Why We Don't Finish

The truth is that sometimes we’ll never get there at all. Most videogames are left unfinished; nearly half of those who start university don’t get a degree. What do you think causes people to commit to things that they don’t complete—and are modern technologies making it easier or harder for us to get things done?

Key concepts

The Novelty of Starting: Beginnings are a reward in themselves — the new game, the blank notebook, the first week of a plan that has not been tested yet. Then comes the messy middle, where the excitement has worn off and the finish is still too far away to pull, and that is where most projects quietly die: the appetite that starts a project is not the one that finishes it.

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Every work — at a glance

Video-game Completion Rates — industry estimates (statistic)

The industry's rule of thumb, quoted by the longtime Activision production contractor Keith Fuller, is that around 90% of players who start a game never see its ending — an attrition rate that would be treated as a catastrophe in almost any other product.

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What to know

01
What makes people commit to things they don't complete? The commitment and the completion are powered by different things. Starting delivers a reward the grinding middle does not, which is why even acclaimed games are mostly left unfinished — the evidence that videogames are left unfinished at that rate is evidence about the shape of motivation, not about quality.

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Across subjects

Art history did something strange: it promoted non-completion. Michelangelo left many works unfinished — the four Slaves in Florence, half-buried in their

Theme connection

"Are We There Yet?"

Often we never get there; the trip is abandoned mid-way. Most games, many degrees and nearly all resolutions die in the long grind between. Is technology making us better or worse at finishing? One side says better — trackers and communities push people through. The other says worse — frictionless alternatives have made quitting cheaper than ever.

Practice — a sample

ARTNine in ten players never finish a game; the Sagrada Familia is still being built. The key difference is that the word unfinished —

A Suits just the basilica
B Names two different lacks
C Names the same lack
D Suits just the game
E Works as loose talk

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