Curious of other's thoughts on the term "beat" the game. DAE feel like it's outdated?

AtomicPopsicle, 11 months ago

I’ve noticed I usually say now “I completed the story” instead of “I beat the game.” With so many games now continuing even after the story or all the extra things you get through multiple playthroughs, it’s a pretty outdated term now.

ANapSoundsNice, 11 months ago

I have adjusted my mindset instead of adjusting the terms themselves, for me. While completely getting everything that exists was and is still to “100%” a game, I have adjusted “to beat” a game to no longer be nearly synonymous with 100% because I ain’t got time for that anymore.

Instead I believe to have beaten a game if I get the main sequence credit roll and have completed as much non-main scenario content as I want to before I feel it’s tedious or stupid. Sometimes beating the game is strictly completing the main sequence because no extra content exists, are only achievements, or are so difficult that I simply don’t feel like investing the time into it (unless I want to. Shout out to God of War ps3 with the hardest difficulty + Valkyrie Queen side quest! Now THAT was a hard but fair and fun fight!).

I recently played through BotW finally so I can move onto TotK and I did all shrines, about 320 korok seeds, and some side quests and chains (like terry town) but I decided against doing the trial of the sword deep dungeon. I kept playing and doing things and didn’t get all shrines because I wanted to but instead had such a fun time that I got all of them because I just happened to continue enjoying the journey to all shrines. That subtle distinction means I keep playing games as content still exists and while I’m still having a good time.

When the good time ends, then I feel I have beat the game. And that’s good by me.

NoIWontPickaName, 11 months ago

I would actually have to finish one first, instead of getting bored, switching games, coming back, realizing I have no clue what's going on, restart the game, get bored, switch games, etc.

canthidium, 11 months ago

The struggle is real, my friend.

ariasimmortal, 11 months ago

There are distinctions, sure, but at no point in MY life has "beating a game" been equated with "100% completion of every piece of available content in a game".

Going all the way back to the 90s, if you beat Robotnik in Sonic 2, you beat the game, even if you didn't get all the Chaos Emeralds.
If you beat Bowser in SMW, you beat the game, even if you didn't finish the secret levels and unlock fall.
In FF7, if you beat One Winged Angel Sephiroth, you beat the game, even if you didn't do Emerald/Ruby Weapon or breed a Gold Chocobo.
If you beat Majora but didn't get all the masks you still beat the game.
If you finished Baldur's Gate 2 and defeated Irenicus you beat the game.
If you beat the Elite 4, you beat Pokemon, even if you didn't collect all 150.
If you went Act 1-4/5 in Diablo 2 on normal, guess what, you beat the game. You can beat it again on Nightmare, and again on Hell, but you still beat it.

Did that change somewhere along the way? I beat Spider-Man. Did I 100% it? No. I beat BotW and ToTK. Did I 100% them? No. I beat God of War 2018. Did I 100% it on the highest difficulty? YES, but I beat it first!

Cyzaine, 11 months ago

Definitely the case IMO. You can play a game, beat a game, complete a game. Those are all very valid states.

ThePillarOfSummer, 11 months ago

The term I heard and liked on Game Scoop is to say "I rolled credits on" the game. Meaning you finished the main story but not 100% completed it.

I think beat is probably outdated with how collectible oriented games have become these days, so rolled credits and 100%ed are my terms of choice!

orbit, 11 months ago

With modern (non-multiplayer) games it always seems as though there's a clear "main" chunk of the game. I usually try to complete that bit to feel as though I "beat" the game.

Main chunks are main story, levels, or getting beyond the main obstacle. Sandbox games are a good example of something outside this sphere and with those I simply enjoy the experience and don't sweat completion.

I find myself playing more sandbox style games as things go due to time and skill commitments which has been an interesting change from when I was younger.

gophergun, 11 months ago

Considering most story-based games often have some kind of final challenge that you have to overcome, I'm generally fine with the term "beat the game". The only time I think it gets weird is with visual novel games where there's not really any particular gameplay challenge at the end of the game.

Ravor, 11 months ago

Beside mmorpg i can clearly see when you can say you "beat" most games.

Don't mean you experienced everything it can offer but can clearly see it

Parallax, 11 months ago

I haven't "beat" or finished a game in ages. I play a lot of open ended games lately, like Satisfactory, Sims 4, Valheim, Kerbal Space Program 1, so it's always just one self-chosen goal after another.

I take that back - I did fully beat Subnautica 1! One of my favorite gaming experiences ever.

Lately I just enjoy experiencing games and not necessarily playing them to completion. I have dozens of hours in GTAs and Fallouts, never finished, but nevertheless satisfied with the time I put into them.

shannduin, 11 months ago

I say finished playing or finished the game, I don't normally clarify that it doesn't mean I did everything in the game, people seem to understand that it means that I played the core elements

orbit, 11 months ago

This is the best way to look at it imo

VeeSilverball, 11 months ago

The "beat" term was one that I started to use ironically in the late 2000's - like, enthusiastically saying "yeah, I beat that game!" about You Have to Burn the Rope. I think its moment came alongside "beat the system" which also a phrase still used, but which I don't hear as much now.

It implies that there's a moment of conquest, and sometimes you can find one, but other times the goals are arbitrary - with games on NES it definitely felt conclusive, because you would reach a point where it said "you win". When speedrunning these games now, "beat" equates to "casual" play, though. And if it's a serious score grind like many rhythm games are, you end up with a distinction like "pass" vs "full combo" vs "100%".

ProfessorFlaw, 11 months ago

Depends, most story based games have gameplay, there are next to 0 games that are only dialogue choosing, it would be nice to hear a few names of games that you mean ^^.

surrendertogravity, 11 months ago

In my household beating the game has the same meaning as “rolling credits” - largely based on Backloggery’s distinction between beaten and completed games. I’ve started focusing on actually beating games/rolling credits in the past ~3 years and while there’s still a few games I’ve started and put down unfinished for various reasons, I beat 25 games in 2022 and 14 so far in 2023.

I’d be interested to know what the difference in language means for you - would “beat” apply only to games that don’t have post-credits gameplay?

Blakerboy777, 11 months ago

I will probably beat the new Zelda game in the next couple of weeks. I will probably not feel like I'm done playing it until I do a lot more detailed exploring and upgrading my equipment. I'll beat it when I roll credits but I won't be finished with it until grinding for progress becomes more annoying than fulfilling.

PenguinTD, 11 months ago

The term comes mostly because there is a upper limit(like you get to the last level and then it goes back to level 1), there is last boss from old RPG, you finished all 100 puzzles the designer put in place, etc. So it makes sense to say I beat the game cause there is nothing else the game can provide a challenge.

But modern games like you mentioned, aren't even designed with this approach. It becomes a wild variety of genre and flavor that you can pretty much do anything you like. ie. I finished GoW:Ragnarok on GMGoW difficulty 100% everything, while there are streamer doing Lv1/no damage runs, and there are people that play story mode and just want to enjoy the lore and story development. All are valid ways to finish the game. And there are even games, say Flight Simulator, how do you "beat" or "finish" that? Or competitive games like Rocket League, CS:GO those just never "finish", you get "better" and climb the ranks like online chess players.

However, you can still "beat" some games that are designed in more traditional fashion. Say, Resogun is a side scroll arcade shooter, it was traditionally designed so people tries to get better and chase high scores, but if you "beat" it as in finish the arcade mode, there is not much it has to offer than chase high scores. Or games like MetalSlug series, you beat the game cause they don't have any other challenges to offer.

Most people don't say "beat" the game now as we know how high the ceiling is that people can do with games(knife only runs, blindfold runs, rockband guitar controllers, etc.), we mostly say we finish the campaign, platinum the game, or 100% complete from the game stats(not every game tracks completion stats).

HawkXero, 11 months ago

Yeah I get you. And honestly so few games these days have an actual ending anyway. Open world, sandbox, ancillary objective, and multiplayer games have changed the way we look at games in general. I can't remember the last time I "beat" a game. I mean maybe a few months ago when I finished the main storyline of No Man's Sky, but did I really beat it? No, I just finished one of the many quests.

Super Mario 64 is a game you beat. Most games today, you just don't.

Blakerboy777, 11 months ago

Mario 64 is a cool example. The first super Mario I kind of feel like if you beat Bowser, that's it, you've fully beaten the game even if you used warp pipes to get there faster. That was the challenge and you did it. With Mario 64, I totally agree that beating Bowser is beating the game. But you can just keep playing and collecting stars - there's like 50 available beyond the 70 needed to face Bowser. Mario Odyssey kind of takes it to an extreme with a ton of post credits content. You can beat the game but there's still a lot more to do - not just replaying it from the beginning.