Current Events > What's the name for this feeling/phenomenon?

(+) Yeah! (+)

i don't like to finish shows or game series (that aren't getting more entries).

Like, i replay Uncharted 4 pretty regularly. But I just can't do the epilogue. I get so sad and overwhelmed seein my hero get old. and his journey end.

And when i rewatch shows I really like, I usually stop an episode or two before the finale. I hate seeing stuff end. Idk

Anyone else here know what I mean? or know if this is called something?

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

oh geez, i played Omori for all of an hour, was overwhelmed the whole time, and never touched again. i was like "i can feel this game will destroy me" lmao

Reverse Zeigarnik effect.

Depression.

I don't get that with video games. With TV shows I love, I just always make sure I have time to restart the series as soon as it ends so I get that happy feeling right back. Mostly The Office. Hate to see it end but I can start it right back up.

I stop at the end of games because I stop caring way too easy. I have to try to get games in before falling in a "what's the point" phase again.

ellis123 posted...

reverse Zeigarnik effect.

hm, idk if this quite fits but im still reading

Trickfinger posted...

Depression.

im sure it overlaps with it, but i feel like it's specific enough to have its own term. like (thing im talking about) is often a symptom of depression"

MrWingnut posted...

I don't get that with video games. With TV shows I love, I just always make sure I have time to restart the series as soon as it ends so I get that happy feeling right back. Mostly The Office. Hate to see it end but I can start it right back up.

relatable bub. back when i watched the office, id do it over and over and over. id bail an ep or two after Holly returned, then start right over

I've done this too, but for different reasons.
Still haven't finished DQ11 or Ys8 - all that's left is the endboss (or, rather, that long-ass boss rush in Ys8) and end credits, and I've already done everything else. I just can't be arsed to bother.

Trickfinger posted...

Depression.

I think it's just denial. This is pretty much the classic four stages of grief, applied to superfluous entertainment.

Shabriri posted...

oh geez, i played Omori for all of an hour, was overwhelmed the whole time, and never touched again. i was like "i can feel this game will destroy me" lmao

It's not that tbh. One of the endings is literally like persona 4. mc leaves town says what he needed to say to his friends. You never know how they react to him revealing what truly happened to his sister. Game just ends with him moving away and not looking back.

I discovered veronica mars after the fact and it sucked watching it the first time when I really got into it and new how limited it was. Good thing Kristen bell was awesome and we got another season finally and maybe more seasons or movies on the way.

Shabriri posted...

hm, idk if this quite fits but im still reading

It's not a perfect fit. It was just the closest I could come up with that wasn't a blanket thing (that would come across more as something rude than informative).

So... you can't finish anything? Like Professor Calamitous from Jimmy Neutron?

Lost_All_Senses posted...

I stop at the end of games because I stop caring way too easy. I have to try to get games in before falling in a "what's the point" phase again.

this can happen too, but im more specifically talking about stuff im generally super into

NoxObscuras posted...

So... you can't finish anything? Like Professor Calamitous from Jimmy Neutron?

haha i think about this a lot. sometimes. im more like this when it comes to work, food, drinks. with these games and shows, i often complete them once, then every time i revisit them i dip right before the end

I know what you're talking about. I almost never finish pokemon games. I get to the 7th gym, feel down, and stop. I think that's why Gens II and V are my favorite.

TheLiarParadox posted...

I know what you're talking about. I almost never finish pokemon games. I get to the 7th gym, feel down, and stop. I think that's why Gens II and V are my favorite.

That's just you getting bored of the game, lol.

Most RPGs are only fun when you build up your character/team and get stale once that's already established.

Yeah I am the exact same way. By the time I watched the very last episode of Adventure Time, the Obsidian thing was already out so I basically cheated. Never saw the last episode of Parks and Recs. Didn't rewatch the last episode of Superstore when I recently went back to it. I've watched all of Community probably about 10 times now but I've seen the finale maybe twice.

It is a weird one yeah

On topic Mad Men was my favorite show when it aired. I literally chose to skip the last ep and still haven't watched it.

Mf like Calamitous from Jimmy Neutron

TheLiarParadox posted...

I know what you're talking about. I almost never finish pokemon games. I get to the 7th gym, feel down, and stop. I think that's why Gens II and V are my favorite.

that feeling down, it's exactly it. i think it's knowing the end is in sight. soon you'll be out of things to do/ingest. and in not ending things, you keep it alive in a way

Jennywentnorth8 posted...

Yeah I am the exact same way. By the time I watched the very last episode of Adventure Time, the Obsidian thing was already out so I basically cheated. Never saw the last episode of Parks and Recs. Didn't rewatch the last episode of Superstore when I recently went back to it. I've watched all of Community probably about 10 times now but I've seen the finale maybe twice.

It is a weird one yeah

it's nice to know you can relate. seems to be the exact thing im talkin about

Trickfinger posted...

On topic Mad Men was my favorite show when it aired. I literally chose to skip the last ep and still haven't watched it.

why'd ya choose not to? or ya didnt think about it, just decided not to on a whim?

Smashingpmkns posted...

Mf like Calamitous from Jimmy Neutron

he jus like me fr fr

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I did everything possible in ff7 but beat the last boss because I didn't want it to end.

The closest I got to this is Xenoblade 1.
I jumped through a bunch of hoops to try and keep it from ending.
It was almost exactly a year ago, I haven't found anything else I want to play since. I think about it a lot.

Shabriri posted...

why'd ya choose not to? or ya didnt think about it, just decided not to on a whim?

Bc if I didn't watch the last ep it's like it never really ended.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I know it's a pretty messed up ending especially since Sunny had lingering hope that someday all of his friends could remain frien ds in spite of everything that had happen.

Or at least that's how I intrept it. Particularly since everytime Sunny falls asleep he's always having dreams about him and his group of friends going on adventures

ViewtifulJoe posted...

I think about it a lot.

i think yer describing the same thing, cuz this is deff part of it

Trickfinger posted...

Bc if I didn't watch the last ep it's like it never really ended.

he just like me fr ;-;

who else

i know yer out there you FUCKS

I'm the same.

The word is 'longing'. Longing can be longing for anything; in this case, the longing for more and the bittersweet feeling that accompanies the knowledge of knowing there is no more.

longing definitely sounds right. or at least along the right lines. part of it might have to do with the feeling of "once i finish this, how long til i get lucky and find the next thing I'll love enough to distract me for weeks/months?"

Shabriri posted...

longing definitely sounds right. or at least along the right lines. part of it might have to do with the feeling of "once i finish this, how long til i get lucky and find the next thing I'll love enough to distract me for weeks/months?"

You could use the PT word saudade :P a melancholy/bittersweet feeling of longing has a word in Portuguese that is also used as 'i miss you'.. same thing, fewer words. The closest thing in English that matches saudade would be longing and/or bittersweet.

I dunno if it's the same thing, but I felt sad after Lost and The Dark Tower series, because it felt like I was saying goodbye to some old friends.

they were franchises I followed for years, so after finishing them, I knew I'd never see them again.

Shabriri posted...

"once i finish this, how long til i get lucky and find the next thing I'll love enough to distract me for weeks/months?"

Oh this is a big one, the luck element. It's like you now know it's about the journey, not the destination and are now tasked with tricking yourself into being enthusiastic about the destination despite knowing it's going to disappoint and that you're really hoping to luck out with a fun or rewarding route to it. I think we romanticize it a bit. We're probably more like junkies that we'd like to admit.
Some people are playing up the bittersweet or sad aspects of it but I know the Oh shit, it's go time, I have to find something new and fast before ennui takes me situation all too well.

The image I always go back to is Slave Knight Gael rummaging around in the big ash desert for any and all traces of the Dark Soul he can find. Games suck now and the more mileage I get out of what I already know I like, the less there is left.
It's also a shame the internet has caused everyone's personalities to blend together into the same slightly agitated, mostly lethargic mess. Takes the spontaneity and sincerity out of it and makes it much harder to trust word of mouth.

Being a lightning in a bottle enthusiast is suffering, isn't it?

Yeah I get a sense of loss when finishing something massive that I've sunk a lot of time into. It's that bittersweet sense of accomplishment with the sadness that the journey has to end.

It got me the worst when I finished FF9 for the first time.

Shabriri posted...

longing definitely sounds right. or at least along the right lines. part of it might have to do with the feeling of "once i finish this, how long til i get lucky and find the next thing I'll love enough to distract me for weeks/months?"

i'm in this post and i don't like it.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

We're probably more like junkies that we'd like to admit.

oh i readily admit it lol. I'm at the point where I prefer gaming over food, fucking, and p much anything else im sure

what's ennui? i feel the urgency od your statement too, but i aint heard that before

Relient_K posted...

Yeah I get a sense of loss when finishing something massive that I've sunk a lot of time into. It's that bittersweet sense of accomplishment with the sadness that the journey has to end.

It got me the worst when I finished FF9 for the first time.

all bitter no sweet!

Medussa posted...

i'm in this post and i don't like it.

it's not a fun way to be. so when i find something i like, i play it so much i run it into the ground. same deal?

Shabriri posted...

oh i readily admit it lol. I'm at the point where I prefer gaming over food, f***ing, and p much anything else im sure

what's ennui? i feel the urgency od your statement too, but i aint heard that before

I should probably be envious, I can't find anything worth playing. I think of buying games a lot like impulsively paying boredom to go away which isn't too far removed from your average gacha player. Barring MMOs which I know to keep away from, if I'm going to buy and play a game, I want it to be one that seems like it was actually designed to last a long time. It's gotta be something like a Xenoblade 1, a Dark Souls 1 or a New Vegas.

Ennui's where you start getting impatient and irritated by a lack of stimulation. It's like that annoying feeling of being in the mood to do something and trying to find something to do but failing to find anything that entices you. And then after a while you accept that finding the next amazing thing is luck based, accept that you have very limited agency and admit defeat.

hey for what it's worth, it looks like we share some overlap in taste. New Vegas is tied fer my fave RPG ever, and Soulsborne is one of my two series that i play infinitely. Seriously, I played almost exclusively souls 1-3, BB, and ER this year. from february til october.

i generally dislike multiplayer games, so i dont really have a tendency to get addicted to MMOs or gacha (not sure ive even played one).

if you ever get in the mood, I'd recommend Dragon Age Origins (tied for favorite RPG, and thats coming from one who hates medieval fantasy), and Yakuza series. Yakuza is the other series of games i revisit indefnitely. my longest stretch of playing a single series, was when i played exclusively the yakuza games over a 15 month span

and ennui is me then yeah. bummer dawg

It's dumb that anything has a definitive ending anymore. Life goes on and so do the stories, and when they want to tap that well again it has to be prequels because of what they did.

I know a guy who went crazy over Yakuza too. He bought a lot of games very quickly and he seemed to be there for a long ongoing story more than he was into playing any one game for the love of it.
A nice thing was that I was able to grill him with lots of questions. The impression I got was the games are more cutscenes than gameplay, a lot of the gameplay appears to be minigames I don't think I'd go for and also you can watch the main story/side stories on YT which I did for 0, 1, 2 and 7. They don't look outright bad or anything, but I'm really suspicious of each game's individual replay value.

I'm really sceptical of anything in the EA/Bioware/Ubisoft/The Others bubble too. New Vegas is a weird outlier for western RPGs, I don't feel drawn to Mass Effect, Witcher, Dragon Age or Cyberpunk at all.
I used to like multiplayer games but the way 95% of players now have the same personality really put me off. It's even worse if it's a multiplayer game you used to like because it's like revisiting a place after a while and finding it in ruins.

I can honestly say I don't feel this way. When I get towards the end of something, I have a "glad it happened" feeling when it's done, and look fondly back on it. Particularly with a game, I'm always looking forward to finishing it to get to the next game to play.

ViewtifulJoe, i just wanna say that Yakuza is not only just those mini games you were exposed to. I like to think of them as homoerotic soap operas about what it means to be a man, a brother, becoming a legend. The fighting and characters are my biggest draw. The mini games can either be fun or a bit much, but they don't tend to crop up too often unless you want them to

Oh, and aside from the 37 DLCs, DAO made it out unscathed by EA. It's in the style of KotOR, except a much grander and epic journey. It's DND gameplay with ohenomenal and compelling characters, some of the best ever. it handles every theme it has with absolute expertise

Hayame_Zero posted...

I can honestly say I don't feel this way. When I get towards the end of something, I have a "glad it happened" feeling when it's done, and look fondly back on it. Particularly with a game, I'm always looking forward to finishing it to get to the next game to play.

cherish that ability fam

I get the soap opera bit. That's why I watch them on Youtube, there's long videos of the whole game with the travel/side stuff cut out.
If a game's too story/cinematics-focused it's like well why would I buy the thing and switch on the console each time then have to figure out what I wanna do with it since there's no replay value, it's like adding extra steps to a Youtube video.

Shabriri posted...

so when i find something i like, i play it so much i run it into the ground. same deal?

definitely, though that's tempered a bit because most of the games i tend to enjoy these days don't really "end".

and that's another Uncharted 4 done. i forced myself to finish it this time. many tears for long time