85%

It is true that only 15% of gamers complete the games they play. A massive 85% of us don’t finish what we start!

I wonder what the figures would be for people that don't finish watching a movie? What if we’re faced with a bowl of ice cream or a Millie’s cookie? 100% complete I’m sure.

Not the fairest comparisons considering the length of a movie or the amount of time a Millie’s cookie would last in the hands of some Gameov3r members, compared to the time required to finish a video game.

So, are games too long? Too hard? Are there just too many games or are gamers a fickle bunch that move on to a newer, better game as soon as one’s released? Who says we only finish 15% of games we play anyway?

The 85% figure comes from Microsoft and is based on Achievement figures. This isn’t a figure representing a gamer obtaining all the available Gamer Points in a game just finishing the story/final level. It doesn’t in anyway represent Sony or Nintendo although I think that a similar percentage would be true for PS3 owners. The Wii might be slightly different, if the Wii is truly owned by a majority of casual gamers, we may well have a figure even higher.

Is something fundamentally wrong with games if hardly anyone finishes them?

If there is, then how are developers going to get us to complete the games we play? Making games shorter or creating compilations of mini games is one way and does seem to be the approach of some narrow minded Wii developers that are cashing in on the popularity of the console and it’s perceived casual market. Making games easier isn’t the answer although having a choice of difficulty levels certainly helps to make a game accessible for everyone. More often than not though developers force the player to play through on Normal or harder if you’re going to get any bonuses, unlockables or Achievements.

ATARI have taken a step in a direction. Maybe. Playing Alone in the Dark, a flawed game in many ways, presents the player with the opportunity to skip scenes, basically skip whole sections of the game thus providing the player with a chance to simply avoid a tough part of the game. Perhaps ATARI included this feature because Alone in the Dark plays so awfully that they thought there would be little chance of anyone getting to the end any other way and inadvertently find themselves being mentioned here. But maybe, just maybe, they saw the 85% and decided to try something a little different.

Who knows, maybe sometime soon 85% of us will finish the games we start.

Do you start what you finish or does it inexplicably get cut off halfway through? Many more jokes spring to mind, but now is not the time for toilet humour…… Gameov3r’s FORUM awaits…..