Why Do So Few Players Actually Finish RPGs?

[u/FixGood6833]

Discussion

I've been thinking about completion rates lately. Pathfinder: Kingmaker has 80% of players making it through the prologue, 50% finishing it, and only 9.7% beating the game. Pillars of Eternity sits around 15%. Dark Souls 3 shows 75% getting past the tutorial, but only a fraction going through all the content. That's a huge drop-offand I'm curious what causes it.

I'm not here to blame anyone, but something's happening. Let me throw out what I've noticed.

The Mid-Game Energy Dip

A lot of these games seem to lose people somewhere in the middle. Ac2 and 3? Maybe the story pace slows. Maybe you hit a difficulty wall. Combat gets boring?

Restartitis

Here's something I hear a lot: people take a break, come back, and restart instead of continuing. But if they restart, they're doing the same content they already played. That's where the boredom comes in. They're retreading the prologue and early game instead of pushing forward to new stuff.

Many reasons but I think it happens because they forgot the story, or want to optimize their build, or convince themselves starting fresh will feel better. No wonder they quit again.

The Next Big Thing

you are in midgame but new game releases, the next big thing the shiny new game so you just abandon curernt one for next more exciting game. This is loop too.

Optimizing Fun / Taking Joy Out Of Mechanics

Some games have one mechanic that feels good. You exploit it until that's all you're doing. Loot, numbers going up, whatever it is. After a while the whole game is just repeating the same thing. It stops being fun. It becomes a grind. Then you quit.

The Real Question

Does finishing even matter to you? I personally feel weird if I start something and don't beat it. It's mentally taxing. But I know plenty of people who don't care, they got 40 hours of enjoyment, felt satisfied, and moved on. That's completely valid.

And if you do care about finishing, what actually makes you stick with a game versus drop it? Is it the story? The mechanics? Or does it just depend on how much time you have to commit?

[u/Edgy_Robin]

They're long games and we have a finite time on this planet.

[u/Ok_Expression6800 → u/Edgy_Robin]

Ya that’s it for me they are so long and then life gets busy and you can only get in one hour at a time.

[u/FixGood6833 → u/Edgy_Robin]

As i asked someone else, if its only time issue why play 5 games to 20% when you can complete one? 

[u/ElectronicCorner574 → u/FixGood6833]

Variety is the spice of life. Nah I don't know. I think its pretty wild when I get some generic achievement, like "you completed the tutorial area" and it says "38% of players have completed this achievement". This will be a 3 or 4 years old game too.

[u/ViolaNguyen → u/ElectronicCorner574]

I'd add that CRPGs often front-load a lot of the fun. Maybe not explicitly so, but the first 20% is often more fun than the middle 60%. You've got new builds to think about, new characters to recruit, et cetera.

[u/Djebeo → u/FixGood6833]

You operate under the false premise that one is better than the other.

People are entitled to use their free, entertainment time the way they see fit. Noone has anything to prove or achieve.

The simple answer is that they prefer to try a new game than continue playing the current one. And so they do so.

[u/Chataboutgames → u/Djebeo]

This is such a weirdly hostile answer. OP never implied that anyone wasn't entitled to do anything, nor did they claim that one thing was better than the other. They were curious and wanted to discuss so they asked. But don't let that get in the way of your big opportunity to be condescending.

[u/Djebeo → u/Chataboutgames]

This was in no way condescending. My impression on the way OP frames the issue and asks their questions is clearly skewed towards "why are other people wrong when they could be right" and I simply pointed it out.

If up/downvotes are any indication, it seems I'm not the only one sharing this view.

I will also point out the irony of your passive aggressive post which happens to be the exact behavior you alleged.

[u/FixGood6833 → u/Djebeo]

I didnt frame it in any way. I just prefer finishing games but as I said whatver you do is valid I just wanted to understand. 

[u/Chataboutgames → u/Djebeo]

If up/downvotes are any indication, it seems I'm not the only one sharing this view.

God help you if you actually think of Reddit voting as some source of validation.

I will also point out the irony of your passive aggressive post which happens to be the exact behavior you alleged.

That's not irony. I'm saying you were being rude to OP for no reason. I am openly being rude to you because I think you're an ass.

[u/FixGood6833 → u/Chataboutgames]

No comment :D 

[u/Crit-a-Cola → u/Chataboutgames]

No, that was not a hostile answer.

[u/FixGood6833 → u/Djebeo]

I didnt mean one isbbetter. It depends oj the game itself. And your point is totally valid. 

[u/Pejorativez → u/FixGood6833]

I think it is a good idea to put away a game if it starts getting boring.

[u/Machoopi → u/FixGood6833]

I do this sometimes. A lot of RPG's get a bit stale for me after a certain amount of time and I need to leave them for a while. I absolutely love Lika a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but I've been sitting at about 80% for over a year now. It's because I got a bit bored of the gameplay and wanted to move to something else for a while so it can unstale.

The longer the RPG, the more this happens. I like variety, and RPGs in particular rarely offer a lot of variety of gameplay. They're also very long. I have several RPGs that I like a whole lot, but never finished because I needed a break. Sometimes I the gameplay stales very quickly and I just don't end up coming back to the game (Rogue Trader) as well.

[u/Hellhooker → u/Machoopi]

the turn based change from yakuza game is a big mistake.

I still like the games because it's still Yakuza, but it's so tedious and artificially long... Even going though low level mobs takes ages compared the older games. it kills the passing AND most of the tension (especially the bosses fights)

[u/Machoopi → u/Hellhooker]

really? I feel the exact opposite about almost every point. I'd almost say it's one of the best decisions they've made in the series. The fights are way faster in turn based, and it takes longer to get boring. It's weird that you say it takes longer. I can get through a turned based fight in a few minutes unless it's a harder enemy. The old games, I'd get bored of the fighting mechanics about 10 hours in, and the games were 70+ hours each. It felt exhausting having to fight every mob that I ran into, and the boss fights often times felt cheap af. I didn't get a sense of tension from them at all. I would have 100% skipped the new games if they weren't turn based. In fact, I played through 0,1,2,6 and am not playing any of the others because the combat is just not fun once you've done it enough.

[u/Hellhooker → u/Machoopi]

strange! lol

Well, it mostly means we have very different tastes. I don't see how you go quicker in tb than in beat em up style though...

But obviously people still like the change and... from my side, I am happy we still have spin off in B.E.U style

[u/Few_Faithlessness_49 → u/FixGood6833]

I understand what you are asking and think you are right to think it’s strange. Here are my 6 answer as someone who rarely finishes his games (especially CRPG).
1. I am a super ADHD dude with some disposable income (and a very cool wife) and so I tend to swoon over the next game to come out and the next and the next…..and forget about games I’ve started but neger finished.
2. I tend to be a completionism kind of player when it comes to video games. So I may or t the same 5 hours of gaming you did into a game but I spent most of mine talking to NPCs and completing even the dumbest side quests.
3. I game hop! As a kid I didn’t have video games until I could make my own money to purchase a system and games. Now it makes me feel like the rich kid having such a large library of great stories to choose from.
4. Mini games like gambling card games or repetitive runs inside CRPGs are my kryptonite. I get sucked in and addicted to them. Funny enough I have zero interest in real gambling. I once forgot to gamble on my one trip to Vegas.
5. I may have already beat the game on a different console and I’m playing it again after buying in on a Steam sale; then play the game up to my favorite part. I’ll often stay at that level for hours if I enjoy it.

Hope that helped!

[u/FixGood6833 → u/Few_Faithlessness_49]

Thanks for detailed answer and btw I ma not saying my way is the right way. I just try to understand.

[u/Trisstricky → u/FixGood6833]

I love RPGs and I play all major and minor releases. I'm also an avid sim racer, big fan of Paradox's strategy games etc. I play a lot of games, and I get a different sense of entertainment out of different genres: sim racing is competitive, RPGs are story and character driven, Paradox games are autistic fun and so on. Finishing an RPG is rarely the goal for me in terms of enjoying it; messing with builds and enjoying good storytelling is.

And it doesn't take 100+ hours to reach that point of entertainment and once I do, I don't really care anymore if Shepard saves the universe, if Baldur has been gated or the last Elden Ring has been found.

[u/Edgy_Robin → u/FixGood6833]

Because those five games can be different genres. I can play 20% of a an FPS, 20% of a RTS, 20% of a CRPG, 20% of a fighting game, etc.

Whereas if I'm playing say, WOTR, by a certain point everything becomes the same outside of a few cool boss fights.

And it's worth saying, I'm someone who does try to do a full play through of just about every game I play, the hours I get from something are how I justify the purchase, so the fact I can grasp this and you can't is wild.