Top 12 Reasons to Stop Playing a Game (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of the list! Be sure to check Part 1 if you've missed it. Here are 6 more reasons why one might stop playing a video game.

I wonder if I should make some kind of clickbaity statement à la "Number 1 will surprise you!" But nah. I don't need that.

6. You can’t win (And it’s your own damn fault)

Good job, champion, you're stuck.

The thought of starting a game from scratch after sinking at least a dozen hours into it, that’s the kind of thing I refuse to think about. Especially when I have to do this because of small mistakes I’ve made, that halted my progress. It’s a lot more enjoyable to start a game over after you’ve beaten it once. However, what if you seek trouble on purpose, and manipulate the game in such a way that you get yourself trapped?

Why, oh, why did you release all of your other Pokémon,
lose all of your money, and got yourself in an area
where anything can kill a Level 5 Mon in one shot?

Then you’ve only got yourself to blame. Admittedly, if you do that, you have probably accepted the consequences of your actions, since getting stuck was your end goal. Most games do come with the option to open a new save file. Some that don’t still have a way out, such as a suicide code (pressing a specific series of buttons together), in order to run away. The most common manner to trap yourself in a video game is to save exactly before an encounter you cannot win against – either you don’t have the necessary items, or you’re out of ammunition, or your character is too weak to win. It’s especially bad if there’s no way to go back in order to gather these items or do some good old level grinding.

That said, unlike other examples on this list, if you sought that outcome, you’re probably not going to be mad at the game to such a point where you’ll give up on it. You were kind of asking for that situation to happen. Thankfully, many situations that look hopeless can actually be resolved in some way. I can think of one YouTuber out there that willingly traps himself in an older Pokémon game, with no apparent way out, and yet a long (and incredibly tedious) series of actions can be taken to eventually get out of that situation.

But yeah… if that happened to me, I would feel like such a damned idiot that I’d probably put the game down forever out of shame.

5. Annoying gameplay mechanics

Ah, yes. It had to come down to this eventually. We’re still squarely on the subjective side here, but we’re also reaching the question of one’s own ability with a game.

Hope you like Powersliding.
You'll be doing it a lot.

As I said, a humongous amount of work goes into every single facet of a video game. You’d think that applies to controls… and you’d be right! It’s not all about setting them early on and calling that a done deal. At times, it’s necessary to judge on the impact of these controls on the game as a whole. I am reminded of the #1 reason why I dropped Mario Kart DS: On later difficulties, the player has to achieve a complex maneuver that involves quite a bit of button-mashing in order to get a speed boost and reach the top place. Meanwhile, the CPUs could utilize that maneuver effortlessly.

Which brings me to the other aspect of “gameplay mechanics”: As an example, the opponent(s)’ artificial intelligence, which can make the game either too easy or too hard – both cases have been seen. The AI can have a huge impact on the game as a whole.

How the Hell is that comment supposed to help me?
Tell me something useful, Grandpa!

Then we have gameplay mechanics that don’t exactly involve AI or the regular controls. Side-quests or altered states that switch things around, as an example. Unreliable items or maps, or inaccurate information given by objects or NPCs (some games of the early Nintendo era suffered from this; the first Legend of Zelda game was made so much more difficult in the English version with the enigmatic and, at times, incomprehensible advice Link was given).

That’s not to say that “bad” gameplay mechanics can’t be utilised for fun; I’ve played more than one game on Steam that impedes your abilities in order to provide a challenge (think of Octodad or Surgeon Sim). But when it’s unintentionally bad, and you feel your interest in a game wane because you can’t stand the gameplay mechanics… There goes one game you might never touch again.

4. The chore of repetition

Sure, the map's got a lot of stuff to do...
But how many of those are copy-pasted missions?

Some games pride themselves on a thrilling story, or new and innovative mechanics. Others market themselves on their size, others on their length.

…I now realize that this could be seen as an innuendo, so let me clarify: Many studios nowadays brag about the size of the map you can explore in their game, while others market themselves on the estimated number of hours of content they offer.

We all play games to have fun, right? That’s the core idea of such a thing known as a video game. So when any game stops being fun, that’s pretty much the best reason to quit. That’s why I’ve skipped on every Uno table I was invited to in the past 5 years.

"I've heard of a settlement in danger..."
"AGAIN? It's the 8th time this week!"

This point actually covers two reasons as to why a video game may stop feeling fun, but there may be overlap. The first is when it starts to feel like a chore to play. The second is when the gameplay requires constant repetition, especially if it’s of tasks that just aren’t all that interesting to the player. Many games add variety precisely to prevent repetition from getting too bad, and to the developers’ credit, it usually works. A lack of variety in tasks to be done becomes particularly noticeable after a while. You can easily tell, then, when a game is suffering from a lack of diversity in tasks and side-quests. How many settlements are you willing to help until you get sick of doing that? Shut up, Preston Garvey.

You know what’s worse about this particular point? If there’s such an insistent repetition of tedious tasks for the player to do, it’s usually for the sole purpose of padding out the length. If a game has to resort to padding in order to give an experience that feels long enough, something’s wrong.

You liked the first few hours?
Good! Re-do them 4 more times.
I'm never buying that one.

But hey, it could be worse. You could have the same game repeating itself multiple times, like a bad version of Groundhog Day, as a core element of the story. Bravely Default, anyone?

3. Failure by comparison

Yah, no. I'm going back
to the other ones.
They're way better.

This one tends to apply mostly to franchises, but I guess it can also apply to larger genres. Let’s say you’ve bought a new game in a franchise you enjoy – Super Mario? Call of Duty? Just Dance? Should be good, right? But wait… your interest is waning in this new installment. As it turns out, this new game of the series just doesn’t quite cut it. You realize you enjoyed the previous games more, and so you happily return to those. Maybe you’ll be going back to that new game at some point. Maybe. But you’ve clearly got your preference.

I don't have Fortnite. But if I did, I
would not bother with any other game
trying to be "like Fortnite".
I would have the OG. I wouldn't need
another.

Perhaps the latest release changed some gameplay elements, perhaps it made changes to the formula that you disagree with (Mario Party 9, anyone?). This one doesn’t have the charm of the earlier games, is all. By your opinion, the older titles are better. I remember being pretty bummed about the newer Just Dance games focusing so much on multiplayer and online modes at the cost of single-player achievements.

So far, I talked only about cases involving a single franchise, but what if this applies to an entire genre? As a fan of Jim Sterling, however controversial he may be, I say he has once  raised a solid point: The gaming industry has a tendency to copy the latest popular thing (shooters for a while, then loot boxes, and the latest trend at the time of writing is Battle Royale modes). Thing is, they take inspiration from the leading title of each genre (Call of Duty, Overwatch, Fortnite), but the players who enjoy the leading games… already have the leading games to play with. They’re not going to bother with industry followers who copycat formulas, usually for a quick buck, and usually without any attempt at replicating what made the industry leader a popular game in the first place. Pure failure by comparison.

2. The game is too short/too long

Going back to the topic of a game’s perceived length. I’ve touched upon the possibility of a game studio padding the length by adding very few different quests for the player to complete, only repeated all over the map. That’s not accounting for the length of the main quest, the “story mode” if you will. And this, depending on the genre, can vary. Depending on the dev’s willingness to give the player their money’s worth or not… this is part of the point here.

I heard that point of criticism about Dark Souls 2:
Too much stuff, some of which could have been left
out to create a better experience altogether.

Have you ever played a game for so long that you never really reached the end, and gave up partway through? It can happen. As I said, any game can get tedious, especially if it doesn’t offer enough diversity to keep the player invested. If it keeps dangling the carrot at the end of the stick, but takes too long before it allows the player to reach for it, then the player may just give up. This may also go with the "repetitive tasks" described earlier, or a plot that appears to take too many twists and turns before getting anywhere. Or if the game is built in such a way that grinding is mandatory to move on, making the game longer... but the reward doesn't seem to be worth the effort.

100 minutes, and it's 100%'d. Kinda short, no?
(Admittedly, it IS a good game though.)

We then have the opposite situation: When a game is too short. As far as indie games are involved, it’s normal to see shorter games. Most titles of the puzzle-platform variety don’t overstay their welcome. Others seem to have just the right length, or contain just the right amount of side-quests, difficulty levels and bonus content to keep the player occupied for a few hours, should they bother with all these extras. On the other hand, if the experience was too short, and there’s no way to remedy that situation, it may discourage one from playing again. Unlikely, but possible.

That is, unless you’ve purchased a full-price game, 60$ a pop, and you barely get two to six hours of content. If the game cannot justify its retail price by offering enough content for the player, something’s not right. That’s enough to get angry. I know I’d be pissed if I bought a game with my hard-earned money, and it took me less time to finish than it took me in work hours to gather the money to buy it. And those games are usually the ones that end up gathering dust in the deep corner of a drawer, or shoved aside in the virtual library, never to be touched again. Those are also frequently the kind that offer no additional challenges to lengthen the experience.

Is it fallacious to expect a certain length to a game based on its price? One could say that there's no link. I would argue that there is, but it's all down to your own expectations. If, to you, paying full price for only a couple hours feels wrong, you have a good reason to be disappointed. If you don't mind... well, more power to you.

Getting very angry at a 60$ game for being only four hours long
is a perfectly justified sentiment. Thanks, Angry Joe.

1. The Player Punch

Let’s end this long, long list on a special note. We don’t always turn to video games when talking about media that makes us feel. And yet, it’s just as valid as any other media of fiction – may they be books, movies, theater. Video games are just as capable of bringing us through the entire spectrum of emotions. That includes shock, sadness and regret.

No! Don't kill my Metroid baby!
No! Mother Brain, you monster!

Have you ever watched a movie that you couldn’t finish, not because you thought it wasn’t good, but because it punched you so hard, right in the feels? I don’t think it ever happened to me personally, but it’s a possibility out there. Especially if you take the story seriously.

The Player Punch is a tried-and-true technique that involves setting up story elements leading to tragedy, to shock or sadden the player and make them feel even more attached to the characters. We tend to forget the sheer power of emotions. A similar situation is to force the player into a moral quandary where they can’t be certain that they’re doing the right thing. That element of doubt alone can do the trick. In other cases, the game will remind the player frequently that they’re not doing the right thing – but then again, said game is then made in such a way that the player cannot back down, cannot escape the consequences.

Admittedly, while the Player Punch is a thing (it’s even got a trope to its own), any such situations that make one stop playing are actually pretty rare. Has anybody stopped playing after the death of Aerith in Final Fantasy VII?

Thankfully, some of these situations can be escaped by starting over. I think of the No Mercy route of Undertale, which is a collection of moments calling out the player for their extreme violence. As I mentioned in my review of it, many people stop a No Mercy route as soon as they reach a character they refuse to harm. Usually, it’s Papyrus.

Noooooooooooooo
Somehow I feel guilt over this thing that
I am not even sure I ever actually did...

Some other games don’t offer that luxury… I’ve been hearing a lot of things about a shooting game titled Spec Ops: The Line, and how it bombards (heh) the player with inhumane situations that the protagonist carries through with nonetheless, to the point where you can be considered the game’s true villain for actually moving forward instead of stopping the game right there and then. Two words: White phosphorus. The game even calls you out during loading screens. Has it been strong enough to stop a player from continuing their playthrough? It wouldn’t surprise me if some folks were incapable of continuing past this point. Such a thing demands a true mastery of the art of storytelling on the part of the game's writers.

Alright, that’s all for this list. See you soon for more new content.