Playing RPGs in the Age of Hoarding

RPGFan’s Andrew Barker, spurred by some completion rate data that recently caught his attention, wonders on their significance in a new opinion piece. Here’s an excerpt:

But it’s not just Japanese RPGs. 14% of players have the achievement for defeating the final boss of the story in Torchlight II, and at 13%, even less have beaten indie hit Bastion. Just 14% of players emerged victorious in The Witcher II, though Skyrim fares far better at 32% beating the final story quest. Still, it’s surprising that 12% of players haven’t cleared the game’s opening section, and 21% have never killed a dragon.

Interestingly, though perhaps not surprisingly, console games have a far higher level of completion. 42% of players have beaten Final Fantasy XIII, 39% have seen the first ending of Nier, and almost 50% of players have cleared Dragon Age II on PlayStation 3. Even the notoriously difficult Dark Souls has had approximately 41% of players see it through to the end.

Why is this? Cost is definitely a factor. Computer games, especially on Steam, can often be bought in large numbers for very little cost during sales not to mention those Humble Bundles! Many of these purchases will be spur of the moment, and actual interest in playing a particular title may wane. Console games are typically more expensive, so less frequently bought, and I know I want to feel my money was “well spent.”

Perhaps it’s the nature of hoarding games and building a library on virtual platforms that is the biggest contributor. I’ve been slowly making my way through my Steam games, but with daily deals and seasonal sales, there’s always something new to buy. For those of us who were playing games in the 90s, the Pokémon collecting mentality likely bleeds over into other areas of our lives.

For me personally, I’m down to only around 30 games left in my backlog to beat. But that’s after a couple of years of focus on what I already own, and buying less than I used to. Among the rest of the RPGFan staff, we have a couple who are fairly on top of their RPG backlogs, though others have 50% or more of their RPGs still to beat. Again, the completion rate among console games is consistently higher than on Steam.