Mystery
Since my last post, I've completed three games from The List. Maybe that doesn't seem like a lot for the three and a half months it took, but remember that all of 2023 saw five games completed.
Completion is a bit of a funny thing. When someone says they've completed a book, film, or show, it's safe to say they consumed everything that was available - read every page, watched every minute, and that's that. But with games completion can have a few meanings. There's "I played the main storyline through to the end." Or "I beat every quest available." It could be "I conquered every possible activity on the hardest difficulty" or "I collected every achievement or trophy in the game". And some games are simply designed to keep you playing them forever, so how does one even define completion in that case? There's such a variety of meaning here, and it often comes to light in conversation with other players that my definition and theirs may not match, which occasionally generates some elitism and friction between players. "You haven't really beaten the game until...." Insert arbitrary condition here. It happens enough that it's not uncommon to find folks who played and enjoyed the same game to be at odds with one another over how it was played, which is a little mind boggling.
I don't have one set definition that I strive for. At minimum I want to see how the main narrative plays out, but depending on the game I may decide I want to see and do more. After finishing the campaign for Modern Warfare II (2022), I decided I was done with that one. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, however, hooked me enough to spend over 120 hours on the game finishing every side quest and activity. Spider-Man 2 even had me playing to the point of collecting every trophy in that game.
I suppose the common denominator here is engagement. With Call of Duty, it was wanting to see the mission through to the end and see how it compared to the original game. With Spider-Man, it was wanting to be the ultimate version of that hero and completely saving New York from the hazards the game presented. With Rebirth, it was wanting to see everything, to run down every rabbit trail and see just what might happen. Of the three, Rebirth easily took the longest, but it was also the most unknown to me, the world of Midgar the most unfamiliar.
Maybe that mystery of "what's around the corner?" is the key to capturing the imagination of an audience and what ultimately leads to the kind of completion that is most similar to other forms of media. It's what compels us to watch every episode, and read every page. Mystery draws us in like nothing else can.