I can list all the games I've ever finished right here:

Fallout and FO2
Mass Effect
Arcanum
Deus Ex
Doom 2 (I cheated to see the end of the final level)
Shadowman

That really might be it. From 1986 to now.

I find most games, even some of my favorites, to be unfinishable. Not because they are too hard or even because they are too long. I'll take years to finish a game (Deus Ex). But because there is really no point in finishing. I play them for a while, enjoy them or not as the case may be, and then I quit playing when I'm done.

Torchlight, for example. I really loved it. I played it for 40 hours. And then that was it. There was nothing else to get out of the game.

I don't have a great analysis for this. Maybe one of you has some way of articulating what keeps a game moving all the way to the end. Pacing? It's just that, if I feel like I've seen everything the game has to offer, I'm done. There's no motivation to make it to the end just to be able to say I did it.

Thoughts?

I try to finish games, but sometimes I get stuck or just lose interest.

You obviously must not be playing a lot of story-based games if you don't care about seeing the ending.

Every tried point&click adventure games?

I have played lots of story games and adventure games. To be honest, often I find the story the weakest link in games. I lose interest in the story, or it drags so much in the middle third that I no longer care about the ending enough to keep going.

What I love are game mechanics. And the mechanics are almost always completely used well before the end.

If you're having fun, who cares? Some games really do pad out the end portion which throws off the pacing. It's kind of why I prefer more XBL Arcade sized games, things you can finish in 8 hours. I might go back and play them a little bit for the optional challenges and content afterward, but I like being "done" so I can simply put them down when I'm bored with them.

Borderlands 2 is a great example of a game that probably could have had a huge portion of the story cut out, the whole "go get data about where the Warrior is buried" section is pure fluff. Yes, it adds more areas to, in theory, grind later, but no one does. They all go farm bosses for amazing guns or something. By that time you hit the Eridium Blight you were already in the climax of the story, and now you have this boring slog to get to the "real" ending.

AC3, which I also adore, likewise suffered from this, the end was some piss-poor slog of "now I have him!" "Fuck he got away, try, try again!"

I think developers feel like that have to justify their price point by providing a certain amount of content, to me that content should feel pretty optional (but in some games it's not, because if you skip "sidequests" either your gear, level, or resources will suffer enough to make latter portions of the game too hard).

But yeah, as long as you had fun, who cares? It's not like you didn't hear about the ending to Fallout 3, right? You still know what happens, you're just bored with playing.

Try Ritalin.

No seriously, I have the same problem. Many unfinished games in my library. Good games too.

I hear you! With some games I just get stuck at a certain point and end up never finishing. I gotta find someone local that can get me past dumb stuff like the "space invaders" game in Machinarium - I suck at that kind of thing!

If it's an adventure game, I usually finish but puzzle/physics games - well let's just say that World of Goo laughs at me every time I turn my PC on...evil, hideously difficult game that it is!

Find shorter games. Seriously.
Gabriel Knight 1 can be finished in ~12 hours, assuming you've played a few adventures before, and its story is excellent. Jolly Rover is shorter, ~5 hours, but its story is also not that great. Spec Ops: The Line requires about 10 hours to finish, and if you want something longer, play Alpha Protocol.
Alternatively, find games you enjoy, even if they can't be traditionally finished, like most 4x games. Master of Magic, Master of Orion, Civilization and so on can't be traditionally finished. You play a game of them, finish it, but if it is a game you like, you return to it a few weeks later for another round.
Also, other than seeing the endings and going through the experience, does it really matter if you've finished a game or not? As Orcish said above, all that matters is that you are having fun.

I have the same problem but its due to a combination of backlog hell and owning too many games giving me ADD at times.

Ok, I finish way more games than you, but finishing a game is not a compulsion.

I'd say most of the games I play, I don't beat (and it's not about the difficulty, they just didn't hold my interest until the end).

Here are the games in GOG's catalog that I finished at 50%+ (some were like 90%+), but didn't complete:

Planescape: Torment
Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga
Heroes of Might and Magic® 3: Complete Edition
Icewind Dale Complete
Temple of Elemental Evil, The
Might and Magic® 6-pack: Limited Edition
Fallout Tactics
Wing Commander™ 3 Heart of the Tiger™
Blood (One Unit Whole Blood)
Jagged Alliance 2
THIEF™ GOLD
Heroes of Might and Magic® 4: Complete
Stronghold
Deus Ex™ GOTY Edition
Populous™
Arx Fatalis
Heroes of Might and Magic®
Sacred Gold
Trine
Heroes of Might and Magic® 5: Bundle
Prince of Persia®: The Sands of Time
FlatOut
Moonbase Commander
Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games
Incredipede
Alien Shooter + Expansions
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Bioforge
Mobile Forces

Some are awesome games and I'll probably go back to complete them at some point (at least, that's the intent).

The list would be even longer if I including the games that I played 10%+.

Hope it makes you feel better.

A lot of work also goes into movies, but I wouldn't choose to see most of them :P
The art of storytelling is a really difficult one. To make a story that will captivate you and make you want to see it to the end is harder than most people think. Add to that the fact that for games you also need to be able to challenge the player just enough that it neither frustrates him nor does he find it a walk in the park. So you have an already difficult part (good storytelling) that has a second challenge added to it (gameplay).
Since we currently have access to a lot more games (and other entertainment) than we used to, if we find something too difficult or too frustrating, we find it easier to leave it and move to something else. Especially since we are wired to look for diversity, no matter what we are doing.

So, if you find a story mildly interesting, I'd suggest you try to finish it, but if the story doesn't captivate you, ignore it and look for something else. Or, even better, play games without stories :P

I am totally there with you though I do like to finish games, I never do. It would actually be a lot easier to name the games I've finished than non. I had Torchlight for a few years before I finshed it. I finish most RTS and space/flight games but for FPS and RPG, NO WAY!

I've tried to figure out why and considered the possibility that it might reflect on my life. After a few hours of pondering this the whole endeavor became so totally fucking boring that I dropped it. Like other post have stated, ultimatly these games are for having fun, and if you are having fun who cares what and if you finish.

Now that I think about it I rarely even finished my NES games; Metroid and Contra, thats it.

Since joining GOG I've also come to the realization that I seem to enjoy buying games more than actually playing them. How sad. :P

Games are supposed to be fun. The most important goal of any game is to bring you joy. Happiness, if I may say. So, think of it as time spent, over the amount of joy this game can bring. There is no point to force yourself to finish a certain game, when you don't enjoy it.

Less time spent for one game, means more time to enjoy another, perhaps better game. Think of it as surfing the sea. You catch a big wave. Adrenaline, joy, happiness. The wave becomes smaller and fades away. You turn to catch another. Is new wave going to be bigger? Not always. But the point is to feel sea force under your feet, staying on the board the longest time possible.

The good thing about games, that you can replay them. Go back to them when you want to. One day you rule the empire. The other, you protect just few people. Do what ever you like. Having fun is the key.

I rarely finish games either. Actually, sometimes I don't even start them.

XD I got a laugh out of that. Saddly I am guilty of the same thing.