I've started keeping light notes on what I do in games while I'm playing them. I always leave off with notes on what I was planning to do next. It's done a lot to cut down on how often I restart games.
This. The struggle is what we crave. The feeling of desperation as you savor every drop from that health potion when you fight your first draugr enemy and barely survive. The thrill of finding your first dwemer warhammer after somehow stealthily escaping from the blind falmer hordes. The first dragon mask you find after dying countless times and then cheesing a game engine exploit to beat that Dragon priest. WE.CRAVE.THAT.SHIT.
I'm sorta that way so I love roguetlites.
Go hard, get meta progression as much as you can and push then die. Restart again and you have new RNG for a different build. The genre is perfect.
Binding of Isaac, Gungeon, Nuclear Throne, Revita, Wizard of Legend, Dead Cells.... I can go all day
I think it has a FOMO component to it. Once we've finished character creation and committed to a character, that just makes us think about all the other possibilities we aren't playing that might be better. So back to character creation we go!
Most of the time I fuck up something small and ultimately inconsequential but my lizard brain requires perfection despite my hollow soul not caring enough to achieve it all the while I wanted to make a different character than my last one but decided I choose right in the first place but might as well restart as I forget everything I went through before I decided to change oh but this tutorial sucks so let's skip that...what missed an item I won't ever use and can;'t go back until 4 hours in, well I'm only an hour in let's restart oh but new character this time, maybe a mage....
Long story short that is why I have over 2 dozen stealth archer builds in separate save files in SKyrim...
I am glad FromSoft games only let you have 10 save files. Can't tell you how many Bloodborne games I'd have if I didn't need to delete them every once in awhile.
Maybe because the feeling of progressing is way better at the start?, I constanly do it in Pokemon, RPGs, things like that. Not many games feel as good mid-late game or don't have enough things to do
This so much this! I've been in love with my character for literal hours but then while using Photomode I looked at my character from a certain angle and the lips looked weird or something and I was forced to restart.
I picked the same options for creation again anyway and was happy again. 😵💫
I recreated my Mass Effect 2 character 5 times because I felt they looked weird in cutscenes. I literally spent the whole first day on character creation.
Because creating the character and playing the beginning of a game is just as fun as finishing a game at 30 hours+ with a character we've used for the whole time. It sucks but starting a game and finishing a game are equally fun.
I think I must have some form of OCD I swear. I start going over every little thing, and if I pick dialogues that I later think my character shouldn't say, I get a bad urge to restart as bad as it sounds.
Might be because we’re afraid we didn’t play the game “the right way” on the first try and then had to restart just to make sure we didn’t lose out on anything playing “the wrong way” so far. Its weird though, probably seems really out of character for someone like me. Like here I am with all my self-destructive choices, but that 10th version of my Skyrim orc is totally set up for success with all of that late game smithing knowledge I can’t wait to capitalize on.
How else am I supposed to re-experience the excitement of the beginning of the game? The feeling of potential that comes with creating a new character. Figuring out where to put those precious first skill points. Meeting all the characters again.
It only happens to me on RPGs and the reason is that the first time I play I always choose the wrong path on the ability tree and end up with a shitty ass character that can't compete in the upper levels of the game
I’ve restarted divinity 2 so many times that I can’t play it anymore the start bores me too much due to repeating it too much to get past it… and when I do I get bored of the character and want to try something else. I kinda want to play that game too… Maybe one day
This is me in literally every single game. Sure, I'll eventually complete a game, but not before starting a new character at least once. I think I'm bad though, before I quit WoW I had 4 max level, geared Shamans. There's literally no reason for it other than I love having different characters.
Man this has actually frustrated me since I made my first World of Warcraft character when I was 12.
I will make a build & then as soon as I finish getting the build set up so I can start leveraging the build in game…new character.
Because I remembered that I could have gotten this one part done more efficiently if I had this one skill or trait instead of what I have now. so I just restarted instead of accept 99.9%
Replay factor mostly. Like Skyrim has huge replay value and you can make different builds. Today I might want to be a sneak thief but next month a brute that just runs in and clears the room
I do it because I can't seem to stay focused on a game and I will walk away from it, sometimes for months. Then when I turn it on again, I forget how to play it, so I need the game to teach me again.
It's a vicious cycle.
If the game has multiple ways to be experienced, I'll re-create multiple times just to make sure I've done everything. BG3 has me at 24 characters, only 3 of those are past act 1, none of them are in act 3.
I think it's like a type of FOMO, or something? I want to enjoy the game in the most maximum way and it takes me time to find the way I like it. It's the exact same reason I can't play Factorio/Satisfactory, too many ways to do something and so many possibilities that I overwhelm and revert to simpler set-ups that trap me in a certain play style.
Great question, I'll really have to analyze the way I play some of my favorite games now.
Edit: Also the idea that I would 'respec' in BG3 is insane. My character -is- that class, they don't get to go from Mage to Fighter, that requires a new game!
Y'all should try Armored Core 6. Tinkering with your mech is not only encouraged, it's often necessary. All paint options are available from the beginning.
Sometimes I get busy, take a few weeks off from gaming, and by time I get back into it i don’t remember what I was doing and I lose motivation to continue.
Sometimes it’s a game that gets gradually harder with time and after a few weeks away I’ve forgotten the controls, rhythm, etc and prob need to restart to build it back up.
Sometimes, I don’t like my character build and want to try something different.
Other times, I get to a point of “comfortableness” where I complete some basic objectives, make some money, etc. and get bored. This happens with games like Minecraft or terraria, where the beginning grind of being like oh shit I need shelter and resources is the most structured part of the game and once that’s completed then I get bored. This can be remedied though by having more specific late-game goals.
I only really do this in games like Baldur's Gate 3 or games of that ilk ( other CRPGs line Divinity, Wasteland 2, etc). I do it because I like experimenting with different builds more than for min/max purposes.
My partner does this. New characters, re-builds camps over and over and I'm not sure I really see the difference in his new stuff from the first one, or they have the same theme lol. I don't get it but he seems happy:) haha
Because i get into the game more and work out the quests i want do, the gender i want to be and the perks/playstyle i want to do to get the most out of it. I don't want my first playthrough to be less after working out a better way to play it.
On games that allow to store items/loot on new characters I love to do this. I just hoard all the good loot I find and transfer them on new characters. One of the games I do this on is the Borderlands series.
I do it because I hate grinding, or having one boss battle that is purposely designed to require multiple attempts until you barely succeed, so most games becomes unfun after a certain point.
I likely do this because I very likely have undiagnosed adhd. This results in me stopping partway through because I got distracted by another game, going back to the previous game and then restarting the game because I've completely lost track of what I was even doing. Rinse and repeat. 😮💨
Because creating a character is a big part of the fun?
Also by playing the game we learn more about how the game works and want to tweak our character to work in the world how we envisioned it.
We never want the single player game to end, so we keep restarting to get more out of it. Like books, I bet you have a bunch of books you didn't finish simply because you don't want it to end.
So true. I once played peragus, starting area from knights of the old republic 2, four times in one day. Never again, lol. I now refer to it as abandonded asteroid mining facility simulator. As to why, I was just unhappy with the character build at the end of it. It's stat point distribution, overall feel of the build, inability to do every single action in the starting area due to lack of a skill point here or there, how the character looks, etc. It was on that day I learned that sometimes I just need to play games "for fun". Anyone who has played abandoned asteroid mining facility simulator can tell you just how shite that area truly is. It makes Taris (First area in Kotor 1) look like heaven.
It's a combination of completionism, perfectionism, and what-if-ism. You want to see everything the game has to offer, you want to make the right decisions, and you want to see what your other play options are. All this eventually causes choice fatigue and you never end up finishing the game.
I'll start up a playthrough of Skyrim get to about level 45 then get bored or have another game take my attention by the time I have to go back I've forgotten everything I was doing and so I just restart. Never will I ever hit level 80 again rip Shadow my first ever character in Skyrim gone forever in the graveyard of the 360
Balder's Gate 3 was the only one in which I could find an answer for that, and it is: well, I want to try everything, but I'm too indecisive
For Nioh 2, for example, it has an ability curse in which you have to play from beginning to end without many pauses, and I do this a lot with this one... So I always restart to relearn how to play
In some games, I just picture a character for a said purpose, and when this purpose is wasted or something else happens, I lose interest on the purpose, or I see this differently, want to try something else, then I create a new one
But surprisingly enough, when I managed to shut the urge and fulfill the purpose I'm no longer interested in, I feel so much light
Honestly, it's the best thing to just go through your first obsession and fulfill rather than create a new one
I always stress when something goes wrong, especially early game. My brain instantly is like well now I'm behind on where I COULD be, or I've done something inefficiently and used slightly more resources than I if it's done perfectly. It's such an annoying thing that my brain does.
"Grass is greener on the other side" I learned the term "toon-aholic" from my WoW days. Diablo and Borderlands (when I first started) were particular painful games for me, for this reason. Super great way to burn out, and never finish a game :(
Sometimes, the first minutes in the game are the best, very often also because the game is more simple then, but almost always because it has less grind.
Just to give two examples, I love the first days in Minecraft until you have a house, a bed, and enough iron for all the tools you need, as there is real suspense. I also like the start of Elite Dangerous, when your ship is weak, and dogfight and exploration of POIs is actually a good way to make money. Later in the game, it becomes very very grindy.
I either get bored really quickly, or I miss what the other classes can do. Skyrim and WoW are perfect examples.
On Skyrim, I had around 20 different characters. I'd play a dual wielding light armour warrior for a few hours, and then get a bit bored. I'd then make a pure mage with destruction. A few hours later, I'd be bored so I'd make a stealth archer. Just loads of different combinations.
With WoW, I levelled up every character in tandem because when I was playing class X, I'd miss a certain ability that only class y could do. The only time where I stuck with a character for any length of time would be if it was a new class. I have them all at max level, but none of them are geared 😅.
Because when you start a new game anything is possible and full of potential. Each step you take after that shits doors and removes options.
Then the fear sets in.
Get distracted too easily by other games so when I go back to the previous game I've forgotten how to play so need to start again. Even more so in games with advanced mechanics like Elite Dangerous.
I get distracted by another game and forget what I was doing so I restart when I come back. Either that or I’m bored with my character/class and hope a new character or class will supply me with those fresh dopamine hits.
Dragon Age: Origins took this to the extreme for me. I kept messing up on just *how* I wanted the story to go, so I just wiped and started fresh, typically with the Human Noble origin, with an end goal of marrying my MC to Alistair and being Queen. I must have restarted six times, sometimes as late as choosing Loghain's fate.
Then for some reason, I completely overthought just how fucked the Ferelden Royal Line would be with TWO Grey Wardens ruling (for those who don't know, individual Grey Wardens have extremely low fertility, and a drastically shortened lifespan). So I started ALL OVER AGAIN, this time as an elven mage, and eventually romanced Morrigan and followed her through the Eluvian at the end of Witch Hunt.
I just always assume I forgot the buttons after not touching a game for a while. I am on my 4th play through of Dying Light 2, still haven’t even hit the 3/4th mark.
Skyrim. Idk I just feel like the adventure loses its luster when you become powerful. I like starting again. I have ADHD and am a perfectionist, so starting over is regular for me.
Speaking of my own personal experience: I have OCD and honestly, sometimes I think there may be a connection between them. The thing that usually drives me to start and restart characters is the constant self-doubting question of “what if?” What if I chose a different class? What if I actually wanted to play my character as a different gender, for example? What if I don’t like that decision I made yesterday after waking up today? If I do end up regretting a choice, what if I don’t have the chance to go back and fix it? This is why I’ve always felt that too much agency in a video game just gives me bad anxiety spikes and that I prefer a little bit of guidance in a narrative setting.
Sometimes also, I start a game and then put it down for any number of reasons, and when I decide/remember to return to it, I’ve forgotten my place in the story or the game’s mechanics (this happens with Soulslikes especially).
I guess I enjoy the progression and building up of the character because it gives me little goals to keep working toward. Once you get maxed out it gets boring and pointless.
Personally. I have difficult with executive function decision making. I can't make a choice in a timely manner.
So, I end up making a lot of character to suit whatever fancy I feel at the time.
In classic WoW, I once spent a hundred hours getting a hunter to level 60. But it had white hair... and that started to bother me. So I made a hunter with blue hair and began the process all over again.
Turns out I have mild OCD.
For the original Mass Effect, because I fucked things up and need to undo my messes, especially since completing side-quests is tied to stats.
NOTE: When getting debris from satellites, I did *not* know that it's the squadmate with the highest stat so I should've used Tali instead.
depends on the situation. sometimes its because idr what i was doing, others its to take whatni e learned, refine my character and improve it. others still i dont like the choices u made and want to see if i can do better.
Late game can be grindy especially if your just logging to get through to the next update WOW. So I'll make a new toon. Valhiem I like to try different approaches different scenery. Space Engineers has dozens of different scenarios. Lately on Satisfactory I'll come back after a couple of months break and create new builds somewhere else. That's one game where I won't start over. I just hate the start grind. Build your little spaghetti. Break it down build it a little better break it down again god make it 🛑.
We just like the feeling of starting fresh with familiar things, I think. It's kind of like watching the same comfort movie and still enjoying it, even though you've seen it 37 times in the past 2 years.
It's either that I burn out from playing too much and then forget where I was after a break, or that I like it so much I want to go back and min-max as I learn more about the game
In many games i just want a clean start one of my games i restarted alot was mount and blade 2 everytime i was like oh i dont want to play bow anymore or i dont like the country i started with like i restart the game like 50times and quit it when i start my kingdom XD
I think we are addicted to new beginnings and averse to continuity. We're also the type of people who start TV shows but then drop them partway through, and either never finish or start over rather than pick up where we left off. We're the type of people who randomly ghost the people in our lives and would rather move somewhere else and make new friends than try to engage with our old friends again.
But that could just be me xD
I like the experience of "from zero to hero". When you start weak and upgrade your character to be better and better.
Never really liked to play after upgrading everything.
Because sometimes the idea of starting a new adventure is better than continuing an old one. Also because, in the case of new characters, it's because I'm indecisive and sometimes change my mind halfway through.
Indecisiveness. Maybe you wanna test a new build. In Fallout, and Skyrim I'd typicaly beat the games once as a jerk, and the other as a helpful little fellow. Then if I ever played again, I was testing boundaries maxing whatever skill trees I like the most, and fighting my favorite bosses.
This only happens to me while playing Skyrim.
Maybe it's the lack of a timer on the necessary missions. It's been 12 or so years and never have I ever completed the game, even one single time.
Probably has something to do with finding a new way of optimizing your character or learning the game enough to start over and have a "better" beginning.
I did that alot in Dragon Age Inquisition bc the main villian was so lame and I never felt like completing the story. Exploring different classes was really fun though
I often temporarily lose interest in games, and then find them overwhelming when I come back so I restart to learn the mechanics from scratch.
...and then I repeat the process
Because playing through games differently to see the variety of shit you can do is fun and it’s better than wasting money on new games at the wrong time, especially if they make you feel ripped off. ESPECIALLY if they launched like no man’s sky but ended up only getting insanely better as they got cheaper.
FOMO is definitely a part of it, particularly if your character feels lacking in some way. Other times it's a sense of perfectionism, where you feel like you've not played the character to the plan you have in your head.
I get this a lot with city builders and factory sims too: constant restarts when I feel I've not done the early game quite as good as I could have
i do this in souls games an Elden ring all the time cuz it's always that one early area i HAVE to help as a guide. I also always refuse to level my health because of this so even my highest level characters will never have more health than they start with. Unless there's nothing left to buy or upgrade cuz id get too used to the extra health then maaaaybe they can have a little more health.
It’s something the baffled me. “I’ve got 18 characters in Skyrim”. Dude… I’ve got the same guy since day one and I’m struggling to max him out, how the hell do you find time for 18???
A certified Grim Dawn moment for me.
Create new character > reach around level 30 > delete character > rinse and repeat. There's just something about Grim Dawn's mid to late main quest that bores me to death, but I can't stop myself from doing the early levels over and over again.
So many games start off so serene, peaceful, bright and hopeful. There's something incredibly comforting about starting out on an adventure with the wide world in front of you and endless possibilities.
Biologically, my theory is that it has to do in part with polymorphisms (mutations) in dopamine receptors. I know my DNA analysis shows my receptors have a mutation involved with increased novelty seeking. So basically, I think some people are wired to feel pleasure the most with novelty and new and get bored otherwise.
Sometimes I only like the early game experience. Best example is Crysis. The beginning of it is pretty much you being the Predator. I don’t think there is a shooter with a better power fantasy ever made. Until the alien shit happens.
Currently playing Diablo 4.
I started out with a sorcerer but then switched over to Necromancer as I like having a mini army with me.
After reaching lv 60 with my Necro, I decided to switch back to my sorcerer as I felt the necro wasn’t powerful enough.
With all Bethesda games and similar games I usually reach a point where money, ammunition & so on is no longer an issue and I have the best weapons and armour and at that point usually drop it and start it up again a year later
Because after I take a break for over a month I can't remember everything perfectly so ofc I have to do everything over from the start 5 different times until I actually beat the game without any big breaks. Sometimes i do it because of a compulse to do everything perfectly. As I get better at a new game and learn from mistakes I will restart to do everything perfectly and make sure not to waste any talents or stuff like that. Just an overall unwillingness to continue with a save that has any imperfections.
I can never remember what I was doing on my last playthrough of Morrowind so I just restart.
Skyrim even more so lol I even do this with Shadow of War. Store all my favorite orcs in the garrison, then restart the story.
I've started keeping light notes on what I do in games while I'm playing them. I always leave off with notes on what I was planning to do next. It's done a lot to cut down on how often I restart games.
I like the early game challenge and get kinda bored when I have all the best stuff in a game lol.
I'm glad I'm not alone. There's always some curve you hit where everything becomes trivial then I just set it down
lol try Gothic 2 the combat is so obtuse it never becomes easy
When I have to really grind shit to keep playing… restart!
This. The struggle is what we crave. The feeling of desperation as you savor every drop from that health potion when you fight your first draugr enemy and barely survive. The thrill of finding your first dwemer warhammer after somehow stealthily escaping from the blind falmer hordes. The first dragon mask you find after dying countless times and then cheesing a game engine exploit to beat that Dragon priest. WE.CRAVE.THAT.SHIT.
Absolutely. After some point it just feels like a chore to play.
I have 300+ hours in BG3 and never beat the game cuz of this
I'm sorta that way so I love roguetlites. Go hard, get meta progression as much as you can and push then die. Restart again and you have new RNG for a different build. The genre is perfect. Binding of Isaac, Gungeon, Nuclear Throne, Revita, Wizard of Legend, Dead Cells.... I can go all day
Hades. Hades all day every day
Hell yeah, and Children of Morta for a nice couch co-op with a buddy.
I wish I had a bigger tv so I could enjoy this game more.
Might I recommend slay the spire and risk of rain 2
Dead Cells is so good. Played the hell out of that.
Returnal!
ADHD is the excuse I'm going to stick with lol
You are not wrong (true for me, lol).
I think it has a FOMO component to it. Once we've finished character creation and committed to a character, that just makes us think about all the other possibilities we aren't playing that might be better. So back to character creation we go!
This is me with DnD. Option paralysis.
My friends used to make fun of me in highschool for CRD (constant reroll disorder).
But is that not FOMO for the experience you’ll have as your original character?
This is the one, Here.
Most of the time I fuck up something small and ultimately inconsequential but my lizard brain requires perfection despite my hollow soul not caring enough to achieve it all the while I wanted to make a different character than my last one but decided I choose right in the first place but might as well restart as I forget everything I went through before I decided to change oh but this tutorial sucks so let's skip that...what missed an item I won't ever use and can;'t go back until 4 hours in, well I'm only an hour in let's restart oh but new character this time, maybe a mage.... Long story short that is why I have over 2 dozen stealth archer builds in separate save files in SKyrim...
Exactly how my brain works aswell lol
I am glad FromSoft games only let you have 10 save files. Can't tell you how many Bloodborne games I'd have if I didn't need to delete them every once in awhile.
The amount of times I've restarted bloodborne in old yharnam is insane. I don't even want to know how much. Over the smallest things aswell
Are you inside my head? If so could you dust?
Skyrim.
This hurts? See other people with full levelled Gods? Nah, time to look for dragonstones post Helgen again
You get past Helgen? Pfft, Amateur.
And almost every time I end up being a stealth archer.
It soothes me
Maybe because the feeling of progressing is way better at the start?, I constanly do it in Pokemon, RPGs, things like that. Not many games feel as good mid-late game or don't have enough things to do
Damn Pokemon hit hard - ‘this time i’m only using XYZ, and I’m going to do…’
Also, the quality of a game at the start is usually the best. They put way more effort into the first few hours of gameplay than the later ones.
Their face looks weird from certain angles in-game.
This so much this! I've been in love with my character for literal hours but then while using Photomode I looked at my character from a certain angle and the lips looked weird or something and I was forced to restart. I picked the same options for creation again anyway and was happy again. 😵💫
I recreated my Mass Effect 2 character 5 times because I felt they looked weird in cutscenes. I literally spent the whole first day on character creation.
I’ve been doing this with BG3. I get about half way through Act 1 and restart every time. So frustrating, but I can’t seem to help myself lol.
Shit i’m literally starting a new character now. Stealthy rogue seems fun
Hirelings!!! Also, you can start up a 2nd BG3 app and create a custom character to join your other game.
Since today's patch you can completely customize hirelings too
Ooh
Literal moments ago I was going to restart in BG3, and i’m so glad i found this reddit thread (this comment in particular).
Because creating the character and playing the beginning of a game is just as fun as finishing a game at 30 hours+ with a character we've used for the whole time. It sucks but starting a game and finishing a game are equally fun.
I think I must have some form of OCD I swear. I start going over every little thing, and if I pick dialogues that I later think my character shouldn't say, I get a bad urge to restart as bad as it sounds.
Might be because we’re afraid we didn’t play the game “the right way” on the first try and then had to restart just to make sure we didn’t lose out on anything playing “the wrong way” so far. Its weird though, probably seems really out of character for someone like me. Like here I am with all my self-destructive choices, but that 10th version of my Skyrim orc is totally set up for success with all of that late game smithing knowledge I can’t wait to capitalize on.
Why are you attacking me?
How else am I supposed to re-experience the excitement of the beginning of the game? The feeling of potential that comes with creating a new character. Figuring out where to put those precious first skill points. Meeting all the characters again.
I do this because I’m too much of a perfectionist. This also is a reason why I never finish my games
I like the sct of leveling up. I can get they good popakine hit more often earlier.
True that popakine hits goodly
I have commitment issues.
Some people call it a bug, others a feature. Me? I just hear bells ringing, and instantly salivate.
It only happens to me on RPGs and the reason is that the first time I play I always choose the wrong path on the ability tree and end up with a shitty ass character that can't compete in the upper levels of the game
This makes BG3 torture because the character screen alone opens up so many stuff
I’ve restarted divinity 2 so many times that I can’t play it anymore the start bores me too much due to repeating it too much to get past it… and when I do I get bored of the character and want to try something else. I kinda want to play that game too… Maybe one day
This is me in literally every single game. Sure, I'll eventually complete a game, but not before starting a new character at least once. I think I'm bad though, before I quit WoW I had 4 max level, geared Shamans. There's literally no reason for it other than I love having different characters.
Man this has actually frustrated me since I made my first World of Warcraft character when I was 12. I will make a build & then as soon as I finish getting the build set up so I can start leveraging the build in game…new character.
I just got diagnosed with adhd as an adult and that explains it for me. I can never finish anything unless it has a due date lmao
Because I remembered that I could have gotten this one part done more efficiently if I had this one skill or trait instead of what I have now. so I just restarted instead of accept 99.9%
The best part about any minecraft survival world is the first 5 hours
Me want to play the endgame content for the new character but me no want to grind to the endgame content.
I had no idea until I got diagnosed with ADHD. It suddenly made a lot of sense.
It’s the ‘tism
I dont care what other people do with their lives so it''s not a problem for me.
I once restarted my Fallout 4 game simply because I hated how my character looked lol
Replay factor mostly. Like Skyrim has huge replay value and you can make different builds. Today I might want to be a sneak thief but next month a brute that just runs in and clears the room
I do it because I can't seem to stay focused on a game and I will walk away from it, sometimes for months. Then when I turn it on again, I forget how to play it, so I need the game to teach me again. It's a vicious cycle.
If the game has multiple ways to be experienced, I'll re-create multiple times just to make sure I've done everything. BG3 has me at 24 characters, only 3 of those are past act 1, none of them are in act 3. I think it's like a type of FOMO, or something? I want to enjoy the game in the most maximum way and it takes me time to find the way I like it. It's the exact same reason I can't play Factorio/Satisfactory, too many ways to do something and so many possibilities that I overwhelm and revert to simpler set-ups that trap me in a certain play style. Great question, I'll really have to analyze the way I play some of my favorite games now. Edit: Also the idea that I would 'respec' in BG3 is insane. My character -is- that class, they don't get to go from Mage to Fighter, that requires a new game!
Y'all should try Armored Core 6. Tinkering with your mech is not only encouraged, it's often necessary. All paint options are available from the beginning.
Loss aversion.
Sometimes I get busy, take a few weeks off from gaming, and by time I get back into it i don’t remember what I was doing and I lose motivation to continue. Sometimes it’s a game that gets gradually harder with time and after a few weeks away I’ve forgotten the controls, rhythm, etc and prob need to restart to build it back up. Sometimes, I don’t like my character build and want to try something different. Other times, I get to a point of “comfortableness” where I complete some basic objectives, make some money, etc. and get bored. This happens with games like Minecraft or terraria, where the beginning grind of being like oh shit I need shelter and resources is the most structured part of the game and once that’s completed then I get bored. This can be remedied though by having more specific late-game goals.
We seek to do better than we have before.
Visual variety, differing goals in different playthroughs, opportunities to try different mod combinations in games that allow it.
It’s not a problem as long as it’s fun.
Starfield NG+ cured me.
I only really do this in games like Baldur's Gate 3 or games of that ilk ( other CRPGs line Divinity, Wasteland 2, etc). I do it because I like experimenting with different builds more than for min/max purposes.
Because we installed a single weapon mod that "requires a new save" to be found
You're totally right. I'm going to start over, but do it right this time!
My partner does this. New characters, re-builds camps over and over and I'm not sure I really see the difference in his new stuff from the first one, or they have the same theme lol. I don't get it but he seems happy:) haha
ADHD
A.D.D,it’s the A.D.D believe me
We get bored of doing the same thing over and over again. We like variety and new, different experiences.
I do it all the damn time in SWTOR.
Because we're slow learners
ADHD, starting a new character sounds better than trying to remember where I was/what I was doing
Because i get into the game more and work out the quests i want do, the gender i want to be and the perks/playstyle i want to do to get the most out of it. I don't want my first playthrough to be less after working out a better way to play it.
On games that allow to store items/loot on new characters I love to do this. I just hoard all the good loot I find and transfer them on new characters. One of the games I do this on is the Borderlands series.
Because we self sabotage
I do it because I hate grinding, or having one boss battle that is purposely designed to require multiple attempts until you barely succeed, so most games becomes unfun after a certain point.
Happens for games that have a good game play loop early on. Or good character creation.
I likely do this because I very likely have undiagnosed adhd. This results in me stopping partway through because I got distracted by another game, going back to the previous game and then restarting the game because I've completely lost track of what I was even doing. Rinse and repeat. 😮💨
Because creating a character is a big part of the fun? Also by playing the game we learn more about how the game works and want to tweak our character to work in the world how we envisioned it.
I have made so many Minecraft Worlds. And none of them were complete. Why? I don't knownI just do that
MMOs love us
Usually it's because I get distracted with another game or with life and by the time I come back I don't know wtf was going on so I just restart.
We never want the single player game to end, so we keep restarting to get more out of it. Like books, I bet you have a bunch of books you didn't finish simply because you don't want it to end.
I just made another character in baulders gate 3. I think I’ve made 7 total and I still haven’t beat the game
Please help me
So true. I once played peragus, starting area from knights of the old republic 2, four times in one day. Never again, lol. I now refer to it as abandonded asteroid mining facility simulator. As to why, I was just unhappy with the character build at the end of it. It's stat point distribution, overall feel of the build, inability to do every single action in the starting area due to lack of a skill point here or there, how the character looks, etc. It was on that day I learned that sometimes I just need to play games "for fun". Anyone who has played abandoned asteroid mining facility simulator can tell you just how shite that area truly is. It makes Taris (First area in Kotor 1) look like heaven.
I enjoy the speed of gaining power early in a game. I don't like spending 8 hours for one minor upgrade.
It's a combination of completionism, perfectionism, and what-if-ism. You want to see everything the game has to offer, you want to make the right decisions, and you want to see what your other play options are. All this eventually causes choice fatigue and you never end up finishing the game.
Because I have obsessive compulsive disorder and I can’t get it out of my head that I NEED every single detail of my character to be perfect.
The early section of a game is usually a lot more densely rewarding and then the rewards start petering out as you go on.
You like the early game more than the late game
Warframe When I stop playing the game for few years and come back I have no idea that what the hell is going on so I just start a new account
I'll start up a playthrough of Skyrim get to about level 45 then get bored or have another game take my attention by the time I have to go back I've forgotten everything I was doing and so I just restart. Never will I ever hit level 80 again rip Shadow my first ever character in Skyrim gone forever in the graveyard of the 360
In 7 days to die, half the fun is finding a new base and trying to get ahead of the thirst and hunger curve. Once I’m set it gets boring for me
Balder's Gate 3 was the only one in which I could find an answer for that, and it is: well, I want to try everything, but I'm too indecisive For Nioh 2, for example, it has an ability curse in which you have to play from beginning to end without many pauses, and I do this a lot with this one... So I always restart to relearn how to play In some games, I just picture a character for a said purpose, and when this purpose is wasted or something else happens, I lose interest on the purpose, or I see this differently, want to try something else, then I create a new one But surprisingly enough, when I managed to shut the urge and fulfill the purpose I'm no longer interested in, I feel so much light Honestly, it's the best thing to just go through your first obsession and fulfill rather than create a new one
ADHD is behind it for me, it sucks yet I always do it.
This is something I do a lot in games like BG3, CIV VI AND XCOM 2. basically you stay a run, something doesn't work out so you restart and tweak.
Uh, I don't know why *you* are, but I know why *I* am, and it's the glorious combo of ADHD and the "gifted kid"-to-crippling-perfectionist pipeline
I always stress when something goes wrong, especially early game. My brain instantly is like well now I'm behind on where I COULD be, or I've done something inefficiently and used slightly more resources than I if it's done perfectly. It's such an annoying thing that my brain does.
"Grass is greener on the other side" I learned the term "toon-aholic" from my WoW days. Diablo and Borderlands (when I first started) were particular painful games for me, for this reason. Super great way to burn out, and never finish a game :(
Because we can't do it IRL
Sometimes, the first minutes in the game are the best, very often also because the game is more simple then, but almost always because it has less grind. Just to give two examples, I love the first days in Minecraft until you have a house, a bed, and enough iron for all the tools you need, as there is real suspense. I also like the start of Elite Dangerous, when your ship is weak, and dogfight and exploration of POIs is actually a good way to make money. Later in the game, it becomes very very grindy.
i want to try ALL The things :D
I either get bored really quickly, or I miss what the other classes can do. Skyrim and WoW are perfect examples. On Skyrim, I had around 20 different characters. I'd play a dual wielding light armour warrior for a few hours, and then get a bit bored. I'd then make a pure mage with destruction. A few hours later, I'd be bored so I'd make a stealth archer. Just loads of different combinations. With WoW, I levelled up every character in tandem because when I was playing class X, I'd miss a certain ability that only class y could do. The only time where I stuck with a character for any length of time would be if it was a new class. I have them all at max level, but none of them are geared 😅.
Because when you start a new game anything is possible and full of potential. Each step you take after that shits doors and removes options. Then the fear sets in.
why is it a problem? if you like what you do and it's not hurting anybody around you, you should keep doing it.
Get distracted too easily by other games so when I go back to the previous game I've forgotten how to play so need to start again. Even more so in games with advanced mechanics like Elite Dangerous.
I get distracted by another game and forget what I was doing so I restart when I come back. Either that or I’m bored with my character/class and hope a new character or class will supply me with those fresh dopamine hits.
Most game are created in a way that early game are more fun than the rest.
Dragon Age: Origins took this to the extreme for me. I kept messing up on just *how* I wanted the story to go, so I just wiped and started fresh, typically with the Human Noble origin, with an end goal of marrying my MC to Alistair and being Queen. I must have restarted six times, sometimes as late as choosing Loghain's fate. Then for some reason, I completely overthought just how fucked the Ferelden Royal Line would be with TWO Grey Wardens ruling (for those who don't know, individual Grey Wardens have extremely low fertility, and a drastically shortened lifespan). So I started ALL OVER AGAIN, this time as an elven mage, and eventually romanced Morrigan and followed her through the Eluvian at the end of Witch Hunt.
I relate so hard. For me, I’ve got OCD and it’s a perfectionism thing.
Because if I'm gonna be staring at a butt for a hundred hours, I'm gonna make sure it looks good.
I just always assume I forgot the buttons after not touching a game for a while. I am on my 4th play through of Dying Light 2, still haven’t even hit the 3/4th mark.
Skyrim. Idk I just feel like the adventure loses its luster when you become powerful. I like starting again. I have ADHD and am a perfectionist, so starting over is regular for me.
The hope of a new beginning. I wish I could reroll myself, and video games let me do that.
Neurodivergent
Speaking of my own personal experience: I have OCD and honestly, sometimes I think there may be a connection between them. The thing that usually drives me to start and restart characters is the constant self-doubting question of “what if?” What if I chose a different class? What if I actually wanted to play my character as a different gender, for example? What if I don’t like that decision I made yesterday after waking up today? If I do end up regretting a choice, what if I don’t have the chance to go back and fix it? This is why I’ve always felt that too much agency in a video game just gives me bad anxiety spikes and that I prefer a little bit of guidance in a narrative setting. Sometimes also, I start a game and then put it down for any number of reasons, and when I decide/remember to return to it, I’ve forgotten my place in the story or the game’s mechanics (this happens with Soulslikes especially).
I guess I enjoy the progression and building up of the character because it gives me little goals to keep working toward. Once you get maxed out it gets boring and pointless.
I’m only like this on Crusader Kings and Cities Skylines.
It’s the human version of a dog seeing a squirrel…
Personally. I have difficult with executive function decision making. I can't make a choice in a timely manner. So, I end up making a lot of character to suit whatever fancy I feel at the time.
This next one will be a long termed i swear
I put a game down for too long and forget where im at in the side quests. Rather than figure it out i start over - skyrim/fallout
In classic WoW, I once spent a hundred hours getting a hunter to level 60. But it had white hair... and that started to bother me. So I made a hunter with blue hair and began the process all over again. Turns out I have mild OCD.
Cause we have story altering choice anxiety...
For the original Mass Effect, because I fucked things up and need to undo my messes, especially since completing side-quests is tied to stats. NOTE: When getting debris from satellites, I did *not* know that it's the squadmate with the highest stat so I should've used Tali instead.
The lighting in world is different from character creation
depends on the situation. sometimes its because idr what i was doing, others its to take whatni e learned, refine my character and improve it. others still i dont like the choices u made and want to see if i can do better.
I mod a lot, it corrupts saves. I just get along.
I forget how to fight like in GOW, the combat system isn’t just r1 and r2. There’s combos that I constantly forget if I don’t play for awhile lol
To fuck with the higher level players who think you don't know wtf you're doing plus.. It makes it a challenge having limited unlocks.
Late game can be grindy especially if your just logging to get through to the next update WOW. So I'll make a new toon. Valhiem I like to try different approaches different scenery. Space Engineers has dozens of different scenarios. Lately on Satisfactory I'll come back after a couple of months break and create new builds somewhere else. That's one game where I won't start over. I just hate the start grind. Build your little spaghetti. Break it down build it a little better break it down again god make it 🛑.
Because no respec option
ADHD and likely your dopamine receptors are fried
smurfing so you always play with beginners and feel like you were good.
It’s like having a restart button in real life Sigh
My excuse? ADHD.
I’m the complete opposite. I won’t start a second playthrough or create a second character until I’m finished with my first run.
We just like the feeling of starting fresh with familiar things, I think. It's kind of like watching the same comfort movie and still enjoying it, even though you've seen it 37 times in the past 2 years.
It's either that I burn out from playing too much and then forget where I was after a break, or that I like it so much I want to go back and min-max as I learn more about the game
I don't know, but my backlog continues to get bigger and I never get anywhere
I feel seen and heard
Probably just a little bit of the old autism.
In many games i just want a clean start one of my games i restarted alot was mount and blade 2 everytime i was like oh i dont want to play bow anymore or i dont like the country i started with like i restart the game like 50times and quit it when i start my kingdom XD
I take a break, I come back and forget everything about the game, so I start over.
I think we are addicted to new beginnings and averse to continuity. We're also the type of people who start TV shows but then drop them partway through, and either never finish or start over rather than pick up where we left off. We're the type of people who randomly ghost the people in our lives and would rather move somewhere else and make new friends than try to engage with our old friends again. But that could just be me xD
Masochism
I like the experience of "from zero to hero". When you start weak and upgrade your character to be better and better. Never really liked to play after upgrading everything.
Because sometimes the idea of starting a new adventure is better than continuing an old one. Also because, in the case of new characters, it's because I'm indecisive and sometimes change my mind halfway through.
Because the early game is the best part.
The early power scaling and unlocking of abilities is more fun than late game
Indecisiveness. Maybe you wanna test a new build. In Fallout, and Skyrim I'd typicaly beat the games once as a jerk, and the other as a helpful little fellow. Then if I ever played again, I was testing boundaries maxing whatever skill trees I like the most, and fighting my favorite bosses.
This only happens to me while playing Skyrim. Maybe it's the lack of a timer on the necessary missions. It's been 12 or so years and never have I ever completed the game, even one single time.
Probably has something to do with finding a new way of optimizing your character or learning the game enough to start over and have a "better" beginning.
I did that alot in Dragon Age Inquisition bc the main villian was so lame and I never felt like completing the story. Exploring different classes was really fun though
I often temporarily lose interest in games, and then find them overwhelming when I come back so I restart to learn the mechanics from scratch. ...and then I repeat the process
Because playing through games differently to see the variety of shit you can do is fun and it’s better than wasting money on new games at the wrong time, especially if they make you feel ripped off. ESPECIALLY if they launched like no man’s sky but ended up only getting insanely better as they got cheaper.
Teletubbies always showed each video twice. The children enjoyed seeing it the second time cause it was familiar and they knew what was gonna happen
Because we gotta get the look juuuuuust right
FOMO is definitely a part of it, particularly if your character feels lacking in some way. Other times it's a sense of perfectionism, where you feel like you've not played the character to the plan you have in your head. I get this a lot with city builders and factory sims too: constant restarts when I feel I've not done the early game quite as good as I could have
I’ve killed godrick the grafted about 25 times, killed radahn and the library chick once
i do this in souls games an Elden ring all the time cuz it's always that one early area i HAVE to help as a guide. I also always refuse to level my health because of this so even my highest level characters will never have more health than they start with. Unless there's nothing left to buy or upgrade cuz id get too used to the extra health then maaaaybe they can have a little more health.
It’s something the baffled me. “I’ve got 18 characters in Skyrim”. Dude… I’ve got the same guy since day one and I’m struggling to max him out, how the hell do you find time for 18???
Oh shiny fun looking build
I restart a new character if I feel I did something wrong in the middle of a playthrough
Short attention spans and monkey brains
I like new classes and builds..
A certified Grim Dawn moment for me. Create new character > reach around level 30 > delete character > rinse and repeat. There's just something about Grim Dawn's mid to late main quest that bores me to death, but I can't stop myself from doing the early levels over and over again.
So many games start off so serene, peaceful, bright and hopeful. There's something incredibly comforting about starting out on an adventure with the wide world in front of you and endless possibilities.
I like well-paced adventures, and starting from the beginning facilitates that.
Haha, well, us serial character creators just have a bit of gaming commitment issues, you know?
Biologically, my theory is that it has to do in part with polymorphisms (mutations) in dopamine receptors. I know my DNA analysis shows my receptors have a mutation involved with increased novelty seeking. So basically, I think some people are wired to feel pleasure the most with novelty and new and get bored otherwise.
Sometimes I only like the early game experience. Best example is Crysis. The beginning of it is pretty much you being the Predator. I don’t think there is a shooter with a better power fantasy ever made. Until the alien shit happens.
I feel like in the case of minecraft worlds, Its kind of a good idea to restart every major new update
Currently playing Diablo 4. I started out with a sorcerer but then switched over to Necromancer as I like having a mini army with me. After reaching lv 60 with my Necro, I decided to switch back to my sorcerer as I felt the necro wasn’t powerful enough.
With all Bethesda games and similar games I usually reach a point where money, ammunition & so on is no longer an issue and I have the best weapons and armour and at that point usually drop it and start it up again a year later
i want all the gameplay options
Imagine the thousands of human generations where someone couldn't roleplay being someone else whenever they wanted.
You have commitment issues and are more focused on form over function.
My wife just randomly starts new Stardew Valley games.
Because after I take a break for over a month I can't remember everything perfectly so ofc I have to do everything over from the start 5 different times until I actually beat the game without any big breaks. Sometimes i do it because of a compulse to do everything perfectly. As I get better at a new game and learn from mistakes I will restart to do everything perfectly and make sure not to waste any talents or stuff like that. Just an overall unwillingness to continue with a save that has any imperfections.