"Games Beaten" - The Blurry Line

phoenix529

phoenix529

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Hey CAG,

I have a tendency, maybe like most of you, to buy tons of movies and games and not get around to playing/watching all of them. I started an Excel document on my computer documenting which movies in my 500+ collection I have and haven't seen, and I recently made a new list of which video games I've beaten.

My question is this: What exactly is considered "beaten" for games these days? I mean, do you have to get all the achievements, just the ending? On Ocarina of Time, do you need to kill ALL the gold Skulltulas? And what about sports games? Or Warhawk, which is just multiplayer? Monopoly? Jeopardy? Cruis'n USA? What about amazingly hard games like Paperboy and the original Mario Bros.? How can you confirm whether you've "beaten" most of these games!?

Just thought I'd get a little help whilst starting a conversation.
 
I consider "seeing the ending" in most games to be "beaten." If there's no ending, the line becomes blurrier. You can't even "beat" some games.
 
It's such a subjective subject that you need to share why you are compiling the list in order for responses to have meaning.

There was an article in last month's Game Developer magazine that showed that the finish rate (i.e. percentage of players that viewed the ending) on major recent releases varied between 23-74%. Less than 30% of the people that connected to Xbox Live and played GTA IV finished the story.
 
I like how it was broken down on The Backloggery basically they break it down to:

Beaten : The main objective has been accomplished. Usually marked by the defeat of a final boss and/or viewing of credits.

Completed : For games which are 100% done. All extras and modes have been unlocked and finished. All significant items have been collected.

Mastered : A special rank for completed games in which a difficult, user-defined challenge or speed run has been successfully finished.
 
Or you make your own rules, if i finish all the chapters i beat it, if i get all achievements i beat it. Your games do whatever you like, but thats what i do. I guess I can "beat" a game "twice"
 
Experiencing the story as far as the game will allow is what I consider beating it.

If you have to do some crazy shit to get the "good" or "extended" or "real" ending, then until I do that, I don't consider it beaten.
 
If you beat the final boss or level, the game is done.


I hardly ever care enough to get all the achievements in a game once I beat it.
 
[quote name='jkanownik']It's such a subjective subject that you need to share why you are compiling the list in order for responses to have meaning.[/QUOTE]

OK, let's say that it's because before I drop a heavy sum on a new game, I make a deal with myself: "You've got to beat 5(example) more of your current games first."
 
I do the same thing. I keep track of what games I've beaten.

Beating a game is completely subjective and individual to each person, and can vary by the game, so just stick with what works for you but don't let beating or completing a game get in the way of your fun. Some people like to collect every widget, get every acheivement, beat every mode, etc to consider a game beaten or completed. For me that sounds like too much work and not enough fun.

Beating a game for me generally just means beating the story mode, sometimes I'll collect some items or go after an extra acheivement that sounds fun, but I don't obsess over collecting everything before I say I've beaten a game. For some racing games beating it might mean that I've gotten gold on every race (Burnout), for some just beating the medium difficulty regardless of the medal is enough for me (PGR3).

For multiplayer or never ending games like MMORPG's I just count them in a separate category, there is no "beating" those games.
 
[quote name='icebeast']I like how it was broken down on The Backloggery basically they break it down to:

Beaten : The main objective has been accomplished. Usually marked by the defeat of a final boss and/or viewing of credits.

Completed : For games which are 100% done. All extras and modes have been unlocked and finished. All significant items have been collected.

Mastered : A special rank for completed games in which a difficult, user-defined challenge or speed run has been successfully finished.[/QUOTE]

I've always used the first two (beaten & completed) as my terminology. I try to complete as many games as possible (mainly for trophy purposes), but I make it a point to beat every game I start. It's a blessing and a curse.
 
I feel like it's up to you on "beating a game." Games are supposed to be fun right? I know that most games are storyline-based, so you have to get to a certain place, but you shouldn't have to do all kinds of things more to say you've "beaten the game."
 
Beaten: Finished story/career mode and seen the credits/

Completed: Done all the side quests, extras, etc. Gotten 100% completion.


I generally beat a game, and then if I'm still into it, I play further towards 'completion'. Although I 'complete' very few games.
 
I'm pretty much right in line with everyone else here. I do wish Backloggery had another grouping between "beaten" and "completed." It would be particularly helpful for games where I did everything there is to do in the single-player but can't really say I "completed" because of unfinished multiplayer modes/achievements/trophies.
 
[quote name='phoenix529']And what about games like Dr. Mario and Street Fighter? Just play through once?[/QUOTE]

Not every game is designed to be "beaten" in the conventional sense (Puzzle, Sports, MMO in a way, etc.), though the gulf between those which are and those which aren't is pretty wide. No need to try to pigeonhole something with definitions that don't suit it. You're just done with the thing when you are, an event which may never occur.
 
For fighting games, I consider beating a game when I've gone through with all the characters -- such as DOA 4. Of course, if there are 20+ characters, I'll consider 8 the magic number.

For games that are almost endless or have no technical ending, I consider playing the crap out of it, and basically being getting really damn good at them.

Here's my list of games I both own and have beaten:
http://club.ign.com/b/list/custom?&owner=taintmonger&mode=edit&cList=106500
 
For myself "beating" (i usually say complete) a game is finishing the main story or campaign

Anything else is for personal satisfaction I guess :p
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']I consider "seeing the ending" in most games to be "beaten." If there's no ending, the line becomes blurrier. You can't even "beat" some games.[/QUOTE]


Same here. I mainly only play shooters, and the occasional RPG, so when I finish the story mode and see the credits roll I consider the game beaten. And for the majority, time to be thrown up on Goozex.
 
As has been already said if I've seen the ending I consider the game beaten, as I'm a bit of an achievement whore I like to have got at least half of the available gamer score, but that's just a personal thing.
 
If I finish the game and see the ending, than I consider it beaten. If there's multiple endings, I have to see the good ending to consider it beaten.

I'm not the type to go achievement hunting or finish every little thing...
 
Nice sig, Vinny! I hope you don't mind, but you inspired me:

2eyw9px.jpg
 
I think this is one of those lines that get truely blurry. I remember Silent Hill 2 had 4 endings, you had to beat the game 4 times I believe to get the 'good' ending, and outside of grabbing an item at one stage of the game, nothing was different. I happened to do this because money was tight at the time, so I couldn't get new games, but by the 3rd time through, it was getting boring.

How I beleive it's best to view a game (or a movie) is if you got your money's worth. If you buy an RPG that goes 50 hours, you may play 30 hours and not play it anymore. It isn't beaten. But, if you paid $10 for it, and you had fun, that is a heck of a value, so it was worthy of a purchase.

Now, what makes something worth the money is subjective, but since it's your money, you'd be the fairest judge of it.
 
[quote name='lordxixor101']I think this is one of those lines that get truely blurry. I remember Silent Hill 2 had 4 endings, you had to beat the game 4 times I believe to get the 'good' ending, and outside of grabbing an item at one stage of the game, nothing was different. I happened to do this because money was tight at the time, so I couldn't get new games, but by the 3rd time through, it was getting boring.

How I beleive it's best to view a game (or a movie) is if you got your money's worth. If you buy an RPG that goes 50 hours, you may play 30 hours and not play it anymore. It isn't beaten. But, if you paid $10 for it, and you had fun, that is a heck of a value, so it was worthy of a purchase.

Now, what makes something worth the money is subjective, but since it's your money, you'd be the fairest judge of it.[/QUOTE]

It's because of my backlog that I've severely cut down on my entertainment spending this year. Of course there are still the occasionally day-one purchases of things I'll play/watch immediately.

I've looked at my own spreadsheet of incompleted playthroughs and I noticed that about 30% of them are games not worth my time to play beyond 'beaten', especially when there are many other games competing for my attention, not to mention life.
 
[quote name='phoenix529']Hey CAG,

I have a tendency, maybe like most of you, to buy tons of movies and games and not get around to playing/watching all of them. I started an Excel document on my computer documenting which movies in my 500+ collection I have and haven't seen, and I recently made a new list of which video games I've beaten.

My question is this: What exactly is considered "beaten" for games these days? I mean, do you have to get all the achievements, just the ending? On Ocarina of Time, do you need to kill ALL the gold Skulltulas? And what about sports games? Or Warhawk, which is just multiplayer? Monopoly? Jeopardy? Cruis'n USA? What about amazingly hard games like Paperboy and the original Mario Bros.? How can you confirm whether you've "beaten" most of these games!?

Just thought I'd get a little help whilst starting a conversation.[/QUOTE]

How many movies in your collection have you not seen? Just curious. Ever since I got Netflix streaming on my Xbox 360, I've been trying to get as much value out of it as I can, so my DVDs have been taking a back seat. My streaming list is up to 400 titles, 250 of which I really want to watch. Kinda crappy timing since my last 35 DVD purchases were from the Circuit City out of business sale at 60%-80% off. I've watched maybe 2 of those DVDs so far.
 
Well, in the months before I got married at the end of May, I was on a vendetta to watch as many of my 350 movies as I could.

I whittled it down to 45 I hadn't seen, but my local Pawn shop had a $1 DVD sale and my wife and I merged our DVDs, so now I haven't seen... let me check for an exact number...

153!!

Good Lord.
 
Yeah, I seem to prioritize viewing/playing with the products I paid near full price for to take advantage of opportunity cost. At my pace, I won't reach my $1 purchases for several years.
 
I subconsciously do that too, so that if I see it later for cheaper, I can be like "Well, at least I paid the premium for the abillity to play/watch it months ago." Otherwise, I could have waited and got it for $1 since I still haven't gotten any use out of it.
 
[quote name='phoenix529']OK, let's say that it's because before I drop a heavy sum on a new game, I make a deal with myself: "You've got to beat 5(example) more of your current games first."[/QUOTE]

This method hurts me. I've do this on and off, but I can never hold. I usually last a week or 2 and break. Most of the games I haven't beaten are RPG's, so it's really hard to stick to.

I consider a game beaten if I see the credits. Some games I'll remove from my backloggery account if I find the game boring. I play games for fun, I won't play a game if it isn't fun.
 
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