OK, it's more like I rarely finish games.
I'm a born speed-reader. And the same way some books have filler than can be skipped, I can do similar with movies too. I'll quickly predict how many movie nuances will go. Or I'll get the vibe of a song from just a few notes. To me, they're all forms of 'speed-consuming.'
I apply this to gaming as well. 'Not finishing' a game is like speed-reading a book. It allows me to experience the bulk of a creation's value, without committing a lot of time to it. But why is that something to be proud of? Why would I call "never finishing games" #MyGamingAchievement?
Because it has allowed me to play over 1000 games.
"Seriously Jay? 1000? Did you count every single one?"
No, I didn't. I was a child for many, focused on playing, not tracking. But I broke my life into 3 "gaming phases." Then I counted how many games I played on average in each. I've been alive just over four decades, and was a rather precocious child. So I began playing video games at 3 years old, my parents had an Atari and a Commodore 64, and would encourage me to try them. It was mostly just smacking a pong ball around.
But with 3 siblings, tech-savvy parents, two 'coder' uncles, and multiple gaming machines, my gaming picked up quickly.
- From age zero to five (inactive phase), I played ~2 games a year. Approximate Total: 10.
- From age five to thirty-two (active phase), I played ~40 games a year. Approximate Total: 1,080.
- From age thirty-two to forty-two (semi-active phase), I played about ~15 games a year. Approximate Total: 150.
Approximately 1,240 games in total, on 21+ systems.
To accomplish this my brothers, friends, and I used:
- Commodore 64
- Atari
- Vic 20
- ColecoVision
- Intellivision
- Amiga
- IBM
- Arcade boxes
- NES
- Famicon
- Sega
- TurboGFX 16
- Genesis
- Saturn
- NeoGeo
- GameCube
- N64
- XBox (& 360)
- Wii
- Dreamcast
- many Playstations
- many PCs
...and probably some other gaming systems I'm forgetting.
We all traded and lent each other games. We were regulars at the video-rental stores and got volume discounts. Plus my 'coder' uncles both 'acquired' plenty of games for us through their 1200 (to 9600) baud modems.
My gaming life has been so abundant in so many ways, and I owe it all to my choice...
...To rarely finish a game.
This is what allows me to experience far more game-industry offerings than most people I know. It's also why I was able to create a game-prototype, while barely knowing code and never having touched game engines before.
It'd be nice to eventually bring it to life, which is why I made a game-dev pitch page for it, but that's a story for another time.
Pacman (1982)
I didn't even know what finishing a game was back then. That said, it's one of the first examples of me trying a game, getting the hang of it, even achieving above-average skill at it, yet not finishing it.
Contra (1987)
My family played this quite a bit, but I can't recall exactly how far we got. We didn't reach the end, and I remember discussing how it was 'too hard', so we switched to other side-scrollers like Bad Dudes or Megaman.
F-Zero (1990)
A great game, but one or two of the tracks were way too hard. Wasn't worth banging my head against a wall, so I just raced my sibling's times on other tracks.
Simcity 2000 (1993)
Does over-crowding the city, causing power-failures and traffic jams count as 'finishing' it? lol.
Quake (1996)
I played this until the second last level, then just spammed deathmatch with my siblings.
Final Fantasy VII (1997)
Played this until I met Vincent, then let Drew and Nick take over while I occasionally popped in to check their progress and catch the ending cutscenes.
Super Smash Bros. (1999)
I played 3 levels of the single-player mode, then focused on multi-player battles with neighborhood kids.
Silent Hill 2 (2001)
Game too scary. Stop play. Curl up in sun. Pray.
Frozen Throne (2003)
Played through half the campaign with each race, then switched to showdowns with friends & fam on our home LAN.
Rock Band (2007)
Some songs weren't worth the trouble to learn, so I skipped them.
League Of Legends (2009)
Soooo... this game is played vs. other players only. It has no 'set finish' to it. So in my mind, I called 'finish' as reaching 'Diamond' rank. Of course, my natural tendencies to speed-consume instead led me to create 10+ accounts, each one exploring different champs, roles, lanes, and playstyles... the result, none of the accounts climbed higher than 'Platinum' rank.
Path Of Exile (2013)
PoE has an end game, and even though I own 10+ characters, the highest I've gotten is level 91 and I've never fought Shaper, Elder, Sirus, or even Atziri.
The Witcher 3 (2015)
OK, I finished this one, but I cheated to speed it up. Mods, walkthroughs, and more. 'Technically' I reached the end credits, but anyone who watched me play would call it a stretch to say I 'finished' it.
Hollow Knight (2017)
I got to a particularly hard platforming section, said "this game is absolutely incredible, but this section isn't worth my time, I'm out."
Hades (2020)
This roguelike is the epitome of 'replay value', because every time you die, you're rewarded. As well, every time you finish the game and beat the last boss, you're rewarded as well. Despite all that, I stopped playing after '92 Escape Attempts' according to my save file, with many things undiscovered, weapon-aspects still locked, many romances unexplored, and the story only partly finished.
Hope you enjoyed my journey through 4 decades of 'game-tasting.'
It's like wine-tasting, but with games. You play as little or as much of a game as you need to get the flavor of it, then move on to another. It's my favorite way to consume offerings from the games-industry (perhaps even all industries, lol,) and although it may not be for everyone, it's allowed me to reach my greatest gaming achievement ever.
NOT finishing about 1,240 games, and counting.
(Actually, add one to that total, since I just blazed through Subnautica: Below Zero in about half a day, while leaning hard on a guided-gameplay video series. Possibly up next, Papetura, & The Wild At Heart. Hmmm... I could probably start an entire game-review company at this point if I felt like it.)"
What's your approach to gaming? I'd love to hear about it in the comments, and either way, thanks for reading!
P.S. I highly respect completionists, because without them, a lot of my speed-consumption wouldn't be possible. If any of you are reading this, thank you for your commitment to the game.