When do you decide to retire from playing a game?

Me? Often times I retire from a game when it's too difficult and I can't lower the difficulty.

There's a lot of factors but the biggest ones is the amount of difficulty spikes there are or just so many rage inducing sections the game in question has. If there is one rage inducing section after a long while of me quietly enjoying the game, I can take that. Have 2 or 3 within close proxmity of each other and I will drop the game. By that point, I'm just wasting my time and even if later parts of the game could be "better". I don't care.

Games with level design that I find confusing or obtuse. I'm not a guy who needs objective markers or obvious handholding. I prefer when a game rarely if ever resorts to that but if I need to look up a guide almost every 5-10 minutes to know where to go and I'm not absorbed in what I'm playing, I'll just call it quits. I care more about if level design is consistent and I have a clue on where I'm going than if a game has a nice color pallete or if it "looks" nice. Colors and being pretty isn't going circumvent me not enjoying navigating the level.

I also hate it when a game guides you with objective markers one minute and then suddenly they are gone. Why have the markers if you will eventually stop using them to guide me? You might as well not have them to begin with and just have confidence in me knowing where to go.

Limited continues and redoing lots of content upon death. This might've been something I had patience for when I was younger or on paper it did but the only reason why both existed was to make very short games appear longer than they actually are. It's hard to take it seriously knowing all it really was a form of padding to hide the lack of content or to avoid beating it in a weeked and returning it to the rental store fast.

I also try to lower to easy with games that have annoying design decisions or game mechanics I don't like and if easy mode can't save it, the game is beyond repair and I'm done. When a game offers easy, it's a game's last line of defense to see if I won't retire it. There have been some games I played where not even easy mode, save states and rewind can make them enjoyable.

There have also been cases where I found the game so unbearably boring that I drop it because I can't stand playing it or I know that playing more could lead to a sunk cost fallacy when a difficulty spike happens. Like say you play a very story driven game with so many cutscenes and dialogue and you are breezing by and then suddenly out of nowhere you actually need to try when you spent so much of the game sleepwalking through it. That or a game has progression roadblocks. This is a big reason why I hesistate towards playing RPGs of any kind.

And yeah come to think of it, progression road blocks would be another. It's one thing I loathe about many 2D platformers especially modern ones despite me enjoying the games. You have to find collectibles in a stage to progress furthur into the game. I would be fine with that but these collectibles give no new abilties or upgrades so you are giving me no incentive to look for them other than wasting my damn time. 3D collectathons I don't mind nearly as much since the whole point of the game is to collect things to progress. There's also other stuff like collect money to do story missions in open world games when every other mission before that I can start without needing to be "rich".

I guess much of this stuff comes down to when a game subverts my expectations but in a way that feels cheap forced and out of nowhere. Like a badly written face or heel turn for a character or a poorly written plot twist. All of this could just be terrible or nonexistent attempts at foreshadowing.

For me it's simple, if I am not at least 75% (approx.) done with the game, ( I use this website as a source for the length ) and I am finding it's extremely boring and tediousness to the point where it makes me feel sleepy and don't make me wanna open the game I again, I retire it.

Another reason, which is a personal one, is that I am prone to motion sickness, and if the game makes me really dizzy and nausetic while playing it even if I increase the FOV slider all the way up, I retire it because I am not willing to trade my mental and physical wellbeing to play a video game.

But it's weird only few games make me feel like that such as GTA V, Nier Automata and TLOU while I can play RDR2 perfectly fine for hours

Another might be difficulty but I have only ever retired two games due to this reason i.e Cuphead and Celeste Chapter 9

I don't retire games too often, but when I do, it's usually because a game is either too difficult, cryptic or tedious.

Difficulty can cause me to retire a game if it's an annoying level of difficulty. One of the things I find makes difficulty annoying is when you have redo an easy section of the game just to get to the one part of the level you keep dying at. This can lead to me retiring a game, if I'm not otherwise not too interested in the game.

A game being cryptic to the point where you have to use a guide to figure out what to do next, is one of my biggest pet peeves in gaming. I never use guides when playing a game's main story. Although I might use them to clean up remaining achievements or collectibles. If a game's design forces me to use a guide to be able to progress is one of the worst sins a game can commit. If I'm not far into the game, this is a very strong reason for me to drop a game, even if it's a game I'm somewhat interested in.

If a game's gameplay is tedious and boring then I'll also likely drop it. I play games to have a fun time after all. The longer the game is, the likelier I am to drop it, if a short game is tedious, I can push through it and I'll stop as soon as I reach the credits. But if it's a long game, then there's no way I'm going through all that tedium.

Outside of these three, the only other reason I would retire a game is if I've acquired a improved/enhanced version of that game, which makes the original version redundant. I only very rarely replay games, so if I'm going to play through a game, I want to have the best experience possible on my first playthrough.

I don’t like retiring games as I like to finish things. I’ve felt this when reading books I thought sounded interesting from the summary but actually reading it I struggled through it because I either didn’t understand it or wasn’t enjoying it.

It’s the same with games or shows. I’ll stop playing if it gets too difficult and I can’t lower the difficulty or I can’t find the game enjoyable enough to finish. I’ve been having that issue with some games I’ve put on-hold and been thinking if I should just trade them in (physicals I own) if I’m not enjoying them anymore.

I don’t like the feeling of leaving a game unfinished but I don’t want to force myself to play something I don’t fully enjoy anymore. I’d rather play a game I actually enjoy than one I’m no longer interested in anymore.

I’ll keep games that have replay-ability to them or I actually enjoyed them. However if I can’t even finish the first playthrough then it’s obviously not a game for me.

It's usually related to technical issues or the lack of any balance in difficulty, things that are often seen in less known games (especially euro / slavjank). I absolutely hate retiring, but if these issues are noticeable from the start or early on, it's a lot easier to quit.

Not having fun is a good indicative

I strongly avoid retiring games, I pretty much only retire games when I'm almost incapable of completing them whether it's because of performance/bugs (games like Tomb Raider 6) or mental anguish (Mega Man). Every once in a while I'll retire a game I'm just not having fun with even if I could complete it. Even for some games that I'm having a horrible time with, I'll resort to things like save-scumming or abuse save states if it's available to avoid retiring it. In fact I only started retiring games recently, my retirement rate earlier this year was 0% until I got to Hades and Mega Man.

95% of the time I'm able to push through games that I'm not particularly enjoying. It's certainly not the best practice, but for me the peace of mind knowing I didn't give up all those games I struggled with is good. Playing through those games also gives me a better idea of what works and doesn't work in them, and what my personal preferences are for games and gameplay.

It's really rare for me to retire a game. At least, it used to be almost unthinkable when I was younger.

But since I started working and have less free time to play, I've gotten used to dropping a game if I start getting bored (usually after about 10 hours), or if it just doesn't get grab me within the first couple of hours.

I've also noticed that my tolerance for frustration in games has dropped. After a long day of work, specially dealing with clients or resolving complex codes, I'm often mentally drained. For example, I started Dark Souls II some months ago. And while I was enjoying it overall, most days I just wasn't in the mood to be repeatedly destroyed by the same boss. So I retired it to play others games that helped me relax and recharge for the next day.

Like most of the answers on here, pretty much the only reason I retire a game is if it's too difficult for me. Even if I'm not having fun, I'll still try to push through against my better judgement. Maybe my tolerance for bad games will go down as I get older and I'll feel more comfortable dropping games I'm not enjoying.

This is a good one:

juanfrandm98: I've also noticed that my tolerance for frustration in games has dropped.

However, I can be very stubborn. If I feel like it’s still reasonably doable I’ll keep at it until I’ve passed the difficulty roadblock I’m in. BUT that can hinge on how far I am in the game and what restarting will look like. Games that make you start from the very beginning after failure will be retired. I just don’t have the patience for that. Games I’d have to have my head stuck in a walkthrough for the entire time get the same outcome.

If I’m still in the early stages it’s much easier to put down. If I’m at least halfway it’s harder. Fantasian (the original version) is a good example. I had gotten pretty far but the bosses were becoming increasingly brutal and it became a question of how much of this I’d be dealing with if I kept going, and I wasn’t having as much fun as before.

The last factor is trickier. Am I playing this because I like it, or is it just to play it? If it’s the latter, then it’s probably not interesting me as much than if I played something else, and I’m probably better off playing something else.

And even with that I’m pretty sure there are still games that I don’t retire in a timely manner. So at the end of the day it still depends on how offended I was. 😅

When the fun becomes a chore.

I personally retire from a game when it gets too boring

I mainly retire a game when I am not having any fun with it anymore. The lack of fun can have different reasons, like too difficult, stressful in a bad way, bad game mechanics, too many rage inducing moments, or just a general sense of not enjoying it or that the game just isn’t for me.

I also sometimes retire games when it is so long since I last played that I can’t remember how to play. This is almost always with the intension to replay them at some point.

I mentioned that for me it's the fact that the game becomes a burden instead of fun, but Montimorti summarized all my thoughts on the matter perfectly.

I very VERY retire games nowadays. I can usually put up with some frustrating aspects of a game, but recently I did retire a game. Need for Speed ProStreet. I decided to do it since I wasn't really enjoying it, I felt like I couldn't get past the obstacles it was throwing at me, and ultimately its story and the goal of completing it just didn't mean much to me in the grands scheme of things.
TL:DR: If the game isn't enjoyable, will take a while, feels too difficult to progress, and feels near pointless to finish, I will retire it.

I mentioned that for me it's the fact that the game becomes a burden instead of fun, but Montimorti summarized all my thoughts on the matter perfectly.

Glad to hear it! :)

I rarely ever decide to retire a game in the moment. Most of my retired games are games I'd be interested in returning to maybe someday, but compared to my backlog they're ok in my mind to leave as is and I'm not bothered by not completing them. Most of my retired list is childhood games I never beat because I was not great at completing them. But occasionally new things get added after I stop playing them for awhile, like Octopath Travelers which I put down for a few years and tried to get back in but was lost at what to do and didn't want to start a new playthrough any time soon. Or there's cases like Horizon Zero Dawn which I started a couple times because the story intrigued me but I wasn't in the mood for the gameplay. Only example of a game I can think of at the moment I retired on the spot after trying out is Rayman for PS1, which I did not enjoy much 😅.

There's no such thing as retiring games except for those online-only games no longer accessible because servers shut-down.

There's no such thing as retiring games except for those online-only games no longer accessible because servers shut-down.

So if you start a long game (like Pathfinder: Kingmaker in your currently playing list) and you notice after one hour that you are not having fun, you go on for ~ 76h of boredom? Honest question.

Personally, I'm very quick to retire games if I'm not enjoying them. I have maybe 1 hour max per day for playing games. I'm not going to hate-play for that 1 hour, especially not over a long period of time.

I have sometimes tried to go back to retired games, thinking maybe it had come from my mood at the time and things would go differently now. I think this has virtually never worked out differently. I still end up retiring the game a second time (or like Witcher 3 which I retired 3 or 4 times).

Though, right now I'm giving Medieval Dynasty a second try. I had enjoyed the game for ~ 24h, then ran out of steam. But who knows? Maybe I'm going to complete the single player story this time.

If I've started a game two or more times, and haven't finished it for whatever reason, I'm probably not that into it, and I just write it off. This happens a lot with GP and PSPlus. It's extremely rare for me to buy a game outright and not finish it, but it's happened.

When I haven't played a game in a few days, and I think to myself "I really ought to get back to that" like it's some sort of chore, that's when it's time for it to go.

As a kid, retiring was not an option with how infrequent we got games, but with the whole buffet open to us now, the meal that is easier to finish is more tasty.

I think playing a game for a few hours after the introduction or tutorial section is enough to get an idea on if I like it or not, so I can decide to retire it at this point instead of way later. There have been times I've had to retire deep within the game, mostly because of technical issues. I was almost at the final chapter in an RPG after dozen of hours and lost my save which just made me retire the game no matter of how much fun I was having.

I never truly retire, it just gets to the end of the backlog.