This is a habit of mine. After having invested a reasonable amount of time progressing through a game, sometimes I just put it down and don't come back to it.
It's been happening intermittently since I was a kid, although it was less common back then because I had to beg and borrow to play maybe one new game every six months, so I wanted to get as much out of them as possible. It has definitely spiked in frequency since I left high school, in part because of other commitments but often because I just stop caring.
It happens both with games I bought for a ha'penny (Assassin's Creed 2) and games I paid top dollar for (L.A. Noire). It happens with RPGs (both Dragon Age games, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout 3). It happens with shooters (Borderlands 2, Gears of War, Stalker). It happens with strategy games (Starcraft 2, Dawn of War). It happens with simulations where you have a long playthrough (Civilization, Sim City, Cities in Motion, EU3) - I just forget about that playthrough and go to another one. It even happens with MMO characters - in Vanilla WoW I gave up on a level 40 shaman, a level 42 warlock and a level 36 rogue.
Very rarely is it because of difficulty, because I've sunk hundreds of hours into games that constantly kick my ass, like FTL. Sometimes it's because of bugs, or even hacking (thanks, online only Diablo 3). Sometimes it's because the story takes a turn that kills my interest or investment in seeing the plot unfold and/or resolve. Sometimes it's because the gameplay devolves into a tedious grind, a gear check or becomes overly reliant on mechanics not befitting the quality expected of a AAA title (QTEs, point and click, mob spamming, one button gameplay, tile matching etc). Sometimes its because either or both the gameplay and the story become extremely predictable.
It strikes me as odd when I think of how much money I've paid and how much time I've invested in some cases, but it goes on all the same. So how does it affect you all? Do you find yourself giving up too often?
It's been happening intermittently since I was a kid, although it was less common back then because I had to beg and borrow to play maybe one new game every six months, so I wanted to get as much out of them as possible. It has definitely spiked in frequency since I left high school, in part because of other commitments but often because I just stop caring.
It happens both with games I bought for a ha'penny (Assassin's Creed 2) and games I paid top dollar for (L.A. Noire). It happens with RPGs (both Dragon Age games, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout 3). It happens with shooters (Borderlands 2, Gears of War, Stalker). It happens with strategy games (Starcraft 2, Dawn of War). It happens with simulations where you have a long playthrough (Civilization, Sim City, Cities in Motion, EU3) - I just forget about that playthrough and go to another one. It even happens with MMO characters - in Vanilla WoW I gave up on a level 40 shaman, a level 42 warlock and a level 36 rogue.
Very rarely is it because of difficulty, because I've sunk hundreds of hours into games that constantly kick my ass, like FTL. Sometimes it's because of bugs, or even hacking (thanks, online only Diablo 3). Sometimes it's because the story takes a turn that kills my interest or investment in seeing the plot unfold and/or resolve. Sometimes it's because the gameplay devolves into a tedious grind, a gear check or becomes overly reliant on mechanics not befitting the quality expected of a AAA title (QTEs, point and click, mob spamming, one button gameplay, tile matching etc). Sometimes its because either or both the gameplay and the story become extremely predictable.
It strikes me as odd when I think of how much money I've paid and how much time I've invested in some cases, but it goes on all the same. So how does it affect you all? Do you find yourself giving up too often?
