When you stop playing a game for a while, do you restart?

[Eduardo]

I've been getting all the old systems out of storage and replacing the non-working ones and playing my old games again. And I find that when I try to continue playing I don't remember how.

Case in point I got The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past the same month it came out and played continuously and for some reason I stopped without ever finishing it. When I got a new SNES I put it in and my old save was still there, but I had to start all over because I can't remember anything. This was 16 years ago.

I know that games are designed ina way that they teach you the mechanics and go increasing difficulty as they progress. Now the real question here is whether game playing skills are lost over time or is it like "riding a bicycle"

Naturally if you continue playing games in the same genre, like being a platformer fan, things will com easy if you go back.

[raptor94k]

I used to do this a lot. I have a habit of playing games (especially RPGs) all the way to the end and getting side tracked by another newer game, eventually quitting the old game altogether. I have actually done this with FFVI-FFX, and never beaten any of them.

So, months to years later I would come back to pick my old game, realize I didn't remember what was going on with the story or my characters and decide to start all over again.

However, recently I've stopped doing this and I'm better at "forcing" myself to finish games before I start new ones. I'm actually playing FFVII right now, trying to remedy my sad record of never beating any of the Final Fantasy games (excluding FF for the NES, I have beaten that one).

[mobiusclimber]

It depends on the game and how much time has passed. Some RPGs you can just pick up and play, put back down, come back to later and just start right up. I'm pretty sure most platformers and shmups are like tht, but those tend to not even have a save function (except for scores) so yeah.

[Double Ugly]

I guess it depends on how long it has been since I played the game, but usually yes I restart from the beginning. Especially after 16 years. And I'm the same way with rpgs. I still haven't beaten Kefka or Sephiroth though my characters are well capable of it.

[Shingetter]

If its been a couple of weeks to a month I won't remember what I was doing and will have to restart. I can barely remember what I did yesterday half the time. Games with journals will sometimes get me back on track, or a strategy guide, but then I'll want to just start over anyway to get stuff I missed.

[Eduardo]

I finally got the Gameboy Player and it's gorgeous on the TV but I had to restart Advance Wars, i cant remember anything. And I was up to the 16 mission. But this game is awesome, don't know why I stopped playing after a couple of weeks. It looks real good on the old 65 inch tv.

[AndrewZ98]

Always. I think I've done this about 5 times on Need for Speed Underground. I'll complete about 90 of the races then stop playing for some stupid reason. Then a few months later come back and think "Where was I? What do I have? Screw it. Might as well start over. AGAIN."

[Lanzo]

Yeah, I end up doing this all the time. I started over in Star Ocean 3 twice and I still have not gotten to the end. In fact I only beat 10% of the games I buy. The rest I usually never play again. I played God of War when it came out and beat it. Then when GOW3 came out I went replayed 1 and 2. I do the same with books. Read 600 pages in and started over and finished it, lol.

[M15fit]

Yep, it's the JRPG's I have problems with getting back into. I swear I'll finish digital devil saga some day, but going back to my old saves it difficult. Where as western stuff like elder scrolls is cake.

[Superman]

I remember trying to get back in a game that I was in the middle of just recently, but I couldn't remember what I was doing. I ended up not playing it because I couldn't get into it and I didn't feel like starting over.

But for me, for Zelda games, you have to play through the whole game. To not play all the way through would be sacrilegious (or something to that effect).

[McKillington]

This is the one reason why, after all these years, I've never finished Chrono Trigger.
I let other games distract me so easily, JRPGs by far make up the majority of my "unfinished" list.

[dreamcaster]

Case in point I got The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past the same month it came out and played continuously and for some reason I stopped without ever finishing it. When I got a new SNES I put it in and my old save was still there, but I had to start all over because I can't remember anything. This was 16 years ago.

16 years? Try 16 hours for me. :P

[Arkhan]

I only stop playing a game if i think it sucks. If it sucks I never play it again.

[kupomogli]

I usually restart games that I don't finish. It depends on how long it's been though. It's really based on the fact that after such a long time, I'm starting in the middle of the storyline, I'm not entirely sure exactly where I've explored, etc.

Final Fantasy 12 I restarted the first time in a long time. Purchased it first day got about eight hours into it and quit. I'm giving it a second chance and my restarted character is actually the exact same location I quit. I'm getting annoyed at certain technical aspects of the game which is why I put the game down, but I'm still being optimistic about the overall experience.

I need to pick it up soon or I guarantee I'll never touch the game again.

[buzz_n64]

I'd probably restart the game if it's been over 6 months since I've played it, which is most of the time. I lose interest easily these days, and just abandon game-play after a day or two.

[Dr. Dib]

Usually I just finish from wherever I left off. Most of the time though I play platformers and adventure games that I can remember how to play right away.

I think the longest break I took from playing a game was Donkey Kong 64. I got it when it first came out and made it, with lots of help from my older brother, to the final level. It was too hard for me and him at the time though, time limit scared us, so we shut it off and stopped playing it. 3 or 4 years later I went back and got all the stuff I missed and completed the game 101%. Of course I did have the strategy guide to help me.

The only game I restarted was Monkey Island 2. I had played the game for a little bit before getting stuck and having no idea what to do. A year later I got back into the game and decided to restart so that I had some idea of what to do.

[Haoie]

Almost certainly never.

Even worse when I lose a save game. Then it's pretty much never touch it again due to frustration.

[jdc]

And this exactly why I got rid of my 360 and PS3. The lure of modern releases was hampering my completion of my extensive last-gen backlog. I came to the realization that if I keep abandoning my last-gen games mid way through, then I have to start them over again....and they become not only a waste of irretreivable time, but a huge waste of money as well.

[Ed Oscuro]

Case in point I got The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past the same month it came out and played continuously and for some reason I stopped without ever finishing it. When I got a new SNES I put it in and my old save was still there, but I had to start all over because I can't remember anything. This was 16 years ago.
A couple months or so back I picked Legend of Zelda LttP for the Game Boy Advance back up and started off from my old save file which probably dated to about the year the game came out. I'll admit I used a walkthrough a few times to get my bearings just because some of the dungeons had a few aggravating spots, also to figure out what to do with that treasure chest. Nothing too complicated besides the dungeons. The ending was a letdown, heh.

I also went back to Metroid: Zero Mission on hard - and after getting to Mother Brain I realized that my time was much slower than my old file (also on hard) so I gave up and went with the previous one. Now I can't remember how to get that last Super Missile tank again (and yeah I had just looked it up in a walkthrough!) In any case the escape sequence after M.B. was pissing me off big time - two unsuccessful attempts at it. So I quit that one for a while. (I still need to beat the original Metroid Prime; there's a walkway with Metroids going along it to the top and apparently that's right before the final boss.)

[XYXZYZ]

This happens to me all the time. Recently I had two good Neverwinter Nights games going, one was the Hordes of the Underdark module and the other was a fan made Eye of the Beholder module, which was awesome. As usual for long games, I stop playing after a couple weeks. Months later, I want to pick up and start playing again, and I didn't even remember how to play the damn game, let alone what I was doing in it. And that EoB module? I couldn't even remember how to load it.

[Arkhan]

im one of those people that writes shit down while playing RPGs, lol.


So I just flip through a notebook til I find game in question, and see what i was doing.

[whoisKeel]

16 years? Umm...hell yeah start over. That game isn't terribly long anyways. A few months to a year...that's when I might just pick up where I left off.

[nebrazca78]

im one of those people that writes shit down while playing RPGs, lol.


So I just flip through a notebook til I find game in question, and see what i was doing.


I used to do that when I was a kid, but as a teen I got to the point where I could remember almost everything so I stopped making maps and writing stuff down. Once I got older I didn't have days or weeks in a row to play RPGs to completion so I would have to stop somewhere in the middle. This caused me to forget most of the important stuff and left me wishing I had written everything down like I used to. So like most everyone else I ended up starting those RPGs over again.

[Eduardo]

im one of those people that writes shit down while playing RPGs, lol.


So I just flip through a notebook til I find game in question, and see what i was doing.

I had a friend who marked on his tv screen where secret island were in FF 7. I asked him what is that shit on your screen? It's an island dude.

[Gentlegamer]

I have a save game for Tomb Raider 2 on level 14 (I think) . . . from 1998. Once in a while I try booting it up and playing it, but I'm lost. If I ever want to beat the game, I'll have to start over.

[Malon_Forever]

I'm right near the end in Final Fantasy VI, but I can't bring myself to finish it because I haven't played it in over a year.

[garagesaleking!!]

I dont, I usually pick up wherever I left off. i just dont have the patience to do things over, plus I have a really good memory, so I usually never forget anything.