After 20 years, I still haven’t learned an important gaming lesson

In my 20 years as a gamer, I’ve learned many things from games, but I still haven’t internalized one important lesson. And that drives me to the brink of despair at regular intervals.

A commentary by Robert Kohlick.

When I start something, I have to finish it

Keep up! Keep going! Don’t give up now! From an early age we are taught that we just have to “go through” with certain things. That may be perfectly true in some situations, but it’s not the case with games. However, my subconscious seems to see things differently.

I tend towards a kind of weakened form of “completionism”. While true completionists can’t put a game down until they’ve completed every challenge, collected every collectible, and earned every trophy, for me just beating a game is enough to complete it. The problem at hand: I still have that feeling when I’m not enjoying a game after a few hours.

Fallout 4: After 24 hours I was fed up

Would you like an example? A few years ago I finally got myself to play Fallout 4. I really enjoyed the game for my first few hours. I went on extensive exploration tours, which sometimes rewarded me with ingenious loot. I improved my character with some cool perks and due to the increased level of difficulty, I initially had really exciting battles that brought me to the brink of death from time to time.

But this fascination flattened out with each level-up of my character. I became more and more powerful, eventually even unstoppable. And since the dialogue system in Fallout 4 completely disappointed me, many situations ended in dull shoot-outs that lasted several minutes. I was burned out – after about 24 hours of play. But I still couldn’t stop. I had to finish Fallout 4 – even if I didn’t enjoy it anymore.

In our video test for Fallout 4, the role-playing game came off much better at the time:

And so I tormented myself for another 24 hours through the story and some side quests until I finally saw the credits flicker across the screen after almost 50 hours. Then – and only then – could I bring myself to quit the game via ALT+F4 and eject it octagonally from my hard drive. I was redeemed!

Especially in huge open-world and role-playing games you can sink countless hours:

Just play something else? That’s not possible!

Actually, I should have learned my lesson once and for all by this point at the latest: If you stop enjoying a game at some point, you don’t have to play it to the end no matter what. That does not make sense! And yet I find myself in the same mess several times a year. DOOM, Watch Dogs 2, and Life is Strange 2 – all games that got me hooked at first – all games that I would remember a lot better if I’d abandoned them halfway through the game.

Again and again while playing the thought comes to me: “It’s no fun anymore. Why don’t you stop and free up the space for some other games instead?” And again and again I catch myself talking things up to myself: “It’ll definitely get better, you’ll see! Surely this is just a small sag! Stay on the ball, the game won’t last that long!”

And while I sit here and fail to finally digest this important player lesson, a word of warning to anyone struggling with the same problem: don’t get caught up in games you no longer enjoy – they’re not worth your time, period! There are tens of thousands of other awesome games waiting for you out there that can’t wait to finally escape from your pile of shame.

In the meantime, I’ll try banning Kingdom Come: Deliverance from my PC. But before that I’ll play it again – maybe I’ll get it this time! It will definitely get better, you’ll see…