and done it all. We rarely meet a game that challenges us with a learning curve or something radically different because we have life experience in games to relate it to.

Also, we have to be realistic sometimes in our perception of games that we think to be hard games of generations old. My favorite example is Contra. When I was a kid, that game was tough. I mean, wasting through the entire Konami Code worth of lives tough. When I replayed it when I was in high school, it was a breeze. I thought, "why the hell did I think that game was so hard?" It's because I was five and didn't have any years of playing games under my belt.

I do think there is a different kind of challenge that is expected from the gamer today, when it comes to 100% a game. And that challenge is mainly dedication. I think spending X amount of hours to finally obtain that 1000th orb can be just as fulfilling to some people as it is to beat a very difficult boss battle after the 1000th try. It's a personal victory in a different way, and it depends on how you play your games.

I appreciate both, which is also why I can also agree to your statement. I do miss being beat by games. I do miss seeing that game over screen. I love how games have evolved but also I use to love fearing that if I lost that one life, I would have to start over from the beginning again. I don't get stuck in games anymore, and a part of this is becasue I've been gaming so long but I also do notice certain games just don't have that challenge in them. Around high school I started to venture past the normal difficulty because I was missing that challenge games use to offer, but now even some games on hard or insane or whatever extreme difficulty it has doesn't present that challenge.

The one hope we have is now we live in the online multiplayer age, and no matter what a human opponent will always be more difficult to beat than an A.I.. Halo on Legendary doesn't really need to be too hard because once you go online, you will always find someone better than you to keep the cahllenge of playing the game going.

Thanks for the comment, it really does make me think how important difficulty can factor into a goal like this.

@Humanity: The mentality you have does push me to finish games more. I'd like to know how a game ends because than yea I can say this was definitely something I did/didn't enjoy. On many an occasion has my opinion been reversed the more I stuck it out with a game, for better or worse. I think most the time, like a movie or TV show, you owe it to yourself to finish a game at least to the end of the story so that you can say yes I've done that now it's time to move on. Thanks for the comment it really made me think some more about why I finish games.

@Pazy: It's your kind of persistence that I have tried and failed time and again, and I admire that you are having so much success in pursuing your goal. The way you have approached it; without being in a real rush and only wanting to enjoy the games first and foremost is the philosophy I lacked when I've always tried to complete my games. I have great enjoyment in fully completing my games, but when that's all I cared about, I would actually become overwhelmed and waste more time in my gaming experience. Lately I've been approaching my sessions like you, focusing on having fun more with the game or with friends, and I've noticed that I'm able to progress much faster in my games because of that.

I hope you achieve your goal!

@Ubersmake: I had a similar experience with trying to 100% Mass Effect on my other gamertag. I wanted to see more of what it had to offer, but it became so tedious and frustrating because I got bored and disappointed that outside of the main story, the game wasn't as fleshed out as I imagined it to be. I should've stopped, but instead I kept going because I also felt the need to complete the game. I ended up getting all the achievements except from the Pinnacle Station DLC because I was so burned out at the end. It was an experience that I learned from, and although I am on a quest to finish more of my games, if I encounter a situation like Mass Effect again I definitely won't push myself as hard to finish it.

95% of the games I own I have yet to finish.

They're just waiting around to be played with like Woody and the gang from Toy Story 3. That number is an educated guess, and I am in the process of figuring out the real percentage of unfinished games I own, but fearfully I know that's probably going to be close to what it is. I can honestly say this is a problem I've always had. I buy way more games than I have the time to play them, and what happens a lot of the time is I end up selling or trading those games I barely touched. Worse than that, some stay among my collection as a reminder of my horrible habit. I need to remedy this problem.

The problem I thought was the source of my obssesive purchasing was that I considered myself a completionist. I would spend a lot of time on one game trying to 100% it, and let all other games fall to the wayside. In retrospect, the completionist mentality I have wasn't the problem. In fact, I think it's completely healthy to want to play a game all the way through, and to have a sense of closure with it, if that means obtaining 100%. But while seeking that closure, I was still buying other games, sometimes at release, only to go back to that game I was trying to complete. That inability to finish what I started without starting a new task: that is the problem. And it's not only effecting my gaming.

The more I realize that I love to start games but never finish them, the more I see that my real life projects suffer the same fate. It's a very upsetting thought, and it makes me question why I play video games. I know I am very passionate about video games, and it is my favorite hobby hands down. Most of the time, all I would want to do is play games than do anything else. Yet I think I've reached a point in my life as a gamer that I've become saturated with the wealth of gaming possiblities around me that I need to regain control of my passion.

When I was a kid I didn't have this problem, because I could only play the games my parents bought for me. I had the luxury to focus on one game because chances are it would be months before I received my next one. Sometimes I got really lucky and would get two, maybe three games for Christmas! In the past six months I've downloaded probably three times that from XBLA alone. When I was responsible enough to afford my own games my purchases became out of control, and no matter how many times I tried purging my library of unplayed games, it would build up again.

I fear that the future of gaming poses a real threat in exploiting my weakness in controlling my purchases. Games are going digital. They have been for a few years now, and will continue to do so. I fully embrace the movement; I love having all my games in a digital form than physical. It's simple and easy to purchase a game and to start playing right away. It's also very satisfying for me in not having to worry about the space a my collection of games takes up. But then there are all these attractive sales that happen on XBLA and Steam, and week by week I will purchase a game and instead of it sitting physically on a shelf my games suffer a similar fate digitally, which somehow seems more tragic. It's almost as if it helps keep my problem hidden because I can't see all the moeny I've spent on games I've played once or twice staring back at my constantly. Plus, I can never resell any of these purchases; they are now with me for life.

The prospect of my games being more of a negative financial impact on my life than a positive one is the big indicator that I need to change things around. I tried over a year ago to remedy this, vowing I would complete my unfinished games. Sadly it was a failed experiment. But I want to turn over a new leaf. If I can have a sense of maddening persistence in some the games that I play in unlocking an achievement or secret, I need to incorporate that into my real life and behavior. If I can be so passionate about games, than I owe it to myself as a gamer to give each one I purchase the time it deserves. Lately I've been feeling games are a negative in my life, and I need to make them positive again.

I used to think being a completionist was a negative habit to have...but not anymore. I admire people who set out to complete games because they have an enjoyment in that experience that I strive to have. The games that I've 100% completed in my lifetime have always stayed with me more so than the games I just beat once. I was replaying Gears of War recently, a game in which I use to own and only beat once. I was amazed as to how little I remembered: I barely remembered some of the missions or characters, and even the controls felt foreign to me. Yet when I purchased Super Mario World on the Virtual Console, a game I had 100% in my childhood, it was like riding a bike. I remembered pretty much everything, and after a few minutes it felt like I had never stop playing. There are a few games I have that experience with, and it is a joy that overwhems me because that is why I play games.

I want to complete the games I have, but I don't want to make it a burden. I don't want to challenge or limit myself to this goal feeling pressured that if I don't accomplish this, I have failed. This time, as I set about completing my games, I'm going to have fun. It's not a race to the finish line, it's simply me reconnecting to why I play games in the first place. I also have to start letting go of the need to play other games because honestly, they aren't going anywhere. It's going to be all about focus. If I can do that, I can be a better gamer.

Do you struggle with this issue, or something similiar? How are you trying to resolve it? I would love to hear some advice. Thanks for reading.

@Baillie : As you saw, I am creating a list of all my games that I own that I need to finish. I don't plan on tackling them in any particular order, because I want to focus on enjoying my games more rather than finishing them for the sake of finishing. But at the same time I have so many unfinished games it pains me every time I buy a new one because there is this fear that it will end up on the unfinished pile. So I think I'll try to focus on a few games at a time that I am really enjoying at the moment.

So with that being said right now NBA Jam On Fire Edition, L.A. Noire, and Halo Reach are probably the games I'm most driven to complete, but I wouldn't mind jumping into Red Dead again for those multiplayer achievements if you would want to partner up!

Congratulations! I'm sure you are in a very limited and select group. One day I hope to S-Rank this as well. I'm trying to complete smaller games before I can focus on bigger games like Red Dead.

It definitely is a fun game, and the updated style of gameplay somehow makes me appreciate the genius in the simplicity of the original. I just finished the original C.E. and will pick up the DX edition soon.

Nice post.