Another update + monologue!
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Creeper World Anniversary Edition
14 hours playtime
39 of 39 achievements
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GALAK-Z
15 hours playtime
20 of 35 achievements
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Door Kickers
35 hours playtime
37 of 43 achievements
Creeper World - Had this game for a while and have long thought about finishing it. My first attempt at playing it again turned into a 4.5 hour grind sesh. I was really enjoying it and making good progress. I like that this game has evenly-spaced achievements; 1 more-or-less after every level. However, the initial excitement wore off after a while. I was very close to finishing - only about 2-3 hours of playtime left, but I just couldn’t bring myself to play it that easily. But being so close to completion - combined with my natural inclination to not start a new game for fear of having too many active uncompleted games - the phrase “playing a game” was temporarily synonymous with “finishing Creeper World.” Any time I had a chance to actually play a game, I would end up just watching YouTube or browsing Reddit instead .-. Eventually, I was able to get over the inertia and finish the game. It only took me an hour or two, and I actually really enjoyed it.
Monologue - This is one of my concerns with the whole backlog thing and completing games in general. Sometimes (often) you’ll get a bit bored with a game before you finish it, and there’ll likely be a decent amount of play left in it as well. For some people, this isn’t much of an issue as they just bin it and move on - I do that sometimes as well. But when the end is in sight; 100% achievements is quite easily reachable; or you just owe it to the game for coming this far as it is, it’s pretty rough to just say, “that’s enough” and walk away. Sure, you could take a break until you feel like playing it again, if you don’t mind having +1 to your “started, but not completed” or “I’LL COME BACK AND FINISH THIS SOMEDAY I PROMISE” piles. Another problem for some games is that by the time you feel like playing it again, you’ll have forgotten how to play but the difficulty is pretty high because of how far you’ve progressed. A minor issue, I suppose.
Galak-Z - Finally beaten. Been a long time coming. Got a decent amount of achievements along the way, so I’m happy. Not much else to say, as I mentioned that I was going to start working on this game 2 posts ago. I’m just glad it’s done. I really enjoyed playing it as well!
Door Kickers - Played this game ages ago and completed most of it. Decided to revisit it, and am glad I did as I’ve been really enjoying it. Also realised I’m actually quite close to 100%ing the game. Some achievements will take a bit of work, but I think it will be worth it. Hopefully I don’t get too bored as some of the achieves will be pretty grindy.
I have Creeper World 3 in my unfinished games. It was quite nice, but haven’t returned to it in years. But I definitely will at some point :) It seems you had a pretty nice gaming experience overall.
Re:Monologue: I regularly think about that as well. And you analyzed the situation pretty well: You cannot simply put a game on the “later”-pile and come back to it a few years later, since you’ll forget most things about it in the meantime. I did not really care about finishing games for some years, which ended in an unfinished games list containig about 1/3 of my games, many with only a couple of hours playtime. Only recently I adopted your mindset and don’t start so many new games anymore. I’ve been working for maybe 9 months now on finishing started games. And sometimes I wonder, if that’s really the right way, or if one shouldn’t care about such things. Interestingly enough it was not before I joined BLAEO that I realised how many unfinished games I have. Ok, that didn’t contain anything too useful I guess, but I wanted to make clear, that I can understand your issue and think about that as well :D
CW3 looks like a lot of fun. I have no playtime on it, but I must’ve played a demo online somewhere cuz I can distinctly remember playing a level or so. It seems to be a lot more fun and have more content than the original CW. I’m looking forward to playing it, but I think I’ve had enough CW for now…
Don’t worry that you “didn’t add anything useful,” I’ve been wanting to discuss this topic for a while and glad that I’ve found someone who agrees with me :D I’m not sure what created the mindset of not wanting too many started games, but I think it’s good as prevents your games list from becoming too messy haha. You raise a good point - “is this the right way??” I think, at the end of the day, do whatever you want to do. Playing games is - and should be - enjoyable; fun; something that you look forward to doing. Not a chore that you dread because you’re forcing yourself to complete games you don’t even like. But then again, isn’t it satisfying to tick off a game as beaten/completed? To see the 100% achievements? Sigh. It’s the never-ending tug-of-war match. Games should be here just for us to enjoy, so why are we so drawn to doing what we don’t like for the sake of, what, stats? Sorry to get all dramatic lmao, but it just doesn’t make sense.
It’s exactly as you describe: The most important thing is to have fun. But it’s very satisfying to complete a game, not only play it shortly for a few hours. So you have to find your own balance, what suits your gaming style and your “goals”. And yes, sometimes you just play a game for the stats, thats true. It is really a multifaceted issue, I always sway back and forth between the two sides…
Wow, I think you’ve summed it up perfectly. Couldn’t have described it any better myself!
Good luck with your backlog as well! :D
Thank you for your kind words, and good luck to you as well :)
This comment was deleted about 6 years ago.
its really hard to balance between fun and 100% games. Sometimes im stuck in this situation, sometimes leave the game for another time and sometimes i forced myself to complete the game without/less fun.
True words, I know that feeling as well! On the other hand, I’ve played a few games just because I saw they were easy to perfect and had a lot of fun with them. And without looking for easy 100% games in my backlog, I’d maybe never played them.