"Finishing" Games And "Backlogs"

This post on Reddit really bothered me. It was about "finishing" games. Here is the response I began typing, after which I decided to turn into a blog-post instead of a comment:

What does "finishing" games really mean? It depends on the game and the person. Some people are content with going through the story once and that's it. If that is true, would you consider playing through the story on the easiest setting sufficient? I don't know about you, but if a game is too easy, I find the experience to be extremely boring. Although based on this definition of "finishing" a game, it would suffice, I would not enjoy the experience, which would defeat the purpose of playing the game to begin with. Why sacrifice your enjoyment of playing a game, just for your satisfaction of saying you "finished" a game, or more probably and accurately, for your left-brained, egotistical satisfaction of a adding another game to your pile of "finished" games?

For a little while a few years ago, I used to try to "finish" games I purchased. Every little game I bought on Wii U or Steam, I would try to "finish." Not only would I try to "finish" them, I would try to play them for at least an hour per dollar of its cost. For example, if a game cost $60, I would try to play it for at least 60 hours. Instead of this action making me feel better, it made me feel worse. In the process of "finishing" games, I would be forcing myself to play a game I didn't like, or at a pace that wasn't fun and natural.

 

Some people like to rush through a game after release, and they like to brag on social media that they "finished" it within the first week. I'm not like that. I like to savor a game and appreciate it holistically. This deep-rooted philosophy and modus operandi probably comes from a childhood where I was stuck with one or two games for months at a time. I would play those one or two games over and over again, and still have fun - not just because I had no other choice, but because I could discover new things about the games, get better each and every time I played, and I just simply appreciated playing videogames as a child. Even today, I find more joy from playing a single game for a long time, getting better at it and learning its intricacies, rather than plowing through a large number of games just to "beat" them.

 

How do you "finish" multiplayer games? You can't. Look at a game like Battlefield 4. What would comprise finishing that game? Sure, there is the single-player campaign and you could play through that once and call it a day, but the multiplayer component is the bigger portion of the game by far. There are tens of weapons. Would "finishing" the game include getting lots of kills with every weapon? How many kills would satisfy this requirement? There are also a lot of modes. Would "finishing" Battlefield 4 require one to achieve a certain number of victories with every mode? Problems arise here because some modes are impossible to play because no one plays them anymore.

There are lots of arcade fighting-games on Nintendo Switch right now from Neo Geo. How do you "finish" an arcade fighting-game? Would it require playing through the game with every character? That's a start, but hardly satisfying. Playing fighting-games at the most shallow of levels is not satisfying. Playing against other people, learning a character in and out, and learning the various gameplay-systems of the game is what fighting-games are all about. I would say that arcade fighting-games are "unfinishable."

There is also the issue of backlog-shaming. Sure, one can say it is financially irresponsible to buy a game that you do not "finish," but I do not think that is fair. Time is a scarce commodity, and if you do not like a game, you should not force yourself to "finish" it. Where is the real shame? Regretting a purchase or forcing yourself to do something you do not want to do? You have already wasted your money buying a game you don't like. Don't waste your life as well.

The issue of shame with regards to money is a slippery slope. What if you were a terminal capitalist and everything you ever bought or spent money on was supposed to make money back for you? There would be no end to the shame. The picture-frame you bought to display your family-photo would be useless in this scenario because it didn't make you money in return.

I often criticize physical game-collectors who deride digital gamers, but there is nothing wrong with simply buying and collecting games. If you're being financially responsible, and it makes you happy, you should not feel shame, guilt, or regret for not "finishing" them.

Backlog-shaming started off as a humorous, self-deprecating way of telling others that you bought too many games and didn't play them, but it has evolved into something more threatening to the psychology and culture of gamers. You should not force yourself to play a game you don't like, and you shouldn't feel ashamed for having a "backlog." If you really liked a game and wanted to beat it, it would happen naturally.