The Daily Grind: Are you among the 10% who finish what they start?

How do I finish an MMO...that's like slamming a revolving door! I'm not Chuck Norris!

Unfortunately my personal and professional life places me in the other 90% of the population.
I loved Rift but I had to unsubscribe because I simply don't have the time to play a MMO anymore...

However, I have noticed that games like LoL fit better in my schedule and I am playing those games a bit.

I never end game raid, dont see the point, so no?

Eventually ... no need to rush

This is kind of moot. The reasons they list are more or less all wrong. The reason gamers usually walk away by the end of a single player game is we simply get bored. Once you get past the first half of the game, game play becomes rather formulaic. There are exceptions, but those are exceptions and not the rule.

Honestly, MMOs are formulaic from the ground up. Unless they are some sort of heavy solo'r(I will never understand...), its our friends in game that keep us players playing.

Actually I don't, thought I was alone though. I rarely finish games, not entirely sure why, even games I love get put on the shelf before they are finished.

Once, to dispute my wife's claim that I never finish half the games I buy, I took a full inventory of every game in my library...

... my completion rate was somewhere around 20%.

Steam Sales!

Thats the big reason I dont finish most of my games any more, Instead of paying £30 to £40 for one game, I often get 4 or 5 for that thanks to the craziness of Gabe.....

I blame Steam!

I only finish games that are fun and worth my while. If I have never finished a game, like FFXIII, it's because I got bored with it and, just like walking out of a really bad movie, I just stop and go trade it in.

That being said, this article can't apply to MMORPGs at all. They aren't designed to be finished but to keep you logging in until the next big one pulls you away or for those who don't like change, they just stay and play until it is shut down.

I start a lot of games that I ultimately quit, just as I do with many books, so I guess the statistic is apt in my case.

The reason is that a lot of games just turn out to be disappointing and dull; that's the main reason I don't finish a game I start. I'll certainly take the time to finish a game if it's fun.

I find I "finish" most MMO games, that is get to the "end game" content after hitting max settings or whatever. How long I stay playing them after depends on how well the game company did with their end game. Other games usually depend on their content, after all games are supposed to be entertaining. There's so many titles that are just recycled game play from games before that ultimately they're boring cause you've done it before.

While that certainly applies to a lot of MMOs as well, the main difference is the social interaction element. I mean when you really get down to it if you had to take WOW and make it single player, who would really play a game where you auto attack and mash a button here and there? It is the people: wild, chaotic, random people either as friends, enemies or random strangers that ultimately end up entertaining us in MMOs and can keep us going in them more than the games ever could.

If I think a game is worthy I will play it to the end, it is just that the majority of games are not worthy of the time and commitment required to see them through.

On the other hand there have been many single player games that I have played through multiple times. That is generally what I do when I come across a game that I really like, play it to death! But 90% of games are not worthy of that, and often those games never get completed.

Also, there is the subjective factor about games. I have to be in the mood for what the game is offering, because I have noticed that even if a game is done well I won't be able to get into it if I am not ready for playing a RPG, or FPS, or an action game.

Do I finish what I start?
I start to play to have fun. When I don't have fun anymore I'm finished. I'm a ten-percent-er.

I think there are only one or two games I've bought or tried that I didn't finish. Back when I started gaming it wouldn't ever have occurred to me that not finishing one was an option, because I played primarily for the stories (even Guilty Gear!)...so it took until Magna Carta, I think, before I found one where I just didn't give a fiddler's fart about the story and ended up abandoning it.

These days I mostly play MMOs, so it's harder to define "finishing," but I'd say I've dabbled in and left far more MMOs without reaching max level or doing much overall than I have singleplayer games.