"ARRRGGHHHH" And Other Reasons I Stop Playing Games

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ASS!!!!!!!

   Imagine a movie where you had to defeat an impossible Chimera who cheap shots you at every possible moment to continue watching. Or a book where sometimes when you go to turn the page, it freezes and you have to close and open the book again to keep reading. Sounds crazy, but in video games, that's what we essentially have to do. And the truth is, because of crap like that, we don't always stick around till the end of the game we're playing.  It varies, of course, from game to game, but the industry average of gamers who buy a game and actually finish it is only 20-25%. Understandably then, David Cage, president of Quantic Dream, felt proud as hell when he announced 72% of people who played Heavy Rain finished it. I'm sure the "you can't really fail" aspect helped, but hold your head high, Dave. You done well, despite the awkward sex scene that was like two mannequins fondling each other.


   Personally, I'm the type that when I buy a game, I take it to the house. I like to beat the game on the highest difficulty setting, discover all the secrets, view all the alternative endings, etc. But that's just me. My fiancee lives 2 states away and I hate my job, so I usually have at least 3 hours a day to game. That is not to say that I always finish the games I buy. With this in mind, I thought I would look at the top 5 reasons why gamers don't finish their games.

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1. Responsibilities

   "Woman, I'll be there in a second! I don't care if dinner is getting cold and the baby's crying, the kingdom needs me!"

   Now, while I stated earlier that this thankfully doesn't get in my way too much, I know its only a matter of time before I produce a seed that will need me to take care of it. I guess that could be fun too...in a different way... But the truth is gamers have spouses, jobs, children, homework, and a bunch of other stuff that we need to spend our time on.  It's a shame, but responsibilities sometimes take our time away from the controller for days or weeks at a time and, by the time we do have time to game, something else new might be just coming out that we want to play more and that old game in our system ends up getting shelved, never to be completed. Tragic.

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 2. Difficulty

    "How are you not dying?!!!!!!!!!! ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!"

     While the days of NES brutality are essentially over, occasionally a game or a particular section of one comes by and kicks our behind so hard that we throw down the controller in frustration and begin to curse the first born of whoever created this "infernal contraption," or something to that effect. Everyone likes a challenge, but few enjoy being frustrated and its those feelings that will make a gamer walk away. Lately, I've been working my back catalog and have been playing Darksiders on Apocalyptic mode, which is fun for the most part but I've hit a few battles that had me grinding my teeth and groaning (that sounded inadvertently sexual, my bad). It wasn't even that the enemies were hard, but certain hits take so much life out that after two are three mistakes, I turn to blue dust and have to wait for the game to reload and then get back to where I was. If I was a less dedicated fellow, I might have moved on to one of the 4 other titles sitting on my shelf that I've been meaning to play. 

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3. Glitches/Broken Games 

   "Yep, I wanted to get stuck in the mountain and be forced to reset my system. That's fantastic."

  

   Developers have a vision and they put their heart and soul into realizing its potential on a little round disc. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they don't. There's nothing worse than playing a game you are really enjoying only to have things ruined by bugs or glitches that destroy the experience and make you reach for another game that at least works. Patches have helped limit these things but I'm sure there are gamers who bought Fallout:New Vegas day one, got fed up, and never went back. Dragon Age 2 is another recent culprit, full of glitched quests that become uncompletable and trophies that just don't work. We might put these games aside until they get fixed, but as things often go, it's never certain that we'll get the chance to revisit them.

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4. Length 

   "If I have to stomach through another 10 hour dungeon, I'm going to stick my head in the microwave." 

   While I hate when a game can be finished in one sitting, its gets a little tedious when a game keeps going, and going, and going....and going. This happens a lot with RPGs more than other genres, but there really are games that are way too long and overstay their welcome and really require some dedication to finish. Some notable offenders that come to mind are GTA: San Andreas, Xenogears, and Elder Scrolls IV. And its a shame because all of those games were great. I just never finished them because after 80+ hours, regardless of quality, I always ready to move on.

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5. It....just Sucks 

   "Wow. Well, that was a waste."

    Sometimes, it's nothing special that makes us stop playing a game. There are no distractions or glitches or anything else to get in our way. During these times, the game is just fine...but it blows. With the countless review sites and other ways to get impressions on games coming out, it's becoming harder and harder to get bamboozled into dishing out $60 for a hot disc of garbage, but it still happens. And when it does, it's up to us to realize our mistake and move on. It's ok. Just put down the controller. Take the disc out, put it back in the case, drive back to Gamestop, and LAY WASTE ON THE FLUNKY WORKING THERE WITH IT! "Why didn't you warn me?!"
   One of my most recent experiences such as this was Homefront. Although the writing and atmosphere were good, it played pretty much how I imagine being on the receiving end of a brutal melee in Killzone probably felt.

     Any other reasons why you stopped playing a game?

Ode To Squaresoft

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Oh, how I miss you...

   
     So during the end of March, I got the chance to go to Square's Distant Worlds concert, which was basically two and half hours of straight-up fan service. Nobuo Uematsu was in attendance to enjoy a full orchestra playing some of the best music from the Final Fantasy series while a large screen showing footage from the corresponding games. From HD video from XIII to old pixel art from I, II, and III, it was all there and I, as well as the rest in attendance, sat back and enjoyed the tunes from some of the games we grew up on. They even went as far to re-enact the famous opera scene from VI prompting the guy behind me to literally moan in ecstasy, which was both a little disturbing but understandable

    As I boarded the train ride home, my mind was filled with the warm sense of nostalgia and it really shocked me how many of the games I LOVED growing up came from one group. Squaresoft. Back in the day they really were one of the top tier developers in the industry, and with RPGs, it wasn't even close. The conversation simply began and ended with Squaresoft. Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, Xenogears, FF VII, Parasite Eve, I mean, the list goes on and on. To anyone who was gamer back then, the name Squaresoft will now and forever conjure up memories of quality title after quality title. But that was then...

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Hang on to yo buttz, it's gonna get bumpy.

   Not that Square's output post the Square-Enix merger has been bad. They're still making solid games. Dragon Quest has its crowd. Kingdom Hearts is an unorthodox but solid series. But I don't know if it was just a certain development team that moved on to other things, or the mercurial nature of the industry, or I dunno, space aliens, but the magic just seems gone that the name Square used to imply. They just aren't the same anymore.

    The clearest indication with this is Square's flagship series, Final Fantasy. I was a huge fan of X but after that, the connection just feels like its missing. XII was definitely a good game and I was even a fan of the MMORPG like combat system, but it just didn't feel as memorable as any of the games between VI and X. With XIII, I was definitely disappointed with the EXTREME linearity that loosened up only slightly after 20+ hours and found the story both convoluted and, frankly, dull. It's a shame too because it had some beautiful cut scenes. On the online front, XI had a decent following but it's clear that XIV was a rush job they planned on just patching later because, besides get blasted by all the media outlets, even the diehards are finding the empty servers disconcerting. Square would never have attached their name to a product so disheveled back in the day. But then again, times have changed.

   I am intrigued by FF Versus XIII (which apparently was created because of irreconcilable differences among the development team - indicating another whole slew of problems) but I'm not going crazy. FF XIII-2 holds as much weight as a fluffy pillow in my book after XIII ripped my heart out. But hope is not lost. The ace up their sleeve is still yet to be played.

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Who were you expecting? Zidane looking even more girlie?

   One thing that I realized from my night at the Distant Worlds is that VII simply holds a special place in gamers hearts that were around in the Playstation days. The concert opened to hoots and hollars as the orchestra played the music from the opening scene  that pulls back to reveal Midgar. Later on, Aeris' theme left not a dry eye in the room and, to go out with a bang, they played Sephroith's theme, complete with diabolical Latin lyrics. Uematsu knows it's awesome. We know it's awesome. It just makes too much sense for it not to happen.

    It's been rumored to death and I say it's coming. If Square wants to regain its street cred with its fanbase, VII will get all of us back on the train faster than a chocobo in Gold Saucer with a mouth full of Sylkis Greens. In an age where it takes alot for a company to risk failure on a new IP, a VII remake would be a safe project the developers can cash in on. Hell, when they released it on PSN, it did over 100k the first few weeks and it was a ten year old game and the Playstation install base was a fraction of what it is today. I remember the boys on IGN's Podcast: Beyond! talking about it, hinting that the team that would be more likely do it is the one finishing up Versus XIII. With that in mind and next year being the 15 year anniversary of VII's original release, my gut says the stars are aligning.

   A VII remake would definitely get this guy singing the company's praises once again. How could it not?