What is closure you ask? Closure in psychological terms refers to a person’s need for a definite, concrete ending rather than enduring ongoing ambiguity. Movies, books and even games have moved towards ambiguity when concluding. With multiple endings, storylines, and endings that leave you to make up your own mind (Inception anyone?), entertainment in recent years has not been kind to those of us who seek closure.
You see, while some of us prefer the ambiguity, which in turn provides discussions, arguments, and undoubted know-it-alls who claim they know exactly what happened, others simply prefer to know in exact terms what was intended by the developer, director or author.
When you finish a game and get your ending you don’t feel like you have missed anything. There are no alternative endings which may or may not be better than the one you just got. That is closure, pure and simple closure. It isn’t limited to endings either. What about the ever present ‘collectibles’ found throughout games? Do you go searching for every last one, or just be happy with those you happen to pick up along the way? How about achievements and trophies? Do you need every last one or you feel something is missing?
Lastly, if you are playing a game which you just do not enjoy, do you finish it anyway? Or perhaps you stop halfway thinking you just cannot go on any further. Perhaps then you read on the internet what happens in the game, or maybe you just leave it as is.
It is without question that gamers of both types exist. Those of us who need closure without fail will perhaps play through games more than once, they will grind out every last bit so that no information is missing. Those same people will also most likely complete a game even if they are not enjoying it. Those of us who don’t care for closure, well ambiguity is our middle name, right? Or maybe not, you can decide that.
So gamers, the question again is… how do you game?
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I really used to hunt down every single little thing, but I am trying to stop that now.
Having a good ending, as well as leaving the audience thinking, both have their place. However, there is a big difference between leaving something open for thought, and blatantly leaving the opening for a sequel to an already useless franchise.
I have to finish a game, even if it is bad… (Just did it with single player of BF3…. *shudder*)
I have to finish a game I start, even if it is not quite to my liking. Recently finished Duke Nukem Forever and Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (won them both, don’t judge me).
I blame achievements
I can honestly say I am terrible when it comes to finishing a title. I have so little time to play but enough expendable income to purchase every new AAA release for the PC. I generally get so excited, purchase the game, play it through slowly until I’m about 1/3 of the way in when the next title arrives and the current title gets forgotten. The only three games I’ve completely finished were Half-Life, Portal 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum. Perfect case-in-point, love the Witcher II, made it to the second episode when Duke Nukem came out and forgot about it. Now I’ve just re-installed to continue but have Skyrim on pre-order as well as Arkham City, both due a week apart. Madness I tell you
Seems like too many games is a problem we all share. Personally I never used to finish games. Simply lost interest when a new game came out. Now I am trying to finish games I start. That being said, I refuse to play through a game I am not enjoying.
Some interesting thoughts so far, thank you for sharing them.
Besides finishing games for review, I probably have the weirdest and complex gaming style. As it happens I own all the consoles and handhelds and choosing what to play is a complete ball ache. So, with that in mind I’ve come up with the best random system ever where I draw the console choice of the day every day. Once I’ve picked a title I have to finish it, should I randomly select that console again. It just gives me 7 different game varieties to enjoy as playing the same game for 3 days straight (unless it’s Batman) can become a bit tedious for me personally.
Much like Valshen I used to hunt everything down back in the day, but with time being such a limited resource and good games / games I want to play being rather abundant, it just isn’t a luxury I can afford anymore, or a task I’m prepared to abandon a social life IRL for.
I enjoy playing my games, and yes, now and then can be “pushed” to do certain things in games due to achievement GS that I may previously have ignored like Die Jason mentions, but overall, I have fun until I run out of time or until the next release grabs my already easily diverted attention span.
Interesting. So has it ever occurred that you land up being half way through about 10 different games at a time?
My last comment was aimed at Dawid btw…
Interesting from Choffel also. I find that I too would prefer new games, new experiences which is why GS doesn’t appeal to me, nor does DLC in general.
I am not going to mention what the last game I really finnished was as I might be shunned, but for me, if another game comes out that I am enjoying more comes out I forget the other game, I find it really hard to go back to a title and finnish it.
Definitely no closure needed for you then. Safe to assume the OCD gene is not strong within ;-p
@Jarred – Yup, that’s often the case. So, I find myself finishing 8-10 games within two weeks, but it took some time to get to that point.