The End Game

Games are about victory. Once the player has guided his/her character through all of the trials and tribulations of their chosen game, they expect to be rewarded with some kind of epic final endboss and/or cutscene. And while these kinds of final sequences often produce an unparalleled level of excitement and fun I always dread their coming. They signify the end. As the game begins to become more and more epic, and the fights more intense, I come to the horrible realization that this game is about to be over. I hate finishing games because of all of the time I spend to beat them.

At this point I should be making some kind of "so what" statement. So I don't like to finish games, what's the big deal? Well I've come to realize that the big problem with not wanting to finish games is that it makes the body of the game harder to enjoy. I find myself trying to slow the experience down, to artificially lengthen (go ahead and have a giggle at that, I did) the game. I do similar things with books, and to compensate I've started to read much longer novels, but it's hard to do that with games.

Back when I restarted my gaming hobby I was big on JRPGS. My favorite games Kingdom Hearts and FFX were massive 60+ hour affairs that left me more than satisfied when I finished them. But, when my tastes changed and I began to partake in more Western gaming, I noticed that my desire for length (haha) in a game never really went away. I still feel dissapointed when a game advertises "20+ hours of play!" on the back like it's some kind of great achievement.

Even my new favorite franchise Mass Effect is too short for my taste. I spent about 20-30 hours on each of my playthroughs of the game, and it never felt like quite enough. Now, with Mass Effect 2 I have gotten close to the end with one character, so I decided to make another so that I can sit back and savor the experience. I guess that's the problem. When I first get a game I blast through it way too quicjly because I expect it to outlast my initial burst of excitement, but I have beaten the majority of my recent purchases within a weak of starting them.

So what? Well, I guess all I'm saying is that sometimes its important to pace yourself, to let yourself get lost in a game for an hour or so every couple of days, to draw out that experience without panicking when you approach the end. The next time you play a game, let it sit with you, take your time, savor each moment because before you know it that epic endboss will be rearing its ugly head, and when it does, you want to be able to savor that too.