Trackers: What Year Do You Beat a Game In?

[Fonst]

Near the beginning of the pandemic I started tracking all the games I beat this year. I do it for board games as well since I like quantifying this information in a light way. But I noticed I was finishing some games I started before 2020. It ranges from doing the last mission in Torchlight 2 to finishing less than half of Picross 2 (but it was back half which probably made up for most of the 65 hrs) to Killing Floor :Incursion that I played the first level 2 years ago but didn't touch it until this year.

I will say, this has sort of motivated me to really tackle my backlog and put more focus on games I had held off on playing for one reason or another.

So to the people here, where do you draw the line in counting when you beat a game for each year?

Bonus question, do you count DLC/Platinum-ing as beating it again/first time/doesn't count? I Platinum'd Control when it came out but only until recently did I dive into the two DLC packs. But I don't feel like tracking that and not just because they were short.

 

[Bradford]

I generally beat everything I start a few days after starting it in most cases. There are certainly some games I've started and stopped so often throughout the years that there is a delay, but for the most part, all in the same year I start.

I count, for the sake of organization, as whatever calendar year I finish in.

 

[Bosh]

If you start in 2019 and you finish in 2020 I record that as 2020. For the most part it all evens out, especially once you track for multiple years.

For DLC/Platinum it is your call. Below is how I do it

Typically if I play the DLC I will count that seperate for a few reason:

• DLC is technically a seperate release when released
• If its 5+ hours, its not long, but then you might count an NES game that is only 3 Hours long so time isn't my main focus on what to count.

Platinum

• I don't count this as seperate. I count a game beat when the credits roll & I am done playing. So if I play 20 more hours after the credits roll then I don't count until I am ready to move onto another game.

 

[gebler]

In my view, the only uncertainty is if "beating" means reaching the ending, or if it requires something more. It could be the platinum/100%, but also something like reaching the true/best ending in games with multiple endings. For me, it can be different for different games, and what counts is basically when you've succeeded in what you set out to do. But in any case, "beating" refers to an endpoint, not a starting point, when you played most of the game, or anything like that.

 

[Cheesecakebobby]

Seems a pretty arbitrary metric. A game you start on Dec 31st and finish on Jan 1st counts as the next year, but a game you start on Jan 1st and finish on Dec 31st counts as the same year. I guess the psychological tendency to see calendar years as discrete units of time is just pervasive, as shown by those "Thank god 2020 is nearly over" sentiments I see online that don't actually mean anything.