Can you leave a book/game or series unfinished?

[Random berk]

Depends really. If a book series fails to keep my interest through the first one, I won't give it a second chance. If I do come to love a series however, I'll stick it out to the end, even if it does go downhill. If you can't immerse yourself in a fantasy world to the point that you have to finish the story, then what's the point of reading fantasy at all?

There are exceptions of course, like if the series drags on too long without actually following a continuous storyline. When I was.. 12, I think, I started reading a series by Anthony Horowitz featuring a protagonist called Alex Rider, a teenager who was basically conscripted into MI6. I loved them.

I'm 22 now, and to the best of my knowledge that series is fucking still going. Needless to say, I dropped that one quite some time ago.

 

[FFP2]

Metro 2033 is the only game that I doubt that I will ever finish. I usually get my money's worth out of a game but I just can't stand the stealth in that game.

 

[Sir Christopher McFarlane]

Yes.
I have been on Ganon's Caslte in Ocarina of Time for weeks now. I went in once, didn't figure out what I should do and still didn't go back there. People say the fight with Ganondorf is annoying as the game decides not to let you use auto-targeting mode and that Ganon's final form attack takes out 5 hearts. If this is all as annoying as it sounds, I may actually leave it unfinished. I've enjoyed the game so far, and I wanted to go out with good memories of it.
I always read more than one book at the same time. Some of them are neglected for months. Others I never finish.
One that I left unfinished was the Chronicles of Narnia. I only read the first three books of the collection.

 

[Galletea]

All the time. Even if I'm enjoying something I often don't end up finishing it, particularly games and series. Possibly because the ending may well disappoint me. Not so much with books though, I tend to see them to the end if I'm enjoying them.

 

[Tom_green_day]

X Files. The first season was great, and the second was pretty good. But they just become too repetitive. I can see now why most 'MOTW' shows have an overarcing plot to them too. There was hints of a conspiracy now and again, but I just couldn't be bothered to follow it more.
Same with George R R Martin's work. The first book was alright, but I just can't muster the enthusiasm to pick up the second.

 

[Longstreet]

Spoiler

Games? Yea i guess, if i get in to it from the start (like assasin's creed) I want all the parts. This also goes if the previous parts is key to understand the other. However a lot of times i will start mid series (Fallout 3 was my first) because well, FO1 and 2 dont seem like my cup of tea.

On the books part, hell no. Atleast if it is an actually serie, not something like ALL the CSI or John Grisham books.

I am still looking for two books to complete my collection, and NO bookstore got em in my country, or anywhere what i can find. (One from Darren Shan and one from Geoffery Huntington) I might have "outgrown" those books by "normal" standards but fuck that, i want my series complete damnit.

EDIT; Damn, i missed the point of this thread by about 3000 miles. Let's try again.

Yes. If i get bored i'll just quit playing. Still haven't finished Metro 2033, Far Cry 3 and stalker too now that i think of it, and a few others just because i couldn't find myself playing it. Goes for books too, if i find it too boring, i'll just put it away.

 

[zidine100]

i do it often,

for example ive played persona 4 about three times now, havent bet it once because i get bored near the end. Blame me burning out.

any elder scroll game, ive never beaten the main quest of any of them... even once... i mean seriously...

then there's the max payne series, i loved the first game its up there on my top five list, but the second game.....

there's alot more, but im not in the mood to go into them, i do it so often.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Not usually, but I've found myself in such a situation recently.
About a month or two ago, I started reading John Milton's Paradise Lost. While it's a brilliant poem with some great imagery and exceptional charactization, I find Milton's language to be very dry. It's not as much that I don't understand what he's saying, it's more that I don't care too much for his poetic style; it just kind of drags on. I've been reading it over the past two months (I haven't had a lot of spare reading time), but it feels like I've been reading it for years.
Yet, despite this, I feel like I need to finish it. I don't know why, I've left plenty of books unfinished, but this one... I don't know. I chose, of my own free will, to tackle this literary behemoth, and I'll be damned if I don't finish what I started.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Not easily in most cases, but yes.

I've walked out of cinemas when films have been so atrociously awful I couldn't bear to watch them anymore.
I've left a handful of games unfinished. Some just got boring (AssCreedBro, Kingdoms of Warcr...Amalur, most MMOs, etc).
I've started some games but stopped playing within the first 1-2 hours. This isn't the same as abandoning a game many hours in. Usually it just failed to grab my interest.
I've only abandoned very few books and they're always the hardest. I gave up on SoIaF about 1/3rd into Book 1. I thoroughly despised pretty much everyone in the book, there was no one remotely relateble, everyone was busy with incest, murdering children and rape. Not for me.
I stopped reading The Sprawl trilogy when I realised Book 2 didn't continue the story from 1 (which admittedly did have an ending).

I've left the odd game unfinished with intention of picking them up again. Usually partway through a playthrough something else comes along. I think I have "in-progress" playthrus of DX:HR, DAII, Skyrim (may leave it and start a 3rd playthru instead), Borderlands and FNV.

 

[miketehmage]

Well I haven't played mass effect 3... and I loved the first two.. I don't really know why I haven't played it yet tbh.

 

[Tono Makt]

I can and have left book series unfinished. The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind is a series I loved the first few books, got bored after 3 or so, and haven't read anything in over a decade. I have no plans to return to it at all. I frequently do this with Anime or TV shows; I watch a few episodes to see if I like it, then when it goes meh for me, I drop it. Games same thing; I was given Oblivion as a gift, played it for a few hours and put it away, never to touch it again. (I forgot I even had it until my wife decided to take it out before she bought Skyrim.) Sometimes I'll take a break from a series until more is released; the Wheel of Time and Song of Fire and Ice are two book series that fit the bill for me.


And comic books! Those are getting far too easy to drop. "And... this story goes into the Amazing Spider Man! And then into Fantasticer Four! And Gulf Coast Avengers! And Wolverine! And Logan: The Wolverine! And Wolverine; starring Logan. And Wolverine and the X-Men! And Wolverine: X-Man. And X-Men Origins: Creed and Logan in Madripoor. And Captain America. Oh, and while it's not directly involved, there's a wonderful side story in Doctor Strange: Medicine Woman. All on sale sometime in April! Or May. Or August. In time for next Christmas at the very latest." I think I'd have a harder time getting back into comics than dropping them again.

 

[Remus]

Yes, easily. I don't read books so can't comment. Games though, have to really suck me in if I'm going to complete them, as in lose all sense of time and space, especially now with the sheer number of AAA titles out. What really kills my interest is if friends are playing the same game and they get further than me. It kills the newness, the act of discovering that new experience for yourself. I bought Borderlands 2 day of release and still haven't gone back to it after a friend sat and beat it in a week. I am not letting that happen with Bioshock Infinite however, not with there being one save, period. I should be done with it in a couple days.

 

[Shinkicker444]

Is there a phobia of finishing things? Because I'm pretty sure I have that. I have a horrible habit of not finishing book series or games. I get to the last few chapters or act, and always seem to put continuing aside be it for lunch, dinner (which I also have a habit of leaving a few mouthfuls of on the plate, lol), a nap and then never get back to it and it just sits there. Bioshock is one of the few games in recent memory I can think of that I have actually finished. I purchased the final Wheel of Time novel, powered through it, and... stopped, not because I found it boring or anything but, I think, because I didn't want to finish it.

It's really annoying.

 

[Goofguy]

I used to not have a problem soldiering through series, even if I didn't like them. I'd always feel compelled to have to finish them, as if I owed it to someone to do so. Recently though, that hasn't been the case. I stopped playing the GoW series halfway through the second game and I'm having a hard time starting OSC's Xenocide.

 

[revjay]

I'm about halfway through the last book of the hunger games trilogy. Once in a while I just stop wanting to read and sadly it was before the end of the last book. Hopefully I'll get back to it soon as I've really enjoyed the books.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Yes, but I try not to, either by forcing myself through something bad or just not starting it in the first place. I think Dune stands out as something I just could not for the life of me finish because everything about it was as dry, dusty and dull as the desert planet it would have been set on if I had had kept reading

 

[RJ Dalton]

If it sucks, oh yeah. Never did get past the first chapter of Twilight, for example. And I've never been able to finish a Dan Brown novel.

 

[BabyRaptor]

I wish I'd left the Wheel of Time series unfinished. The last book was just SUCH a letdown to me.

I don't generally leave games unfinished. I might for a month or two, but after that it starts to bother me that I still haven't completed it. I'm doing that with Bioshock right now...I stopped playing, because I'm using my finishing it as leverage and the person being leveraged upon is taking their sweet time. But its started nagging at me recently that I'm not done.

 

[Lunar Templar]

yes, not only can i do so, but have.

the reason boils down to i just stopped caring about what ever was going on in that world

 

[ninjapenguin1414]

Yes, very easily depending on how boring the book/game is. Even though JRPG's are my favorite genre I own more than I haven't beaten compared to ones that I have. Also book's that are incredibly long and don't keep me interested I also can never finish, the last time it happened was with the last Eragon book, Game of Thrones, Good Omens (I'm determined to finish this eventually though), probably some more that I'm forgetting about.