Topic: When Do You Stop Playing a Game?

I was recently tidying up some of my game collection and spotted (quite) a few games in it that I remember enjoying, but never getting around to completing them without reaching a point where I got bored with them. Sometimes it has been because a game I have been looking forward to has released and I've got distracted, sometimes because life has got in the way and by the time I've returned to gaming I've forgotten where I was up to and just moved to something else. It got me thinking though, when is a game finished, in playing terms, for me?

In general the ideal finishing point for me is when I complete the game/story I move on, I'm not fussed on Trophies or the like so it is a good place to stop. I have noticed at times though I'll avoid playing a game I particularly enjoyed when I reach the last hour or so as, subconsciously, I know I'll only get to experience the game a first time once so I'm delaying that ending. If a game gets dull late on though I'll have no qualms about stopping before the end, even if I know it isn't far away. Where it gets difficult is with open ended games with no ending, I have yet to figure out what my trigger is for stopping playing them. So anyone else find they have triggers for stopping playing games, or are you a completionist who isn't done until every last drop is squeezed out of a game? And will you play a game you are no longer enjoying just to finish it?

A game is finished when I decide it is. That could be after the first chapter or two or when I have beaten the campaign on its hardest difficulty and collected every collectable. Some games are 'over' when the 'replacement' comes out - like CoD - although I may still return to older games for a bit of fun with friends. There is no hard and fast rule with any game. I still have games that I still intend or want to return to at some point but haven't played for months or more. I tend to play what I want and when I want. I never feel that I have to finish a game before starting the next. In some cases this can work out well as I always have some options to play - in other instances, it can mean that some games almost get forgotten and a long way from finishing because I feel more compelled to play a different game at that time. Most campaigns I end up finishing are games that I start and get hooked so play them all the way through. Those I haven't finished are games that didn't grab my attention. I admit some games I had to push through to reach the end (like the Last of Us) or keep revisiting to try and get into (MGS4).

Generally though there is no specific end and it really depends on the game itself as to how much I end up playing.

I stop playing a video game when I'm done. I'm not really a completionist, and I have no qualms about quitting a game if I'm not having fun any more. That could be after four minutes or forty hours. Life is too short, and my spare time too precious, for me to be messing around with games I'm not even enjoying.

i stop playing once i have got everything i can get out of it, if it starts to bore me or if i'm satisfied with what i have done then i stop

of course every now and then a game grabs me and i just have to do EVERYTHING in the game you can do but normally just finishing the story is enough (it's probably why i only have 1 platinum trophy)

I'm like most of the comments here and I'm done when I'm done, it is mainly when I've completed the single player portion but I have found that I played Dark Souls 2 completely 5 times and I have racked up 3 completions of Dark Souls 3. I was looking at my games list and I have so many that I have started and played the first level or two and moved on to another game for no reason at all.

It all depends with me. Usually I am done when I finish the main story. Sometimes I will go and finish up the side quest if there are any or till I get everything, I am particularly bad on that part with the Lego games. But for me once the main story is done I move on.

Now if a game becomes more like a chore for me or I am not having fun with it, I will be finished with it. I have so many games on my backlog that I could be enjoying that finishing a game that is boring me just for the sake of finishing it just doesn't make sense. I might at some point go back to that unfinished game when my palettte is cleaned so to speak but usually not.

Multiplayer games like CoD, Mario Kart, Rocket League. I am never truely done with. I even play them years later (provided the servers are up). Heck I am still known to thrown on Goldeneye on the N64 or Street Fighter II on the Genesis when I have the guys from work over.

@Dichotomy: Amazing opening comment. I can answer your main issue, starting most games you need 5-10 hours of full on commitment within 24-48 hours of starting a game. Without a significant amount of initial free time you wont have witnessed enough of the game to have an emotional buy in. After 2-3 hours that's usually the time a films over and you can decide wherever it was good or not, with games that's usually when the gameplay get you hooked and you make the conscious decision to play away the remainder of the day on that game or to put it down. There are 2 examples of my backlog I may never play again although I know both are brilliant - Dangaronpa and Wipeout 2048. I never set enough time to work through them initially, then life got in the way, then a new game came out, then I tried to play them and forgot what I was doing, then life got in the way, then rocket league, then I may as well restart the game.

With finishing games I'm very similar, especially RPGs. I suppose the journey is better than the destination. I'm at that juncture with a number of games; although games also get more difficult late in which has always been a pet hate of mine as I play games predominantly to relax.

I stopped playing most of my PS3 games when the PS4 came out and I moved across.
I spent a lot of time on Destiny until a couple of months ago, It just got too samey - even with all the DLC which I did purchase. Overall it was worth it though.
Uncharted 4, was great fun but that's been done. I was looking forward to the co-op until 'survival' was announced. what a cop out

This thread is great- not least because it makes me feel better about not finishing games! I can get bored quite quickly, or stuck on a particularly annoying difficulty spike, which will stop me playing (even though I know if I can get past it I'll enjoy the game again. I'm looking at you, Dark Souls III).
But fundamentally for me I think it is the thrill of the new; I'm a sucker for getting new games and even if I'm enjoying playing something, as soon as a new game comes out that I think I need to own, I'll buy it and then stop playing the current one. Then 2 or 3 weeks later I'll think I need to get back to the previous game, will have forgotten where I am or some of the mechanics, struggle through 10 minutes and then consign it to the shelf waiting for the inevitable trade in.
It makes me feel slightly guilty not finishing a game- like I'm not giving enough respect to the developers or my wallet, but that feeling of starting a new game for the first time definitely outweighs the guilt. And it's my hobby so I'll play it how I want to

@Mergatro1d: I am the same way. I have so many games across so many consoles. That often I stop playing a game and start another one. Not that the first game was bad or anything, I just get distracted I guess you can say. Sometimes it will be months before I can get back to that first game and when I do, I forgot what I was doing and usually have to start over. Then I get to the same point I got to before and get distracted again. That happened a few times with Borderlands 2.

Generally I'm done with a game after finishing the story. Depending on difficulty or genre, I may or may not go for 100%. Although, by "done" I mean beat the game and probably replay it at a later time. I rarely ever put down a game for good unless it's bad.

I also tend to play a game from start to finish. Reason being that I feel it's only fair to see the whole thing through, and judge it as a whole. After all, it's entirely possible to have a game be great and then have a bad finale, and start bad but turn out good.

Sometimes though I have a tendency to leap from game to game, and therefore leaving some on the shelf due to enjoying another game. Other examples of stopping a game are getting stuck, but not bothering with a walkthrough (mostly RPGs), disc problems, online rage (fighting games), not wanting to finish so I could play it more (Mario Galaxy), and spiders (Skyrim).

I generally move on after I complete the story/campain, though if it's something I really like, I may try squeezing everything out of it (I 100% both A Link to the Past & Twilight Princess for example). Sometimes I'll quit after losing repeatedly to a boss, but will usually return at some point (even if a year later, in the case of InFamous). The sole exception is an eShop dungeon crawler called Excave, and after finally beating the boss I was stuck on it didn't drop the key needed to progress further, so I just dropped it.

For score attack/multiplayer games, I just play until I'm bored, but I usually don't drop anything for good, because the mood is sure to strike again.