Progessive Gaming Doesn't Progress Gaming

People play games for multiple reasons. Some see gaming as just a hobby to help pass a little free time while others see it was a more serious, competitive "sport". Some use it to relieve stress while others use it to escape a harsh reality. Some prefer easy, pick-up-and-play games while others prefer games with depth and complexity. Despite what one might play or might enjoy, one thing that many people might have in common is the fact that they honestly own more games than they've beaten.

This generation has offered plenty of great games with some amazing experiences. With better visuals and developers dipping deeper into wanting to continue creating memorable games, the question that floats around is "why?". Why is it becoming so difficult for gamers to actually finish their games?

An an article from January on 1up mentioned a couple common "excuses". For some people, things such as work, school, or family takes away from their time. This is both believable and understandable. After all, with the way things are now you have to work your fingers to the bone in order to just get by. For some people- such as the man in the article- games have become more like baseball cards; people buy them for the sake of showing them off and saying they own a certain hard-to-find title but leave it sitting on the shelf instead of enjoying it. Not only that, but most people say that the variety of side missions or side quests games might offer helps them lose track of what they were doing. Thus adding on to taking away the bit of time one might have to play.

However, one thing we cannot deny about this generation of gaming is the increasing amount of shorter games. Perhaps this is the developers' ways to helping busy gamers manage the bit of time they have, but needless to say, games honestly don't require much time to complete anymore. Sure, there are games that might have quite a bit of content to them but the average game nowadays can be completely within ten to twelve hours. Even with someone who has a busy life, if they played just an hour a day- or even every other day- they could finish a game within a month. So time honestly isn't as big of a factor as people make it out to be.

Some other excuses might include not being able to remember what you were doing when you turned the game off two months ago...But even this problem has a fairly easily solution. Most action games or shooters are fairly linear and straight forward. Most of these games offer markers on the maps or objective lists that help gamers keep track of where they might have left off. More games offer the ability to restart levels, in order to give people a chance to "replay" a certain part without having to restart the whole game if they truly cannot remember what they were doing.

So then why is is hard for gamers to finish a game? My theory is that it's the lack of satisfaction that is filled through online gaming. Does this mean that single player games are dull or boring? No, of course not but single player doesn't have something that multiplayer games do have- interaction and constant progression.

At times single player games might feel as if they go on for ages. Progression comes in the form of seeing the story unfold or seeing a "mission complete" screen. The frequency of obtaining Achievements or Trophies begins to die after a few hours into the game as they become harder to grasp. Multiplayer games, however, offer constant interaction with others.

This interaction brings a feeling of satisfaction as people comment on your progress. When you do good and people either send you messages or say to you that you're excelling at the game- maybe it be a round of Call of Duty, helping a party in WoW, or even just helping a friend through a co-op game - your self-esteem rises; you develop a feeling of pride and satisfaction that you do not always receive from a single player game since no one is there to pat you on the back.

You are able to show off your skills in online games by not only allowing people to see you in action, but also see your past accomplishments. More and more multiplayer modes in games are leaning towards having some sort of leveling system. These systems allow you to unlock better gear or weapons as well as give you a rank that always appears by your name. Being able to display your ranking and unlocked weapons only allows you gloat about being good enough to get them.

Perhaps this is why so many people are finding themselves letting their single player games sit around as they find themselves spending all their free time continuing to rank up points online. Maybe this is why some people say they can never since a simple eight hour game; but are able to reach high levels in MMOs and are able to dedicate enough time to them to receive hard to get items. In a way, you could almost say that for some people, the need to play online games becomes an addiction....Maybe because that little boost is what they feel they need in order to get through the day or a sucky life.

Now, naturally I am not claiming this as a fact; this is simply a food for thought based on some observations I've made not only of myself, but of people I know and reading things on forums and sites. I'd like to look into a bit farther which is why I wrote this. For those of you who claim that you hardly ever finish most of the games you buy, ask yourself this: Do you spend a lot of time playing multiple player modes or MMOs instead? And if you do, then why? I know that I tend to get a bit more entertainment from playing with others over playing alone because sometimes I get bored playing alone and other times I do enjoy hearing people say things about me doing well.

Anyway...Let's see what some thoughts are about this. Please share them.